Wednesday, July 31,
2002
PGA was ready for
possible slam
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
There was a mixture
of relief and disappointment at PGA of America headquarters when
Tiger Woods failed to win the British Open.
Winning the third
leg of the Grand Slam would have put enormous attention on the
final major of the year – and caused enormous logistical
problems.
Media relations director
Julius Mason said requests for credentials topped out at about
1,000 going into the British Open, 300 above average. He spent
the month between the U.S. Open and British Open trying to figure
out how to accommodate the masses.
The plan was to eliminate
70 small TVs on the press room tables and to create even more
space by removing copy machines, fax machines and scoring terminals.
"We were just
waiting to find out on Sunday whether we needed to do it,"
he said. "We would have had to go into construction in that
area right away."
The plans were scrapped
when Woods shot 81 on Saturday, although Mason has seen enough
from the two-time PGA champion that he waited until Woods was
officially out of the running on Sunday at Muirfield.
"It was pretty
exciting around here," he said. "We were all anticipating
the mainstream, international and entertainment news coming in
to see what a PGA Championship was all about, and we were looking
forward to help sing that song.
"Our operations
people were like ... whew!" he said about Woods not winning.
"From a publication standpoint, it was too bad we didn't
have the world at our doorstep again."
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