What they said: Mark Russell

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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL: Transcript archive

MARK RUSSELL: Should be out of here by early, mid morning. See what happens. Hopefully we can play at 10:00. We are planning on doing that.

Golf course is underwater, and maybe, you know, you can see how it is. They said the front is going to come through, and we are going to get some more heavy rain tonight. But he thinks by nine o'clock, 9: 30 in the morning, showers ought to be gone. And if we just get some drizzle rain, the golf course should drain somewhat. Heavy rain is just going to knock us out.

Q. Do you know the inch count so far?

MARK RUSSELL: An inch and a half, inch and three quarters, something like that.

Q. You're just making that up.

MARK RUSSELL: Not really.

Q. Why didn't you guys start at 7:30 this morning? Why did you wait till 8:30?

MARK RUSSELL: Well, it had to do with the tournament television and we didn't think this thing was going to come in until a little later. You know, it was forecast to be late afternoon and evening. Just got here a little earlier on us. And if we had started 45 minutes earlier, still would have been on 17.

Q. If it's going live-to-tape anyway, does it matter how early you start?

MARK RUSSELL: Well, yeah, we started within an hour of sunrise. You know, they asked us for 45 minutes, so we gave it to them, based on the forecast.

Q. Any bunker damage out there?

MARK RUSSELL: There are some bunkers that have water in them, but I think they will drain, if it stops raining. All the work they did to the golf course, they helped it drainage-wise.

I think after this gets through here in the morning, we're going to be okay. Yeah, it's going to clear up tomorrow afternoon.

Q. Does maintenance only have to worry about 15 through 18 on the back?

MARK RUSSELL: 14 through 18, 8 and 9. That's it.

Q. Chris has a 15 -foot putt --

MARK RUSSELL: We are going to mow the green.

Q. As far as any bunkers or maintaining stuff like that, all you've got to worry about is a few holes on each side?

MARK RUSSELL: Absolutely. Makes it a lot easier on the maintenance staff. The only fairway we are really concerned about is 16.

Q. A low water point down there.

MARK RUSSELL: Yeah, I was hoping all along if we could just get them on 16 green, you know, if we can get them on 16 green, and then if we got a little lull, we might could finish, you know. But, didn't happen. Don't tell Helen.

Q. Prepared to stay as long as necessary tomorrow to get it in?

MARK RUSSELL: Oh, we have got half the field finished. We are going to finish this round.

Q. If at ten o'clock, it's still --

MARK RUSSELL: Ten o'clock and we have to delay, we'll have to delay. But we'll finish tomorrow. I feel very confident we'll get finished tomorrow.

Q. Can we quote you on that?

MARK RUSSELL: I feel extremely confident we'll finish this golf tournament tomorrow.

Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports.