What they said: Rules Official Slugger White

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Apr. 18, 2010

MORE INTERVIEWS: Verizon Heritage transcript archive

CHRIS REIMER: I'd like to introduce PGA TOUR tournament director and rules official Slugger White.

Slugger, if you could, just take us through the playoff hole and the rules infractions with Brian Davis.

SLUGGER WHITE: Well, when he hit the ball in the hazard, I cautioned him not to touch anything loose. When I went down in there, he said fine. And it's really strange, all these reeds that were loose, most of them were going this way, and this one reed was sticking out just outside his ball, I guess. And he looked and looked and looked, and when he took the club away he ticked it. And he immediately came to me -- I couldn't see it. The wind was blowing, so I couldn't see it against the sand. And he assured me that he ticked it when he took the club away. He called it on himself immediately.

CHRIS REIMER: The important thing on the discussion is the backswing, is that correct?

SLUGGER WHITE: Yeah.

CHRIS REIMER: Will you state the rule number on that?

SLUGGER WHITE: 13.4. You can't touch anything on the hazards, grounds or lose impediment.

Q. If it's fixed you're okay, but if it's loose you're not?

SLUGGER WHITE: Yeah, if it's fixed -- if it's growing, yes. Grass, trees, anything like that.

Q. How about water?

SLUGGER WHITE: That's a penalty there, too.

Q. You say you looked at the TV?

SLUGGER WHITE: Yeah. It was good, Mike Shea was in our trailer, and I guess they had a good shot of it. I couldn't see it. And it showed it that he did.

Q. Is it only on the backstroke?

SLUGGER WHITE: Yes. The forward stroke is no problem. That's the definition of a stroke, forward movement.

Q. So it was just the backstroke?

SLUGGER WHITE: Right.

Q. We've heard stories through the year of football coaches who spy on other teams. Is that what makes golf so different, that Brian immediately saw that he might have done something wrong?

SLUGGER WHITE: Without a question. And that will come back to him in spades, tenfold. In fact he says, Jim, on the putting green, after it was all said and done, that -- I don't know if Jim said, are you sure? And he said, "I know I did. I could not have lived with myself, if I had not called it on myself." He's class, first class.

CHRIS REIMER: Slugger, thank you.

Transcript courtesy of ASAP Sports.

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