"We apologize. We messed up and we're up here trying to make amends."
/The Monterey Herald's Jim Johnson follows up on the shuttle bus debacle and what's most interesting is who is charged with responding to the matter. Hint, it's not the USGA but instead, the Pebble Beach Company's R.J. Harper.
Harper said officials were monitoring the flow of the buses Friday, which are used to transport U.S. Open fans and volunteers between Pebble Beach and CSU Monterey Bay, and the system was working well. But he acknowledged that officials vastly underestimated the numbers of fans a day earlier.
"We definitely addressed the situation for (Friday)," Harper said. "The crowds out here (Thursday) exceeded everybody's expectations. We were hit very, very hard in the early evening and we had a depleted supply of buses, which is unacceptable. We took action immediately to make sure the situation didn't happen again. We worked through the evening to resolve the situation.
"We apologize. We messed up and we're up here trying to make amends," he said.
Harper said this is the first time Pebble Beach and the USGA had used Transportation Management Services, the company contracted to provide the shuttle service. But he said he was "not looking to blame anybody" and added that he was pleased with the company's response to the situation.