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THE RYDER CUP

September 30, 2016

Davis Love III

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 41st Ryder Cup. Pleased to be joined by U.S. Ryder Cup Captain, Davis Love III.

As I did with Captain Clarke a few minutes ago, I'd like to ask you first about your thoughts of the ebbs and flows and the tale of two sessions, in a way, and your initial thoughts of Saturday morning's pairings. Maybe about today first.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, certainly ebbs and flows for sure. We got hot and we holed a lot of putts this morning, and seemed like they lipped a few out that were crucial.

Then the opposite this afternoon. They got on a roll with the putter and they seemed to make all the putts, and we had a couple matches where we just couldn't get them to go in.

Obviously happy to be 5-3. It was a good start. It was a good day. Proud of our guys. They competed all day. Even the matches that we lost, it looked like they were all runaways, the guys kept competing right to the end. We had matches that were going to 16, that didn't look like they were going to get that far. Ryan Moore made some great putts, and then Dustin's match came back and made it look like they had a chance. They did what they were asked to do, grind it out all day and I thought they did a really, really good job of that.

We'll just have to get some rest tonight and go do it again tomorrow.

JOHN DEVER: Your thoughts on what you have put in place for the morning?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, we didn't make much change. Just switched one group that played this afternoon to in the morning.

You know, we felt like we had four good groups out this morning. We feel like we got four good groups out tomorrow morning, and you know, I was very happy with the four groups we put out in the afternoon. So we just keep doing that, and let these guys go out and run and play and have fun.

Q. Sort of a two-part question. If I told you at the beginning of the day you would be up 5-3, what would you have said? And if I told you before the afternoon session that you would be up 5-3, what would you have said?
DAVIS LOVE III: I like being ahead. You know, there's no two ways about it. Being ahead's great. Keep telling our guys, there's eight points a day and then there's 12 points on Sunday. It's a long -- there's a lot of points out there still. Even after two days, the Sunday is very, very important.

We have to set a goal and we have to pace ourselves and we have to be rested. Some guys are going to have to rest in the morning that played very well today. But I need them to be ready for tomorrow afternoon and we need them to be ready for Sunday. You just can't forget about Sunday and getting enough rest and being prepared for that.

Both sides have seen that; that you need to be -- you can't just focus on the first two days. You have to focus on the third day, and 12 points on Sunday is a big day, as well. So we are trying to rest some guys up and mix it up a little bit. I think we've done that so far.

Q. Wondering what you thought of Rory's celebration at the end on 16, and do you believe in that kind of thing, providing a little motivational fodder for your guys come tomorrow morning?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I think that's what's so much fun about The Ryder Cup. I mean, I'm not going to get Rory to not celebrate when he plays well and I'm not going to get Patrick Reed to not celebrate when he plays well. Patrick's running around shushing people.

We're having fun. Rory's done a couple behind the scenes things that have been very gracious, like Darren, towards our team. You know, when you hole an eagle putt on the last hole, it's pretty fun.

They had a great match. I watched a lot of it. He played unbelievably well. He made a ton of birdies. You know, they had some fun this afternoon. We had some fun this morning and we have two more fun days coming up. I'm sure we'll see some more of that.

Q. When you get off to the start you did this morning going 4-0, in the back of your mind, were you talking to the players about trying to avoid complacency after getting off to such a great start?
DAVIS LOVE III: We didn't talk about it. You've got to understand, you can't just call a team meeting in between. By the time I get off the golf course, guys are going right back out onto the golf course.

We were making pairings and telling guys what they were doing and getting back to the first tee and watching guys tee off again. We didn't really -- we talked to the guys that were going out. I talked to Phil and Rickie there on 18 green. Caught Zach when he was coming up to watch the last match finish.

You know, it's hard to sit guys out that win. That was our problem this morning. We had four matches, and if you take somebody out, that was a winning match. Obviously we were on a roll, but we also had four great players that were sitting there ready to go, part of our plan. Then we're going to have four great players sitting out in the morning. It's hard to sit guys out. But we didn't talk anything about, let's go get ready for the afternoon session.

And tonight, we're going to go to talk about getting ready for the morning session and just keep grinding it out until we get to Sunday night.

Q. How important was it to you to get all 12 players out today, and of course, you have the two-point lead right now, but do you feel that there's any advantage going into Saturday? Darren's got two guys who haven't played yet at all.
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, the way I look at it, we've got a two-point advantage right now, and that's very slim in this, but we are ahead. We played a lot of great golf. And when you look at it -- if you don't look at the scores, you look at the way our team played, we had a lot of teams play very, very well.

Patrick and Jordan this afternoon I think were 5-under through 11, and we're getting beat. It wasn't like we were playing poorly. Sure, we could have hit a couple more fairways here or there or could have lipped in a couple putts here or there and it would have been a huge difference. Obviously, if we win one more match in the afternoon, it would have been a big difference.

But no, they went at it hard today and they played very, very well. And I'm happy with what everybody did. So you know, it would be easy to say, well, we'll just put the same four out there, they just won. But it's a different format, so it doesn't work that way.

Our guys will be rested and motivated when they go in there, when it's tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, and then obviously they will be ready for their singles on Sunday, as well.

Q. I think so far, you've kept your pairs together through the first three sessions. Looking ahead to the afternoon, is it preference that the combinations you put in place stay together?
DAVIS LOVE III: Depends how they play in the morning. But we have a lot of options. We have 12 guys that are playing great. I keep saying, it's hard to sit four out, but that's the beauty of this team is 12 guys are playing great and they all want to play. So we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Q. If I recall, one of the things you said on that radio show last week was when you lose a hole or you lose some momentum, sometimes guys tend to panic and play not to lose, instead of to win. Was this afternoon any kind of a test in that regard?
DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, I think so. We switched -- we even switched up some of our assistant captains. We said, look, let's move around and let's try to change the momentum back for them a little bit.

It was obvious that the European Team was playing great. You know, maybe a different guy shows up, a different voice in your head or a different guy to see walking along with you might have changed the momentum.

It felt like we had a chance obviously in Ryan's match. He made some great putts coming in and gave us a chance. And then Dustin's match, Dustin and Kuch, they gave us a chance there. Obviously we're one swing and one putt in both of those matches to getting to 17 or 18.

You know, all in all, it was a good day and I'm really happy with the way everybody just hung in there till the end.

JOHN DEVER: To that note, let's bid you farewell for the evening. Have a good one and thank you very much.

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