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SEVE BALLESTEROS TROPHY


September 24, 2005


Colin Montgomerie

Jose Maria Olazabal


BILLINGHAM, ENGLAND

RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks for coming in and join us. Colin, perhaps you can start us off.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I suppose a very good performance for the British and Irish team today; eight matches, only losing one and winning four, I think, and halves, it was very good. All credit to the European Team. The French boys again did it to my Irish two at the last, chipped in. A great effort, great matches, great games.

This afternoon, three matches come down the last hole, that shows how close these games are. And we did well, we did very well. We battled back. When I was approaching the fourth green, the first scoreboard we see is the fourth, and of course you're told not to look at them, and I told my team not to. And, of course, I have to, that's my job. It was all blue. It was 1 up, 2 up, 2 up, 1 up. I thought, "Oh, my God, this isn't good." So to win from that 2 1/2 1 1/2 was a great effort, a great effort. Fantastic matches. It's a fabulous event and it's all set up now for an exciting Sunday.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Jose Maria, your thoughts on the day?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: On the day, we lost ground. Obviously I'm not happy about the position we're in and they have a one point advantage playing tomorrow, but they played well and they played their best. As Monty said, our format especially in the afternoon, three went to 18 and that tells you how close the matches are. We said that early in the week, and it's proving so.

Tomorrow we need to really win a lot of matches, as simple as that. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Do you want to run through the draw?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: You can start.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Okay. Well, the first match is pretty obvious, me against the rest of the world. (Laughter).

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yeah, I need it, that rest of the world.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Okay, myself and Monty, obviously, first match.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: And then Niclas Fasth is going to play Paul Casey.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Hansen is going to play Ian Poulter.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: And Thomas Bjorn, he's going to play David Howell.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: And Jean François Remesy is going to play Stephen Dodd.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Thomas Levet is going to play Bradley Dredge.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: And Maarten Lafeber is going to play McDowell.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Miguel Angel Jiménez is going to play Paul McGinley.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: And then we have Canonica and Harrington.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: And that leaves with you Henrik Stenson will play Nick Dougherty.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Jose Maria, perhaps you can start us off by giving some of the tactics behind your order.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I'm one point behind. I need to win six points. So you know, I have to put out the players that apparently are playing their best. Niclas Fasth is playing well, Hansen is playing well, Thomas Bjorn is playing well. Remesy is a solid player; he's not the longest of hitters but he's very straight. And if he manages to make a few putts, he can be a tough player to beat. And the same goes for Maarten and Miguel Angel. So there was not many thinking to do around there especially when you need six points, or well, actually more, 6 1/2.

So there you go. We're against the world and we're going to have to really do something special tomorrow if we want to get that trophy.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Colin, your tactics?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, yeah, I've got I'm very fortunate. I can put four Ryder Cup players out the first four matches. And then, you know, Graeme and Paul, and Padraig and Nick are playing great at the back, because that's where it's going to be. I think it's going to be very, very close tomorrow, I really do. I think it's going to be close and I need some strength at the back end to cope with that closeness because I really do believe that the games, as I say, could go anyway.

As I said to my team, any one of the Continental Europe players can beat any one of my team on that day tomorrow, and vice versa. So it's going to be some great games and we look forward to the competition tomorrow.

Q. It is a compliment to put him out last?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Yeah, it is a compliment. I was very impressed with him today. He handled himself very well, we were down with five to go and had not holed a putt really, and managed to play well coming in and hole a number of clutch putts in which he holed a couple at 15 and at 17 and did very well. And his drive at 18, his putt at 17, very good.

So I was very impressed with him and it's a compliment to him to go last.

Q. Practicing this afternoon, did you detect some extra tension there?

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Because you did.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, what can I say, I don't want to say anything that, you know, can create a bad atmosphere at all. So I'll leave it there.

Q. When you're playing a game and you don't think you should be asked to hole out, do you think

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I said to him, good try.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I'm afraid you're hitting a brick wall here as well. But, hey, all different things

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: He probably won't do that when he's 35 or 40 years old.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: He won't be able to bend down. (Laughter). If I did that at the Ryder Cup with my belly putter (laughter).

Q. Did you give any instructions about concessions of putts?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Not really.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Not at all.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's up to the players to feel what they have to do on the golf course. They don't have to consider a putt, that's three feet, well, fine, Thomas and I can.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Thomas and I conceded four and a half or five foot each on the 11th there today, the balls were almost touching and we said halve. We were 1 down at the time and I said halve halve, and he goes, yeah, pick it up.

And I think it was a great concession by your own team at the last hole today. Was it the Casey/Howell game this morning where they had two putts from about 20 foot from the front edge? You know, well I would have seen the first putt at least to the thing, you know, but that was conceded. So I think it's been very fair overall. I think it's been very fair.

Q. Inaudible?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Pretty much, yes. But, you know, as I said, it's up to the players. For whatever reason, he felt that way and that's it. I have no problem with that. It's up to him to do whatever he wants to do.

As I said, once he gets to 35, 40 years old, I think he'll be more mature and I don't think we'll see him doing those things.

Well, you can change a lot in a year's time.

RODDY WILLIAMS: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.
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