WALKER CUP

September 5, 2025

Dean Robertson

Luke Poulter

Cameron Adam

Cypress Point Club

GB&I Press Conference

MIKE WOODCOCK: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the second Great Britain & Ireland press conference of the week. I'm joined by Dean Robertson, the captain, by Luke Poulter, and on my far left, Cameron Adam. Dean, how did you feel this morning's session went and how the mood is in the team on the eve of the match?

DEAN ROBERTSON: From a mood perspective, everybody is super excited. From a practice perspective, I think it was excellent. We covered off a whole host of things, areas that we needed to go and pay attention to on the golf course.

We are happy, excited, and really looking forward to the challenge ahead.

Q. Everyone is obviously kind of itching to get going. It's a long week of preparation, but you've been very careful to make sure it's been a gradual buildup to the match itself?

DEAN ROBERTSON: Most definitely. Pacing ourselves to be picking tomorrow and Sunday has been the No. 1 priority, so today the players played a collection of holes, and they had autonomy to do that themselves after the first three holes. The course is in fantastic shape, the sun is shining, and we're really excited to get going.

Q. Luke, quite an eventful practice session with a hole-in-one and almost another. Any fireworks this morning in practice?

LUKE POULTER: I mean, I made an eagle on 2, but yeah, nothing like that. But yeah, yesterday was pretty cool holing out on hole 1 and then two holes later getting my first hole-in-one, so that was pretty special.

Q. How are you feeling looking forward to the match?

LUKE POULTER: Yeah, I feel great. The game is good. Course is in unbelievable condition, so no complaints on that. I feel really good, comfortable, and ready to get this match started.

Q. Cameron, from your perspective you've had quite a summer and a great experience playing the Open at Royal Portrush. Do you feel that experience of playing in front of the fans will help the next two days?

CAMERON ADAM: Yeah, 100 percent. I think my experience at Portrush has set me up really well for the summer that I've had. Getting to play in front of the amount of spectators that were there, it's a completely different feeling, and to be able to get used to that in preparation for something like this is super valuable. I'm feeling great and looking forward to it.

Q. For you two guys, now that you've gotten in quite a few rounds on the course, what have you seen change as it's gotten firmer and faster, and what are your favorite holes, each of you?

LUKE POULTER: Well, my favorite hole I think is 15. It's just really cool. 16 is obviously amazing, but I think 15 tops it a little bit.

Yeah, throughout the week, the greens have definitely gotten firmer. I think it's playing a little bit more like a links course. The first bounce is really hard. It's just skipping out and spinning a little bit. But the course is unbelievable.

CAMERON ADAM: Yeah, the course has changed a lot in the past couple days, and that's a great testament to the greens staff that they've got here. It's really firmed up and sped up over the time. I think today it was quite nice, I got a few more holes in there to kind of understand what the first skip is doing because it does different things on different holes.

But the course is incredible. I think my favorite hole might be 13, kind of that -- the tee shot down there I think is one of the most underrated tee shots on the course, just that view out into the bay.

Q. Dean, I know you're not going to divulge your lineups until the ceremony, but anything you saw in practice that impacted either your teams or your placement of your teams?

DEAN ROBERTSON: The biggest challenge I've had is that everybody is playing well, so I've had some good challenges in the lineups. It was asked yesterday, we had the opportunity to come together in Madrid, and that certainly allowed us to galvanize as a team. So we're pretty set.

Q. Dean, regarding being set with those pairings, what factors are you looking at when you're trying to put together your foursomes groups in terms of either the games that the guys have or even any metrics that you use? I'm curious how you tried to put those together.

DEAN ROBERTSON: Well, if there wasn't a one-ball rule -- the one-ball rule isn't in effect this week, but the golf ball would have been my No. 1 consideration in terms of foursomes, so that's not in effect, but what you will see is that being utilized.

But also personalities, game styles that match up to the challenges and the golf course.

Q. Do you guys use any metrics to put together -- I know they're not quite as robust as they are on a professional level, but these amateurs do have some stats. Do you use anything like that?

DEAN ROBERTSON: No, but I did have access to that, but I've just used being on the ground and over the last year and a half to be honest with you at the amateur events watching these guys and getting to know them all and learning about them as individuals and also their golf games, and that really has been the foundation to bringing them together.

Q. Did you use metrics at all in any part of your selection process or anything?

DEAN ROBERTSON: So we didn't know there was going to be no one-ball rule in effect, so the players had all been testing other golf balls, so in terms of any pairings there would be, in terms of spin control, approach play, yes, they would be ready to adapt and improvise should that be required.

But no, and in terms of world rankings, other than the players that were automatic, no, I didn't look at world rankings at all, not once.

Q. Nathan Smith wasn't really involved compared to you in terms of what players are on the team. Did you use metrics in any way, shape or form on that?

DEAN ROBERTSON: I didn't use metrics, I used experience and intuition in terms of these guys' ability and the skill set that they've got to play Cypress Point in terms of on the greens, in terms of around the greens, in terms of touch, the feel, the control, and that was the metrics that I used.

Q. For Luke and Cameron, and I'll start with you, Luke, since it's your dad, in terms of his presence, the other guys yesterday talked about being at dinner with him. What was his presence like for you being his son, and do you hear things differently from your dad than maybe other guys do?

LUKE POULTER: No, not really. Like you said, he's my dad, so he's the same as everyone else's dad. He's always supportive for me. But he just tells me the same thing that he told everyone in the meeting, that we're on away soil, so it's really tough, statistically tougher for us to win than on home soil, but when we step up on that first tee, that all goes away. But our games are ready to play and we're ready to take on the test that's in front of us.

Q. What was the vibe of the dinner with your dad there?

LUKE POULTER: It was great, yeah. We were all just sitting chatting around eating some burgers, watching some tennis, playing ping-pong, playing darts. It was great. Everyone was having a good time and just enjoying it.

Q. Cameron, from your perspective, what did you get out of it?

CAMERON ADAM: Yeah, it's a strange kind of setting in a sense because I've gotten to know Luke away from that. His dad is someone that I've grown up watching. Like watching Ian in the Ryder Cups, it's inspirational. It's kind of one of the large reasons that people get to these stages and are excited for it. To kind of be in that situation and compete and put a display on like he has is pretty awesome.

It's cool to hear messages from someone that you've looked up to, but at the same time, I feel like we all received them in the same way. We've all got the same mission, and it's to go out there and do the business over the weekend.

Q. His presence, does it make you feel even more how big of a deal this is?

CAMERON ADAM: It's difficult; I've kind of had a lot of experience and a step up in the past few months, playing in the Open, playing in the British Masters. In a sense, I've kind of been around a lot of people like that, so it's almost been normalized to me in the past few years. I'm not sure if it's the same for other people. It's really cool and inspirational to hear things from him.

But at the end of the day, he's just another human, plays golf. He's Luke's dad. But it is inspirational.

Q. Luke, you made an eagle today, so is that four for the two practice rounds?

LUKE POULTER: I've made three. Someone else hit a tee shot and then I made the putt, so we've had four. We played alternate shot yesterday, so yeah, I've technically made four in the past two days.

Q. What does that say about the gettable nature on some parts of this golf course?

LUKE POULTER: Yeah, this golf course is very gettable. Obviously if you're hitting in the right spots, because the greens are very tricky and you can use the slopes to your advantage, and it's super short. So yeah, I think this course is -- you're going to see hopefully a bunch of eagles and a bunch of birdies, so we'll see.

Q. What's the defense then?

LUKE POULTER: The slopes of the greens and the speed that they can get. I think they're going to ramp them up a little bit throughout the week, and they just keep getting firmer and firmer.

CAMERON ADAM: If I can jump in as well, there's a lot of feast or famine out there. As much as a load of the slopes can help you, they're the protection as well. They can bowl a ball into the pin, but if you get on the wrong side of it, you can't hit it within 10 feet. That is the -- what makes the course gettable is the protection, and that's one of the beauties of the architecture out there. What's there to help you also hurts you.

Q. Dean, in all the thinking that you've done about this week, did anything change or surprise you once you got here?

DEAN ROBERTSON: Certainly the greens firming up is the change. This golf course demands strategic intelligence and it demands golfing manners. Going back to the defense of the golf course, the pin positions are going to be set up difficult, and the players are going to have to be respectful of that and have a game plan appropriate to that, and in order to unlock it, they're going to have to have a good strategy in place.

Q. Luke, you would have been six or seven for Medinah in 2012. I'm curious because you probably don't remember that firsthand, but what's your favorite story that your dad tells from that week, and what's the biggest reminder at home, either up on the walls or whatever?

LUKE POULTER: Yeah, I don't really remember watching it because I was at my friend's house. I didn't really like golf. I think the only thing I've seen from it is just rewatching videos.

Yeah, the stuff he just talks about, because they were in a dark spot throughout the team and in the group they were down. Just like never give up; anything can happen. All you need is a little bit of momentum and the other team can get also back in a dark spot.

Yeah, he doesn't -- we don't really talk about it much, but in a moment like this maybe it'll come up a little bit. But I've rewatched it, the miracle at Medinah, a few times to give me a little bit of inspiration to hopefully play like him.

Q. You've seen the reactions that your dad had down the stretch there, just the otherworldly screams and primal yells. What's your reaction to that?

LUKE POULTER: It's pretty cool. Just shows how passionate he is about it and how close -- how much it means to all those guys. They all do it, and you've got Rory and Patrick Reed going at it, so it's pretty cool to see. I don't have that -- I don't have quite that in me, but we'll see this week, maybe I'll throw some fist pumps and get the crowd going.

Q. Along those same lines, your dad played with such style, dressed with style, had the fancy cars and all the rest. Do you feel like you have some of that or are you different from your dad that way?

LUKE POULTER: A little bit. I don't know, I'm a bit different. I'm more relaxed a little bit. I'm more to myself. I don't really like showing that type of emotion.

But yeah, there's obviously a few things in there maybe. I don't wear the funky pants or the hair, but yeah.

Q. (Indiscernible) an athlete?

LUKE POULTER: No, she's not a golfer.

Q. For Luke and Cameron, what parts of playing Cypress Point feel similar to golf on the British Isles, and do you think there is maybe a creativity element there that suits you all well this week in terms of the types of shots you're trying to hit around a place that may have some similarities?

CAMERON ADAM: Yeah, 100 percent. I think especially the way we've seen it firm up over the last couple days, some of the first hops are like a lot of links golf that we see. You've got a lot of falloffs, a lot of false fronts. It is really kind of reminiscent of a lot of links golf that we can see back home. It's maybe a little bit more severe and the greens are running a lot quicker than what we see back home, but in terms of visually, it is very similar as well.

LUKE POULTER: Yeah, it's similar. I think playing over there helps us, will be a big -- not big, but it will be an advantage for us because as it firms up, it's going to get similar to links golf because the bounces you're trying to predict on the greens and stuff and the fairways as they're rolling out, they're going to be a lot firmer.

Q. Is there a particular shot you've hit this week in a practice round where it's called for a certain level of creativity that felt like playing links golf?

CAMERON ADAM: I mean, there's a few of the holes that kind of have some dropoffs at the front and then when you get the ball on top, like one that we've kind of had a look at is the 7th green, the par-3, when you get the ball flying up there, it takes big skips to the back, but if you're flying it short, it kind of struggles to get up, and that's the similarities you see with links golf. There's shelves that if you get on top it's really tricky to hold, but if you don't quite get it up, it's got no chance. That's one of the great tests we're going to have this week. A few of the greens are like that, and if it keeps firming out, you're probably going to see guys probably bump it up, land on slopes, and it could get fun.

DEAN ROBERTSON: I think that goes back to the question John asked in how the golf course is changing. Coming here having seen it last year, only having a small visit, the greens were softer so it was all about spin control, and for the modern golfer, they pump it miles, and being able to hit those quiet shots is a skill that they're not really asked that much.

So coming in here, we were prepared for that, but now seeing the golf course change where it's taking that links bounce, it's completely different. When the pins are just above the ledges, you land it on top, the first bounce is huge, so then you're going to be faced with massive swinging putts that are super fast, or the alternative is you try and skip it up the ledges and it comes back, and often the lesser of two evils is the chip shot from short rather than putting from long. It's going to be challenging, and the players are getting asked questions that they generally don't get asked at all. It's going to be a lot of fun.