SKECHERS WORLD CHAMPIONS CUP SUPPORTING SHRINERS CHILDREN’S

December 5, 2025

Jim Furyk

Jason Caron

Mike Weir

Charlie Wi

Darren Clarke

Team Captains

Feather Sound Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for the 2025 Skechers World Champions Cup supporting Shriners Children’s.

We want to welcome the captains and some select players from some of the teams.

So to start we saw some early separation this morning, kicked off by a lot of the energy out of the gate by Team Europe and later on this afternoon we saw a tighter competition take place.

So we're going to start with each of the captains, starting with Darren Clarke and Team Europe, to give us a brief recap.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, obviously this morning went very well for Team Europe. We played nicely, but by no means were we getting ahead of ourselves. As I said yesterday and said all week, there is a sensational bunch of players here and the Internationals and the American guys both played fabulous golf this afternoon and brought the whole thing back to being really tight again.

I think one of us mentioned earlier this week that how close the scoring would be and that's how it's working out. So it's going to be a shootout on Sunday. Everybody is -- not quite sure with the final score is, but it's very close. It's quite complicated with all the stuff going on.

We got off to a good start and the other two guys, Internationals and the U.S., played fabulous this afternoon to get themselves back neck and neck.

THE MODERATOR: Next we'll have captain Mike Weir. Start from Team International speak and just give a brief recap on how today unfolded for your team.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I think as Darren said, the guys scrapped and clawed a little bit today to keep us in the mix. We had a couple subs that were unexpected, but Charlie up here, he played great; Ricardo this morning.

It was kind of all hands on deck and proud of the way the guys fought and held us in there today.

THE MODERATOR: Lastly, with Team USA we have Jim Furyk.

JIM FURYK: Yeah, we had a fun day. Europe got off to an amazing start led by Darren and Thomas early. We talked about our team yesterday kind of starting off a little slow the first four holes. Saw a little bit of that this morning.

But guys fought, scratched as I said yesterday, and this afternoon it was nice to see everyone kind of get off to a quick start, led by Jason and Stewy Cink. They had a great two sessions really, morning and afternoon. Played some beautiful golf and kind of led the way for us.

Let us claw our way back in, and now we've got really -- I think all the captains would agree -- we have a fun match. Only three points separating Europe and the International Team and we're right in the middle. It's anyone's ballgame on Sunday.

Q. Darren, for you, you had mentioned that it's tight going into Sunday. What's the thought process when you're thinking about Sunday's matchups?

DARREN CLARKE: We're all going to have to do a little bit of thinking.

JIM FURYK: Tell us your secrets.

DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, I'm not going to tell you everything. About our orders and stuff, who is going to play where and all that sort of stuff, that's a little bit more like what we're used to in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cup and who goes in what position.

Going by the past couple days' play it's going to be really tight, so you try and put the thought and the discussion between -- as I'm sure everybody will talk about. It's not just going to be the captain's decision. We'll talk to the whole team and see where everybody is comfortable playing.

Unfortunate the forecast doesn't look so good so it's going to be a grinding day in the rain probably. We'll come out and do our best and hopefully our best will be good enough just to pip these guys.

We know it's going to be a real exciting shootout on Sunday.

Q. For Charlie, can you talk through the timeline this morning of getting put in the lineup, your warmup, and all that?

CHARLIE WI: So I'll give you a couple stories, starting last night. So we're at dinner, we just order and Angel looks at me and says, oh, my back is not good. So he kind of said something in Spanish to Ricardo, da, da, da, da, and he goes, I don't know if I can go. I think Ricardo is going to go nine holes tomorrow.

So being a second vice captain, you don't think that -- there are six players and you don't think there will be two injuries. Sorry, Mike, but I didn't put too much time into practice and everything.

So this morning I was driving around and on about the third hole Y.E. goes, hey, Mark is not feeling very well. I talked to Mark, he goes, hey, I can't feel my club. It feels like the swing weight is normally D 3 to 5 and he's like, it feels like C 1.

And I got the call when they finished. They were in the lounge, the dining, and Y.E. goes, you better get yourself ready because I don't think Mark is going. I had my clubs at my hotel room. So when K.J.'s group finished I had his caddie go to my room to grab my clubs and I was warming up with Y.E.'s clubs.

I got to hit about 20 balls and five putts and went to the tee box pretty nervous.

Q. Awesome. For Jason, how much fun are you having this week having the USA gear on and all the activities from this week?

JASON CARON: Yeah, never would've dreamt this up, to be honest. But to be in that room with these guys, it's something that I'll cherish forever, that's for sure. I'm having fun. I got a bunch of family and friends out there. My wife and my kids are here now, too, which that makes it even better.

It just calms me down actually if anything just to see them over there having a good time as well.

So, yeah, and to have Stewart Cink as your partner, that doesn't hurt either.

Q. Mike, earlier in the week all of you were talking about how you have really good friendships and there are strong relationships; you have a lot of fun on the Tour. When you get in a competition like this, how difficult is it or is it easy to separate the friendships, to focus on winning this type of tournament?

MIKE WEIR: I think you can do both in this game. That's what's wonderful about this game. For me I've known these guys, played with them on the Tour for a long time back to junior and amateur golf even, and to still be battling, fighting, but to acknowledge a good shot when it happens, that's the spirit of golf to me.

I love that about the Ryder Cups, Presidents Cups, and here, too. As we get on in age for me anyway, I cherish it a lot more. You don't know how many times you're going to do this, so I cherish these moments a lot more now.

But still, you know, you're competitive and that's always going to be there. Feel like we all do it the right way.

Q. Jim, what's it like for you as a captain having Jason on the team, seeing him in a competition like this feeding of the crowd, et cetera?

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I originally thought he was joking when he said he had 43 friends coming from the club. I thought he was just saying he had a lot of folks coming, but he's got 43 people here. I think it's amazing.

And I kind of said it all week. We have a lot of talented players from the U.S. surely on the Champions Tour, but I got the right six guys. They all earned it and they went out there and played so well.

Jason talked about his journey towards the end of the year, how much pressure he put on himself because he really wanted to make this team.

I was just so happy to see him do it. I know you were probably a little nervous out there the first nine holes or first few holes out of the chute, but played some beautiful golf. I think he and Stew really hit it off together. The personalities and games have really meshed, and it's great to see them go out there and play so well.

Q. As a quick follow up, you're kind of in a very similar situation from a couple years ago going into the final round. Will you think back to decisions you made two years ago thinking about Sunday?

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I think all three of us with Darren and Mike. Darren hit on something earlier that it's such a small group, an intimate group. It's not just my decision. I'm bouncing a lot of ideas off of the team, the players. I got Steve Stricker on the team who has been a captain, a lot of guys that have played in these events.

So we're bouncing ideas off each other. I think Darren mentioned the weather. There is a lot of different variables going out.

But yeah, I think you lean on your past experiences and some knowledge that you had, surely things that have worked in the past in a lot of those events, and we'll all be doing that and trying to put a lineup out there that we feel like has the best opportunity to score a bunch of points.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you all for your questions and we look forward to seeing you on Sunday.