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THE RYDER CUPSeptember 19, 2008Soren HansenIan PoulterJustin RoseLee WestwoodLOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY KELLY ELBIN: European Ryder Cup team members Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Søren Hansen joining us at the 37th Ryder Cup. Gentlemen, I'll leave it to one or more of you to speak to the general thoughts on the day, the U.S. leading 51/2 to 21/2, nice rally by the Europeans to gain that half point on the last hole. Open it up to anyone who would like to start it off, please. Or maybe I need to direct it to Mr. Westwood to start it off. LEE WESTWOOD: Right, give it to the old man, thanks (laughter) who's just played 36 holes. I suppose 51/2-21/2 sounds a lot better than 6-2 at the end of the day. And the crowd has been pretty noisy all day long, and on that last green they were pretty quiet. Hopefully that's set a trend for tomorrow. KELLY ELBIN: Could you talk a little bit about your particular match? Obviously very boisterous out there, finished all square with the win on the 18th hole. LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, quite boisterous, you could say that (laughter). No, it was a good game, some good golf, lots of birdies, a criticism of our partnership, we didn't make enough birdies from 9 through 15, and that's where we just let the American pairing get the upper hand. But we finished off strong, which was good. It was nice to get a half a point. It was one of those kind of games that shouldn't really have been a winner, should it. KELLY ELBIN: Justin, a comment on your win over Steve Stricker and Ben Curtis, please. JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, obviously I think for us to win this afternoon was really important, having lost this morning being 3-up. We got ourselves up in the match again early, and I think the experience this morning really helped us this afternoon to finish off the match. Q. Lee, you had to go against both Kentucky guys and then Boo, the whole Boo Weekley phenomenon. You mentioned the crowd was boisterous. Talk a little bit more about that. LEE WESTWOOD: It was just well into it by lots of things (smiling). You know, a few of them were wearing the 13th-man tee shirt, and it looked that way. What more can you say? We're playing in America. Q. Lee, I just wonder, with regard to that a little bit, Boo was riling that 13th man thing up a little bit, and you looked like you kind of were staring him down a little bit. Was he going over the top, or do you think that was just part of the competition and being the home crowd? LEE WESTWOOD: Well, you walk a fine line when you start doing that sort of thing between -- using the crowd to your advantage when you're at home, which you do by playing good golf, which they were doing, and going over that line where you just take it to far. I don't mind when they're raising their arms and whooping the crowd up. But when it occurs between say the 13th hole -- the 12th hole today, which we played, where Boo holed it from off the back, I've still got a putt for a halve. There's no need to do it between the shots. At least wait until you're walking up to the green or walking off the green. I'm not bothered about that, but it was interrupting the flow of play when we were trying to play. And the game was slow enough as it was (laughter). I thought we were never going to get finished. Q. For Lee, this is your sixth Ryder Cup and the first time you end a Friday behind. Can you at least give us a little insight -- LEE WESTWOOD: It's a novelty, isn't it (laughter)? It's not the position we wanted to be in, that's for sure. But you know, I've seen some strange things happen in Ryder Cups, some big swings. And it's a fine line between doing things good and not getting the benefit of them and things going your way and winning points from that. I don't think we should get too disheartened and come out tomorrow and try to play hard again and come out fast and strong. Q. For Søren, it's your first Ryder Cup experience obviously, and as Lee had just said a minute ago, between holes 9 and 15, you guys maybe didn't get as many birdies as you would have liked. The pace of play really slowed down, especially on the 10th hole. Was it difficult for you guys to maintain any sort of rhythm or to keep within the flow of the match itself especially within that period, and obviously this being your first Ryder Cup it was pretty slow out there? SØREN HANSEN: Lee and I are both quick players, and on 10, it got really slow. All three of us had to drop just over the green. I suppose we could have done that at the same time. I mean, it was the same ruling, really. So for three drops, we could have been done in two minutes and it took ten minutes. And then you waited a lot on shots here and there, and sometimes it is annoying waiting a little bit too long. Golf is meant to be played in a quick tempo, and Lee and I enjoy that. There's no need to -- for it to be that long today, I think, but it was good fun. Q. On hole 16 you made one of the most remarkable shots today, Søren. Could you tell a little about your thoughts before the shot and after the shot, and what do you think of your debut in Ryder Cup connection in general? SØREN HANSEN: Well, it was an interesting debut, and the shot there was very interesting. To be honest with you, I walked up to that chip, and I knew I was going to hole it, it was funny. And then Faldo came over and said that Harrington had the same putt, and he told me how it broke. He didn't need to, really. It was one of those things where you just feel like it's in before you actually do it. It was strange, because I've been trying to get that feeling all day long. Hadn't holed anything, a bit frustrating for Lee to look at. And it just went in, and obviously I went berserk, as you do. I don't know where it came from, but yeah, it was a tremendous moment. LEE WESTWOOD: You could have told me you were going to hole that before -- I was starting to panic at that stage a bit (laughter). Q. A question for Lee and Ian. What sense do you get of scratching out that last half point, what it's done for team spirit? LEE WESTWOOD: Was that to Ian? Well, I think it's a big boost for team spirit, like I said. You know, the crowd were very noisy all day, and I suppose it came as a bit of a shock to them really when their two guys blew it right into the water, and we made pretty simple 4s to win the hole. Q. Lee, I believe you either set or tied a record today with Arnold Palmer for most consecutive matches without a loss. I'm just kind of curious, is that something you've thought about at all, enter into your mind after the match, or does it speak something to just about your career in general and the Ryder Cup? LEE WESTWOOD: It was only brought to my attention just before we flew out here, so I obviously knew about it. But I would rather have had two wins to my name today. But individual records really are just something that happen at the Ryder Cup. It's all about the team, really. Q. Did you say anything to Boo about the timing of his inappropriate crowd conduct, and would you hope that tomorrow there's a bit more respect for when opponents -- LEE WESTWOOD: No, I didn't say anything to him out of respect for them, really. You set your style out at the start of the day, and it's not my job to tell the people how to behave. It never really entered into my head. It just certainly gave me more of a burning desire to win some holes. Q. Lee, from the outside, these matches are -- each of them are analyzed and sometimes even psychoanalyzed by people covering this event. As a player who's been through this a lot, on the inside, do you get into that kind of thing, analysis, or how much of it is analysis and how much of it is just go out and play golf? LEE WESTWOOD: I think it's just a case of going out and playing golf. You can sit there all day in the team room afterwards saying, oh, if I would have holed that three-footer on the 8th and if I would have got up-and-down there we would have won the match. It's all ifs and buts when you're analyzing stuff. It's pointless, a waste of energy, and you just have to go out there, try your best, try not to give any holes away, waste any shots, and hopefully you make the putts at the right time, which is what happened today for the Americans. They've had a day today like we've had a lot of in the last ten years. Q. Lee, I think I would like to go off of your answer there. Tell us what it's like when you're in that situation where you have the lead that you have, usually you have had in the past? How do you handle that situation in the team room? Obviously you never get over-confident, but exactly what do you talk about and how do you approach the next day since you've been in this situation a lot more than the U.S. has? LEE WESTWOOD: When you get off to a good start, as the Americans did today, it swings favoritism the opposite way. We were favorites coming into the match, now they're favorites. They've got a big lead, and the pressure is on them. You don't want to start losing points and giving up a big lead like that in front of a home crowd. You're going to look soft. So the pressure is firmly in the Americans' court now. Q. Ian, are you speaking today by any chance? IAN POULTER: Hello (laughter). Q. There was a lot going into this about Nick making a captain's pick. There was obviously a lot of controversy and speculation and whatnot. I just wonder with how well you played today, particularly in the afternoon match, do you feel in your heart that you kind of justified that a little bit? Did you feel a little pressure coming in to do so? IAN POULTER: Yeah, I guess there was a little extra pressure on me. You know, it was a shame this morning to let slip a good lead. We played great for the first 10, 11 holes, and we just had a bit of a tough three- or four-hole spell around 11, 12, 13, 14, which kind of let it slip. But to go straight back out in the afternoon was huge, to get back out there, keep playing the way we played, and we played lovely. So it was nice to go straight back out with Justin and properly finish the job off how we should have finished the job off this morning. So yeah, there's been a lot of extra pressure, but truly, I'm playing great. The couple of weeks I took off previous, prior to coming into the Ryder Cup, I worked hard. You know, I think it's showing this week. I'm just happy to be part of a great team. You know, I'm enjoying it, and I'm playing good. You know, let's hope we can take that into tomorrow and all the guys can get pumped up and go out and put some blue numbers on the board? KELLY ELBIN: Ian, Justin, Lee, Søren, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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