UBS WARBURG CUP

November 15, 2002

Paul Azinger

Nick Faldo

Scott Hoch

Hale Irwin

Bernhard Langer

Arnold Palmer

Eduardo Romero

Curtis Strange

Match 1 - Player/Faldo defeated Palmer/Strange, 1 up

GARY PLAYER: I had a great partner. He hit some long drives and some beautiful irons. The match could have gone either way. It was really exciting and you couldn't have two nicer people to play against. It was an important match to win.

That was an important match for us. If your players behind see a win it's always encouraging. It was a good match and three up early on. Nick had a poor approach putt on the eighth and left me with an eight footer and I did the same to him at the 14th. Two very similar mistakes but it was a very good match and I was really impressed with the improvement in Nick's swing. He's a hard worker and always watches his diet and he does what I have always preached. In this era if you don't practice hard, don't watch your diet and don't exercise you get left behind.

NICK FALDO: The expert on the greens is here (Player), but we hit a couple of putts right on the edge and they break. And the next one is guaranteed to break and it doesn't. We were just grinding out there.

My partner was fantastic. I wanted him to hole his bunker shot at the last. It hit the hole. We started well. I had a great three iron on three. Curtis played well in the middle and hit a good putt on eight and stiffed it on ten. We struggled on the greens coming in. It was difficult to read them. It was nice to win, having been three up it wouldn't have been good to lose.

Gary is longer than Arnold. He hit a couple of really nice tee shots out there. It's easy to fun with them. They like a bit of ribbing now and then. You play hard but enjoy it.

ARNOLD PALMER: We did pretty good in the middle. I didn't drive the ball as good as I would have liked to. On the last hole, I put Curtis in a bad spot over there off the tee. And that was the match. That was what it was all about.

CURTIS STRANGE: We wanted to do well and it's a tough format, alternate shot. We are both not playing the way we want to play and when you are not playing perfect, it's tough. We got going in the middle of the round and made some good shots and made a few birdies. You hate to lose a close match because you try so hard. Nick and what's his name over there, Mr. Player, they did good.

Match 2 - Azinger/Hoch vs. Langer/Romero, level

PAUL AZINGER: The match see-sawed. It could have gone either way. I didn't hit it good off the tee. They played probably a little better than we did. In the end, I think they were really lucky. They made two long putts for par. ³

SCOTT HOCH: Paul and I said back there that Bernie is getting inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight. We didn't want to put a sour note on his day. We are nice guys.

EDUARDO ROMERO: We played very good. We just made a few mistakes there today. (2 great putts on 13 and 15 to keep match under control)

BERNHARD LANGER: It was a great match. We played very well early on. Then I hit a couple of loose shots and made a couple of bogeys. We made some good putts under pressure coming in on the back side. The nice guys over there, they probably deserved to be an even match. It is a great honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, especially coming from a country like Germany where golf is not popular at all. It is going to be a great evening.²

Match 3 - Floyd/Lehman defeated Torrance/Woosnam, 1 up

RAYMOND FLOYD: It is a thrill to be part of this. You got to have camaraderie together . We play golf together forever. We all know each other. It is fun to get back together. When it comes down to it we want to win badly. It is fun to put yourself in a position to get under the gun. That is what it is all about. You have to get into the fire. You don't always convert. It is fun to get there. I like the opportunity.

Match 4 - Aoki/Ebihara defeated Funk/Gilder, 3 and 1

SEIJI EBIHARA: I wasn't too comfortable with the driver but if I put Isao in trouble he would recover, so that was nice. It was very good to win in my first match in the UBS Warburg Cup. I didn't really think I would get a point so I'm glad we got the point. I played with Fred Funk yesterday in the Pro-Am and we were teamed up and Fred shot four under and I shot six under so I thought: no chance!' when I saw the pairing. But I played much better today and Aoki told me we were the dark horses and had nothing to lose so I relaxed and we played well together.

Match 5 - Irwin/Kite defeated Davis/Ginn, 3 and 2

HALE IRWIN: We had a gift at the first where they bogeyed and we birdied the third and fourth and got up early and actually Tom hit some beautiful irons today. I did a lot of putting on the front nine and he did on the back nine. The thing we did best was keeping the ball in play. We had opportunities at most holes. In this format you don't want to give a hole away with a mistake and we were fortunate to keep it in play and hit a lot of greens. It's difficult to create momentum. It's a more pressurised format as you don't want to let your partner now. Some people might be unfamiliar with that concept in your early years but not so much now.

TOM KITE: I think we are a really good team, especially in the alternate shot format. We knew we couldn;'t make a whole lot of mistakes. We played very solid and never put ourselves in a position to put pressure on ourselves. We birdied three and four and got the momentum going. In this format birdies are hard to come by and bogeys are easier to come by and that's why we make a good team. We are not going to make too many bogeys.

Match 6 - Watson/O'Meara defeated Lane/Durnian, 2 and 1

TOM WATSON: Well, we were given a few gifts from the other team. They had some misses I am sure they would like to get back. We were fortunate to win and I am sure they will be disappointed. We kept the ball in play. It will be interesting. You have to make a few more birdies in fourball.

MARK O'MEARA: I didn't feel that comfortable. My ball striking could be better. We consider ourselves fortunate as Barry and Denis played really well but had a couple of three putts and that's what happens. I enjoy the fourball format tomorrow. There are a lot of birdies to be made here and we are looking forward to it.

BARRY LANE: For the first 12 or 13 holes we never missed a fairway or green but if we had two putted the last I think we would have had 36 putts and that's not good enough to win matches of this nature. We played all right and had chances. It's tricky because the way this format goes you can go three or four holes without having a putt.

DENIS DURNIAN: As Barry said we played very solid early on and were in control but I hit a bad tee shot on 14 and put Barry in real trouble and at the par five I tried to hook in round a tree and it disappeared.

End of FastScripts....