WALKER CUP MATCH

August 13, 2005

Rhys Davies

Garth McGimpsey

Lloyd Saltman

Q. Lloyd Saltman, Rhys Davies, Garth McDonald, and, Captain, if you would start off with a summary of your day.

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: I think I'm sitting here pretty happy actually, even though we're a point behind. We got our asses kicked this morning. Having said that, at one point we looked like we were going to win the foursomes. That's the nature of the foursomes golf.

We had a tough day in the singles, but to be really one point behind going into tomorrow, we're feeling upbeat. At one point we could have been out of it, but now we're right back in. If we look at the history, we've come back the last three times, so we're pretty good.

Q. Rhys, you had a busy day, a good day. Why don't you go through your day.

RHYS DAVIES: Yeah, it was a pretty nerve racking start but managed to hit it down the middle. After that, I really enjoyed it. I mean, it was great fun playing with Nigel. He keeps you relaxed and focused at all times. I had a really enjoyable morning. I know we were 3 up, and we did get I suppose you could call it a losing half because we were leading, but at the same time I was still quite upbeat at lunchtime.

The American boys threw some birdies at us. They won the half, rather than we lost it. This afternoon again, it was a fun match. I have played with Matt before, he's a really great guy, and we got on quite nicely. So, that was enjoyable to play against somebody you know, and I think there was some pretty good golf about it.

Q. Lloyd, on your end, 2 points?

LLOYD SALTMAN: I couldn't be happier with my performance. We complimented our game well. This afternoon it got he went one up, and then he had a chance on 16 to go 1 up on me, but he missed, and 17, I holed the putt off the green. I had a good shot in the last, and 2 points, and you know, just happy to get a point on the board for the team. That's all I can do is and look at my performance, and if that's good enough to get points on the board for the whole team, that's it.

Q. Garth, can you talk a little bit about how impressive Oliver Fisher was today, 16 years old?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: He's behind you there having an ice cream. That keeps him going. This guy is class. He's the best young player I've seen in a long time. Peter McEvoy said he's far better than Luke Donald was at the same age. I think that's right. I'm really pleased for him that he came through this afternoon in a very hard match. That's going to mean a lot to him going into tomorrow. It will give him a lot of confidence, and so, he's a wonderful golfer with a big future.

Q. You talk about the fact that you're down, but it really be doesn't bother you, at least with the most immediate history being down the last three matches, and why is that mindset so prevalent now amongst this team?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: I think by the nature of our countries, we're fighters. We're island people, if you like. We're going to fight to the death to hold onto this trophy. The way the day panned out, particularly in the afternoon, we looked dead and buried at one stage. We're not. It's almost feeling like we're ahead. We had a very upbeat team meeting, and the Americans know we're going to give them a game and it will be tough for them.

Q. Just to clarify, at what point was it you thought you were dead and buried?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: At one point it looked like it might be 6 2 if the or maybe 5 and a half 2 and a half, that sort of thing. The way these things go, you have a good and then a bad 5 minutes. We had a couple of good 5 minutes there and it looked like at one point we were going to get 4 and might have even squeezed something out at the end, but we lost both of those, so that was tough.

Q. Lloyd, Rhys, did you practice anything special coming down the stretch as a team or individually? There was some pretty good rebounding?

RHYS DAVIES: Yeah, I think more than thinking I hit it a bit closer and holed a couple of putts personally. I think there was a couple holes coming down the stretch, 13, 14, 15, 16, where you were hit being short irons into the greens, and you can have the opportunity to leave yourself with easier putts. If you capitalize on that, then, yeah, you can make more birdies for sure.

LLOYD SALTMAN: Me, just the same, I think just the class of player that's here, par doesn't really win you holes. I think you need to make birdies to win the holes. Everyone is going to play well to win your match. If you make birdie, you are doing all right.

Q. Garth, any thoughts about changing the lineup or do you go with what you did today?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: Our lineup has changed slightly, and the teams are in, but the players haven't been informed yet, so I'm not going to say.

Q. To either of the players, how much were you watching the scoreboard, and did you sense a momentum shift and feed off of that?

RHYS DAVIES: I watched it quite a bit. I like to know what's going on regardless. I don't find it changes how I approach the match in any way. I remember walking off the 12th green, and Garth said to me, come on, we need you. I said, it's all right, you got me. I carried that momentum forward.

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: I wish it was that easy.

RHYS DAVIES: So, that was I mean, I glanced at the scoreboard there, but I can't tell you what it said, and I just finished my match relatively quickly after that, so, by the time I got back to the Skipper, then we sort of reassessed the situation and followed Lloyd in.

LLOYD SALTMAN: It's a team game, so everyone is playing for each other. Personally I was aware of how the match was going on. You can hear the roars a bit and everyone is playing for each other.

Q. Garth, what does it say about the vagaries of match play when Gary Wolstenholme was getting out driven?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: Gary is a wonderful player. This course doesn't suit him because it's a wide course, and Gary likes a tight course, but having said that, he broke his 3 wood playing the second shot at the 17th. If it hadn't broken, who knows? That 3 wood might have cost us a half point.

Q. Is it out being fixed?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: It will be ready for tomorrow.

Q. Yesterday you were here talking about Lockerbie and how will he played and really was the strongest guy at least over the weekend. It seemed like today he struggled the entire day. Have you talked with him much about it?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: Gary struggled a bit this morning. That was a bit of a scrappy match, and I don't think the Americans played that well either. I think we lost that one 1 down or something. That was a disappointing result when he didn't play that well. I think he played slightly better this afternoon but ran up against it. The American guy was 6 or 7 under par something like that.

Maybe his golf didn't look as good as it was. Gary is a class player and I have a lot of faith in him for tomorrow.

Q. Is everyone going to play tomorrow?

GARTH MCGIMPSEY: I can't answer that just yet. I want to have the time to tell the players what the lineup is.

Q. Thank you all very much.

End of FastScripts.