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THE WALKER CUP

September 12, 2015

Lytham St Annes, England

MIKE WOODCOCK: We'll make a start everyone. We are joined by GB&I Team Captain, Nigel Edwards, Ewen Ferguson, Gavin Moynihan.

Nigel, if I can start with you, it's been a great day for you. It's a three-point lead going into the second day. You must be pleased with how it's going.

NIGEL EDWARDS: Very pleased, yeah. Good start in the foursomes, and to get four points this afternoon in the singles is very good. It looked better at times but it looked worse at times.

Yeah, I mean, Gary obviously very early battled well to get a halve in that singles. And then some things went against us coming down 18, with Ashley not quite making that putt to get the win against Bryson, and then Paul lipping out on 18. But I guess that's team match-play golf and it was exciting, at least I think it was.

MIKE WOODCOCK: And Gavin, from your point of view, a great win, 4 & 2 today. After your experience in the last month, you must be pleased to get off to a good start today?

GAVIN MOYNIHAN: Yeah, this morning myself and Jack played great. We struck the ball really well. Jack had a lot of lipouts. We could have won the match a lot earlier, but great to get the win there.

And then myself, I played great this afternoon. Again, the first hole, apart from that, played great.

Obviously great to get a lead into tomorrow, and there's 14 points still tomorrow, so it's not even near over. So just staying again, same in foursomes, get at it tomorrow morning and kick on from there, so, yeah, can't wait for tomorrow to perform.

MIKE WOODCOCK: Ewen, were you raring to go this afternoon to get out in your singles match?

EWEN FERGUSON: Yeah, couldn't wait to get going. I went out to watch this morning and it was electrifying and I just couldn't wait to get out. Then it was just a great atmosphere. It was awesome.

Q. Nigel, you had led a couple years ago in America in the morning and it went bad this afternoon. When you were down in five matches, were you worried history would repeat itself, because your lads really fought back well, didn't they.
NIGEL EDWARDS: I didn't think of that at all to be honest. I've got a lot of faith in the lads. They play a lot of match-play golf, and they have done well around this golf course. There's a lot of ebbs and flows, but a lot of matches were early. But I suppose when Ashley was finishing and then pulled down the finish, those two matches, I felt we may have lost a point that we could have otherwise just nicked.

So I was not concerned, but you'd like to win them all I suppose and make things comfortable. But yeah, I didn't really look at it as we were down in five. There's lots of blue on the board. There's lots of all-square, so there's a lot of nip and tuck.

And around this golf course the last four holes, gosh, anything can happen. I don't know how many twos were made on 16, but there were certainly a couple of twos made on 16, a par 4, and then some fantastic shots on 17 and 18. These are tough golf holes.

Q. At the beginning of the day, would you have taken seven ties at the end of it?
NIGEL EDWARDS: Yeah, absolutely. You'd take seven ties. Also have taken 12-nil. But any lead is good, yeah. (Laughter).

Q. Just a question on the pairs, in the last couple of hours, you were up in six and you started to get a little bit excited, or have you been around too much to allow yourself to get ahead of yourself?
NIGEL EDWARDS: No, you've got to get over the line. As I said, the last four holes, it's an extreme test the last four holes. Especially in the wind; 15 and 17 straight into that wind, there's so many bunkers out there that anything can happen.

So I wasn't getting carried away at all. Like I said, there were lots of matches that were 1-up, 1-down. And we had lost the lead in a couple. Gary had come back in, I think he was 3- or 4-down maybe early doors and then got to 1-up and went back to 1-down. I suppose you try to exude an air of calm because until the match is won, it's not won.

Q. Just a word about young Ewen, world No. 2, wasn't even in the original team.
NIGEL EDWARDS: Yeah, I was thinking to myself, leave him alone, because I probably disappointed him myself not picking him originally. He's a great player, British Boys' Champion, GB&I Boys Captain, won twice in Scotland, a host of performances. So I was willing him to win this afternoon, and over the moon when he holed that putt on 18, fairly deserved. And I'm sorry I didn't pick him originally.

Q. Just maybe be able to talk about the two things, obviously coming in late into the team, how you felt obviously about that, but also your emotions just coming down the 18th there.
EWEN FERGUSON: Well, not being on the team at the start, I was upset obviously. But I knew I wasn't a dead set for the team, and Great Britain, Ireland there's so many good players. And fortunately I had the win today.

But that's just the way it is, really. Being first reserve, I wasn't actually too distraught about that. I was actually thinking the positives, thinking what's best for Great Britain and Ireland. And then to be drafted in, getting the call up to say I was on the team from Nigel, then just couldn't wait to get on the course, and I think that showed today.

Q. And just coming down the last, having the putt for the win, what was going through your mind at that point?
EWEN FERGUSON: Don't miss. The first putt, obviously I knew I had two putts for it. And I just went through all my same stuff that I've done over every other putt and then I didn't think it was that hard. And then all of a sudden, it just missed, and I was like, "Oohhhh."

The second putt, I just thought, straight in, just put a stroke on it, exactly the way you practise, and paid off.

Q. Now that this has been brought up, why didn't you pick him? (Laughter).
NIGEL EDWARDS: I chose somebody else, yeah. Gosh, you could go through any myriad of reasons as to why. He's done great this afternoon and won.

EWEN FERGUSON: This year, towards the end of the year, my match-play record wasn't great. I knew that.

Q. (Inaudible.)
NIGEL EDWARDS: (Laughter). You've got to make some tough decisions sometimes and you don't always make the right decisions. If we did that, then it would be a very rosy world, wouldn't it, which everything would be paved with gold I suppose.

Q. What happened in singles this afternoon, does that change in any way what your foursomes pairings are for tomorrow?
NIGEL EDWARDS: I haven't handed the order in yet. Does it change? Probably not, no. But I think that it's only been five minutes obviously, just walked straight off 18 green.

I've got a decision to make as we walk from here afterwards, and I want to speak to the players in a quiet moment and make a decision then, and then choose obviously ten singles matches. I've got to hand them in at the same time.

Q. Being 3-1 this morning, did it make it hard to break anybody up?
NIGEL EDWARDS: I suppose it does, especially with Gary and Paul. Their record now I think is 8 1/2 from 10 matches, something like that, in the last two years. That's a pretty impressive record.

But, as I say, I need to think about it. Paul and Gary have done well today, just not quite getting the points. Perhaps they want it or we want it -- I'll have a think about it.

Q. Momentum changes, America are quite happy with being 7-5 down and they may feel they got a way with what was a momentum day for Britain and Ireland. Can you do anything to guard your team against the psychology of the fact that they are actually quite happy and they will eventually gain probably some momentum with the quality they have?
NIGEL EDWARDS: We'll carry on doing what we're doing and look after ourselves. We won't worry about anyone else. If we do, if we play as well in the foursomes tomorrow morning as we have done this morning, then the lads will do just fine.

Likewise, the singles will be nip and tuck. This is a tough golf course, I've already said. But I think we'll be okay.

Q. Inaudible.
NIGEL EDWARDS: It was interesting, I got to the 11th tee and actually said, that's nice, playing out into the wind and then back into the wind. The lads are used to doing it.

So all they had to do was make sure they were aware of where the wind was coming from, because it was -- even though I was just thinking on the 12th tee when Ashley was playing there this afternoon, he felt it was slightly down, and it was actually into, because we get in that corner, we moved the 12th tee to the shorter left tee.

When Ashley played, it was slightly into, obviously off the left, but slightly into. And that was a very different shot to what they had in the morning, probably 7-irons this afternoon, and maybe 4- or 5-irons this morning.

Q. What is your understanding of the weather tomorrow morning?
NIGEL EDWARDS: It was okay when I last saw it. I say okay -- it's pretty similar. I think it's a little bit better than today but the forecast for today wasn't particularly great. So when we got up and were able to practise and it was dry, it was really good.

You want it to be a spectacle, not an endurance test, because the Walker Cup is something very special and you want the players to enjoy it. You want the people to come out and support it as they have done. The crowds were fantastic and the course looked great as we were coming in I was thinking. Yeah, it makes everybody I guess a bit more excited and keen to get out there.

Q. Do you have a slight edge in stinking weather?
NIGEL EDWARDS: Well, I think -- does anyone have the edge in stinking weather? I'm not sure, because it can be so bad -- I think today was a really good test and probably favoured us a touch because the boys are so used to playing in these conditions.

MIKE WOODCOCK: Nigel, Gavin, Ewen, thanks for joining us today. Well played today and good luck tomorrow.

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