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SOLHEIM CUP

September 18, 2015

Juli Inkster

St. Leon-Rot, Germany

MODERATOR: I want to welcome in the United States captain, Juli Inkster, after a long day that included a little bit of rain, some cold weather and now darkness with two matches still on the course.

Let's start with the most recent developments. First off, resumption of play at 7:45 tomorrow. 8:15 your pairings are due, not that I'm telling you anything, you already know this, for the morning foursomes, and then 9:15 first tee, to begin those matches.

Boy, kind of a crazy turn of events at the end. Your thoughts?

JULI INKSTER: Yeah, yeah, very crazy. Well, we got smoked the first two matches. And we're looking pretty good in that third match, and then Melissa makes a good putt on 16 and we miss ours. And then Carlota holes it out on 17.

Yeah, that's the beauty of match play. It's the beauty of golf. Good thing is we've got one more hole to play and then we have three more holes with that other one. We're going to have to do a little rallying tomorrow morning early.

Q. Paula and Morgan were in here, they had a great start. I want to go back to the beginning of the day and work our way. But Paula and Morgan, you delivered a message by sending Paula out there right out of the chute with Morgan Pressel. And boy, did they ever deliver in the morning?
JULI INKSTER: Yeah, they played great in the morning. I really wasn't planning on playing them in the afternoon, but they did so well together that I decided to send them out in the afternoon again.

You know, Anna Nordqvist played unbelievable. It was fun to watch how well she played. Kind of that was my feelings.

MODERATOR: Confidence in Paula from the get-go.

JULI INKSTER: Oh, yeah, I have confidence in all 12 of my players.

MODERATOR: Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson, very impressive. They played great together at the International Crown and carried it over. So you get a morning split and how did you feel about that whole thing this morning?

JULI INKSTER: I felt pretty good about the morning split. I just -- I still thought some of our girls played a little tight. And I'd like to see them loosen up a little bit. I'll talk to them about that tonight. But foursomes has always been tough for us. To come away with a split is pretty good.

MODERATOR: Can you explain tight?

JULI INKSTER: I just thought we were a little tentative on putting, the speed of their putts weren't great. I just think we can do a little bit better job on the greens.

MODERATOR: Cristie and Lexi provided some quotes out there. You come in here, and it's not that they were off to the races, just your thoughts on giving -- -

JULI INKSTER: Well, I mean, it's 8:00, and the match isn't over. Cristie has got to get treatment. She's got to eat dinner. It's a quick turnaround. She gave some quotes to Kelly. I didn't have any problems with that.

Q. Can you talk about how the delays might have helped your team with kind of stopping their momentum, the rain delay earlier and halting play with darkness and maybe what you said, if anything, during the delay to your team?
JULI INKSTER: I didn't say anything to my team during the delay. And it really didn't help us. We were down two big -- in two matches already. We kind of held our own. I don't think it helped us at all.

Darkness is -- that third match is a big match, it's a big point. If my team doesn't feel comfortable about playing, let's stop it and we'll play it in the morning. And then the Europeans, on the other side, didn't want to play. So we -- that was fine with us, too. I don't think any of the delays have really helped. We'll see how it helps in the morning.

Q. Michelle and Stacy, he had some problems with putting in the morning, you were resting them in the afternoon. I saw them on the putting green working hard on their putting, was there anything you told them about that to get it going?
JULI INKSTER: No, I didn't tell them. They know how to practice. It it's just kind of the way it worked out that I was going to rest them this afternoon, anyway. It didn't have anything to do with their wins or losses. It was just kind of what I had scheduled.

MODERATOR: You hear so much about it all comes down to putts. At the end of the day isn't it giving yourself the right look at the putts? The iron shots don't get talked about as being enough. Where is that in your mind?

JULI INKSTER: Well, I thought Michelle missed a lot of short wedge shots today, instead of having a 10-footer, she had a 20-footer. They actually did play the course up a little bit. They had a lot of wedges to the greens. We just couldn't make a lot of birdies.

The Europeans made a ton of birdies. In best ball you've got to make birdies, pars aren't going to win. We need to free those putters up little bit. Everybody is kind of pressing a little bit on their putting. It's like once you see one fall, they'll start falling. But it's kind of hard, we just never saw one fall early, especially Angela and Alison. I thought they played good. And they just could not get a putt to drop. It's kind of frustrating.

MODERATOR: Stacy Lewis came in here earlier in the week. She was excited to be a leader and I'm not singling out Stacy, but if you look at a player like her, who expects a lot from her, and I'm sure you do, how do you turn that around as a captain?

JULI INKSTER: I'm not worried about Stacy, she'll come out tomorrow and whoever she's playing with. I thought she played pretty good today, they just were off on their alternate shot putting. And you just can't do that. You can't three-putt and give them a hole. It's giving the match away.

MODERATOR: You have said from the very get-go, you're not a big speech person. By the way, you gave a great speech -- you're not a big rah rah person. Do you feel the need to do that this evening?

JULI INKSTER: No, I'll tell them what I saw out there, I'll be honest with them. But I know, because I've played in many, many of these things, it's not easy. And it's just not easy to say, okay, let's make putts today. You've just got to see the ball go in the hole. And hopefully tomorrow we'll turn things around and get some momentum.

MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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