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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 7, 2015

Steven Bowditch

Songdo IBD, Incheon City, Korea

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Q. Possibly being paired with Jason, is this something you guys think about or talked about for a while?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Not necessarily. We had a conversation late Saturday or Sunday at East Lake, just a great conversation. Didn't really -- we weren't really planning on it, put it that way. But yeah, obviously excited to get out there with him. He's had an unbelievable last two or three months, and it would be great to be out there with him.

The way he's playing right now, it's going to be nice.

Q. Did you know each other growing up?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: A little bit, yeah. We went to the same school. I think he's maybe three or four years, four or five years maybe younger than me.

Q. Kooralbyn?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, The Kooralbyn, same as Adam Scott, too. Yeah, I mean, Colin was there when I was there. Colin was there for the last year when I was in my last year. So I played a fair bit with Colin and Jason, as well -- haven't played a great deal with him but enough practice rounds.

Q. What have you found about how your games match up the last couple days?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Our games will match up -- yeah, I think sort of the -- I'll probably say the short game is probably about where our similarities are. Obviously he's driving it unbelievable right now. I think that's what's making him so dominant right now. He's hitting it so far and so straight.

Apart from that, I think we just play similar styles of golf. Obviously he's a lot better than me but we play similar styles. We are pretty aggressive natured in what we're doing and not worried about short-siding ourselves and use our short game to get us out of trouble a little bit.

Miss a few more greens, but hit it close on some of those tight pins -- it's a pretty similar game. If we are on, we can really get going with some birdies.

Q. Did you guys work on any strategy?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, we've got a strategy. We sat down yesterday and had a good talk, just me, him and our caddie, Colin and Neil, and we just worked out what we thought is going to be the best for our game to shoot the lowest score possible.

Q. Did you work with Colin?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Not much. He was a coach out there. I was out there and he was the golf coach. We did -- I guess he was my coach out there, so to speak, when we were at school. But he also looked after 50 or 60 other kids, as well.

Q. Does it ever strike you as odd that you have three guys on the same International Team that went to school there, different periods?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Not really, no, not when you saw the program. The program is pretty unbelievable program. It was a boarding school, and Monday and Friday were stock school days, 8:00 to 3:00, whatever, and then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it would be 8:00 to 12:00, and then all afternoon, basically golf, that was it, and all weekend.

And it wasn't just predominately golf: It was track and field; it was cricket; rugby. So you had your specialty sports at that golf school, and whichever one you did those, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, was just dedicated to that and then the weekends.

Q. As far as strategy goes, the way you're driving the ball, who will tee off on what hole and why?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: I don't know, probably keep that close to my chest right now. But it's just that we're both putting pretty good at the moment, and so we're just sort of working out who is going to have the best putts at it.

You know, that's really where we're at. I think these greens are a little tricky, a little undulating. I think it's going to be a little more emphasis on hitting it close this week rather than making a 25-, 30-footer. There's a lot of subtleties in these greens.

So it's a little bit more about hitting it in there closer and making those ten- to 15-footers, rather than the 20, 25s. You can play a lot more aggressive out there.

Q. Do you feel like a rookie on this team?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Absolutely. I'm a rookie.

Q. But you have an established career and you've won on the PGA TOUR, but do you still feel like a rookie?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, it's my first time here so I'm still a little unsure of what to expect when we get on that first tee tomorrow. It's not really -- to be honest, it's not about the first tee that I'm a bit unsure of. It's more the middle of the round that I'm more unsure of, whether it's going to be all the way through or just something that I've got to learn, learn on the fly, and like anything, you just learn pretty quick and learn to adapt.

Q. What's the week like so far? We talked earlier in the week -- what's the past few weeks been like for you?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Good. Just concentrating on the playoffs and then had my chance to get in here, not needing Nick to pick me. I didn't take advantage of that. I had my chances there the last few weeks leading into Barclays and didn't take them.

So there was a few nervous moments there for awhile. But yeah, just happy to be here and ready to go out and perform.

Q. Are you getting to know some of these guys better?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, you know what, to be honest, most of us already know each other. I grew up with Charl, Charl and Louis, playing international golf together. Leish and I are the same age. We've all really not had to get to know anyone to be honest. We all sort of know each other pretty well.

Q. Marc Leishman mentioned earlier, this is his second Presidents Cup, and comparing what it was like as a rookie. He said that he remembers sitting in the grandstands in '98, and it's quite amazing to think that now he's playing in two of them. Do you have any sort of similar situation?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: I was there, too.

Q. With him?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, I was right there. I was in Sydney with Leishman, I went up and watched them. I just remember the intensity and everyone just getting so into it and it's just such a team atmosphere.

At the time I didn't realize what it meant because I was still playing team sports in junior golf and other sports that I was playing. And now, sort of grow out of that, and it's been 18 years ago now, 17 years ago. It's nice to be back in this team environment that I just haven't had a lot of. I remember all the atmosphere, guys that are not playing, they are so into it all the time. So it would be great.

Q. Is it sort of a pinch-yourself moment, given that you're a kid sitting in the grandstands, and now you're playing in it?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, sort of.

Q. Did you anticipate that you might?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: To be honest, no. It wasn't something that I always thought, yeah, that would be unbelievable to play. I just didn't think it was anywhere in my grasp to get to this level. I've never been someone that thought that I could get to this level.

I guess belief or whatever you want to call it, it's just been a steady, slow road and just keep chipping away, and you know, all of a sudden, these last sort of two months, it's really come up and come on board and just glad I could perform in these last couple months to be able to get here.

Q. What kind of shots do you remember seeing in '98?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Long time ago now. The biggest thing I remember is -- we have photos running around our room right now, and just the pure excitement that all the guys have, knowing that you're not playing for yourself anymore.

You're playing for your country, the International Team. You can just see the passion in their eyes and the enjoyment of what happened. We see it basically every second year with the Americans, and this year, we want to have that feeling.

Q. How much have the captains shown you highlights from that year?
STEVEN BOWDITCH: Yeah, there's been a few things around.

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