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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 9, 2015

Songdo IBD, Incheon City, Korea

CHRIS REIMER: Welcome to the draw for round three of The Presidents Cup 2015.

At this time, I'll turn it over to Steve Carman, vice president of rules and competitions for the PGA TOUR.

STEVE CARMAN: Good afternoon. Draw for the third round, which the format will be foursome. First tee time will be 7:05. International Team has the first selection for Match 11.

NICK PRICE: Okay. For the first match, we select Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.

STEVE CARMAN: International Team selections, Mr. Oosthuizen and Mr. Grace.

U.S. Team selection?

JAY HAAS: Match No. 11, the U.S. will post Patrick Reed and Rickie Fowler.

STEVE CARMAN: U.S. selections, Mr. Reed and Mr. Fowler.

U.S. Team selects first in Match 12.

JAY HAAS: Match No. 12, U.S. will post Bubba Watson and J.B. Holmes.

STEVE CARMAN: U.S. selections, Mr. Watson and Mr. Holmes.

International selection?

NICK PRICE: For Match 12, we select Adam Scott and Marc Leishman.

STEVE CARMAN: International selection, Mr. Scott and Mr. Leishman.

Match 13 for selection is the International Team.

NICK PRICE: For Match 13, we select Sangmoon Bae and Hideki Matsuyama.

STEVE CARMAN: International selections, Mr. Bae and Mr. Matsuyama.

U.S. selection?

JAY HAAS: In Match No. 13, the U.S. posts Bill Haas and Matt Kuchar.

STEVE CARMAN: U.S. selections, Mr. Haas and Mr. Kuchar.

Match 14, U.S. Team selects first.

JAY HAAS: Match 14, U.S. will pair Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth.

STEVE CARMAN: U.S. selections, Dustin Johnson and Mr. Spieth.

International selection?

NICK PRICE: We select Jason Day and Charl Schwartzel.

STEVE CARMAN: International selections, Mr. Day and Mr. Schwartzel.

That completes the draw process for the third round.

International Team won more points in session two, so they will have the honor for session three. First tee time again is 7:05 tomorrow morning, and second session in the afternoon, 11:35.

Thank you, gentlemen.

CHRIS REIMER: We'll begin, if we could, with the International Team, Captain Price.

Could we have some comments about today's matches, and also looking forward to tomorrow with the pairings that were just made.

NICK PRICE: Well, obviously it was a really good day for us. I think the speech, the talk that we had last night in our team room helped an awful lot. Calmed the guys down.

I think we had some great pairings today. Louis and Branden leading off, the way that they played was incredible. I must admit, that putt that Sangmoon made on No. 18 today, was probably the highlight of the last two days for us. They struggled a little bit today, and Danny obviously has been trying so hard; I think he's strung out. But it's a good day for us.

You know, the guys played well together. They gelled together. And the matches could have gone any -- either way; there were so many close ones. But I'm really proud of the way my team played today.

CHRIS REIMER: Captain Haas, if you could talk about today and looking forward to tomorrow.

JAY HAAS: Yeah, obviously we're not as pleased with our day today as we were yesterday. We had some great match-ups out there, and the guys felt comfortable with who they were out with. Just the nature of the game. Some days are better than others.

I don't think the guys are discouraged. There were some hard-fought matches, and other than Jordan and Dustin getting beat 4 & 3, the matches were right down to the wire.

It's a putt here, a putt there; things could have been differently, ended differently. But you know, still a little bit ahead, and looking forward, it's obviously a very important day tomorrow. I think the guys realize that and they will come out ready to go.

Q. Question for each of the captains. Nick, you mentioned yesterday, hypothetically, that if you had another session 4-1 and it's 8-2, it could get away from you. Going into today, were you at all nervous, just based on the idea that if they had another session like they did on Thursday.
NICK PRICE: I wouldn't say I was nervous, but I think that you can't predict; you can't look into the future obviously.

But I had to take care of business last night, and what I saw on the golf course happen yesterday, I had to address with the team members last night, which I did.

And I think the nerves, the newness, for lack of a word, for a lot of the guys coming into this competition, it doesn't matter how much you can tell guys what it's like. Unless they have experienced it firsthand, it's very difficult. And I think we even saw today, Danny Lee, who is so into this week, he's so -- he's strung out. The guy is, he's trying so hard.

The only thing that I had control of last night was to go to those guys and say, relax, try and play golf, and just go out there and do what you did so well throughout the year to get you to this situation.

Like I said to you last night, the difference between Tuesday in the practice round, the mood and the sort of the lightheartedness was not there yesterday. Obviously you don't want guys to be too lax about the thing, but they have got to relax.

Today was a big turnaround, and I think all the youngsters on the team learnt an awful lot today.

Q. And Jay, could you recount the conversation that you had with Phil when he first double-checked with you that it was okay to hit a different ball; your reaction to that; and if you were satisfied with the outcome, even though there were mistakes.
JAY HAAS: We were -- I picked up that group on No. 7, and I just said to Phil, "That was a nice drive."

And I don't know, we got talking about balls or something. And he said, "There's no one-ball rule today, right?"

And I said, "I'm not sure about that. I don't -- I can't answer that." But the official was walking right behind us.

And so we asked him, and the official said, no, there is a one-ball rule. He checked with a couple of the rules committee on the radio, and they said, yes, that Phil was disqualified from that hole, and that he could pick up his ball. And so he did.

And then I watched the end of the hole and saw that Jason made birdie and they won the hole.

So there was a pretty good hold-up on No. 8 and I got up there and realized they were talking about the rules and there was a match adjustment, I think is the term.

But there was also a little bit of a confusion that Phil, in fact, did not have to pick up his ball. He could have played out the hole, but it was too late at that time. So just one of those things.

You know, there was talk going around, and I was asked to come in to Mark Russell and talk to him, and then Nick came, also, and we talked. You know, I didn't have a problem with it. Phil made a mistake. It's just unfortunate that they didn't immediately say that he could have played out the hole.

But that happens. Phil made a huge mental error, and then they compounded it a little bit. But if he hadn't of been speeding, he wouldn't have got a ticket. So I don't have a problem with it.

Q. Have you ever heard of a match adjustment?
JAY HAAS: I don't think so, but I understand it. It was explained to me. If you learn of an infraction later on in the round, it can be adjusted; instead of in stroke play, you get a two-stroke penalty before you sign your card and all that. In match play it's a one-hole penalty.

I think Zach was confused since he didn't play the hole, he was disqualified from the hole and that he could play out the hole. And I guess that kind of makes sense, in a way. That person would remove himself from that hole, and that would be the penalty. But it's team lost the hole.

Q. Branden was just in here talking about your talk to the team last night. Can you kind of give us the bullet points? It sounds like it was a very effective speech.
NICK PRICE: You know, I didn't feel like it was any different to any of the other speeches or any of the other talks that we had had to be honest.

I think that just as a captain, watching yesterday, it was like a different team out there that I had on Tuesday. And so I tried to say to them, you know, you guys had this buzz going on Tuesday, and it wasn't there today, or yesterday, should I say.

I just tried to calm the guys' nerves. Just tell them, hey, you all played very well all year to get to this situation, and just go back to playing golf.

I know I keep repeating myself, but there's not much more that you can say to those guys to instill confidence in them. You know, I don't criticize them. I didn't say anything. It was just an observation yesterday. They just responded so well today.

You know, I wish I could take more credit, but those guys went out and did it today, they really did. That's the team spirit that we have. That comes from the experienced guys on the team, as well, because they have also spoken to the guys, the younger guys, and the rookies.

So you know, you can't actually single out one thing. It's a whole lot of little things that factor into it.

Q. Two things for Jay. First of all, just how big the point was that Bubba and J.B. got to at least restore a lead going into tomorrow; how important that might be psychologically.
JAY HAAS: Oh, I think definitely, definitely important. That holding on, winning on the last hole, was big. They hung in there. J.B. made a great up-and-down at 15 for birdie. Had a great opportunity, a good look to win the match on 17.

I think Bubba played well early and then J.B. played well late. They are, you know, 2-0. I guess that they can be pretty intimidating, at least it would be to me the way I hit it. Yeah, it was pretty big, yeah, to get it to 5 1/2 - 4 1/2.

Q. Going the other way, sometimes momentum kind of runs away from guys. Between Jimmy, Rickie, Jordan and Dustin, they didn't make a birdie on the back nine today. I know it's just golf, but what do you say to that?
JAY HAAS: Oh, not much. I know all these guys are trying their hearts out, and that course was tough today. The greens, I get up to the greens and watch the ball; it's hitting and skipping. It's hard to get the right distance. A little bit of breeze made it difficult. They are trying their hearts out.

You know, Jordan said, look, Dustin and I usually make five birdies a round and we made two. So they are due, I guess you would say. They certainly don't feel like they have lost anything. They haven't lost their games or whatever. I feel confident that they will play well in the morning.

CHRIS REIMER: Thank you, gentlemen, good luck tomorrow.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 9, 2015

Nick Price

Jay Haas