UBS CUP

November 20, 2004

Jay Haas

Mark McNulty

Arnold Palmer

Gary Player

ARNOLD PALMER: I need an assistant.

GARY PLAYER: It took you two days to realize you need one. (Laughter.)

JIM KELLY: Good afternoon, everybody, and for the second time in three years, the United States Team will have a 6 1/2 to 5 1/2 lead over Rest of the World going into the Sunday single matches.

Just to go back a little bit in history, the golf course named Cassique was named after an Indian chief -- this is true -- that actually led the first English settlers to what was now Charleston. So the question is: Which captain will lead his team in the singles matches in year four of the UBS Cup.

To explain the Sunday singles, as you can see on the board, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Player, the two captains have already been determined in Match No. 1. The winning captain has the option of selecting first or passing, just like in the football to kick off or to receive. So if you'll just toss it, catch it, do it like that, and then Gary, you'll call it. (Coin tossed.)

GARY PLAYER: Heads.

JIM KELLY: Gary calls heads. It is tails.

So Arnie, you win the toss. So you can make Gary pick first or you can pick first in Match 2.

ARNOLD PALMER: Go ahead, Gary.

GARY PLAYER: You've done this before. (Tapping pencil.) I'll put Barry Lane.

JIM KELLY: Barry Lane, Match No. 2 at 9:10. Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: I'm going to put Jay Haas.

JIM KELLY: Jay Haas, Barry Lane, Match 2 at 9:10.

So Arnold is first in Match 3.

ARNOLD PALMER: Okay. Stadler.

JIM KELLY: Craig Stadler at 9:20. Gary?

GARY PLAYER: Woosnam.

JIM KELLY: Ian Woosnam and Craig Stadler at 9:20 in Match No. 3.

Gary, you pick for the fourth Match.

GARY PLAYER: Rodger Davis.

JIM KELLY: Rodger Davis at 9:30. Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: Tom Kite.

JIM KELLY: Tom Kite against Rodger Davis at 9:30, Match No. 4. Match No. 5, Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: Curtis Strange.

JIM KELLY: Curtis Strange at 9:40.

GARY PLAYER: Sam Torrance.

JIM KELLY: Match No. 5, Strange and Torrance at 9:40.

Gary, your turn for Match 6.

GARY PLAYER: Senior, Peter Senior.

JIM KELLY: Peter Senior at 9:50. Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: Okay. Funk.

JIM KELLY: Fred Funk in Match 7 against Peter Senior.

Arnold, you pick first in Match 7.

ARNOLD PALMER: Floyd.

JIM KELLY: Raymond Floyd at 10:05. Gary?

GARY PLAYER: McNulty.

JIM KELLY: Mark McNulty, Raymond Floyd, Match No. 7.

Gary, you're first in Match 8.

GARY PLAYER: Sandy Lyle.

JIM KELLY: Sandy Lyle at 10:15 in Match No. 8. Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: Okay. Watson.

JIM KELLY: Sandy Lyle, Tom Watson in Match No. 8, 10:15. A couple of former Masters champs there.

Arnold, you're first in Match 9.

ARNOLD PALMER: Scott Hoch.

JIM KELLY: Scott Hoch, Match No. 9. 10:30. Gary?

GARY PLAYER: Carl Mason.

JIM KELLY: Scott Hoch, Carl Mason, Match No. 9. Gary, Match No. 10.

GARY PLAYER: Chillas.

JIM KELLY: John Chillas for Rest of the World at 10:45. Arnold?

ARNOLD PALMER: That will be Hale Irwin.

JIM KELLY: Hale Irwin, John Chillas in Match No. 10. Arnold, you tee it up for the 11th Match.

ARNOLD PALMER: Fred Couples.

JIM KELLY: Freddie Couples at 10:45.

GARY PLAYER: Against Montgomerie.

JIM FURYK: Colin Montgomerie against Freddie Couples, Match 11, 10:45.

GARY PLAYER: So the last Match is Sutton and Langer.

JIM KELLY: Hat Sutton and Bernhard Langer in Match No. 12.

Q. Did you guys sort that out by any chance?

GARY PLAYER: Both Ryder Cup Captains and that works out very good.

JIM KELLY: Arnold has a look of innocence all about him.

To go back to Arnold and Gary and Mark and Jay, just for the last 36 holes, you guys have halved each of the first two days, and in your matches going, seesawing back and forth, neither team has ever been ahead by a margin greater than 1-up. You've had 36 terrific holes of golf. Congratulations to all four of you.

Comments on your match today, again after stellar play by all four.

ARNOLD PALMER: Well, my comments are that I didn't play very well, but the other three did. And that's a matter of fact.

Jay played some exceptional golf. Didn't do all the putting that he usually does, which probably had something to do with the closeness of the matches. But Mark played very well. And again, maybe he didn't putt as well as he has putted at times, and Gary putted good every hole. He always makes his putts all the time.

JAY HAAS: I think Arnold is right, though. We made some early putts and then it just kind of dried up. Both teams I think could have gotten a pretty good lead on the front nine. We had numerous putts in the 10-, 12-, 15-foot range and no one seemed to -- we fed off each other in the wrong way today I think, in a negative sense on the greens. We were pretty fortunate, both Gary and Mark had very makeable putts at the last hole, and they just slid on by us. So, you know, a halve, after doing that for 36 holes, and being the one watching the guy putting on 18, we're kind of glad for a halve.

JIM KELLY: Commenting about feeding off of one another, Freddie and Raymond were just here, too, and you used that phrase again. Obviously, Mark and Gary fed off of each other, as have Arnold and Jay. Does it change now on Sunday because you're out there all alone? Is there a different kind of pressure? Is there a different strategy because of the singles, and you're not able to feed off a partner?

GARY PLAYER: I think everybody -- you know, one of the fellows said to me, one of the press, they said, was it the pressure here that they have at the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup. I said, but any one of these matches, every one of these guys wants to win. It's just a natural thing as if we've played all of our lives competing against each other and we want to win. We want to try to get our team to win.

Yes, there is pressure when you play a singles more so than when you have a partner. If you have a partner, it relieves you of a lot of pressure on many occasions. But we're used to it. I suppose we've played with pressure for a long time, and these matches look, I think, very exciting for tomorrow.

JIM KELLY: Any questions, ladies and gentlemen.

Q. Mark, would you explain what happened on the ninth hole? Some of us saw that and wondered.

MARK McNULTY: Basically what happened, I've been playing -- we were both playing Callaways, and I've been playing a No. 1 all the way through until I hit a sand wedge at No. 8 and it got scuffed up badly. I said to my caddie, "Give me a new ball." By then I had used up the three that I normally set aside, that you think you're going to use. I normally use three balls, for three holes per ball and he handed me a new ball. I didn't pay much attention, it was a 4, what Gary was playing. We mark our ball differently.

When we got down to the balls, there was one ball six yards ahead of the other, and seeing that Gary had been slightly behind me most of the day, I presumed that the ball ahead was mine. I looked at the back ball and it was a No. 4 and I just said, he didn't outdrive it and that was that. He went ahead and hit a fantastic shot. And it was my call, and it was only when I got to the green that I realized that it was the wrong ball.

GARY PLAYER: I just hit my best iron shot of the day. I said, you'd better talk to my lawyer. (Laughter.)

JIM KELLY: For Mark and for Jay, Mark, obviously you grew up idolizing Gary as so many people from your part of the world did, and Jay, Wake Forest. And for each of you, maybe if you could put into a paragraph or two, for us, what it's like to be able to sit alongside these two tremendous Hall of Famers and legends of the game and be able to compete with them now as friends and as peers, having grown up and idolized each man.

MARK McNULTY: For a start, I think they both, more than Hall of Famers. Arnie, we all know it, is responsible for where the game is today. But I think Jay will agree with me that when you're a kid, you're 5 6, 7 years old, you're thinking putting and thinking, "I'm Arnold Palmer here holing a 6-footer to win the Masters." 40 years down the line or 50 years down the line, you're suddenly in a position of being able to play a match like today with them against them. I think it's something which I think every boy, childhood boy dreams about, and it's fantastic to be able to have a dream that's fulfilled.

JAY HAAS: I used to play a foursome match in my backyard with the whiffle ball, and I played Gary and Arnold and Jack, and I won every single time in the backyard. (Laughter.) I announced my own matches and everything.

But like Mark says, to play with these gentlemen, they are more than just great golfers. They are what the players of today want to be like, want to emulate. There's so many adjectives, sportsmen, gentlemen, teachers. They are, again what we all want to grow up and be like. To see this firsthand, to see the competitiveness that these guys still have on the golf course is why they are the champions that they are. With Gary, they always said, he'd rather be finish first next to his wife. Head-to-head, you know, it's just something that's in our personality that you want to win every match. Like Gary said, you see the pairings here, it just adds to the competitiveness. It's another feature that we all want to emulate.

JIM KELLY: That might be a perfect answer to wish Mark and Jay and Gary and Arnold the best of luck tomorrow in the singles as the U.S. takes that 6 1/2, 5 1/2 lead over the Rest of the World. Thank you, gentlemen, and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.