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THE PRESIDENTS CUP


October 11, 2015


Sangmoon Bae

K.J. Choi

Branden Grace

Nick Price

Adam Scott


Songdo IBD, Incheon City, Korea

MARK WILLIAMS: We'd like to welcome the International Team, put up a great fight in this competition. I'll just turn it over to Captain Price to make some comments to start with, and then we'll have some translation and then we'll have questions.

NICK PRICE: Well, first off, I can't tell you what an honor and a privilege it has been for me to have led these 12 players and three co-captains, assistant captain and co-captains this last week.

This has been a very special week in my life. We as a team collectively congratulate the United States Team, Jay Haas and his team. The quality of golf this last four days was phenomenal. For those of us who were inside the ropes and watching and have played this game for many years, it was just incredible to watch. The amount of birdies, I don't know how many birdies were made and I don't know how many putts were made and I don't know how many eagles were made; but for it to come down to just a couple of shots at the end of the day on Sunday make for incredible theatre.

I don't want any of you to be negative in any way toward Anirban and to Moon. The truth of it is, is that if we got off to a better start on Thursday and we had not been 4-1 down, it might not have been quite as exciting today. But we had five rounds of golf, and so we all feel for Anirban and for Moon for what happened. But they are part of our team, and we will leave here as a team.

I want to thank K.J. Choi, my assistant captain, and the people of Korea, and Roy Ryu, more importantly, and the people of Korea, for making us feel so welcome this week. This has been an incredible week, and I hope that we all get to come back one day. Thank you.

Q. You didn't get what you wanted, which is to win the Cup. But did you get sort of a moral victory in a sense in that you wanted this to be close and it came down to the last hole of the last match?
NICK PRICE: Well, I don't think you should look at me. I think you should look at the whole team. These are the guys that put all the effort in. These are the guys that really bonded together, not only this week, but in the last six, eight months, to air to the Commissioner what we felt this event should be, and I think we have proved our point.

People say I drove it; maybe I spearheaded it, but the support that these guys, and what they all felt about this competition, this has certainly been a huge step in the right direction.

And I think if you look back at The Ryder Cup back in, I think it was 1983 when Europe lost by a point, Seve was in the locker room, and all the European players were down in the dumps and they were very depressed that they had lost. And he looked look at them all and said, "No, no, no, no, no, don't be depressed. This is like a victory for us. We only need one more point."

I think all these guys feel the same way. They are probably looking forward to the next one as much as anything.

Q. Could you just talk about your week, big win today, a hard loss for the team but you have to be happy with what you did.
BRANDEN GRACE: It was fun. Coming and getting five points for the team is pretty big. But it's not just one or two guys; the whole team lost, and we all feel just as bad as maybe Sangmoon or Anirban. Just one of those. But it was a great feeling to feel the way I did, knowing that I made some points for the team. My last Presidents Cup, I was 0-4, so this was a pretty big step up in the right direction.

It just shows that all of the hard work that Pricey and the team behind, changing the points systems and the players, this is what it should be like. Things are close, and it all came down to the last thing and that's what everybody hopes, just to make it interesting.

Q. Adam, if you follow Nick's logic, can you say that since you've played in a lot of these, does this feel different to you, even though you lost, than the other ones did? And secondly, are you feeling that this is actually a building block for something that can happen positively going down the road?
ADAM SCOTT: What's the first question, Alex? (Laughter).

Q. Do you feel any differently in this loss than the other losses?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I do. I think we all sit up here and we haven't won, but we feel maybe a little bit like Seve felt talking to that European Team; that we are much closer.

There's no doubt this team was much more invested in this event than any team I've ever been on before, and that's thanks to Nick Price and the assistant captains kind of getting us together over the past 12 months or so to make some positive changes to this event, which I obviously felt was necessary, as well. And I think they made the right decisions, and the proof was in the pudding today with how it all panned out.

As far as the future of the event goes, I think you get a much better answer from one of the first-time guys playing here today, because they are the future of this event. They are the ones who are going to take it forward, but I'm tipping that every one of them is going to be excited to make the 2017 team after getting a taste of this how close this was today.

Q. This question is for Mr. Price and Mr. K.J. Choi. So you have played this Presidents Cup with a new format. Do you believe that this if you format has brought positive changes, and also, do you feel like there needs to be another adjustment for future Presidents Cups?
K.J. CHOI: I certainly believe that the change to reduce the total points to 30 was the right decision, and I do hope that we will continue with this format.

And I have had two very close competitions in my Presidents Cup career, and one of them was back in 2003, and the other was this Presidents Cup. Especially during this year's Presidents Cup, it was just impossible to predict which team will win until the very last moment.

So I think it was a very exciting Presidents Cup.

And also, on behalf of everyone on the International Team, we would like to thank Chairman Ryu in the organizing committee, and all of the fans in Korea and around the world.

NICK PRICE: I agree (laughter).

I think we've seen more excitement today than we've seen for maybe 12 years at The Presidents Cups; the last Presidents Cup in 2003, I believe really was as exciting as this one was. I think the points change has been a very positive thing.

Q. There's a lot of attention on the last hole, last match, as there is in just about any golf tournament. I wonder if you can talk about what you were feeling out there for the last hour, the contributions for the week, and what memories you take away from the entire week.
SANGMOON BAE: Well, today, because of not-so-good play, I was a little frustrated, and it was true I was a little nervous, too. I wanted to make the winning point for the team, but at the end of the day, our team lost, so I was very sad and disappointed about it.

I don't know if it's going to be in two years or four years, but I would definitely love to play again for The Presidents Cup and I hope at that time that the International Team will beat the U.S. Team.

Q. Hindsight being 20/20, the pairings, is there anything you wish you would do differently?
NICK PRICE: I don't think I would have changed anything again if I had to do it over. We had four of us, K.J., myself, Mark and Tony, and we discussed a lot before we came here for about 45 minutes in our team room about what we were going to do. But we got here and we all used our experience and our gut feelings when we put the 12 players down.

I don't think we could have done any better to be honest with you.

Q. During the course of the round, you spent some time talking to put your arm around Danny Lee, and later after the match, you were also talking to Moon and then to Anirban. What did you have to say to these young boys who played well but ...
NICK PRICE: You know, those three have so much talent. And I said to Danny when he came off No. 9 green, I said, "This game will drive you crazy if you try too hard."

And I just tried to loosen him up and say exactly what I would have said to anyone else, is just go, get on the green, pick your line and hit the putt. The less you think about it, the better off you're going to be. And he played really well. I think it just relaxed him a little bit.

But to Anirban and to Moon, you know, they were in very difficult predicaments today, which I don't think they have ever felt before. But it's all part of the experience. Today is a day they will never forget, but I hope that they use it in a positive way to take the next step.

I said to Anirban, you know, he may never have a putt that he'll be that nervous over, but he hit a great putt. It was just a little unlucky it didn't go in. Probably 95 times out of 100, that putt would have gone in. But that's what makes this event so special.

And Moon, you know, he had all the pressure of all of us on him on the last hole. But like I said, it wasn't about what he did on the last hole. If we look back, there were many, many other instances we could have won it outright way before that.

I think it was a terrific week, I really do.

MARK WILLIAMS: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you to the 2015 International Team.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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