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EURASIA CUP PRESENTED BY DRB-HICOMJanuary 16, 2016Kiradech AphibarnratDanny ChiaNicholas FungAnirban LahiriKuala Lumpur, Malaysia CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Good afternoon, everyone. We have four members of Team Asia here with us, the Malaysian pair of Nicholas and Danny Chia, followed by Anirban Lahiri and Kiradech. Let's start off with Kiradech. A good two-hole win with S.S.P. Chawrasia. Talk to us about how important it was to win in the overall scheme of things with the result standing at Europe 9 and Asia 3? KIRADECH APHIBARNRAT: I think the point we get was an important point. Me and S.S.P. played great golf and just tried to get the point. Even one point is important for us tomorrow. If you look back the last two years, we still can fight back, everything like positive. And every half-point for Danny and Nicholas was important, as well. So it's easy for us to work tomorrow, if we are starting well in the first five points, I think anything can happen. CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Danny and Nicholas, another heart-thumping halve with Victor and Søren. Just talk us through the closing stages of the match, how vital was that putt at the last, Nicholas, by yourself, for that half-point? NICHOLAS FUNG: Yeah, me and Danny was starting good on the front nine. We was like 2-up. So I just telling my partner that we just tried to hit more fairway, more greens, and then we collapsed. That's what I told him. But we keep missing fairways after that. So we squared until the 15th hole, right, but we managed to get back a birdie on 16. Came to 17 and 18, I was so nervous. I'm still very happy with our half-point, and I holed the putt on the last hole, yeah. It's very important to get a half-point at least. Not so far from Europe, so we still have got a chance to beat them, maybe we need seven points to beat Europe tomorrow. Yeah, it's all I think very possible, like two years back, the first EurAsia Cup, yeah. CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Danny, you're still undefeated after two days with two halves there, and I gather that you'll be the first singles match out tomorrow. Just talk about today first, and then how important it will be for to you lead the Asian team tomorrow. DANNY CHIA: I think I will look at the positive side of my team with Nicholas these two days. I think I didn't hit it great, I mean, and they still can't beat me. Tomorrow I'll be leading the Asian team out for the first group, and I just have to hit it half-decent and I think I've got a good chance. I mean, you know, maybe it's a big statement to make, but that's how I felt. CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Looks like a sense of déjàvu for Team Asia, but maybe a slightly more uphill battle ahead. Let's talk about what you guys need to do tomorrow to give yourself a chance at this? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, obviously this is an uncomfortable but familiar position to be in. Having said that, I think we have to do what we did the last time around. We have our back against the wall, and I think we have to come out and we have to be inspired. Looking at the way Danny and Nicholas have played, they have played with their hearts on their sleeve. They have given it everything and I think that is what is needed. I think we need to go out there and give it absolutely everything. We have to play our best golf. We have to forget about who we are playing, because at the end of the day, it's still golf. You make six or seven birdies tomorrow, you're most likely to win the match. I think that's what, as a team, we haven't made enough birdies this week, and tomorrow, all of us are going to go out there and just be aggressive. I think that's what Captain Jeev has told us. He believes in us, and he just wants us to go out there and show everyone our spirit, our character and just go for everything. Q. It's a very unfair question to ask for a start, but it's a team competition and you were put out of position on most of the holes. How frustrating is this foursomes format, and how difficult it is to manage as a team? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think the most important thing about foursomes is to have a good short game as a team. For every single time that either me or my partner is out of position, we need to get up-and-down. That's the part I didn't do well today. If I get up-and-down from an unlikely place, they go from thinking that they are going to win the hole to a halve, or sometimes even lose the hole. Foursomes is a tough format. That's why it's a tough format, because it doesn't often happen that both the players are playing well. I was talking to Kiradech and S.S.P., and that's what they did well. Every time Kiradech was out of position, S.S.P. recovered. Every time S.S.P. was out of position, Kiradech recovered. That's how you win foursomes matches. You don't win it by hitting 14 greens and 14 fairways. It doesn't happen. It never happens in foursomes. So my short game wasn't good today, and Wu's ball-striking wasn't good today, and that's a bad combination in foursomes. Q. What happened on 16 and 18, you had two incredible putts, but on 17, what went wrong? If you'd had done 17 instead of 18, we'd have got a whole point. NICHOLAS FUNG: Yeah, for the 17th hole, I can say I'm so nervous, I can't even see the line. Even my partner, Danny, and my caddie, tried to calm me down. But I still -- DANNY CHIA: It's just a mis-read. It looks pretty straight to all of us. We said it's right inside and the ball just broke more than right inside, and it's as simple as that. The whole day, he was holding a lot of crunch putts, putt after putt, and there's nothing to be blamed on anybody. It's just a simple miss-read, yeah. Q. A lot of people have been talking about how you guys are probably just making out the team this week, but you proved that you've got a point to prove putting points on the board. Tomorrow morning, going out against Ian Poulter, what's that going to be like? DANNY CHIA: Ian who? (Laughter) It's match play, so it doesn't really matter. I don't care who it is. If he hits a bad shot, it's still a bad shot. It doesn't matter if it's Ian Poulter. As I say, you know, I just have to hit it decent, we have a fighting chance. It doesn't matter who it is. Q. What is the mood in the team room when you went back, and what was discussed, and how upbeat are you guys still? ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think there's different phases. There's different phases that a golfer goes through. When you play badly, it's disappointment, it's anger. And then you get to a phase where you look around you in the team room and you see 12 guys who are playing for you, 12 guys who you are playing for, and then you hit another level of emotional state where it's more about proving a point to yourself and to your team. And more than anyone else, to our captain. I think all 12 of us have a point to prove. We are in the same situation that we were. People had written us off last time. People are not going to do that because of what happened last time, and I think we need to make a statement tomorrow, and we need to go out there and show them that we can play golf. At the end of the day, we can all on our days beat the best players in the world, and we have to all 12 of us go out there and play our best golf. That's the only way we're going to win and that's what all of us are thinking about. We don't care who we are playing. We don't care which position we are playing, early, late. At the end of the day, if between the 12 of us we can make 18 birdies tomorrow, we will win, and that's what we have to focus on. CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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