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WALKER CUP

September 8, 2017

Los Angeles, California

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, welcome to the 46th Walker Cup here at Los Angeles Country Club, it is my pleasure to introduce some representatives from the Great Britain and Ireland team. First immediately to my left captain Andrew Ingram. Andy was captain of the Men's Home Internationals Team for Wales on five occasions and is chairman of the R & A Men's Selection Committee since 2014.

Next over is Harry Ellis. Harry won the 2017 Amateur championship conducted by the R & A and also won the English Amateur in 2012. He's just the third player to win both championships. Welcome Harry.

And at the end is Connor Syme. Connor won the 2016 Australian Amateur and reached the quarter finals of the U.S. Amateur at Riviera just a few weeks ago. Connor is the number 8 ranked player in the world in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Connor, welcome.

First, Andy, I just want to start with you, you got a late call, due to bereavement in Captain Craig Watson's family. What have you done in the past 10 days since finding out about this?

ANDREW INGRAM: Well it was kind of a shock, I mean we had been aware that Craig's family member had been ill for some time, it's obviously just really bad luck on him that she passed away just before we came out, so obviously he couldn't come.

He's a great guy and he's missed by all the team, they all like him very much. He will be missed. We are talking to him or I'm talking to him most days and he's I'm sure he'll be with us in spirit if not in body.

THE MODERATOR: Absolutely. And then to Harry and Connor to the both of you, how has the experience been so far of being here at the Walker Cup and playing some practice rounds at Los Angeles Country Club? Connor, we'll start with you.

CONNOR SYME: It's a real privilege to be at a venue such as LACC. It's been a fun week with the team so far, we have been able to play a few different courses as well. So it's been a nice welcome, well, welcome and run into the Walker Cup. So it's been a good week, but we're all really excited to get going tomorrow definitely.

HARRY ELLIS: No, I would echo those words. I think the venue's been incredible. The City of L.A. is a special place, especially when the climate is as good as this as well. So we have got off to some cool things off the golf course, tried to keep it casual and relaxed between us. We're a very close bunch, we have grown up together for maybe 8 to 10 years, maybe even more for some of us, so we all know each other very well and so just enjoying the whole experience and Thursday we start picking up own things and start fine tuning ready for tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Was there a money game yesterday, Connor? I think you and Paul seemed quite happy on the 18th green. Was there a competition throughout the week and if so who is a head?
CONNOR SYME: Yeah, we have played a few money games. I've been doing all right actually.

(Laughter.)

But yesterday that was to secure the half match. But when it gets quite close it's obviously a bit of competitiveness, a little bit of off putting at times, you try and get under the boys's skins. It was good, it's a bit of competitiveness that kind of sets you up for this. And it's not pressure, but it adds a little bit of pressure, you kind of want to beat the guys you're playing against and it sets us up for the week ahead.

Q. Is that something that you would encouraged to get a bit of competitive edge to the boys?
ANDREW INGRAM: We play a competition every day, varying different formats, some Stableford initially to get the guys get rid of the jet lag and traveling blues, as it were. And so we played competitive -- I think it's important that they play competitive golf all week because that's what we have got. That's what they like.

In fact we -- it's quite interesting -- we arrived on the Friday, Saturday was the a rest day, Sunday was a rest day, sorry, but we came up here to do some putting and I said to the guys, right, go out and have an hour's putting on your own, and then I'll come out and set up a course for you and we'll have a competition. Well, within 20 minutes they had arranged their own matches and they were playing competitively. And I think that answers the question.

Q. Dollars or pounds?
ANDREW INGRAM: Dollars.

Q. Harry, you and Alfie, you've had a history playing together in big team events, you guys went 3-0 in the European Team Championships. Are you playing with him this weekend and what is it about playing with Alfie that gets you guys playing at such a high level?
HARRY ELLIS: I'm still not going to give anything away, but there's obviously a high chance that me and Alfie could play together. But Alfie's a great guy, there's something about him that, obviously, a lot of you saw him at the Open, his personality shown through at the Open. He's got fantastic support around him but also he's a very genuine guy and he's the comedian of the group for sure. But I think when we have had success it's because of the mixture in the games. Alfie's usually quite direct, he plays within himself, he knows his limitations, and he's got a phenomenal short game and usually pretty well with the putter, whereas my game is aggressive, fairly long off the tee, put him in positions that he wouldn't normally be in, then he capitalizes from them. So there's that blend there that kind of works naturally. And obviously growing up together we have been together sort of like five, six years now, we have known each other, so it's kind of a natural pairing as such and it just blends very well. It's not something that, if one makes a mistake, there's no real bad feelings or anything, it's like we'll just tackle the next shot. So it's very calm, very laid back and it was good. The European Team Championships was a good one, for sure.

Q. It seems like just in general you guys have a lot more experience playing team events than -- going through your guys resume -- as opposed to the United States team. Do you guys think that's going to be a big advantage going in the weekend?
HARRY ELLIS: I think so. I think that if you look at it, you would say that the biggest matches could be Saturday morning. Getting off to a big start in foursomes is key. And it kind of can set the trend for the rest of the day, can kind of flow into the singles. So I think that if we could get an advantage Saturday morning -- it's not, the match isn't going to be over, but if we can get an advantage somewhat Saturday morning I think it can carry into our performance over the next few sessions. So I think we would say probably we do have an advantage. Obviously the guys over here don't play as much team stuff. I know collegiately they don't. So it's going to be, hopefully it works in our favor, so we'll see.

Q. I guess for you first, Andy, but either of you guys, too, so, why is it so difficult generally there are certainly exceptions, to win on the other team's soil and we know you're away from home and it's a different environment, but is there anything else that you can point to on because once you get on the golf course, you're both on the same golf course and you're playing the same game that you always do.
ANDREW INGRAM: Sure, I think that -- let's make no mistake -- America is a huge country. You have some great golfers and the U.S. TOUR here, have great golfers on the amateur tour as well. So it's always going to be a big feat for a small country like Great Britain and Ireland to come over here and beat your guys.

Having said that, there's no real reason why it should make a lot of difference. We like playing in the sunshine. Unfortunately, we don't play that often in the sunshine. But we can play in the sunshine. They're good at it. I mean, I think if anything there's more of an, if you like, advantage to us playing at home because of the weather. Americans play in the sunshine, we can play in the sunshine. Probably we're more used to playing in the bad conditions.

So, really, there's no reason why we can't come here and win. We haven't won for 16 years, it's time we did.

Q. For all of you, most of the recent team events, be they Ryder Cup, Curtis Cup, Walker Cup, Solheim Cup, have been won by the team that putts better. I mean that's a generalization, but pretty accurate. Any reason to think that wouldn't be the case this week?
HARRY ELLIS: Length of the golf course. The length of the golf course could change that factor I think this week. Because if a guy's putting himself in positions with shorter clubs it's a huge benefit at LACC. Not saying it's going to determine matches, but I think that the angles of the greens and the way they situate is not necessarily a good thing to go in with a 4-iron or 3-iron compared to people that may be going in with 6- or 7-irons. But again, with the greens as fast as they are and we have had to adapt to them, they're pretty quick, some of the quickest I've ever putted on, there is going to be a huge putting element to it. But I think there's also going to be an element of giving yourself chances for birdies or missing yourself in right spots to be able to make up-and-downs.

So I think when you typically play, probably the team events back at home in England the greens or in the U.K., Europe, whatever the greens are a lot flatter, so it does become into a complete puttingfest, because it's a lot easier to do. There's a lot more skill element out there at this time because there's a lot more slope to factor, pace has got to match up, so I think there's an advantage. Okay, it's always an advantage if you putt better, but I think also you've got to be hitting the ball pretty well this week, otherwise you're going to be sort of trying to make pars rather than giving yourself some chance for birdie.

Q. Connor?
CONNOR SYME: Yeah, I would agree with that. It's going to be hard high demand on accuracy off the tee. It's a long golf course. I'm assuming they're going to use the back tees on some days anyway, so it's going to be challenging off the tee. I think putting's always important and I guess in match play it's more so. There's, putts for halves become different than if it was a putt for a par in a stroke play event, so there's a bit more aggressive fuse to the putting, so I think that it all seems to -- a lot of match play does come down to putting, but I think this week it's going to be there's going to be a lot of emphasis off the tee as well.

ANDREW INGRAM: I agree with the boys. It's a very long golf course, it's very important to hit the drive well. We have sort of talked about putting and I think with putting you can get a bit hung up about it, I think putting's there to be enjoyed. You got a difficult putt, well enjoy the difficult putt. Don't shy away from it or be worried about it. I think that's the emphasis we have tried to get throughout the team that everything we do is for fun.

Q. Harry, you talked about the importance of Saturday morning with a format of foursomes. The unique, I shouldn't say unique, but the tradition of the foursomes being played twice out of four formats, players Harry and Connor, just, I know where you come from you play quite a bit, just curious if you can share with us how often like throughout the summer growing up you are playing this format of foursomes and I don't know how much you can share your secrets or what do you think what's important thing playing the foursomes?
CONNOR SYME: Ever since we have kind of getting to the national set there's always an opportunity to play foursomes golf. So as we have grown up playing it quite a lot. You're playing with your teammates, some of the guys that I played with under 16 level I'm still, we're still, their still part of this team so it's cool to have that experience behind us of playing a lot of foursomes golf. We play it quite a lot through the year. Obviously the European Team Championships we touched on is a big one for us and the Home Internationals, although we didn't play this year is something we have played in in the past always on men's level. And that's a lot of foursomes golf against each other, so yeah, we just get a good feel for playing half the shots, I guess, and it is a little different because there's a few times you might not be putting for awhile or hitting a lot of long shots in or vice versa, but yes, there's just a little different experience.

HARRY ELLIS: Same as Connor, but ever since we were young we're brought up into a foursomes format. County level we have, at home we have we're playing foursomes at boy's county level, under 14, 16 and 18's. Then you have regional level we have regions split at home as well. And then you move into England and Scotland and Ireland and Wales, you have the European Boys Team Championships you have the Boys Home Internationals, you have the Men's Home Internationals. So you're looking for a period of time where you're playing three events at national level or county level, you're playing three plus events a year of foursomes and so it's not unfamiliar to us. It's great. My first experience was at county level, so I absolutely loved it. I think that there's something about going out and being a pair and going out and enjoying it and seeing if you can go and get a result from it. So it's good fun, but it does require an element of skill and it's nice to play with someone you've probably played with before because you get to know each other's game a little bit better.

Q. How much of the factor that you tell players odd even holes or is it kind of leave it up to the players?
ANDREW INGRAM: It's completely up to the players. They know their games, their skill, their confident. They know who's got the better short game, longer game, I tell you, we have got a team that's very, very, very similar in ability. And that I think that's a big help.

Q. Can you over think foursomes parings at times and what types of games do you think mesh well with each other in that format?
CONNOR SYME: No, I don't think you can over think it. I guess a few of the parings are kind of you've grown up playing together, I guess and there's some most of them kind of match up pretty well. I don't think there's too much over thinking that, I mean, I guess you could trying to figure out totally whose game suits who, but I feel like we'll have an excellent plan come tomorrow with all the parings. We have kind of had a rough idea for the last few days who we might be paired with and we're pretty comfortable with it. I think everyone's had a good agreement along the group of that's what we kind of chat about who we might want to be paired with or whose game suits who. So I think it comes more from the players to start with and then it's for Captain Andy to pick exactly who goes with who, but I think it's a team effort to pick the foursomes to who would play with each other.

Q. So this week playing in a match play format I was just wondering are there any holes out there that you think you'll be playing glaringly differently than if it was, if you were playing it in stroke play? Some aggressive lines?
HARRY ELLIS: I think that you generally get a touch more aggressive. But that's based on the situation of the match. Situation of the match, so, for instance, LACC has hole No. 6, most of us, everyone playing this week can probably get there if e they wanted to. But we talked about it, hole 6 in the round, you're building your match at that point, you're not trying to take on shots on hole 6 typically. And the way the hole sits, it sits at you with the green and how shallow the green is, it's not very, it's not a hole that you can take on and get rewarded. And like the biggest thing there is more risk involved than reward. So you're looking like just to play that hole left and then chip on, because of the way -- but if that hole was possibly 15, 16 in the round, then I think you would see more people encouraged to go for it. So I think that with the length of the golf course anyway you can't get much more aggressive than you need to because most holes I think we, most of us will be hitting drivers off tees and you're naturally playing it to your full capacity anyway. So I think the only way that it's going to change this week is situation in the match and maybe if a player's hit before you and they have hit one close, then you may have to tone up on a line that you want to take, rather than playing middle of the green which is not a bad spot to play over, over out there. So it's not your typical course where you can take over, hit some drives over trees or take on par-4s or whatever or go for par-5s in two, so it's pretty much laid out how the golf course was designed.

Q. With a bunch of distinguished alumni, have you had any phone calls, e-mails, in such that to spur the team on?
ANDREW INGRAM: Oh, yeah, we have had great support from various players back home. We have had videos sent in, we have had loads of e-mails with everyone back home's been really supportive Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, to name a few, but they have sent some really good wishes in.

Q. Any particular one that has a nice ring to it?
ANDREW INGRAM: All of them are just saying to us, enjoy the occasion, you'll never forget it, you'll make great friends, it's a highlight of their amateur career, it's the best thing they ever did in amateur golf. And I think that's been echoed by all the guys. So that's what we're going with.

Q. Just to talk about the aggressiveness issue for a second, first, does this course remind you of anything or any place you've played before. And then secondly, since you talked about being aggressive maybe down the stretch, if you have to because of the situation, can you tell us down the stretch what holes you might be able to do something a little more aggressively that will make a difference?
HARRY ELLIS: I think one sticks in my mind of length wise is probably Olympia Fields, it's close to what I've played in in the States. It's pretty much along par 70, long golf course, it requires good accuracy off the tee with length. So I would say there's a few similarities with the way the greens are there as they are here. But I think the difference -- Connor will probably agree -- the difference down the stretch at LACC is the shear length of the holes. So you aren't having to take on any particular lines because the holes require you to hit that shot and by that shot it's straight down the fairway as far as you can hit it and it allows you to do that because I think the closing holes are 520, 540 and I think 18 is 490. So everything's situated in front of you to just execute the shot how it plays. So I think that there's no, there's no lines where you're trying to take it over some sort of tree or over a bunker, it's literally just execute the shot how the course is designed and play from there. I think the only time you get a little bit more aggressive is maybe with the way the pins could be on the final few holes. So one would stick in mind is left on 17, that there could be one top left on 18, it just depends how much you want to take on and if you want to leave yourself a chance. So off the tee I don't think you need to get any more aggressive, I think it's where the pin will sit on the greens over the last few holes whether or not you decide to get, play aggressive or play for the middle of the green.

Q. To follow that up does that mean that if you miss the fairways on most of these holes, is it more penal here because of that than it would normally be on another golf course?
HARRY ELLIS: Absolutely. Obviously I'm in Florida, I play a lot of golf in Florida, being at Florida State, but the Bermuda grass in Florida is slightly different to this where I've never experienced Bermuda grass where the ball literally sits every time at the bottom of the roots. And it's so thick -- it doesn't seem that long, but it's so thick that you're literally just wedging it back out into play and then obviously in the fairway and then giving yourself a shot to the green. I think that there's very few occasions where you can actually get the ball to the green because you've got 6-iron plus left into the green.

THE MODERATOR: All right, Connor, Harry, Andrew, best of luck this week.

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