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THE RYDER CUP

September 28, 2018

Guyancourt, France

CLARE BODEL: Welcome. Some of the stats that have been rolling in, first time Europe have won all points in a foursomes session, and it just goes on and on and on. But coming to you first, Henrik, you're partnered up with Justin Rose, and again you guys delivered. What is it about your partnership that works so well?

HENRIK STENSON: I think, as with many other successful partners over the years, when you're playing with somebody and you know them well, you're friends, and obviously we play a pretty similar game, as well, normally. I think we a lot of times do well on the regular Tour in similar events and on similar type of courses.

It all falls into place pretty easy, and we've got a good team there with our caddies, as well. Yeah, we're just having a lot of fun out there and been very successful and managed to win once again, and we're very pleased with that.

CLARE BODEL: Ian, the second match with Rory, the holes were racking up. How aware are you, when you're out there, of the board going blue around you, or are you just focused on your match?

IAN POULTER: We didn't get off to the best of starts, so it was red from our portion there for a few holes, but we could see it was blue everywhere else.

And that's encouraging and it's motivating to obviously turn your match around, and obviously when you see that and you see the guys get up, and quite a few holes up, it fills you full of energy. We did a good job of turning the match around at the right time, and we kept the ball in play on a very tricky afternoon on a difficult golf course, and it was tough.

Q. To both of you, you both played with guys that suffered tough losses in the mornings. How did you get them up after that, and what else was said after that morning session to get Europe to produce what happened in the afternoon?
HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it's obviously what Ian and I said that turned everything around (laughter).

No, it was just a quick little word of encouragement when the boys came off the course in the morning. Like any match, you try your hardest and you're fighting hard out there, and sometimes it goes for and you sometimes it don't.

This morning, potentially, we might have been a tad unlucky there with the 3-1 result, but we made up for it in the afternoon. It's just for those guys coming off the course to recharge, they don't have much time and I think Justin had half an hour, grabbed a bite, and I don't think he hit any shots. He came straight from the clubhouse on to the first tee. You know, that's pretty tough, to come straight from lunchroom and go down and hit that first tee shot.

But no, he managed to shake off that loss in the morning and play solid in the afternoon with me, so happy to team up with him again.

Q. I know you were busy this morning getting ready for your match, but how much of an influence is what Frankie and Tommy were able to do, considering their opposition today, to go 2-0?
IAN POULTER: It's very impressive. I played with Frankie in practise this week, and he barely missed a fairway and barely missed a green. And I played with Tommy as well, and he played great. That pairing was a very solid pairing from when Thomas agreed to put them out.

They have done a stellar job, they really did. They played some great golf today, and it's great for them to go 2-0. It's pretty impressive.

Q. You mentioned seeing the blue on the scoreboards. At any point did you see that Sergio and Alex were 7-up through nine, and how would you react to seeing something like that on a scoreboard?
IAN POULTER: I said earlier, it's encouraging; it's an energy boost. Whenever you look at a board and you see a match that's blue, it gives you a lift. But when you see it up as heavy as that, you know, you know they are obviously playing great golf and enjoying it.

It's not until we have a look at the scores now to realise how well they played on that front side in very tricky conditions on a very tricky golf course.

It was good to see Sergio and Alex do that. They are pretty excited right now.

Q. You're there on the first tee at the start, getting the crowd geared up. Was that your plan, or was that a team idea?
IAN POULTER: I shared a car home with Thomas last night, and I just said to Thomas I would be up there early and I'm going in that grandstand. He didn't say, no, don't do it; so I went up there to enjoy it.

Obviously there was a long wait between obviously seeing the guys tee off and an afternoon round of golf, so it was a great adrenaline rush. It was great to get up there and enjoy the fans. I've never seen a first tee stand like it. Not sure we'll ever see another one as big -- well, we'll see if we get a bigger one.

But it's impressive to be up there enjoying it, but I did have to come in and have a 45-minute sleep once I got back in.

Q. I was just wondering if you could complete that earlier answer about Rory and just sort of if you needed to gee him up or if you said anything to him?
IAN POULTER: I didn't need to say anything to Rory McIlroy. Rory is Rory. He would have been frustrated enough this morning with that loss. I didn't need to gee him up at all. I just think getting out on the golf course to get straight back at it was good for him, and it was inspiring for me. Every time I've played with him, we've had success, so it was great to get back on the course and great to get that feeling again, and he didn't need any geeing up at all. He needed slowing down, if anything. I could barely keep up with his little legs (laughter).

Q. How much psychological damage will a whitewash this afternoon have done to the Americans from the position they were in and also the psychological damage that Tiger Woods was unable to play this afternoon because of his back problems?
IAN POULTER: I don't know, really. I mean, I think when -- we're obviously enjoying the fact of winning an afternoon session, you know, 4-nil, so that's the first time that's ever happened. We are enjoying that fact.

What that does to the American Team, I'm not really sure. I think, you know, they will be trying to work out how that happened and why that happened and how the pairings were put out the way they were put out because of that. And they might do something different tomorrow.

So you know, the fact of Tiger not playing -- you know, they played everybody, like we played everybody. They got everyone on the golf course, and so did we.

Q. How would you be feeling?
IAN POULTER: Well, it would be hard to take, from the buzz of the morning round and as strong as their matches turned around there at the end, you'd be disappointed. There's no question about it.

We were disappointed this morning. I know the guys, when I was going out this morning to warm up, it's hard to take. When you're sitting in a team room and there's not -- there's not a great buzz, it's not a nice feeling. You just have to pick yourself up and go back out and try and turn it around.

HENRIK STENSON: But having said that, they are a very, very strong team with strong competitors, and they obviously are going to motivate and come harder after us tomorrow morning. They want to get those points back as soon as possible.

As nice as it is to get that advantage in this session, we have to be prepared that they are going to come hard after us tomorrow and we've got to be on our toes and try and hold that charge back.

Q. You were photographed afterwards with John Terry. Do you know him at all, and what did he have to say?
IAN POULTER: I don't really know him-know him, very well apart from Instagram. We message a little bit there. I haven't spent a lot of time in his company.

HENRIK STENSON: Played well for United, didn't he (laughing).

IAN POULTER: Obviously as a fellow sportsman, to come out and enjoy the atmosphere like he enjoyed today, it was great to see him here and great to see fans in general out enjoying themselves.

You know, I'm sure I'll get to know him a bit more. Hopefully he's going to come back out. He says he might be back here Sunday and hopefully we can do him proud.

CLARE BODEL: Thank you, Henrik, Ian.

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THE RYDER CUP

September 28, 2018

Ian Poulter

Henrik Stenson