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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

December 10, 2019

Adam Hadwin

Melbourne, Australia

Q. How has this experience been a little different than your first one a couple years ago?
ADAM HADWIN: I sort of know what to expect a little bit more coming into the week. I know sort of what a draining week it is emotionally a little bit. You go through a lot of highs and lows and the ability to kind of stay even keel throughout the week and preserve energy for deep in the matches is key, and I certainly kind of learned that from the first one a couple years ago.

Q. What was your first impressions of Royal Melbourne?
ADAM HADWIN: It's great. It's a good golf course. It's going to challenge all parts of your game. You're going to have to be ready to play. I think you can be aggressive at some times and you'll probably see that during some of the better ball formats, but during foursomes, keep it in front of you, get it on, give yourself a chance for par really and you're going to have a good shot at winning some holes out there.

Q. Controlling your ball is always important, but how important is it here with how firm the greens are and the fairways are?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, it's huge. You've really got to be precise off the tee, how far you want to fly it, knowing how far it's going to roll out, get some good angles into the greens I think is pretty key, as well. Really just got to give yourself an opportunity to make a putt. You get on the wrong side of some of these greens, you're going to make bogey, double pretty quickly. The wind gets up, it's a tricky golf course, and if you can keep it in front of you, you'll do well.

Q. How important is it to get off to a fast start?
ADAM HADWIN: Well, I think it's going to be huge for us, yeah. The switch of formats with the better ball going first, now I think could help. We'll see. We'll see what happens on Thursday. But certainly get off to a good start, get those first couple matches going our way, make a few putts, get the crowd behind us, and kind of get some momentum early. It's something that we haven't had in previous Presidents Cups and hopefully we can turn the tide this year.

Q. What do you expect from the crowd? Do you think they'll be very vocal?
ADAM HADWIN: I don't know. I'm not sure what to expect. I would hope that we're going to get a home crowd atmosphere. I think that's what the whole team is. I know that Marc and Cam kind of spoke about that last week at the Australian Open. But hopefully they get behind us and cheer us on. It's tough. New York was a hostile environment a couple years ago. Those fans are nasty at the best times. In a good way. But you know, yeah, it's going to be up to us. If we can get them on our side early, then we'll be able to kind of carry that momentum through.

Q. Ernie is nearly a local and you've heard Marc and Cam and Scottie all doing their thing. Have they given you any tips how to engage the crowd?
ADAM HADWIN: Nothing on that front. I mean, I think the biggest thing is just play good golf. I think if we start hitting good shots, making putts, putting pressure on the Americans, getting them down early, I think that's the best thing we can do to get this crowd behind us.

Q. Certain gestures or anything like that to --
ADAM HADWIN: No certain gestures. I'm hoping being part of the Commonwealth helps me out, being Canadian. That's a little extra for that.

Q. What do you bring back from last year --
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, for sure. Having played Kingston and Metro in competition format in the same formats that we're going to face this week, good prep. Obviously Royal Melbourne is a bit of a different test, but playing the Sand Belt, playing in the wind, learning different shots around the green and kind of the creativity that you have to have around here certainly helped, and can bring some of those aspects into this week.

Q. Did you expect it to be in your press conference when you were announced about making amends?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah. I've got some work to do. I didn't feel like I played up to my level a couple years ago in New York and wasn't kind of -- obviously the team didn't go as well as we wanted as a team, either. So there's a lot to make up for this week. I want to go out and prove for myself and make sure that Ernie knows that he made a right choice. I feel having been picked this year, it's a little on me to kind of prove myself a little bit more. I'm going to relish that role, but certainly looking forward to providing for this team.

Q. Talk a little about Ernie as a captain. What has he kind of brought so far to the team room with you guys, and his experience at this event, how has that --
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, Ernie has been incredible. From the very beginning, he's taken this on full steam. He's all in. Some of the things that he's introduced early on, creating our shield, bringing us together under one flag, the unity, getting us together, bringing us together as a team throughout the year, getting us to know each other a little bit better, playing together during practice rounds and everything like that. He's done everything he can to prepare us for this week, to have a group of guys that can go out and has a chance to win. It's up to us now.

There would be no better way to kind of pay homage to what Ernie has done than to take a victory this week.

Q. How would you describe his leadership style?
ADAM HADWIN: Tough but fair. Probably similar to the way he is as a player a little bit. He's pretty hard on himself. He expects a lot out of you. But at the same time, you can ask him anything, you can approach him about anything. He's very -- he's approachable. He's tough but you can -- he knows when to kind of give you a pat on the shoulder and when to give you a kick in the butt.

Q. You talked about the team spirit that the guys had in '98 here, and you touched on some of the stuff he's been doing leading into this week. At the beginning of the week have you felt a difference from this team chemistry compared to two years ago?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I think so. I think the biggest thing is maybe just getting to know each other a little bit better during the year. It's always been one of our achilles heels, guys maybe coming from different tours, and we've just done a great job of that, hanging out a little bit more, playing more rounds together, getting used to each other. I'm expecting a big week. I think everybody is ready to go. I think everybody will have their games ready to go. Just a matter of making a few putts when we need to.

Q. How much has he talked about the golf course? He knows a ton about it, guys like Adam Scott. How much discussion of the course has there been in the team room?
ADAM HADWIN: Not as much yet. I think we'll have more over the next coming days. There were only a handful of guys, maybe five or six guys that were out here yesterday, so this was the first time for a lot of them seeing the place outside of guys who have been here before.

So I'm sure now that we've had a chance to kind of see how the golf course plays and all that, we'll certainly go over strategy a little bit more the next couple nights, certain holes, when to lay back, when to go for it, different formats, that type of thing. You know, their experiences here are going to be invaluable for us who haven't been here before. Certainly lean heavily on Geoff and Ernie and Adam and those guys, K.J. back in 2011.

Q. How comfortable are you with how you've been approached by the guys, and how comfortable are you in the team room versus obviously not being in this situation much?
ADAM HADWIN: Yeah, I mean, it's such a great group of guys to begin with. I think it's pretty easy to feel comfortable in there. It's a very -- the mood is still really light. Obviously it's still early in the week and I'm sure it'll get a little bit tense here as the matches continue on. But we have a lot of fun with each other. We joke around. Louis over there is the class clown. He keeps everything light, and he keeps everybody with a smile on their face, and Ernie obviously has done a great job with that, as well.

Q. How important are the last 13 Presidents Cups in regards to what happened -- and how you feel about what you have to do this week?
ADAM HADWIN: I mean, I think that we just kind of have to -- this is a new week. Whatever has happened in the past, it's happened. Obviously there's some scars for some of these guys who have played a number of them now. We've got seven rookies, so those guys don't know what's happened so far. They're coming in fresh this week. I've only played one. We just have to play good golf. Obviously the American team is strong. We know that. They're the best players in the world, right? On paper we're going to get hammered this week, but I think we're doing a good job of coming together, playing with each other, gelling as a team, understanding each other's game. We're playing for one shield, a new flag this year. It's exciting. It's going to be a fun week, and we've got a good chance if we put it all together.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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