UBS WARBURG CUP

November 17, 2001

Scott Hoch

Loren Roberts

SCOTT HOCH: We knew we were going to have to play well. On paper, obviously, we should have the advantage, but the guys must have played well yesterday; they took them to the last hole yesterday. So we knew we had to play well on this course, anything can happen. We just wanted to get off to a good start. Fortunately for us, we did. And then they got pretty tough on us. Definitely pesky. I heard the word earlier so I'll use it now. Through the middle of the round, I think they made three long putts for birdies to tie us; and then we were up there in pretty good shape; and they tied us three times we birdied. So we really could not get a big lead. We just kept it around 2-up for a long time, so, anything could happen then. Then Loren made a good putt. They hit some shots in. Looks like it had a chance to go to maybe only 1-up, and then Loren made a birdie. I guess they birdied, too? I guess that was one of the ones that kept it at 2 instead of going to 1 because we made a good putt to tie.

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah. Especially three out of four birdies and we lost a spot. They made four in a row on the back nine there. It really kept the match going all the way.

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah, I had a good look at that. It was a good putt for me. It was a downhill little left-to-right, and that's what I like. I was lucky to get that one in there and that kind of sealed it right there, I think.

LOREN ROBERTS: We were out on the far end of the golf course by then, so we didn't see any leaderboard to see how anybody was doing until about the 16th hole.

SCOTT HOCH: I did. It looked pretty good; we might lose one match and win five. Then we were 1-up in a couple -- 1-up in one, 2-up in the others, including ourselves. So I'm thinking, okay, things are looking pretty good. Then every hole coming in, I look at the board, it went from 1-up to even. "Oh, there's another team that went from 1-up to even." Then I think at the same time, Arnold and them went from 1-down to even -- "Okay." So it didn't stay that way. I noticed that things were slipping away, but that's why this was big for us. We said we can't just hold it in a day. We have to try to get some birdies and finish this thing off because these finishing holes, anything can happen.

SCOTT HOCH: That's pretty good. You just answered your question. (Laughter.)

LOREN ROBERTS: Well, obviously, 7 & 5 sounds a whole lot better than 8 & 4 or 7 1/2 & 4 1/2. But any time you have a deficit, you have to make up ground. Tomorrow we can't just go out there and split the field. We've got to go out and we're going to have to take no prisoners.

SCOTT HOCH: No prisoners.

LOREN ROBERTS: Yeah. We've got to take nine out of the 12 matches tomorrow, don't we, to win?

SCOTT HOCH: How many points are we now? Down two?

LOREN ROBERTS: We've got to go 8 & 4 tomorrow. That's a big task. So we are all going to have to go out and play good.

SCOTT HOCH: Or win -- since we're not playing all, we can always win by half -- or can you win by half a point? Yeah, we just need to go out and play well tomorrow. A lot of it will depend on the pairings, the groupings, and so, hopefully , I'm sure both sides will give it some thought as to how they want to do it and each will do whatever they feel is the best way to gain for us, to gain those points back and for the other team to try to put a curtain on us to where we can't come back.

SCOTT HOCH: No, the Ryder Cup can't get back to this atmosphere. The Ryder Cup is probably too over the top now as far as getting everybody all riled up and it has gotten away from just the pure competition, I think. It's too intense. It should be fun and there should still be some intensity to it. I won't say here it's near as intense and it's not supposed to be. This is not the type of event that's supposed to be. I would say you can have more intensity than was shown here, but we're having a good time. We're playing, we're enjoying our partners, we're enjoying playing with the guys we're playing against; and I would like to see more of that in all of the matches when you have different teams playing. I would very much like to see that instead of a Ryder Cup where it just seems to have gotten too cutthroat. And I've said that a number of times; that the Ryder Cup, I think, has become a little more -- a little something different than what it was intended.

SCOTT HOCH: Do you want us to finish? (Laughs.) I did hear that they played the World Cup here. That's good that they played the medal tournament here, but they also played it so far up, from the ladies tees just to get the people around. Any time you have a match-play tournament, don't you agree it would be a great course to have any type of match-play tournament on?

LOREN ROBERTS: This would be a good course for a match-play event just because there's so many possibilities that can happen out there; you can really have some big swings on holes out there. There's just so much trouble that you can get into out there, especially something like in foursomes like yesterday. There was big swings yesterday in a lot of those matches.

SCOTT HOCH: I think you have a couple basic problems with that. Obviously, the Presidents Cup is better attended by the fans right now. This is new -- give this a chance, but it's an awfully tough course to have much of a crowd walk around and it's not the best gallery course. So I think you would want -- probably the combination, there's probably not a whole lot of combinations here to have something big like that. But as far as a pure golf standpoint, it's a great course to have any type of match-play event on.

SCOTT HOCH: I have no idea, even if I had a suggestion, they wouldn't listen, anyway. Both sides are too hard-headed, I think. I don't know. They are too set in their ways. I would just like to see it -- not less intense. You've still got to have the intensity but not so cutthroat. And it's not just the players, too. It's the fans. That's the one thing I would like to see. I think it's a great format. I think it great for the game. Obviously, it's great for TV. But I would just like to see it being a little less cutthroat. I don't have any answer as far as making it better.

SCOTT HOCH: We didn't see Arnold last night. We didn't have a team meeting last night.

LOREN ROBERTS: I'm sure we'll have one tonight.

SCOTT HOCH: We have a team meeting tonight, so it will be good. As I said, it's fun and we're going to go out the same way tomorrow. It's going to be a little more intense. Singles always are. But I think it will still be a fun atmosphere for everybody. I hope that's what it will be. I mean, even some of the guys are traveling together, like Nobilo came up with me and I'm going back with Nobilo on the plane. So, I'm sure we're going to have good time. It's just that -- I just hope the right one is celebrating.