WORKDAY CHARITY OPEN

July 8, 2020

Steve Stricker

Q. Do you think it was the right decision for the PGA of America and the European Tour?

STEVE STRICKER: Well, I think it's really the only decision at this point. You know, as a country, we're reeling from this pandemic, right? It just seems to be spiking a little bit, and I think it's just a question of the unknown. You know, what is it going to be like in September? And how can you make that decision now when still, corporations, people, companies are just having a hard time and companies are still closed, travel bans aren't lifted yet. So for the European players to come over is still a really big challenge.

There's so many questions that are in the air, up in the air, that you almost can't prepare for September at this point.

Q. This is a big moment for you and your home state; is it a disappointment?

STEVE STRICKER: Sure. I mean, who doesn't want to play and be a part of a Ryder Cup, right? But I take, I guess, some satisfaction in knowing that if everything comes back and we're playing normal golf with fans next year that the Ryder Cup is going to be played with fans and Wisconsin is going to put on an unbelievable event. The fans are going to come out. They've shown tremendous support already.

So I think that's what I take some solace in thinking about, the potential of what it could be next year.

The Ryder Cup is built around the energy of fans, right? It's an unbelievable spectacle to be a part of, and I think to take that away -- what I was thinking about the other day was what if one guy, one player plays in one Ryder Cup and it was in Wisconsin without fans? I mean, that would be just a terrible experience, right? The Ryder Cup is built on that energy of the fans, and I think we owe it, the game of golf owes it to the fans and to Wisconsin and to the players to play a normal Ryder Cup.

Q. How impactful were the voices of the players saying that they didn't want to play in front of fans?

STEVE STRICKER: I think the PGA listened. I think the PGA listened to everybody in making this decision. We were on weekly calls with them. They were getting a feel of the players out here. Seth Waugh, Kerry Haigh, the whole team there, Julius, they did a great job of just gauging the temperature of everybody and gauging the temperature of this virus and what we have going on. It's not an easy decision by any means. So I think they took that all into account.

The TOUR was nice to work with everybody so the Ryder Cup could have that Presidents Cup date next year. So I think just getting everybody on board took a tremendous amount of time to make it work out.

Q. Finally, some details in regards to you now as a captain moving forward, the qualification process, your captain's picks, what's going on with that?

STEVE STRICKER: Yeah, we haven't talked since this decision has been made. So I'll get with my assistant captains, I'll get with the PGA of America, and we'll discuss all those options and see where we go from there. But these points are accumulating now. I don't see us stopping it right now. I see us probably playing out the year for sure. But we'll talk about it and see how it goes, and then next year we'll make a determination on the amount of picks -- I mean, for next year. We'll do that before the end of this season for sure, and we'll get going on that just to see what that process is going to look like.

Q. Just to be clear, you would like to keep the points rolling through the end of the year, which would include three majors?

STEVE STRICKER: Well, yeah. And again, I'm going to talk to everybody about it and see what their thoughts are, but I'm surely not in favor of taking points away. I mean, we came out with a system that was to continue to go through this year. Guys have made points the last how many tournaments we've played, four tournaments we've played out here, right, five? So guys have been making their points. I surely can't see us taking those points away. There's points being made this week. There's points being made next week.

The way I feel is these guys are making points. They're playing. But then next year starting probably this fall we're going to have to come up with a structure, number of qualifications and the points structure and what that should look like to most benefit our team.

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