WALKER CUP

May 8, 2021

Stuart Wilson

Matty Lamb

Seminole Golf Club

GB&I Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Now we are joined by Matty Lamb and Stuart Wilson of the GB&I team, trailing 5-7 after the first day of the 48th Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club. Captain Wilson, if you could give your assessment about how the day went for the team.

STUART WILSON: Yeah, it was obviously a hard-fought day. All the foursomes matches going up the last hole was great to see. I think 2-all was a fair result this morning. Like I said, they were to-ing and fro-ing all through the morning.

Yeah, it was nice. It was good to see them all going down the last.

The singles this afternoon it was very, very close to finishing the day at 6-all, but unfortunately didn't quite go our way towards the end there, but we've got an extra two points to play for tomorrow, and we still feel like we're very much in it.

Q. Matty, what are your thoughts on your team's performance today and how were you able to pick up that point this afternoon?

MATTY LAMB: Yeah, obviously I thought all the guys fought really hard. I think we're disappointed to be behind. I think we all wanted to be in front going into tomorrow and obviously continue to want to win as many matches as we can. Obviously we know what we have to do, we just have to go out and do it tomorrow.

And this afternoon, yeah, I played really solid. I was a couple up through two holes and then just kind of played solid from there, didn't hit too many bad shots and didn't really let Quade back into the game, so yeah, was quite happy with it.

Q. I talked to your captain before the afternoon, and he said there was some small adjustments you needed to make playing this golf course, one of them probably being the selection of golf clubs, a little better ideas on the par-3s on club selection. Did you feel like you guys did that in the afternoon?

MATTY LAMB: I think personally I did a pretty -- obviously I can't speak for the other guys. I did a pretty good job of kind of selecting the right club, obviously helped by my caddie. So yeah, I think personally I did a pretty good job. It's just obviously getting it across the whole team and just doing what we have to do.

Q. This golf course is kind of different than anything you've probably played before. You have to rely on your caddies a lot because they're out here all the time. Has there been a point where you've looked at the guy and said, do you think that's the shot I should hit or that's the line I should take?

MATTY LAMB: I think to be fair, a lot of -- we had enough practice rounds and we prepared well enough where I think us and the caddies are now kind of on the same page, and we felt really prepared coming into today.

Yeah, I think obviously at the start of the week we were kind of looking at our caddies a bit like that, but by now we're kind of a bit used to the golf course and hopefully we'll go out and do the business tomorrow.

Q. Captain, can you talk about, obviously the alternates are new this year because of COVID. In the future do you think it's something as a captain you'd like to see?

STUART WILSON: I'm not so sure, but obviously the alternates were brought in for COVID, but thankfully we've not had that situation, but we've had another separate situation that's arisen that the alternates have actually come in to play. I think probably history tells us that it's not regularly kind of required from year on year. I'm not so sure we really need traveling reserves in a regular year. I think the 10-man squad is quite good as it is because you've kind of got natural two reserves naturally for the first three sessions as it is.

Yeah, I would probably just revert back once all this COVID protection is past us.

Q. What are the biggest keys for preparing to putt well on greens that are as quick as these?

MATTY LAMB: I think personally there's no substitute for just spending as much time as possible that you have on the greens and just hitting putts, constantly adjusting from uphill to downhill. There's a lot of putts out there where it's kind of uphill to start, downhill at the end.

I just think, yeah, spending as much time as you can and hitting a variety of different putts on and off the course.

STUART WILSON: The caddies have been really beneficial, as well, when it comes to that because they obviously know the place inside out, so they've been a real asset to the guys.

Q. As a captain is there anything that you might tip them off on that?

STUART WILSON: Yeah, obviously, like I said, like Matty says, hitting as many putts as you can, up and down the greens, across the greens, just getting a feel for the pace and the breaks and what they're going to do. You can't spend enough time on the putting green. It's always going to be the one that holes the most putts wins the event. Yeah, I think the guys have been pretty good looking at the greens and practicing their putting, which is all we can ask of them.