SOLHEIM CUP

September 4, 2021

Catriona Matthew

Inverness Club

Team Europe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'm joined by Captain Catriona Matthew. Europe lead 5½, 2½ after the first day. How do you think it went?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, obviously absolutely delighted. We got off to a fantastic start winning 3½ to a half and obviously 2-2 in the afternoon was a solid result for us. We knew the Americans would come back fighting, and to get through that session without losing it was great.

Overall absolutely delighted. Would have taken that in heartbeat.

Q. How impressed were you with Anna Nordqvist and Matilda Castren's performances?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, very impressed. Obviously Anna is coming in playing great, having just won a major, and I barely seen her hit a bad shot since we got here.

Matilda has been great really well all year, and I just felt Anna and Matilda, Anna's experience and then she kind of helped Matilda around the course, and I thought that, yeah, they just gelled really well together.

Q. Another rookie, Leona Maguire picked up two points, as well. What did you make of her performances today?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I mean, what can I say? Fantastic performance. Any time anyone wins two points, far less a rookie, is a great achievement. They're playing against the top American players and all the matches are close.

I mean, every match went down to -- I think seven of the eight matches went to the 18th hole, so you can't ask for more than that.

Q. I'm going to ask you to announce tomorrow morning's pairings.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: Our first one is going to be Georgia Hall and Madelene Sagstrom; second one, Charley Hull, Emily Pedersen; third one, Mel Reid, Leona Maguire; and the fourth pairing, Anna Nordqvist, Matilda Castren.

THE MODERATOR: Can you talk me through some of the thinking for those pairings tomorrow morning?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: Obviously the three pairings we've kept the same; all won the first morning. And then Madelene played particularly well this afternoon and just felt -- Georgia obviously playing well, so just felt that might be a good pairing just to change things up and freshen it up a little bit.

Q. You had an opportunity as I understand it from Madelene to look at the video on the 14th tee with Missy Jones and Madelene herself, and she had indicated that you believed you couldn't see the ball overhanging the cup; is that correct?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: It was a pretty fuzzy picture we were shown, and it was inclusive I would have said. They did say that I think J.P. had looked at it at the TV studios and he had said it was slightly overhanging. Obviously we have to go with that.

I mean, a hundred percent believe Madelene did not for one instance think that ball had any chance of going in the hole when he she picked it up, and I don't honestly believe Nelly or Ally actually thought it was going to go in either.

There was no reaction when Madelene picked up the ball and threw it to them. It's just an unfortunate incident to kind of -- I don't know, kind of mars such a great day of good golf, so hopefully we can put it behind us and get on with tomorrow.

Q. You put Madelene out first with Georgia Hall. Was there any thought about maybe, I don't know what to do about Madelene, is she going to be able to handle this, not handle this, do I want to put her back out, do I want her to wait until the afternoon?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I fully think Madelene can handle this. She's a very relaxed character. Obviously she was very upset at the time but will have time to calm down a little bit. I honestly don't think any of the players did anything wrong, so she's got nothing to feel bad about, to be honest.

Q. Can you give us a sense of how the whole team kind of feels about the situation, if you feel this will be extra motivation for them?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: You know, it's been -- I haven't actually had a chance to see the whole team since we finished. You know, I think it's like anything, it's unfortunate it's happened. We've just got to get on with it. They were in a tight match, and you hate to see things decided by a ruling. By the book it was the exact right ruling and we're not going to question that one bit. We just have to get on with it again tomorrow.

Q. On Madelene going out first, did you talk to her about it, what do you want to do? Do you have a preference of getting right back out or anything like that?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: No, I haven't spoken to her actually, but I think all our players are itching to get out there, so they'll be ready.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Captain, and we'll see you tomorrow.