THE RYDER CUP

September 25, 2021

Dustin Johnson

Collin Morikawa

Whistling Straits

Press Conference

Saturday Morning Foursomes

JOHN DEVER: Welcome back to the 43rd Ryder Cup.

Q. Another match and a win. What's been the secret formula?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: For me, just drive him in the fairway, and I know I'm going to have a nice look at birdie.

Obviously, with the conditions, it's cold and it's windy this morning. It's playing difficult. We got off to a really good start and kind of just hung on from there. They holed a shot on 14, got a little bit closer on the back side, but we were able to make some clutch putts there to get us a point.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Look, we weren't going anything crazy. We were just trying to hit smart shots and if we can give ourselves chances -- that's how we started off the front nine well is we gave ourselves birdie opportunities and converted a few. We lot a little unlucky towards the first stretch of the back nine, but it's going to happen.

We fought through it, though. It was good to close it out on 17. You know, look back at that now.

Q. Four points on the board, how important was it to come out today and maintain that momentum and just power through the weekend?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's obviously really important. Even though we had a nice lead after yesterday, played really well, but still, there's eight points today. So you've got to come out and get off to a good start, and you know, we're just trying to win each session and keep that lead.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: Every hole is a new match. Every match, every hole, Paul made eagle on 14, and there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to move on to 15 and hit a quality shot. You have to keep reminding yourself, there's still a lot of points left on the board, and we still have to stay focused and just do our job when we are out there.

Q. One question about the fans. How much does it mean to you guys to have that advantage and noise when you're going through the tough spells in your match?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: It definitely helps. It kind of keeps you going. It gets you fired up, especially right at the start. But the fans have been great this week. I felt like they have been really respectful to both sides.

But obviously we have got definitely a home-field advantage here.

COLLIN MORIKAWA: We thrive off the fans. It's very nice to have that kind of home-field, like DJ said, home-field advantage, and it's just when you make a birdie, it just keeps you going. Shoot, maybe through that back nine, beginning of the back nine, we should have just riled them up, because we were a little flat for a little bit. Maybe we'll do that next time.

Q. How does it feel now to win two points?

COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's awesome. To have a partner like him helps, and we had some ups and we had some downs but overall got it through and obviously pleased with the point.

Q. The tide of the match shifted just a little bit where in years past, seems like you let it slip away, but today you didn't let that happen. Did you have a little talk with yourselves?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: No, we were playing good. We just made a couple mistakes. Misjudged the wind here and there a little bit. It's tough conditions, tough golf course and you're going to make some mistakes. We knew, just keep playing our game, keep hitting the shots and keep hitting putts and it was going to work out.

Obviously Collin is a great player and feel like we are really good in this alternate-shot format. We enjoyed it and it was really nice to get a point.