THE PRESIDENTS CUP

September 23, 2022

Mito Pereira

Sebastian Munoz

Christiaan Bezuidenhout

Quail Hollow Club

Press Conference

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: We want to welcome international team members Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira, and Christiaan Bezuidenhout into the media room. We'll ask each for an opening comment about the day's proceedings.

MITO PEREIRA: I think it was a really good match with Christiaan. We played solid. It was really tight all the way. We combined with good birdies, each of us.

I mean, obviously we didn't win, but it was a half point, and we're ready for tomorrow.

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Sebastian?

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: Very, very exciting match. I feel like both of us made some important putts, made some important birdies coming down. I feel like it was fair at the end. It looked like a tie. I don't know. I felt really good about it.

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Mito and I had a great match today. Both of us played some good stuff. It was a pity about the end that we only snuck a half out of it.

I think going into tomorrow our team found a little bit of momentum now. Hopefully a few of the points tomorrow down the stretch can go our way rather than the U.S. team.

But, yeah, overall the spirit of the team is still good, and we're ready to keep the fight going tomorrow.

Q. Sebastian, can you describe on the back nine of your match? I think you guys made six straight birdies and only won one of those holes. Just the level of play, how good it was. At that point, was there any sense of, geez, what do we have to do here?

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: Yeah, absolutely. It began -- I think we parred last at 6. We won with a par. Then Sam makes a crazy putt on 7. Then we come back with a birdie on 8 to get level. Then Sam again makes another great putt and hits it to a couple feet on 10.

Yeah, I was just telling Sungjae, hey, man, we're still in it. We're still in it. We're making birdies. They come back, and I'm telling him, we have this box. I'm just trying to fill him up like positively, like we're still in this match. We're hanging on even though we're making birdies first.

And that stretch of 14, 15 was insane. The quality of the shots these guys hit. Both made birdie from the right bunker with chip-in. It was a treat. It was awesome to be a part of that and to contribute. I don't know. It was a great time.

Q. Knowing how big the deficit is going into tomorrow, where do you find motivation? How do you pick yourselves back up, knowing how good that team is and how big the deficit is?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: I don't really feel that the scoreboard really reflects how we play. Lots of matches over the last couple of days have gone down to the last hole. It's unfortunate that most of those matches, we're on the losing side.

Yeah, we're still in it. We've played good golf. Most of the matches are going down the stretch. So like I said, hopefully we can turn those points around tomorrow and put it into our favor.

Q. Just on that, Christiaan, I noticed some South African fans in the crowd yelling support for you and Afrikaans. Does that play into it a little bit, the personal pride? Each of you represent countries that you're proud to come from. Is some of that going to be motivating, even though the scoreboard might be a challenge?

CHRISTIAAN BEZUIDENHOUT: Yeah, of course. All of us in the international team are from different nationalities all around the world, and all of us are playing for our country, but mainly for the shield, mainly the international team, for teams members this week.

Like I said, hopefully we can turn the tide tomorrow and get the momentum going on our side tomorrow.

Q. For Sebastian and Christiaan, just curious, your first time doing this, how did it compare to what you expected? Maybe if you can compare it to times when you're close to the lead in a tournament or something like that? How is this team golf element different?

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: It was awesome. Yesterday I was feeling kind of lost to be honest. I don't know about Christiaan, but I'm thinking the same. We're trying to focus. At the same time, we want to support. At the same time, we want to play, and then we're nervous. It's like what's going on? Because we're used to have a club and options.

Being on the sidelines, it was different, but we did our role, and we both came out today, and we showed up. So I feel like for me personally, I loved it. I feel like, yeah, there was a ton of people looking onto 15 -- onto 7. 7 on the left is probably like 20 rows deep. 15, both sides.

So the feeling is electric, but I like it. I like it, and it was fun today to be out there. Looking forward for the weekend. Should be even rowdier.

Q. For any of the three of you, golf is decided by such small margins sometimes. If you were analyzing it, what have been the biggest differences between the two teams, whether mentally or physically or both, do you think?

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: To be honest, I feel like it's been the putts. They've dropped more putts than we have. Even in my match today, Sam made more putts than we did. It's just I feel like they maybe have a little more experience on the Bermuda greens than us. Maybe they've it more. We don't see those speeds back in international days. Yeah, we're trying our best, and it seems like today we catch up a little bit. If we can keep that momentum going, we can do some good stuff for tomorrow.

MITO PEREIRA: I think the same. Just the putts. It's tough to putt it here. Greens are really fast. A lot of break. Both days, I think, the difference has been the putts. If we would have made some putts yesterday, we would have won. If we would have made some putts today -- I think Christiaan made some good putts today to win and halve some holes.

But like Sebastian said, I don't know if we're really used to this speed. It's tough. I think that's been the main difference. Every match has been really close, I think. Not every match, but most of them have been really close.

It just comes to an end, if you make a couple putts from 10 feet or 20 feet, that's the difference.

Q. It looked like there was a lot of emotion there on the 18th hole in the last match when Taylor made that birdie putt. You guys exploded with emotion, it looked like, after he holed that putt. And then to see Max drain one right after him. Was anything said within the team where you were all together there, just any kind of, I guess, come together moments there after Max made that putt on you guys?

MITO PEREIRA: I mean, it's obviously tough to see.

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: I mean, we still congratulate him. He made the putt. Regardless of whatever Max did, the guy made the putt. Had 13 feet, and possibly for a tie. He stepped up and made it after yesterday he missed the other one. Definitely improvement on that side. I mean, Max made big putts on 17 and 18. So that was the difference.

He, of course, exploded with passion and momentum because, you know, he's a guy that's been working, and he deserved that moment. He almost had it.

Q. So now that you guys have been here for a few days, been in the team room, been around each other a bunch, for each of you, give me one guy who you really didn't know on the team, but throughout this week now, you're like, man, I like this dude. He cracks me up or something about him that's -- because everyone is going to have a different guy.

MITO PEREIRA: I think we'll have the same one. I think it's Tom.

SEBASTIAN MUNOZ: I mean Tom's awesome. I was going to say C-Bez. We haven't talked much at first. I thought he was turning me down; but apparently, he wasn't. But he's a great guy. We have a lot in common, and it's been great.

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thanks very much for your time. Good luck tomorrow.