THE PRESIDENTS CUP

September 26, 2024

Gary Young

Mike Weir

Jim Furyk

Royal Montreal Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Thank you to the teams for joining us today. I'm going to turn it over to our chief referee Gary Young to go through the pairings process for Friday's foursomes. Gary?

GARY YOUNG: Thank you, Laura. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the round 2 pairings for the Presidents Cup.

As a reminder, round 2 will be played foursomes format and have five matches. 10 out of the 12 players will be selected for play by each team. Team totals following round 1 are the United States 5, Internationals 0. The International Team selected first in round 1, so the United States team will select first during round 2.

Captains will have two minutes to make their selections. Captain Furyk, your selection for match 6?

JIM FURYK: Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele.

GARY YOUNG: The United States team selects Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele.

Captain Weir?

MIKE WEIR: Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im.

GARY YOUNG: The International Team selects Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im.

Captain Weir, your selections for match 7?

MIKE WEIR: Adam Scott, Taylor Pendrith.

GARY YOUNG: The International Team selects Adam Scott and Taylor Pendrith.

Captain Furyk, your picks?

JIM FURYK: Sahith Theegala, Collin Morikawa.

GARY YOUNG: United States team selects Sahith Theegala and Collin Morikawa.

Captain Furyk, your picks for match 8, please?

JIM FURYK: Max Homa, Brian Harman.

GARY YOUNG: United States team selects Max Homa and Brian Harman.

Captain Weir?

MIKE WEIR: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Jason Day.

GARY YOUNG: The International Team selects Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Jason Day.

Captain Weir, your selections for match 9?

MIKE WEIR: Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes.

GARY YOUNG: International Team selects Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes.

Captain Furyk?

JIM FURYK: Wyndham Clark, Tony Finau.

GARY YOUNG: United States team selects Wyndham Clark and Tony Finau.

Match 10, Captain Furyk, your picks, please?

JIM FURYK: Scottie Scheffler, Russell Henley.

GARY YOUNG: United States selects Russell Henley and Scottie Scheffler.

The International Team, please?

MIKE WEIR: Si Woo Kim, Ben An.

GARY YOUNG: International Team selects Si Woo Kim and Ben An.

The first time tomorrow will be at 1:05 p.m. The United States team again will have the honor on the 1st tee. The weather forecast tomorrow is for partly sunny skies, 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Gentlemen, play well.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions from the media.

Q. Mike, what's the hardest part about recovering from a start like this?

MIKE WEIR: The hardest part? Well, it's certainly not the team unity and the team spirit. Our guys are still very positive.

Look, reality is it wasn't a great day, but it's like the first period of a hockey game the way I look at it. You're down, but there's a long way to go. Still significant sessions left.

That's the way we're looking at it.

Q. I know obviously analytics have formed your picks and your pairings, but is that data rolling through to this week? Is it a constant thing that you're tracking data for where teams are going to be placed in the order that they have been?

MIKE WEIR: If I'm understanding your question correctly, yeah, we used the data right up until this tournament, but when we get done, when we were done here today, we looked at some data from what was happening on the golf course that just helps us moving forward, for sure.

Q. Jim, you said earlier in the week you thought Xander was going to be one of the team leaders. What made you think that, and can you give me an example of that leadership?

JIM FURYK: Well, I took those guys to dinner a number of different times this year, and in Memphis he kind of, in my opinion, was kind of the life of the party in that room, had some fun.

You know, I've always known Xander and admired his game, but I just really feel like he's stepped up here in the last few years, and I've just witnessed how he is in the team room, how he carries himself. He's a confident person, but I think he instills confidence in others, as well.

You want folks like that to step up in your team room, the veterans, and show some leadership. He's done a great job.

Q. Mike, just wondering if you addressed the team room as a group and what your message was.

MIKE WEIR: I haven't yet, no. The guys were getting food when they were done. Some guys were practicing a little bit. So I haven't yet.

Q. Do you find it useful to talk about it or just try and put it in the past and let them move on?

MIKE WEIR: No, no, we'll talk about it for sure.

Q. Jim, one of the more interesting questions was who might play with Scottie this week. Can you talk about what you saw from Russell playing with him today, and is there anything you can give on how you arrived at that pairing?

JIM FURYK: No, I think something that was -- talking to Scottie and Russ both, I talked to them both actually at the TOUR Championship. Kind of got some ideas. I ran it through the assistants. I ran it through both players. I ran it through some analytics.

Also wanted to see how they interacted here this week. We came in, we started our practice rounds on Sunday. Those guys played together every day and really hit it off.

Kis has been kind of hanging with their groups a lot, and it just seems like a good pair as far as the personalities go. They had a great time out there today together.

Q. Am I right in saying this was an idea in your head first and then you went through all the other analytics, the players themselves, but it was your concept before anything?

JIM FURYK: Maybe. It possibly was. There might be an assistant back there that's like, are you kidding me, I was the one that gave you that idea. I believe so.

I think we kicked around ideas more as a group rather than me just kind of throwing everything out and kind of targeting and zeroing. But I did have a conversation with both those guys kind of early on at the TOUR Championship just to kind of feel the temperature of the water, and it seemed to go over really well.

Just something we kept an eye on, and it was nice to see them get out there together Thursday and Friday.

Q. Back in the spring you said you wanted to see the crowds here a little more hostile than they were in 2007. I'm wondering what your assessment of the crowd was today and if you think there's room for this place to get even louder and if that's necessary and important for the Internationals to make a comeback.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, that was what I was saying for sure. I thought the crowds were good today. I think you get a little momentum going on your side, that's when the crowds can get going.

I think everybody is excited, nervous, and I think the crowds are going to be louder and louder as we go along here.

Q. Tom Kim especially was trying to get them going with the fist pumping and whatever. Would you like to see more of that from -- I know there wasn't a lot of holed putts today, but would you like to see more of that from all of your guys, more emotion on a hole?

MIKE WEIR: Not necessarily. I want them to be themselves. Some guys are -- I don't think -- in my day, I wasn't that type of player. We have guys that are more reserved. We have guys that are a little more outgoing. You want them to be themselves, not be something they're not.

Guys like Tom and Min Woo and a number of other guys on our team like to get the crowd going, like to get that going. But it's got to be authentic. We don't want guys to do something they're not comfortable with. These are grown men. They know what they're doing out there. We're not going to tell them to change their personality out there. We want them to be themselves.

And I saw great energy out there amongst our guys. It didn't go our way today, but the guys are positive. I saw a lot of great things. The U.S. Team played fantastic today. Doesn't mean we're not going to do that tomorrow.

The energy is good in our room.

Q. Question for Mike. Did you choose to pair Mackenzie Hughes with Corey Conners tomorrow to create some kind of spark tomorrow?

MIKE WEIR: I mean, we hope that creates spark, but it's been a pair in my mind talked amongst us for a long time. Not only are they good friends, but a lot of things show that it's a great pair, too. It wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction decision to what happened today or anything.

Q. Can you talk about sitting Tom Kim, as actually one of the few who was providing energy today?

MIKE WEIR: Well, that was part of the plan. It was not a change after or anything. We have a plan for four-ball, and we have a plan for foursomes. Tom wasn't in the plans for today but doesn't mean he might not be down the road.

We're sticking with the plan.

Q. You were up 3-1 at the Ryder Cup in 2018 and you maybe made some decisions that didn't work out after that session. What have you learned from that experience that you can apply to this year?

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I mean, we all try to make decisions. You vet them. You vet them through the players, your assistants, analytics, your own gut feeling. There's a lot of different things. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don't. But I feel like -- I'm trying to give you a good answer.

I feel like I'm a little ahead of where I was in '18, if that makes sense. I feel like I'm a half a day or a half a step ahead of where I was and a little bit more prepared.

Q. Mike, just speaking of the plan you had in place, was there any temptation based on the score after one day to change that plan?

MIKE WEIR: You know what, there was really nothing, talking amongst our guys, that swayed us to make any changes at all. Maybe if someone had gone out there and shot 9-under on their own ball or something like that, there may have been wiggle room to make an adjustment. Who knows.

But we just feel like we had a plan in place going into the week. We like how it's lined up. So I would say no, there wasn't really any big discussion on making a change.

Q. Kind of a non-competition question. The hotel workers' strike, has that caused any problems, nuisance?

JIM FURYK: It really hasn't for us. I know when we got on the bus this morning, it was loud, noisy, noise makers, lots of folks, horns. I think it's like that during the day.

But it really hasn't changed our team room. Hopefully not for Mike, as well, with the food. The hotel, the staff there, I guess, has really done a good job of -- they've got a lot of managers and that rolling up their sleeves and doing other jobs. It really hasn't affected us.

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, same as Jim said. Just coming out with a coffee in the morning and getting on the bus, it's a bit loud, but other than that, nothing affecting the team rooms or anything like that.

Q. Not loud like they're cheering for you, right?

MIKE WEIR: You know, I think they're -- I don't think they were cheering for anything except making noise.

JIM FURYK: Yeah, I don't think any of it was focused on our teams. They're doing their thing, and that's what you do in a protest, correct?