THE PRESIDENTS CUP

September 29, 2024

International Team

Royal Montreal Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome the International Team for the 2024 Presidents Cup.

Mike, we'd just like to maybe get some comments from you. What do you take away from this week being a proud Canadian and representing this International Team?

MIKE WEIR: I'd say just sitting here as a competitor, it's tough. We all feel -- it's tough to take. It just happened, right; it's a little bit raw. I'll start there.

But I just love these guys. I love their fight and what I saw out there today, all week, from the get-go, they battled right to the end. That's all you can ask from the captain is what I asked them to do, and they responded and did that.

It was just a special week, special bonding with all of us guys. All the families, that's what makes the week really special. So those are some of my key thoughts, I guess, as I get started here.

I guess the other thing is just super high level of play, I think on both teams. It was really high-level golf, lots of birdies, lots of big momentum swings. Really exciting golf, as a golf fan, to watch, which I'm a golf fan. It was really great golf to watch.

Q. Mike, bear with me here, I want to read you this stat that I found pretty interesting. In Charlotte at the Presidents Cup, similar score, was one different. When you look at the margin of holes won for the entire event through all five sessions, the Americans were plus 26. If you look at the Ryder Cup last year when the Europeans won by a pretty lopsided margin, it was plus 25 for them. This year plus 1 for the Americans, essentially even through five sessions. Just curious what you make of that. It's kind of a weird stat I just sort of picked out.

MIKE WEIR: Well, that's a great stat to share, thank you, but it just goes to confirm what we all believe how close it was. Those matches on 18 Thursday. If we could have got a point or half a point in some of those yesterday afternoon, obviously the last 45 minutes kind of swung the other way in a couple matches.

It could have gone either way. Jim's made mention of it as well. But I didn't realize, like you said, just one point there, right?

Q. One hole.

MIKE WEIR: One hole essentially. The margin was so close. That's what makes it tough because we know how close it was. We know a couple things go our way, and it could have at least started the day quite a bit different today, and who knows if we wouldn't have been in such a deficit.

Q. Adam, you've been through so many of these. Did this time feel different? If so, how so?

ADAM SCOTT: Like I said earlier in the week, I had a great feeling for this team coming in. I felt like there's been an evolution under this Shield the last two Cups, four or five years of that, and buy-in from all the international players. It's something that they aspire to play for.

And I felt we just had a great trip up here. The personalities were great. I think you saw that under the heat of competition this week from some of these guys, maybe some unexpected personalities out on the golf course, some expected as well.

But you know, the result unfortunately is the same. With a deep dive, I think there are positives always to see, and hopefully, hopefully this competition inspires all of us sitting up here to play really hard, go on with our careers the next two years, win big events, and come back better prepared and ready to win in Chicago.

Q. Tom, I noticed after your match today you made a point to find Xander Schauffele and Jim Furyk. I was curious to know what you might have said to them, if you could share.

TOM KIM: Yeah, it was just about my comments yesterday. I just told him like, hey, I didn't mean it to go in such a negative way. If it did, I just said I'm sorry. It was just I felt like what I heard yesterday, some comments that I've heard was at that time, just coming off the green, it came to me so personally and just I felt like it was right to share.

Definitely, I didn't really at that time, just didn't think it would be so negative. I really didn't mean to -- because when I played with Patrick and Xander, obviously we've battled a few times and they've always been such great competitors. They've never -- I've always felt like there's such a good sportsmanship between us. It was just outside the ropes, and I felt like that was a little misunderstanding on my part, which I should have explained better.

So I went to him and I said, I didn't mean it that way. I apologize if it came out wrongly. It was just this and this happened, but if it affected you guys so negatively, I really do apologize. I didn't mean to do it in that way.

This event is all about doing things you would never do and creating energy and doing all these things. If I -- I do certain things on the greens when I make putts, and I expect them to do the same thing. It's all part of the game. It was just about that.

Q. Did you have that in the back of your mind that you were going to do that at some point today?

TOM KIM: Absolutely. It came so negatively, which I never meant to do. I just wanted to find the right time and share my thoughts because I don't want my team to feel uncomfortable. I don't want their team to feel a certain way about us. It's all fun. It's all part of the game.

I felt like it was right for me to go up and share the way -- you know, what the meaning was coming from that comment.

Q. Mac, obviously dream come true to make this team and represent the Internationals on home soil. Just wondering, as a rookie this week, how would you sum up everything that happened over the last six, seven days or so?

MACKENZIE HUGHES: Being with this group was the highlight of my career, and it was amazing to go to battle with these guys. Got to play a few matches with Corey, so that was obviously pretty special.

Yeah, like Mike said, we're all competitors and the result stinks, but man, the memories that we made, Friday, the feelings we had on the golf course that day will be something I think about for a long time. When I look forward to Chicago and being on many more teams, I will look at a day like that where I know what these teams are capable of doing.

The results don't do justice for how close these matches were. If we played the last couple holes better in a few matches, this thing could swing the other way.

The week as a whole being a rookie, got to play with -- be around some of the best players in the world. It was magical. I knew it would be, and it lived up to all the hype and more.

Q. Similar question, so I'll ask Corey instead of Mac. When you go away from this event and a couple weeks have passed the and the loss is behind you, can you look back at Friday in particular and just sort of focus on that memory and how fun that day is and that pairing was? Also, the same for Taylor, given how well you and Adam Scott paired on Friday as well.

COREY CONNERS: Obviously Friday was a big day for the team, and getting to play with Mac, we go way back in our friendship and our golf careers, and being able to share that moment with him, share the dominating day with the entire team was definitely really special. I think that's a big positive we can all take away from the week.

It showed that we're great competitors and we're really good players and can compete with the Americans. So definitely a positive day. But as of right now, it definitely kind of stinks not to have gotten the better of them.

Q. Hideki, you obviously had two intense matches with Scottie Scheffler last night and today, and they felt pivotal as you guys were trying to make a comeback. What was that like playing the world No. 1?

HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: Yesterday's match, Sungjae basically carried me all day. So I really wanted to play good today. That was my focus for today, so really happy with the win today.

Q. Mike, foursomes hasn't traditionally been a great format for the International Team over the years, but yet you had that great result on Friday. Just wondering, in the aftermath now, anything you wish you could have done to carry that momentum over into yesterday or it just doesn't work that way?

MIKE WEIR: Yeah, definitely. As you said, to get the result Thursday, it was an interesting week. We've really been good in four-ball, and we just had a tough day Thursday and some really close matches we all talked about here, but the foursomes was dynamite, obviously, and something that we had struggled with.

So we wanted to carry that momentum into Saturday. That's why we went with the groups we went with and carried that momentum.

Of course when you lose the Cup, as captain you look back and say was that a good idea or not. You've got 12 great players here, and you're trying to make the best decisions over the course of four days out there. Look, I'll second guess it. You know what, we didn't win. I think in my career anytime I've fallen short, I've taken a hard look. So that will be something I'll do when I have time to process it.

Q. Mike and the assistant captains, the last significant tweak to the format was in 2015. I'm curious, is there still an internal push to make some changes, potentially reduce the number of available points, or is there sort of a general acceptance of this is the way it's going to be going forward?

MIKE WEIR: Maybe I'll start. I haven't been pushing for anything. I don't know down there, boys, but I guess no, not that I'm aware of that we've been pushing. I don't know what the guys have to say.

ERNIE ELS: I think we brought it down from 34 points, and our first prize was 28, so we had to settle somewhere, so we settled at 30.

The way the guys are playing in foursomes and the team pairing, the team stuff, we're doing well there. We only won 4½ in the singles today. Foursomes we swept the one day. And that first day was so close. The third session, we sucked a little bit that morning, probably partly because of our mistake. As Mike says, we'll look back on that.

But that first day was tough. There were three matches on 18 and a lot of flipping going on. I don't know. We'll talk to the guys. I think 30 is fine. I don't know how the guys feel. We've just got to play a little better, get a little sharper.

Q. Ernie, I only ask you this because you're the oldest guy in the room.

ERNIE ELS: Really? In the whole room?

Q. Sitting with a black hat on. You were there in '98, that great moment and great celebration, Americans returned the favor to tie in South Africa, very tight in '05. From there, what have you seen of what's gone on? If you look at like '98 through '05, it feels like a different Cup than it has been lately. What have you seen?

ERNIE ELS: We were in a really golden period there for a while. Not sure why. We had a lot of people in the top 10, top 15, top 20 in the world for a long period of time in the '90s and early 2000s.

It could be that the way people play now it's tough to pick up World Ranking points. On the U.S. Tour, it's very competitive. Just to stay on TOUR, you're doing very well. It's so competitive on the TOUR, the U.S. PGA TOUR. Money is very competitive. People want to play in the U.S. It's tough to play Europe. My day, we played a lot of Europe, picked up a lot of ranking points.

I remember going through Dubai, and you play well at Dubai, you're good to go. You're top 10 for the rest of the year, basically, and some of the other tournaments. But that's kind of gone away a little bit now. A lot of our players were lost to LIV.

So we're in the process. These guys may not rank very high in World Ranking, but they're coming. There's a lot of good, great talent here, so we've got to give this a little bit of time. When they start winning tournaments on the U.S. PGA TOUR, their real confidence is going to come through. Give it a bit of time.

It was a different animal back in the day, but this thing's coming, I promise you. Even the U.S. Team, how many players in the top 20 this week?

A lot of the guys live here. We've just got to give it some time. I think the next year or so, these guys start winning tournaments, the whole thing will change again.

Q. Adam, I'll come to you off the back of that. After '19, you, Sungjae, a few others springboarded into victories on TOUR soon after. I think in '22, Tom, you might have won right after. Is there something to that, that this group can sort of take it forward and perhaps do win events in the near future and push your career that way?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I've seen it many times, going back even to '03 for me with that experience, but I see it with a lot of guys like you just mentioned. They use this experience of these tight matches, coming up the 18th, the pressure of playing, last match on the course, all the teams are watching, all the focus is on you, and the next time you put yourself in that position in a big event, you can lean on this experience.

So I've seen it many times. I even think of Scottie Scheffler at Whistling Straits to then where he is now. These can do a lot for your confidence and give you a lot of experience.

So like I said earlier, I hope these guys are inspired off the back of this and push to make the next team and rack up victories along the way.

Q. Adam, the wound is fresh, but this week, what does it do for your desire to be on the team next time? Do you feel like there's a 12th one in you?

ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, sure.

SI WOO KIM: He's in already. We wrote his name down.

ADAM SCOTT: I think I can play for another couple years. I've come this far. If I can play in a couple more years and contribute a point, then I'd love to be on a winning Presidents Cup team.

Like I said before, I believe there's something happening with this team internally under this Shield. I'd love to push along and give it one more shot if I can.

TOM KIM: Let's make it three more. Three more.

ADAM SCOTT: Tom will play in 20 of these. He's got two before I even played one.

I have a lot of fun with these guys. I told them at the start of the week it's them who is motivating me and inspiring me to make this team. The standard of golf is so high, and it's getting harder for me to keep up, but it's them that I look to to see what the standard is that I need to compete and be on this team.

Hopefully I can keep it up for another couple years.

Q. Geoff, one for you. Did you design Medinah to give the International an advantage?

GEOFF OGILVY: Absolutely. We just tried to make the best golf course we could out of Medinah, and we may have some of the best inside reads on some of the putts maybe. No, just tried to make it as good as we could.