THE RYDER CUP MATCHES

September 28, 2002

Mark Calcavecchia

David Duval

Davis Love III

GORDON SIMPSON: I think we'll start with Davis at the far end. Your game went right to the death. Maybe take us through the closing stages, there.

DAVIS LOVE III: It was obviously we were fortunate to come out on top. We made some very nice putts all during the match, and so did Tiger, and we were very fortunate to come out on top and get a point. It was exciting to play two matches with Tiger and -- it was an exciting match, and both my matches with Tiger were exciting, and we were happy to get a couple of points. It was fun to watch Calc and Duval on the board, it gave us a lot of energy to come back and hang in there.

GORDON SIMPSON: Mark and David. Mark, talk about your game.

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: They came out playing really well early, and David and I had a couple of crooked ones out there and we got in a little bit of a hole. But we never got down, never got frustrated. We knew we were going to make a run someplace. We were looking for a little momentum switch some place. And I think it really started on 8. David made a nice 15-footer for birdie to get us back to 2 down. And the 9th, Jesper and I had 8-footers, mine was for par, and his was for birdie. I made mine and he missed. Matter of seconds later David hit a driver on 10. And right at that point, when David hit the great drive on 10, the mode switched and we knew we were going to make a run at them.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know if I have a whole lot to add, really. Calc kind of told you the message of our match. So it was a matter of just hanging tough and not letting your head drop, and just playing and realizing that there's 18 holes to win a match.

GORDON SIMPSON: And obviously all even, 8-all. Monty just said in the team room, why did we bother for two days, we should have just started at the singles. But it's all to play for.

DAVID DUVAL: It will be exciting tomorrow. The reason to play is because we had fun the last couple of days. It's fun to watch and play even though we're tied.

Q. For Davis, even though Tiger played well in his early match yesterday, he's obviously a bit disappointed about losing the two matches. Could you see fire in his eyes this morning as you guys went out and also just talk a little about why you seem to have good chemistry together.

DAVIS LOVE III: We have good chemistry because he's the best player in the world. Like you said, he should have won a match or two yesterday. That's the way match play is. He probably should have won one yesterday, and maybe he shouldn't have won that match this afternoon. I didn't help him as much as I could have. We got away with one. It's just the way match play is. You can't judge the strength of a player by his Ryder Cup record. You never know what's going to happen in match play. Like they said, why don't we just skip the first part and play the singles; that's the way it seems to come down to. Because it is so close in match play and competition like this. Tiger is having a lot of fun this week, and it was fun to play with him. Maybe he'll sleep a little better tonight, but we won't sleep, any of us, collectively, sleep great until we win.

Q. David, a lot was made of the galleries, the spectators, and how that was going to sort itself out this week. Do you feel energy? Have they been respectful? Are you excited? What's your reaction to the spectators?

DAVID DUVAL: I feel like they've been biased, like you'd expect, but respectful in the same breath. So that's kind of what you'd expect. When you hear cheers for a missed putt on our side or a bad shot, you have to remember it's not a cheer for your bad shot or your misfortune; it's a cheer for their team. And there's a difference.

Q. Could I ask Davis, please, when Sergio and Lee went for the green on the 10th, were you and Tiger tempted at all to follow suit?

DAVIS LOVE III: We were a little bit stumped, but I looked at him and I said, "What do you want to do?" He said, "We decided we're going to lay up, so we're going to lay up." He said we'll beat them -- we'll play them the way we decided to play them, the best way for us to make three is to lay up. And we just didn't hit good wedge shots. But that was the only discussion. And I almost feel bad about it. Because the reason why he's the best player in the world is not only the physical side, it's -- he's as tough mentally as anybody, and he sets the game plan and he sticks with it. And that was not in his game plan to go for that green. He had already decided -- and I had decided, playing with David, that it wasn't the right play. But there was a little bit -- once they started jumping up-and-down, and everybody started screaming, there was a little bit of, well, how do we handle the strategy, but how do we handle if we lay up. This is in my head. I don't know what it was in my head. How do we handle it when we do lay up. Does that put more pressure on us. But driving it in the lake doesn't do us any good, doesn't make us feel any better. We felt like we could hit good wedge shots and we did not. Tiger still almost lipped it in.

Q. Would you do it again?

DAVID FAY: Yes, same plan. I watched Sergio's ball hit the tree and spit out and get lucky to stay in whatever you call that -- the rough, the fringe in the front of the green. And Lee just hit an absolutely perfect shot. If we'd have been hitting drivers all the way around, but that was going to be his first driver of the day and my second, so I didn't think it was a good play.

Q. I just asked Mark and Davis, obviously many strong opponents on the European team, how impressed have they been with Garcia; how tough an opponent is he out on the course?

DAVIS LOVE III: What's the question about Garcia?

Q. As a fellow pro, I'm asking you what he's like on the course? What kind of a competitor is he? When you're against him, what are his talents out there?

DAVIS LOVE III: He's a talented player and loves match play, and very intense.

Q. David, obviously hitting driver on 10 was somewhere in your strategy. Could you talk us through, had you thought that prior to stepping on the tee?

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: That was a stellar 7-iron off the tee, 60 yard wide fairway (laughter.)

DAVID DUVAL: He was going to hit an 8-iron, I talked him into 7. Let's get aggressive, here. It was not something I had ruled out. It was not something I had planned on doing, either. Like I said, the position we were in, we felt pretty good, only being 2-down. We had the tee and kind of wanted to take advantage of that. And I got faith that Mark was going to hit it up within -- I figured absolute worse case 15 feet, but probably 10 to 12 feet for sure. And I figured that if I could hit it up there, then it would force their hand a bit and maybe it would change the tides a bit, and that's exactly what happened.

Q. Did you practice that shot at all this week?

DAVID DUVAL: I hit it on the green the other day.

Q. For Calc and David, could you both talk -- you talked about the momentum swing with that. How does that translate into your own feelings; is that something you start to feel we've got a much better chance here or we're going to kill these guys? How do you feel about it internally? And also, could you clear up the yardage, exactly what it was to the front, what it was to the pin from the tee this afternoon.

DAVID DUVAL: I don't know. It was about 263 yards to the front of the green. It's not very far. I don't know. It's not even in here (laughter). It's not that far. It was about 285 yards at most to the flag from the tee markers. And that's just a slice for me. (Laughter.)

Q. What about what it did for your psyche?

DAVID DUVAL: I think, like I said, I felt walking off of 9, Mark made a nice putt for us to sneak away, again. We had a couple of chances to walk off of 9 at maybe 4 down, even, and we were only two. And we felt pretty good that we had dodged some of their best stuff, and we were only 2-down, because of that. And then when you get back to only 1-down it makes a huge difference. And then we got to 11 and everybody actually played 11 pretty well, it was beautiful golf really on 11 for everybody. Same with 12 but we kept hanging tough. I don't know if they -- I don't know what it was. It was just we birdied 12, and then Calc sifted on 13 and kind of flipped them on 13, when Niclas hit a beautiful shot, and I made one from outside him and flipped it. Kind of the beauty of match play, it happened a lot today.

Q. Kind of a good putt?

DAVID DUVAL: Thank you, it was.

Q. Davis, there were a couple of occasions, especially on the back nine when Tiger made birdie putts to halve the hole. We've seen that a couple of times in majors. I wonder what it was like as a partner, what was going through your head, especially on 16?

DAVIS LOVE III: Well, it's a fun feeling to have a guy out there you know can make it. You're always standing over to the side pulling for the guy to make it. With Tiger when you watch Steve walk away from lining it up, you know he's going to make it. I saw the right-to-lefter at 13 and said it's automatic. You wonder if it's breaking two feet. But the ones that were basically straight are not breaking a whole lot. I felt like he was going to make every one of them. And it's a fun feeling to have a partner like that that just keeps pouring one in after another. It's like standing on a par-5 with Fred Couples, which I've done a bunch, you know. It's birdied or eagled. And it's a very good feeling.

Q. David, I was just wondering what club you hit on the 10th; and also, if Curtis basically left it up to you guys to decide what to do?

DAVID DUVAL: I hit driver off the 10th tee. Yes, Curtis has not told us how to play golf this week. He left it to us to make our own game plans.

Q. For Davis, just wondered, I know you've talked a little bit earlier this week, but talk about the pressure of the 17th and 18th holes and what you felt and perhaps maybe that was the most pressure you've felt this week, I'm assuming.

DAVIS LOVE III: The first tee this morning, when I asked them what kind of yardage they wanted, and Steve and Tiger said just get it in the fairway. That was the most pressure, because I started to realize, all I have to do is get this guy in the fairway on alternate shot and we would be great. I was nervous on the first hole. And I told him when we were done, apologized for one. I played good after that. But I got us in a hole early because I was nervous. It was just a good day to be out there with him. It was very comfortable after that first hole.

And 17 and 18, we had a couple of discussions, but they were just about sticking with the game plan, basically.

Q. Looked like everybody was sort of feeling it, though, especially the European side, for them to miss two short putts.

DAVIS LOVE III: Yes, you know, not to get into what we were thinking, but it was kind of time for something good to happen for us and something -- for them to miss one. They really hadn't missed anything that meant anything all day. And it's unfortunate to miss a putt at 18, but he had bombed a lot of them in that we didn't expect him to make.

Q. Just changing gears a little bit. Tomorrow you guys, and this is for everybody or whoever wants to take it, you go out there by yourselves tomorrow, individual, one-on-one. What's it going to be like? What's the change in mindset that you have to go through and what can, maybe Davis and David take from Brookline or Mark from past ones, going into the final day?

DAVID DUVAL: It's not that dramatically different. Certainly you don't have somebody you're going to be counting on as much, but at the same time some of the feelings you might have, that Davis was just expressing you won't have, either. So it's a long day. There's a lot of golfers out on the course. There's a lot of matches. And I think one of the difficulties lies in staying focused on your own game, your own match, and realizing that the best thing you can do is not cheerlead but to win your own point and go from there. And when you're done with that job, you're welcome to go out and say get going, Calc, or something, come on. But it's just a matter of feeling out what's best for your team again and proceeding in that manner.

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