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WGC WORLD CUP

November 19, 2004

Paul Casey

Luke Donald

SEVILLA, SPAIN

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Luke Donald and Paul Casey for joining us for a few minutes in the media center at the World Golf Championships World Cup. Y'all had a fun day out there, putting up nine birdies in about 12 holes there in the middle of the round. Why don't you just talk about how enjoyable it was out there today.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, very enjoyable. Obviously, a 5-3-5 finish was not what we wanted, but I think in foursomes you are going to make some mistakes. It was disappointing to finish on a bogey, and it was disappointing for it to have to be on the last because it it's going to leave a little bit of a sour taste in ours mouths. But other than that, that aside, we played very well today.

I think it was a good plan of us, for me to take the odds and Paul to take the evens. It really meant that I was hitting a lot of iron shots and Paul was hitting a lot of putts. Right now my iron play is really strong, and Paul's putting is very strong. So it worked out very well today.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Your thoughts, Paul?

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I thought it worked out brilliantly. I actually felt like I didn't play very well, but again, I probably only hit about three shots today. (Laughter.)

I felt Luke made some crucial -- he said that I made all of the putts. I guess I did to a certain extent. I made all of the birdie putts today, but Luke made three very, very crucial par saves, as well which kept our momentum going. I felt he played the better golf between the two of us today. Our strategy was correct, and simple as that. We played nice, aggressive yet not overly aggressive, conservative in the right places, golf. And, you know, it paid off. Simple as that.

Q. Would you pick us out the exceptional holes in your mind?

PAUL CASEY: I think the par 3 sixth hole, after we got off and made a few birdies -- seventh, after four birdies in a row there, the seventh hole, Luke hit a terrible 3-iron in the bunker. I didn't hit a great bunker shot, and he holed a putt from about 12 feet behind the hole. Which really kept the momentum going. That was crucial. It would have been very easy to let all of the momentum we had slip at that point.

And the same on 10. I hit a poor tee shot. We were left of the green, and Luke made a fantastic save from probably 20 feet. Those were probably the two key holes of the day, would I have felt.

LUKE DONALD: The putts really were dropping well for us, and I think you always want to keep the momentum going. The holes we struggled on as Paul said, 7, 10 and even 16, we struggled on.

Other than that, I don't think there were many holes we didn't have a birdie chance, apart from 18, obviously. But 15 I think, you know, Paul hit it in the water and I just about got it over to the green and then --

PAUL CASEY: He surprised me. I thought he was laying up.

LUKE DONALD: I made a good putt there and that kept the momentum going.

Just a lot of solid golf. I think a couple up-and-downs on 13 and 14 out of the sand was another kind of confidence booster. That got us to 20-under at that point, I believe. Yeah, obviously disappointed to finish like we did but all in all, it was pretty impressive to watch.

Q. Is this course playing a bit too easy for you? The weather is beautiful; there's no wind. Would you like the wind to kick up a bit more to make it a little more challenging?

LUKE DONALD: I'd be happy if we played like we did the last two days in the same conditions. We're doing pretty well with I think a five-shot lead now. So it is playing somewhat easy if you're hitting good shots. But it's the same for everyone. I don't see it being an advantage for anyone or a disadvantage for us if it stays this way.

But we're going to go out and try and play very aggressive again tomorrow. Luckily we've got four-balls to go and do that. If we can shoot somewhere in the double-digits under par, then I think we should have a good lead and we'll have to assess the situation after that tomorrow.

Q. Will you ignore the leaderboards tomorrow?

LUKE DONALD: Probably.

PAUL CASEY: Probably I will, yeah.

LUKE DONALD: I don't feel like you need to look at the leaderboard this early in the stage. I think we're just better off going out and playing the golf we've been playing and not worry about other opponents.

PAUL CASEY: It's difficult to assess a number and try and chase it, as well. So I think we'll just take every hole as it comes and just try to give ourselves two birdie putts on every single hole tomorrow. Simple as that. Keep it very, very simple.

Q. You're doing very well to get on it with it when you've had other distractions this week. Have you put things out of your mind a little now?

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I'd rather not take any questions about anything else and just focus on the golf.

Q. Could you explain the happy putting state you're in at the moment?

PAUL CASEY: Why, has it not been happy recently? (Smiling.)

Q. No, it's just that you get on these greens and you seem to be holing everything.

PAUL CASEY: They are very good greens. They have done some work on this course, made some greens larger. But the greens are fantastic. I'm obviously seeing the breaks, which helps. I feel like I'm a good putter. I know I'm a good putter. It was just sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. Today was just one of those things. Luke gave me a lot of chances. I think when you start to have a lot of chances, you eventually find the groove and they go in. He did leave me --

LUKE DONALD: Paul found the groove pretty early though, which was good.

PAUL CASEY: He left me nice putts. They were all -- they were putts you look at and you knew which way they were going to break. It was as simple as that and that was nice.

Q. Winning the World Cup, where would it rank amongst what you've achieved so far?

PAUL CASEY: I would rate it very high, representing my country. It's a World Golf Championships event, strong field, it would be my only win of the year if I win this. Any win is a great win, simple as that. I don't care where it is or what event. A win is a win. And I value them all very, very highly.

Q. Of course there's a certain Nick Faldo on the trophy as well.

PAUL CASEY: With David Carter. It would be nice.

LUKE DONALD: There are a lot of great champions on this trophy. So it's obviously a very well-recognized event and it would be a great attribute to anyone's resume.

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you for joining us. Appreciate it.

End of FastScripts.

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