THE SOLHEIM CUP

October 21, 1994

Laura Davies

Alison Nicholas

LAURA DAVIES: Obviously, very nip and tuck all the way. We were never one down, but never more than one up until we got to the 17th. We could never relax, we had to keep on trying to knock hit close, it was using me hitting irons in. I was trying to get Alley somewhere because she is such a good putter. I never got her close enough early on. They just kept at us, kept making good pars when they needed to. But on the 16th and 17th, I gave Ali two chances and she took them both. A. 16 was about four, five feet and 17 was about eight feet.

LAURA DAVIES: 8-iron and 8-iron, both holes.

LAURA DAVIES: 153 and 151, I think the other one was.

LAURA DAVIES: Brilliant shot. It was -- the one thing I didn't want to do there was go left off the tee and did the complete opposite, stuck under a tree, and I am used to those shots. But Ali doesn't miss as many fairways but she hit a fantastic shot. She had one shot and she hit it. It was unbelievable. I must admit, I did not have my putter out when I had stood in the fairway. I said to her, "if you knock it on the green, I will hole the putts." Once she done that, I had to follow through.

ALISON NICHOLAS: I didn't really -- I think Mark told me how far it was, I can't quite remember. I only had about 80, 90 yards or something, but basically what I was trying to do was just punch it out just left of the trap and let it run onto the front of the green and it came off. I mean, the thing is, it is just a good -- anybody else wouldn't have had a chance. The same on 15, anybody taller wouldn't have been able to get a swing at it, so it was perfect.

ALISON NICHOLAS: That was left in the trees.

ALISON NICHOLAS: I hit it to the front edge. Laura did say if you get on the green I will hole the putt. What more can you do, hey?

LAURA DAVIES: 18 feet.

ALISON NICHOLAS: Yeah, about 18 feet.

ALISON NICHOLAS: I punched the 6-iron out. I had to keep it low because there was a branch right in front of me.

ALISON NICHOLAS: Same club, 6.

ALISON NICHOLAS: That got me going, really, because obviously you want to get your first shot away, and it's just a relief.

ALISON NICHOLAS: Delighted first day. Delighted about it, really. Obviously Laura and Dale that was a great result, especially for Laura, it is her first Solheim Cup and she is a bit of a fighter and that was tremendous.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah. Brilliant. I mean, it would have been really nice if Trish and Pam had just held on there at last. I thought they were going to be honest with you, but a great shot from Sherri Steinhauer there, but 3, 2 is brilliant. I think the foursomes is probably our best of the 3, so it was great to get in there and actually do really well at it.

LAURA DAVIES: No. We thought we would be clever and make ourselves around a bit so they couldn't judge who was going to play against us. We decided it would be nice to play down the order a bit. And just have to see what happens tomorrow. I'm not quite sure where we were going yet. It doesn't really matter where you play or who you play, you've just got to try and play your best and win the point.

LAURA DAVIES: No, it's great. I have enjoyed every one of them. If this just keeps going on, it is great. It is a really friendly atmosphere out there. We were walking down the fairway, all the players and all the caddies were there walking up the with the last match and it was -- it's a great atmosphere to be involved in. You are trying to beat each other ultimately. We are still great friends at the end of the day, I think that is what everyone wanted and that is certainly what happened.

LAURA DAVIES: One of the American -- well, Tammie Green's friend, Amanda, travels around on tour with us a lot. She gave it to me as a lucky charm so I put it in my jacket and Mickey saw it and said, oh, that would be a good idea, she had some respect to the American team and to their flag at the ceremony so we thought it would be a nice idea to have us all put a flag in. That is what Mickey did, she rounded up 11 flags and we all wore them.

LAURA DAVIES: Very tough. I think it is a really tough golf course and, you know, it is sort of a track where you are got to win holes with pars; especially on the foursomes format. I think it will be slightly different tomorrow because of the four but we were be able to go to the pins a bit more; hopefully make a few more birdies but I think we made about 5, I think, which was pretty good. It is very tough. Obviously a great golf course, beautiful condition.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I think so. We just won, you know.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, we finally -- I hit 2 really good 8 irons in and Ali hit 2 great putts, very miserable putts and she put a good stroke on them, so we are taking it personally for going into tomorrow two birdies, you can't ask for more than that. If you hit a few bad ones early on, that is the nerves, I missed a few greens early on, and I think you just try a little bit too hard especially in that foursomes format because if you hit a bad shot for yourself you got go and do it; I keep seeing Ali in these trees; it makes you feel bad.

LAURA DAVIES: We have only got one leader; that is Mickey. We all go-- help each other and we all go on the practice round in the morning; talk to each other; try to put each other at ease. Only one leader for us; that is Mickey and if the people think that, you know, it is me, as well that is nice, but it really is Mickey. We look to -- and tell you what, when Mickey makes a decision, you stick to it usually because she won't have any back chat from us.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I mean it was a good draw for Ali and I. Ali is really good friends with Betsy. It was just nice to get out there with two great competitors and hopefully beat them. They are really nice girls. It was really good atmosphere the match was played in. We always got excited when we made putts and equally they did with us. It would not be normal if we didn't get excited about that.

LAURA DAVIES: Pretty much still the same. There's a long way to go and we had a great start. If we are still in this position a point ahead going into the singles matches, then I think it's, you know, game on. Tomorrow is important for us, in my opinion, that we really have to get a good four-ball result. 2-and-a-half points will be really good if we can do that, I think, that is just my view.

LAURA DAVIES: No. It just shows in this sort of format anything can happen. And 3 points to 2, 2 points to 3, it is all very close. At one stage there we were in the middle of the fairway one up on 16 and it looked like we were watching Laura and Dale lose a whole they ended up carving it and then winning the very next hole. We won the 2 and then all of a sudden from two matches that were looking pretty dodgey we won both within, you know, 20 minutes. So two points were decided very quickly there. It could happen either way, so...