THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 10, 2003

Catrin Nilsmark

MARTIN PARK: Welcome, Catrin. You've had a very interesting week and you're more mobile than you have been all week. How are you feeling today.

CATRIN NILSMARK: I'm feeling a lot better than the last couple of days. To say that I'm happy is an understatement.

Q. Are you on some medication at the moment to help you get around a little bit?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah. A bit of a mixture of LSD and morphine and cocaine.

Q. Catrin, this is not an ideal situation with you, but how are you coping with the injury and with the Solheim Cup?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Actually I think I'm coping quite well. Like I said I did have a dramatic improvement yesterday. Before that it was a little bit iffy. I was in very much pain, and that was more than anything a problem. To function normally if you're in a lot of pain is just really difficult to think and to be able to see people and talk to everybody you want and be sort of alert. With the improvement yesterday, I think things are going really really well. I have an absolutely fantastic vice captain who has been all along very involved and is extremely involved in my work and the team's work. It's working well and like I said I feel -- I haven't been out on the course, but I've been out among the players, the first tee and the putting green and everything. So I feel everything right now.

Q. How much consideration did you give to stepping down? Did you give any consideration to maybe stepping down as captain?

CATRIN NILSMARK: We have an extra paragraph in the captain's agreement to say that 30 minutes before play I can give the rights over to the vice captain to talk to the players. So up until then -- obviously I won't step down. It's not a matter of pride or self-worth or whatever you call it. If I can't do the job 100 percent, she'll do that job. I have no problems with that. The most important thing is the team and that they don't have to suffer in any way. So that's going to be taken care of and it's going to be taken care of in a very, very good way.

Q. Start at the beginning when this happened, exactly what happened?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah. Martin, I was sitting making phone calls by your desk in Wales. All of a sudden I just felt like -- I didn't feel very comfortable. I was twisting about a bit and I stood up and I thought, oh, my goodness, my leg hurt and I couldn't really walk very well. And I was just going to go and tee off. Well, actually I was going to go and warm up. My warm up was very iffy. My caddie was going, "What are you doing?" I said, well, I'm trying to really make a swing, but I don't know what happened, but I can barely make a swing. So anyway I decided to play. I played 18 holes in Wales in complete agony, which I wouldn't have done. But I thought maybe tomorrow is going to be better. And it wasn't. Tomorrow was worse. And the next day was worse. And all of a sudden I was in the hospital. So really I didn't do anything dramatic. But my back has been really bad over the last couple of years.

Q. What is the medical diagnosis? Is it a pinched nerve?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Ruptured disk.

Q. You were in the hospital for 10 days in Scotland?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Eight days.

Q. What were they doing for you in that time?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Giving me morphine. Pretty much that's all. I'm saying that -- I got morphine when I came in there just to get rid of an absolute acute situation where I was in -- I don't know what you'd call it like a fit -- spasm, a back spasm where I couldn't move. And once we got rid of that, I was just really we didn't do much. They did a little bit of pulling my leg to ease the worst of the leg pain and then gradually I became a little bit better so I could leave the hospital.

Q. After this week are you going to have an operation?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Not immediately. I'm going to wait and see. I feel like I've improved. And sometimes it takes quite a while to improve. Obviously if I'm going to get any better than this, it's a must for surgery. I would like to give it quite a few more weeks to see if I can improve. I have some really good help now finally in both my -- well, my naturopath and I also met a very very good chiropractor from the south of Sweden a couple of days ago. And I think that was a big change for me. With their help I'd like to continue to improve.

Q. If I could just take you away from your illness because maybe not thinking about it would help alleviate it. I know each captain believes they're going to win, but can you give us an assessment of what you see is better for your team's strengths as compared to the American team? Could you just run through what you see are the strengths of your team compared to the Americans.

CATRIN NILSMARK: The strength of my team I think is has been in the past and I think it still is somewhat valid it's our team spirit that we've had. It's the four balls and the better balls for whatever reason, whether it be tradition, memories, or it's just that we play better in a group. I really don't know. It's probably a combination of everything. But that is still I think our strength. Although I have to say that the Americans have -- this was very much valid in the beginning of the Solheim Cup history, and I think the Americans have come close to our team spirit. They've learned over the years I think to become more of a team than individuals. Technically we might be slightly, on the average, slightly longer hitters, which could work to our advantage on certainly some of the par 5's. But I think generally it's very difficult to give an answer to -- whoever plays the best golf, they have a great team, we have a great team. Whoever plays the best golf in the three days are going to win. There's certainly not like a hidden advantage to any of it.

Q. Is this rule you've written into the captain's agreement 30 minutes before you can nominate Alison to be the one that talks on the course, is this before each individual series?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yes. Before each individual match.

Q. They mentioned a modification to a buggy so you'll be able to go on the course. Do you know what that is?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yes. We've done some building. I shouldn't say we. And now I should know the name of this absolute terrific guy that works here in the machine park. We made some wishes together with the European physiotherapist, we have been able to sort of move back one of the back rests on one side and then put it at an angle. And I'm going to have a little bit of a foam patch at the bottom. I'll be more at this angle than standing up.

Q. Have you been on the course at all yet?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I've been on the first tee, practice area.

Q. I'm sorry if I'm missing something. There are lots of questions that I want to ask you. Can you tell us -- this happened in Wales, but was it a -- is it a recurrence of something that happened a long time ago and if so, when?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I did have an MRI last year in April in America, so a year and a half ago. And it showed a bulging disk which is not quite as bad as a ruptured disk. But there is really not one incident or accident that -- so it's hard to answer your question. I think being a tall person, it's very easy to have back pain, especially if you're a golf pro. And I have had lots of back problems for years really.

Q. You can't sit down, but are you able to lie down? Do you have to lie on a board?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I can lie down or stand up. I could even sit somewhat very funnily on the edge of a chair and lean. It looks a bit more silly than standing up.

Q. How much sleep have you had in the last two days?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Quite a bit. The last five or six days I've been able to sleep six, seven hours a night. Before that it was maybe six or seven hours offer a time of 10 days.

Q. Talk about the team spirit. Could you tell us about the time off course with the team, who is the class clown, what do you guys do? Who brings the spirit to the team?

CATRIN NILSMARK: We have a team room just like the Americans do. We have table tennis, pool table, darts.

Q. Have you got table tennis?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yes. Pool table, darts. We're just hanging around playing music. I have six helpers which is the girls are going to go with each match. They're absolutely music fanatics. We have lots of music going on. I think we like to joke around a bit. I'm playing a game with them at the moment that's actually driving them mad. They're trying to figure out a thing that I do. It's a bit of fun for now.

Q. Is it a board game or computer game?

CATRIN NILSMARK: It's like a mental game with them.

Q. Gestures?

CATRIN NILSMARK: No. It's a silly game that I got from my mental coach to wind them up a bit.

Q. Like a riddle?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yes.

Q. Can you tell us at the end of the week?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah. I can tell you. At the end of the week I can tell you because they haven't figured it out yet. It's been a few days.

Q. Does all this help you assess, because you can't get on the course, does this help you assess which players you use when and how?

CATRIN NILSMARK: The game?

Q. The game or, yeah, your time with them?

CATRIN NILSMARK: No, not really. Not for the golf, no. I think I pretty much know by now how they are as golfers and who I think they fit well to play with. And I do consult with every player who I team them with.

Q. Have you made up your mind now how the first two days will go?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Roughly, but there's room for changes.

Q. You said that more players want to emphasize the singles on Sunday. Can you describe in what way you're trying to get them focused?

CATRIN NILSMARK: It's just something -- I've been thinking a lot how to approach the Sunday singles. I don't think it's a good idea to say straight out, when are you going to talk about the singles, because I think that is to put a focus on it. But rather that the speech that I have prepared, the really obvious speech for my players all week is that I want us to have like a theme or a red line through the three days. I'm not going to talk to them until Thursday night. It's not really something -- it's quite private. But it's just what I've tried to come up with to make us see the Solheim Cup, the three days as one thing instead of five separate matches. But it's just one match for us, from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.

Q. Some of the American players are saying that Juli Inkster is their team clown. Do you have one on yours?

CATRIN NILSMARK: We have a couple, I think.

Q. Who are they?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I think Iben Tinning is working her way up as a team clown.

Q. How come? What does she do?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Just the way she is but very much a bit of a laugh. And together with Alison, they loosen a bit sometimes. It's fun.

Q. What happens, Catriona, if after this 30 minutes before play has started, if you're okay, but then later during the day you're suddenly taken ill? What happens then? Is there anything in the rules to deal with that?

CATRIN NILSMARK: That's not going to happen. If I fall over and break my leg? I don't know. We're talking about four matches, and they last about four hours maximum. I've been in this sort of state for 18 days. So I think -- I'm quite sure I can judge if I'll be able to -- no. I'll be able to judge, I think, unless something --

Q. Maybe something happens to you?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I don't know.

Q. Maybe somebody drives into the back of your car accidentally?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I don't know. I'd have to find out.

Q. You seem very determined that this will not get in the way of your captaincy this week.

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah.

Q. Fair?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yes. But at the same time my captaincy is not the most important thing. It's the team.

Q. I understand. Just the determination that you seem to display talking about it in here, I'm wondering about if that spirit will be passed along to your team in the way that they approach the week?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I hope. If anything is going to come out of it, I hope it's only going to be positive, like I said positive determination.

Q. With your experience in playing yourself a lot of times, are there some things special that you have thought about that you have missed from the years when you were playing that you now are going to put into this competition as a captain?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I think so. It's probably a few little things that I try to improve what I think has been not -- maybe not the way I wanted it.

Q. Like what?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Communication I would mention as one thing. I don't like surprises for the girls. I don't want them to go and wonder and be unsure, "Am I going to play?" I can't always say who is going to play, but, "Am I going to play with her, am I going to play with her?" I like to have them involved as much as possible. You can't talk every single thing you think and every combination you think, but I think you can do quite a bit of communicating before the actual announcement of the teams.

Q. What's the most difficult thing about being captain on crutches?

CATRIN NILSMARK: The most difficult thing? I don't know so far. I would have liked to be out on the course yesterday, just to be visible for the players. But it hasn't been -- no, it hasn't been difficult in that sense. They know the situation. I think they feel fine. Like I said I have Alison who has been very involved all along. Nothing in particular.

Q. Difficult for you but not for them?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Yeah. That's what I think.

Q. You're saying you don't want the players to have surprises. But at the same time you're saying that you know yourself roughly the pairings of how you want them. Does this mean the players also know? Have you talked with them about it?

CATRIN NILSMARK: More or less. Roughly they have an idea. Some of them know.

Q. Which players are more important for you this week?

CATRIN NILSMARK: For us to beat the Americans, every player is extremely important, because as it's been in the past, it's come down to the Sunday singles. If you don't have a good number on Sunday, you're not going to win in your favor. Every player is important. I have probably four or five players that are going to play five matches. Obviously they are my key players.

Q. Patty Sheehan has said that every one of her players wants to play Annika. Is there any way you can take away the pressure from Annika?

CATRIN NILSMARK: No. I think Annika probably knows. She's so experienced. She's had a lot of pressure from other people, from herself a lot in the past and very recently. I think she'll be able to deal with that in her own way. I think I can only help by us having a great atmosphere, by teaming her up in a way that she's happy. But the pressure I think -- it would be from herself. It comes down to herself dealing with that.

Q. Can I ask how you're feeling about Patricia and the pregnancy? She's obviously only going to play once a day at most.

CATRIN NILSMARK: We don't know that yet. She feels fine. She has some good medication. She's been a bit nauseous over the last week when she was home, but it's worked out really well with her medications. She's feeling good.

Q. So would you even consider playing her 36 holes?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I don't know yet. I don't know yet. It's really up to Patricia herself. We've talked about that. She needs to be the one who tells me if she's up to 36 holes.

Q. Besides Annika, could you name some of the other key players?

CATRIN NILSMARK: No.

Q. Laura has always played all five matches. But sometimes it looked like she was a bit tired going into Sunday. I assume she also wants to play all five matches. How are you going to deal with that?

CATRIN NILSMARK: I think I'm just going to do what I think is best?

Q. Are you in pain when you stand there?

CATRIN NILSMARK: Like I said to my husband, a 2 on a scale from 1 to 10. So it's really good right now.

MARTIN PARK: Thank you, Catrin.

CATRIN NILSMARK: Thank you.

End of FastScripts.