September 19, 2004
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MICHIGAN
DAVIS LOVE III: We were both in a situation where we knew that as friends and competitors that we should have picked them both up. But it wasn't my place to say -- it ended up the right way for Darren and I.
We're playing a practice round in Ireland at 7:00 in the morning on Wednesday and we'll go back to, he'll be needling me for two years about this.
Q. Did you have an idea the match was going to be -- with Cup in balance, would you have done anything different with the possible drop on 18?
DAVIS LOVE III: No, I couldn't have dropped it.
Q. But don't you think that Seve would have done it in heartbeat?
DAVIS LOVE III: In fairness, I didn't get a drop. I could have said I was going to hit a high cut 4-iron in there, but I know and Darren know and people that could see the lie knew that I wasn't going to hit a high, cut 4-iron in there. I was going to hack a 6-iron out or hack a wedge out like I did.
So, you know, you play fair. And Darren and I have always played fair with each other, whether it's the World Match-Play or a match in a practice round or the Ryder Cup. You know, it's a shame that neither one of us didn't win by playing well. He had a great 16 and 17, but you know neither one of us did a whole lot of spectacular stuff, and it's just, in the end, it's nice that we ended up with a halve.
Q. Early in the matches when Tiger was ahead, you were ahead, did you sense any kind of a Brookline thing coming on?
DAVIS LOVE III: Yeah, it looked like we had a chance. There was a time when our board was all red, but we just didn't keep it rolling. I think kind of the air went out of the balloon when they started getting a point here or a point there. Then it all went, started going back to blue.
But our problem is that we didn't do that on Friday morning. 2-2 Friday morning would have been a whole different story, and that's, been our problem, is you get behind in this -- the team that gets way behind hardly ever wins.
Q. What do you do as far as getting the United States back into the competitive swing of this? Is this something that you look ahead to the time when you're captain that you may do differently?
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, you can't do anything differently. For Hal or Tom Kite who didn't win or Lanny Wadkins who didn't win, or Ben Crenshaw who was close to not winning, what do you do differently? You take 12 of the best players in the world and you put them out there and they have got to play. You could do all kind of pairings, all kind of formats, but if Tiger Woods and Davis Love and Phil Mickelson don't lead this team, it's hard for the next three or four guys to do it and it's hard for the rookies.
I got put out there with two guys who didn't play in Ryder Cups before and I didn't carry them. If you're going to point blame at anybody, you'd better point it on the guys that are on the golf course, not at the captain.
Hal said he's never been second-guessed so much in his life. Well, if we'd have won, he wouldn't have been second-guessed. If we'd have won our first two matches the first morning, Hal would have looked like a genius. And that's what I said about Tom Kite. We putted terrible for Tom Kite. We had, what, four majors winners for the year on the team at Valderrama? And we all putted bad. It wasn't Tom Kite's fault.
Q. Given this format doesn't translate to World Rankings, it's for four-balls and foursomes, is it time for Europe to be considered the favorite?
DAVIS LOVE III: What makes us the favorite? We haven't been winning it. It doesn't really matter who the favorite is. You've got to go out and play. You know, Tiger Woods is the favorite or Vijay Singh is the favorite whenever they tee it up, but they don't win every tournament.
Q. Seems like they love coming in being told they are the underdogs.
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, if we tell them they are the favorites next time and we're the underdogs -- we know we are. If they keep coming bringing the Cup back on their airplane, we are the underdog and they have a half-a-point lead starting off. That's the difference, we are a half-a-point underdog already for next time.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Fantastic. You can't put into words what it's like.
CAPTAIN BERNHARD LANGER: Don't want this day to end.
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: We won't. None of us will be in our beds tonight, I can assure you. I heard you when you were talking about that, communicating with the team -- that's what it was all about. Communication between everybody and all of the players and everybody, we all felt part of it, we all played for each other. We played for each other. Huge, huge. And it shows. We've got countries and everything together and look at us.
CAPTAIN BERNHARD LANGER: I had faith in you guys and you guys had the leadership. We just gelled great together from the first shot to the last.
LEE WESTWOOD: It's a fantastic atmosphere. Bernhard said if we'd have lost today, it still would have been a great week, but it's great to win.
IAN POULTER: I played well this week. But the main thing is, I can thank my partners. You play with Sergio and Darren, it's difficult to lose, they are such good players. But, you know it was nice to win at singles at last.
Q. What were you experiencing winning this Ryder Cup?
IAN POULTER: One of best days of my life. It's been unbelievable. I was really fired up for it today, very disappointed. Didn't win a point yesterday and wanted to help the team today. That's what I focused on. I was told not to look at the boards. I'm very happy that I put a point on the board for the team, and Bernhard's been unbelievable this week. I'm so proud of him and so glad I put a point on the board for him, as well.
Q. Best moment of your career.
IAN POULTER: Absolutely. It's awesome. The crowd has been absolutely fantastic this week, and you know, I know why these guys make sure they are on the side every single time because it's the best.
Q. You guys have your arms around each other, the camaraderie on your team is so palpable, just talk about it. This has to be a remarkable experience.
IAN POULTER: Every European Team I've played on has had this camaraderie.
LEE WESTWOOD: The difference between this Ryder Cup Team and others is I think is it's the strongest ever Ryder Cup Team all the way through the team. I think we've got 12 world-class players.
IAN POULTER: This is my first Ryder Cup and I didn't really know -- three years ago, I missed out by a point and now I don't ever want to miss again. It is the best week in golf history.
Q. Do you almost have a feeling, two years, "I want to do this again"?
LEE WESTWOOD: Every two years is great.
IAN POULTER: You couldn't do this every year. It's awesome.
End of FastScripts.
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