THE RYDER CUP MATCHES

September 22, 2006

Tom Lehman

GORDON SIMPSON: Tom, you have the pairings now. Are you able to impart the information to us? Do you have the matchups there?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: I have mine, my order.

GORDON SIMPSON: We'll try to get that to everybody as soon as we can. If you want to maybe talk at the moment about the day. It is 5 3 but could have been the other way around.

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, obviously there were a lot of tight matches. We didn't make a lot of putts. That would be the one thing that I would say was the difference in the day between the two teams. I felt like our team hit a lot of good putts but didn't make many. The European Team definitely made the putts they needed to when they had to, and we hit a couple of loose shots when we needed to have a couple of good shots, and at the end of the day it's 5 3.

Q. How long did you meet with the team, and what was your theme?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: You know, we met briefly, but it's difficult after the matches are over to kind of get everybody together in one place. Tiger and Jim were in no mood to hang around. They came down here and came back to the clubhouse.

Obviously our plan is to get back together in the team room there and go over the day.

Q. And what will be your theme?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: I think the theme would be, first of all, you need to look at the positive side of the way a lot of the guys played. A lot of the guys played extremely well. It's a pretty fine line out there between zero points, half a point or one point, as you all saw. You could go group by group and you look at it and you see it.

We didn't really get much going our way. There was a shot over the green today that landed on top of the TV tower on the 17th hole and it was dropped to get up and down and win the hole. Things like that that happen are things that happen that help your team create momentum.

We didn't get very many of those things going today, but there's two more days, and 5 3, it's just one match away from being tied.

Q. Can you just talk about the rookies in general today, especially J.J. Henry with Stewart Cink this morning, coming back from 3 down?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Yeah, phenomenal. This whole day is kind of a blur to me at the moment. Yeah, huge, huge comeback for those guys. They were talking about the 11th hole, J.J. hit it about a foot or two foot and they conceded his putt, and they go, I don't want to see the other team on the tee first the rest of the day. That's the way they played. They may have lost a hole but they played phenomenal golf. I think they might have shot 8 under or something like that together as a team. And so they both played extremely well.

But again, you know, you need to tip your hat off to the other team, too, because they played extremely well, also. It was a tough battle all day long.

Q. Will we see all your rookies now tomorrow? Will you go back and by the end of say, tomorrow morning, will you have all of them in action?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, it was my goal to play everybody this week. So that's all I'll say.

GORDON SIMPSON: Is it the wish of everyone to know the lineup?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: You don't know the lineup? Well, actually, you show me yours, I'll show you mine type of thing. (Laughter).

Okay, well, how about if I give you my first match and you let me know who they are playing against, that would be kind of fun.

GORDON SIMPSON: Okay. Go ahead.

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: We have going out first off, Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry, and they are playing against Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson.

We have second off, Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco, and they are playing against Sergio Garcia and José Maria.

We have third off, Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk playing against Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood.

And then we have fourth and final group of the day would be Scott Verplank and Zach Johnson playing against Henrik Stenson and Padraig Harrington.

Q. Wonder if you could talk about two things, one of your captain's picks, Scott Verplank, why you didn't play him at all today, and secondly, do you think that gives Europe any kind of lift that all 12 of their players at least contributed a point?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, I really like the teams that we sent out today. Everybody on our team liked the teams we sent out today. I really liked the teams we are sending out tomorrow, as well.

You know, we are committed to putting out the best teams that we can and that will give us the best chance to win, and that's what we're doing.

Q. Did you at all think about putting J.J. back out in the afternoon as well as he played in the morning? Was that a consideration?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Absolutely. J.J. is playing great golf, no question about it.

The partnership that he has with Stewart Cink I think is really, really good. In the alternate shot format, however, Stewart and David Toms play great together as well, and David is such a phenomenal putter. There's just a way things can go out there where one guy can be doing a lot of putting, and David, he's such an excellent putter is the reason why we put those two together. Not to say that J.J. can't putt, just that I think David is one of the best that we have.

Q. It didn't sound like you put David Toms out at all in the morning. Could you talk about why? And also Chad Campbell, who actually seemed to be pretty strong out there this afternoon?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, you know, I wish I could play all 12 guys every time. It's tough to do.

There's only eight spots, what can I say, there's only eight spots. And the teams we put out are the teams that I think will be I think they are very strong teams. I'm not sure how to answer that question or what to say.

Q. Zach Johnson was struggling for much of that round, missed some opportunities, but he rallied pretty good. Did that show you something about him?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, he sure showed a lot of courage, and I know that he learned something about himself those last three holes, and he gained I think he grew up a lot in three holes, would be one way to put it. I'm sure he was nervous starting the day. I thought he played very steady throughout the day, and the last three holes, he played like a champion. He came off I think that 18th green a better player.

Q. One and a half points out of four for your big guns, DiMarco and Mickelson, Woods and Furyk. I wonder, are you disappointed with that or did you expect more?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, I'm sure they expected more. I know they are very disappointed they didn't get more points.

You know, I'm sure tomorrow they will be extremely motivated.

Q. You were following the first match out this afternoon, McGinley and Harrington against Zach Johnson. How big of an influence do you think your presence was around that four ball for your guys to come back from 2 down with three to go?

CAPTAIN TOM LEHMAN: Well, I don't know. They are probably the ones that could answer that better than me. I just tried to give them something to shoot at every hole, set a goal every hole. Rather than thinking so far ahead, let's just take it one step at a time, you have three holes, let's make three birdies, so you have to take the first step right now, make a birdie on this hole. Okay, the next hole, make another one. My goal is to get them focused on each hole and take it one step at a time.

GORDON SIMPSON: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.