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WALKER CUP MATCHSeptember 6, 2007Colt KnostTrip KuehneGeorge MarucciNEWCASTLE, NORTH IRELAND STEWART McDOUGAL: Could I introduce, first of all, on my extreme left, on my left-hand side, Buddy Marucci, captain of the American side; middle, Colt Knost, the U.S. Public Links and Amateur Champion; and my immediate left, Trip Kuehne who has already played twice in the Walker Cup. Trip, you've played twice in the Walker Cup, do you still feel excitement coming here for a third appearance? TRIP KUEHNE: I think more so than ever. It's tougher and tougher to make teams. The competition is more fierce than ever before. So for me, it's a thrill to be here and to play with the best amateur golfers on our side of the Atlantic as well as your side of the Atlantic. STEWART McDOUGAL: First time, how did it go for you? COLT KNOST: It's a huge honour to be able to represent my country. It's been a goal of mine for the last two years and I'm just excited to be here. Everything so far has been amazing, and looking forward to getting started on Saturday. Q. What have you been doing the last few days? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: We came over on Friday, Thursday night, landed Friday morning in Dublin to kind of relax a little bit. We played three social rounds of golf at Royal Dublin, we played the first day; we played Portmarnock the second; we went to Baltray County Louth and were very well received by the members. I think it gave the young men a little experience, got a little of the flavour of southern Ireland, and we went and played a little golf. Went into Dublin, had some fun, did a little tour. Just kind of relaxed and then we came up here Sunday night. We played 36 holes on Sunday, and then we played 18 holes the last two days. Today it was kind of a relaxing day. Half the team chose to play nine holes, the other half played 18. We varied our round between alternate-shot, foursomes play and individual play. And, you know, it's been a fairly aggressive practise schedule because we wanted to get on the golf course while the weather was good. I think we've been fortunate that that's been the case. You know, I they tell us it can turn at any time so we'll have to see what happens. But at least the team has had an opportunity to experience the golf course. So that's pretty much in a nutshell what we have been doing. Q. You had a chance to meet the GB&I team on Tuesday night at a cocktail party. How much interaction was there; did you actually get to know the guys a little bit, what was the atmosphere like between the two teams? TRIP KUEHNE: I'll start, I mean, I think that those that you know, you go right up to and you speak with. I've had the opportunity to play with Nigel Edwards on a couple Walker Cup Teams. I immediately went to him and we spoke and had a very cordial conversation. I think what gets lost in what the whole Walker Cup is essentially what the whole Walker Cup is about. Yes, it's a great match and both sides are trying extremely hard to win the match. The competition is about fostering the amateur game; and fostering the relationship between the USGA and the R&A; and about camaraderie amongst your teammates and friendship amongst players that you never get to really see how you're getting stacked up against. This isn't a, we want to destroy the Great Britain and Irish team and we're not ever going to be socially around them. That's just not what this event is, at least in my opinion. This event is about coming over here, representing yourself, your country, your teammates to the best of your ability and trying to get out there and compete with a foursomes partner and individually to win matches and hopefully come Sunday, your team is victorious. But I think most importantly on Sunday what needed to happen is the game of golf needs to be better. It's not really a matter of who wins or loses the match. It's to make the game of golf better, and especially the amateur game better. Q. Have you had an opportunity to play much links golf prior to this week and how do you think your game sets up for it? COLT KNOST: This is my first real experience with links golf. I really enjoy it. I've been told that my game sets up pretty well for it. It's just a matter of getting over here and getting used to everything. Obviously you play the ball off the ground a lot more here. The wind doesn't bother me; obviously me and Trip being from Texas with the wind and everything. But I really like it. It's very challenging. You just have to be very creative out here and I really like that. Q. After breaking your driver, did you manage to get that sorted out? COLT KNOST: Yeah, everything is good now. I got my backup driver over here and it works just as good as the other. My mom brought it -- Q. Did she bring it overnight? COLT KNOST: Yeah, my mom was planning on getting over here this morning and I caught her before she left. I haven't seen her yet. The guys in the pro shop brought it out for me. Q. What's her name? COLT KNOST: Luanne. Q. Gary said he thinks the home team is the overwhelming favourite, and how do you see your team setting up? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: That's pretty consistent for Gary. I think the home team is always favoured mainly because of the style of play. For us to come over for a week, five or six days, and try to develop a game plan is the best we can hope for. And if the weather stays consistent, then that would be great for us because we will have at least practised in similar conditions to the ones that we're going to play under and we all know that can change. Great Britain and Ireland has a wonderful team and a collection of wonderful gentlemen. Hopefully they will play well and we'll play the way we know how to play and we'll see what happens. But I wouldn't be surprised to say that they are the favourite team. Just basically there is a great home-court advantage in these matches, but you know, we're going to do our best and see what happens. Q. Most of your team, with the exception of Trip and one other player, has actually played links golf or been to Europe before this. How does that factor in to the favourite/non-favourite versus the home-field advantage thing? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, as I said, I think it's going to be difficult to develop a style for links golf in a few days. I think the only advice I can give them is not to try to radically change anything they have done. They have earned their way here and they have played wonderfully over the last two years, and so I think to try to change too much would be a mistake. Having said that, but we have to minimise some of the errors that can be made like keeping the ball in the air like we do in our country. The conditions will dictate. The ground is firm and we'll bounce the ball on if we can. There really isn't much choice. We're not going to be landing the ball next to the hole like you can in the States. These fellows are very talented, and I think they will be able to adapt to that. My experience has been that matches have come down to the putting and the chipping because both teams have wonderful players and they will hit the ball pretty similarly. We spent a lot of time on that and we'll just have to see how it goes. But I think that will be the challenge. Q. One of the questions that has been particularly interesting from our perspective on this side of the Atlantic is the fact that obviously you have a hell of a lot of good players over in the States, and obviously it's very difficult. What were the main criteria when you were thinking in your final selection; obviously you picked eight to start with. What was the general criteria, just the success they have had in America or just the style of play or how you could probably put the players together in the team? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Gary, as you know, that's a tough one. The role of the captain of the United States is probably a little different than here. But I have been out for close to 20 months at most of the tournaments, not so much a different schedule than when I competed; and although this time it's a little more relaxed because I get to play for fun and go out and watch the rest of the players. But to answer your question more directly, we look at an overall evaluation of the individual and we don't just look at the players' performance. I don't think it's really fair for me to discuss the system because it isn't my system. The rules are the rules that they go by, the USGA has an international team selection committee and they are very careful. I will say this about the selection committee and the effort that's put in. The effort that's put in today is overwhelming. Certainly overwhelming in regard to what I thought it was when I was playing. I had no idea the effort that was put in. It's tremendously involved, a lot of sensitivity and empathy for every individual, and so I would say that we look more at the individual, the person; certainly the playing ability, which is deep in both countries. There are so many players now. To pick ten is very difficult, and you would like to have 12; and if you pick 12, you would like to have 14; it just impossible. I think in our country we would look at the representation of the country, their commitment to amateur golf, their performance and the way in which they will fit with the other players that might be selected. And I think those criteria may vary a little based on whether we're playing on this side of the pond or on our side of the pond. So I think it's a very -- I'm not going to say touchy-feely but it is a -- it is a very broad look at the person, as opposed to just how many greens they hit or how many birdies they make. Q. Trip, Buddy just addressed this to a certain degree, but your selection to the team was questioned back in the States. You had a couple of bad days at the Olympic Club. Do you feel like you come in here with something to prove? TRIP KUEHNE: I don't know if I have anything to prove or not. In 2006 I was a member of the World Amateur Team. There's only been one player that I know of that has been on the World Amateur Team the previous year that has not made the Walker Cup Team. I played the U.S. Open, qualified for the U.S. Open; played well at the Amateur. I do work for a living. I spent a lot of time and a lot of effort this year, and my main two goals were to qualify for the Oakmont and the Walker Cup Team. When I qualified for the U.S. Open and then I missed three weeks that row, usually I spend all of July getting my golf game ready for the U.S. Amateur. I didn't play golf the month of July. I was traveling for business. I have a growing business that I started two years ago. I'm basically a person at the office, I have four people that work for me, but I'm in it. It's an investment business where you have to stay on top of things daily; and one of the requirements is for me to raise money and I was on the road the month of July raising money. I knew I wasn't going to play well at the Amateur. I was three weeks behind in my preparation of where I needed to be. It was a blessing disguise shooting 83. I'll live with 83 the rest of my life. Not proud of my score, I hit every one of those strokes, but for me it was a blessing in disguise. I was able to go home and I was able to reconnect with Hank Haney and Steve Johnson. We really worked hard on my golf game and the fruits of the labour and the practise that I was able to put in have become very apparent to me. I think my teammates have played very well since I've been here. This is a golf course that suits me eye. The Olympic Club is not a course that suited my eye at all. I could have been playing the best golf of my life and I would not have advanced very far in that championship. But here, I'm where I want to be with my golf game. I'm with nine great guys and a great captain and a fabulous team manager and looking forward to the competition. That's why we're here. I've watched the guys address the question before about links golf. I've seen a great change in my teammates in six days, seven days. They are extremely talented as Buddy said. I've been able to share some of the insights of playing at Porthcawl, playing a British Amateur at St. Andrews and playing at Canton. I've been able to share some of my experience with them and I've watched them grow over here and they have learned a lot in different style of golf and they are getting better and better and more confident every day. So we'll see what happens. CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Let me interrupt for a second. You know, a lot of that goes to the process. I think it goes to chemistry and I think it also goes to the way in which Trip is in the prime of his life in a lot of different ways. Physically he has the respect of every player in our country. He is one of the few gentlemen that's 30-something years old that can hit a golf ball the way these kids can, and I think you'll see it this week and I've watched it for the last seven days. I think for me as captain, Trip and I played on the team together, against Mr. Aussen (ph) back there in '95. We weren't successful but we were there. I think it's been great for me because Trip and I have a generational link and Trip has a generational link that I may not have to these younger men. I think when you round out a team, as opposed to ten individuals, Trip is invaluable. I am positive that on the golf course he doesn't take second place to anyone in the competition like this. So I think that when we look globally at what we are trying to accomplish, as ambassadors and as representatives of the country and also trying to put on a good show, I can't think of a better person. Q. Just going back to what you said, it's interesting, you work for a living, and I think you and Nigel are probably the only two guys on the two teams that do, and he plays a lot of golf. My question was in the business that you're in and what's been going on with the stock market and the economy and everything the last month and a half or whatever, has that been a challenge to you or a distraction? TRIP KUEHNE: I think it's weighed a lot on my mind what's been going on, definitely. Having a phenomenal year in our business and the time is now for me to grow my business. Fortunately or unfortunately, golf is not the most important thing in my life. The most important thing in my life currently is my family first and foremost. The second most important thing in my life is my business. And third thing, most important thing in my life is golf. If they were in the reverse order, I would have a major problem and I should not be playing amateur golf. If golf was first, I should be a professional. I'm where I want to be in life and I'm where I want to be with my golf game. My business schedule forced me to put my goals a little bit different this year, and you know, that's where it's going to be. To be perfectly honest, what affected my golf game more and I'll probably get in trouble from Buddy for saying this is not my lack of preparation; I'm not even going to say it. I know it's hard because there's great players everywhere. I love this game of golf; I love the Walker Cup; I love what it stands for, and I want to be a part of that, greatly. I want my golf game to dictate to continue to make Walker Cup Teams and to make international teams. That's why I play. I don't play for the individual glory the sport can bring. I try to be members of teams like this where I have an opportunity in a forum to enhance the amateur game of golf, not the professional game of golf; the amateur game of golf because that's what's dear to my heart, and there's only a couple instances where you can showcase that. You can showcase that as an amateur like Colt as the U.S. Amateur Champion is going to have at the Masters. You have a chance to showcase the amateur game by qualifying for the U.S. Open. The U.S. Amateur and the British Amateur speak for themselves. And then you have the Walker Cup and World Amateur teams. That's the only opportunities you have to really showcase amateur golf and if they are showcased and that's where I want to be showcased. I want to get my game in place for that. Professional golf is going to be around forever. There is a great amateur game where there's guys that are 25-year-olds plus playing representing their country, and I just don't think it's going to be around forever. And I'm scared deeply about that because I care about the amateur game of golf. I don't care about the professional game of golf. Amateur golf is what I care about and it's what I love. Q. Your captain of the USA before you, Bob Lewis, had an opinion of Sunday singles that he would have much preferred to play all ten; that that was the hardest choice that he had to make and it really wasn't fair to some of the kids to not play. Do you have a personal opinion on that one? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, as a captain, I think it would be wonderful if we were able to play all ten players. But then that's a very specific one-line answer to a very specific question. In the global world where the Walker Cup was started in the early '20s and is now where we are today, you know, there have been some changes. But by and large, it's been played the same way and I think there are people that hold that tradition very dear and don't want it to change and I appreciate that. As a captain it would be wonderful to line them all up and to let them go, or even to play another day, play like a Ryder Cup format because I think if you work two years to make a team, the more golf you would play, the better it would be. I mean, that would be great if we could play for three days instead of playing for two. But as I step outside this role and look in, I would be hypocritical of me not to appreciate the tradition that's been established over the years, because that's kind of who I am, as well. So I appreciate both sides of it. But as a captain it would be wonderful; the more golf we would play, the nicer it would be for the players on the team. Most of these players, they are only going to do this once. Trip and Gary back there, you know, I've been fortunate to play twice, but these fellows have had opportunities to play multiple times and they are truly a rare breed. We're not going to see a lot more of that. So I think more golf would be nice. But I appreciate the other side. Q. What's your take on that, Trip, because you one day down the line could become a future captain; how would you like to see that pan out? TRIP KUEHNE: It would be nice, as Buddy said, you have a lot of guys on both sides who have delayed turning professional for a long time whether it be the beginning of the summer, middle of the summer, whenever. So they have delayed their professional careers for the opportunity to represent their country in the Walker Cup. And then as Buddy said, it would be nice for them to play as many matches as possible. With the thought of playing two matches or three matches or the most matches you could possibly play is four, and if you only play three times, the possibility being two of those times that you play foursomes; that's a lot of time to putt off a career to play one singles match. It would be nice, but, you know, I'm very much a guy that understands and follows tradition and history, and I don't think you should buck tradition or buck trend just to appease ten people. It's one of the fascinating features in my opinion of the Walker Cup and what makes Buddy's job and Colin's job so important as captains. It puts some pressure and it might cause for many sleepless nights to figure out how you're going to put that lineup together because it becomes very important. And that's one of the things I think is great about it is in the Ryder Cup, I think you can just line your guys out there and just go play. But in the Walker Cup, the captains do have some input and do have to take their time with some consideration and care about who they are going to play Saturday, who they are going to play Sunday to put up a lineup that they think is going to be very successful. CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: I will say that it is -- the one charming thing about it is it does promote kind of a team atmosphere. And there are a lot of different approaches to that before you ask a question, so I'll give you the answer. Our approach will be a team approach. We will discuss the lineup together. You know this isn't my team; it's their team. Everyone has a say in what we are going to do. We have already begun discussions pretty extensively on what we are going to try to do on Saturday, and how we will react to what happens on Saturday and we will continue to do that. So you know, the players that will not be playing in any of the matches and will be part of the decision to be in that position. At the end of the day, I will have to make the call but frankly it will not be without the insight of all of the players. Q. Would you agree with Colin that he said that would be the hardest part of the job? CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, I think the hardest part of the job is the selection of the team. I don't think there's any question that that's the most difficult part of the job. And you know, my job there is to do what I've done, recommend to the committee what I believe is the appropriate comments about each of the candidates and then they pick the team and then the job gets to be a little more logistical. Then when we get here, it gets to be watching the players and watching the way they interact. We have great team chemistry. If I could say anything about this team, we have fabulous chemistry among the players. So we're a little bit further along in making these decisions about who is going to play and who is not because we have such good chemistry among our players. If we did not, I mean, if we had ten individuals, it would be a lot tougher but we have a bunch of players that pretty much are in sync. So I'm happy about that. That's made it easier for me. Q. Given all you've just said, have you made a bottom line decision for your own policy? Have you decided, "Each of my players will play two matches?" CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, the decision I've told the team, candidly, is the same decision that I played and Trip and I played under in '95 and I played again in '97 under A. Downing Gray, and that was that unless there's some really unusual occurrence, we would try to play everybody three times and two players four times. Now, that can change. That could be weather-related, injury-related, obviously the results could dictate that. However, I don't believe personally that an individual should work as hard as they have and not have an opportunity to play in three of the four matches. That's Buddy Marucci's personal opinion. Having said that, we discussed last night that we would all get together after Saturday and we would decide whether we wanted to stick to that because again, it's not my decision entirely. We have a team here and they are going to make the decision as well. And I can be overruled in that. I will listen to them and do what they would like if it's reasonable, but at the beginning, the approach will be, we have ten wonderful players, and I believe they all should have an opportunity. You know, you could come over here and some players could say, 'I just can't play this kind of golf' or 'I just couldn't play this golf course' or something like that, but we're not in that position. Trip is right, everybody has adapted and they seemed to have -- it's a charming place and they seem to have really gotten to enjoy it. And so I think they all should have an opportunity to play. That's the way we're looking at. Q. Given your accomplishment and APL accomplishment, are you still at that level? You may be the hottest player on this team, I'm just wondering if you're still carrying some of that good streak. COLT KNOST: Yeah, I believe I am. I've been playing well for the last few months now. Yeah, my game feels great. Probably playing better than I was in my mind. I'm starting to get the putter going, which is what I really liked at the Amateur. Yeah, I'm very confident in my game and really like the way this golf course sets up for me. I'm really confident about everything for me and the team this week. Q. Colt, you had, what, two days I guess between getting home from Olympic and taking off for here. What were those two days like? Any good anecdotes or anything? COLT KNOST: I had a good time but a lot of the resting, too. I was just trying to get my feet back underneath me because I was pretty worn out after that week. Definitely got tired after I got home. Q. How was the jet-lag? COLT KNOST: I was pretty tired the first few days about you back to 100 per cent now and feeling pretty good. Q. The World Amateur, you've played both in the States and overseas. Buddy talked about team chemistry and being able to share your past with them; have you told them about the crowds and what to expect when 10,000 people are rooting against you guys and how to handle that? TRIP KUEHNE: Yeah we've talked about it and shared some laughs. The good thing about is they understand and the unique thing about this group of guys as I've told them is they are very inspirational to me personally. They made me want to have my golf game in top form so I could play with them at the tournaments and try to play good. And guys like Colt and Webb and Justin Johnson and Chris Kirk, there's a little part of the amateur game in the United States that has gone away. When I was their age and when Buddy was my age and we were playing, there was probably 15, 20 guys sitting on the putting green and go grab a beer on the 19th hole and then 15, 20 guys would go to dinner. That went away for about ten years in the United States, and with this group of guys, that came back. So it wasn't really just with Walker Cup and World Amateur. We were all together all the time. You know, putting on the putting green, playing cards, hanging out, having a good team of the ten guys that are here were together almost all the time at the tournaments. As far as the unique thing about the Amateur schedule in the United States and the USGA's kind of commitment a little bit to the Walker Cup the last few years is you're able to spend time around one another. The great thing about having Buddy as a captain is he's kept it very open and we've talked about a lot of things that can happen, situations that you can be put in, the things that might happen, that might happen with the crowd, the adverse weather, how things can change overnight. Buddy and I have reminisced a few times and I think Gary and Nigel could both tell you the same thing. And Porthcawl we prepared for a tournament on a golf course with the wind blowing one direction; and as the flags were raised in the opening ceremony, it went from a 15-mile-an-hour wind to a 30-mile-an-hour wind, 180 degrees out of the opposite direction, something that we were absolutely not prepared for, and it changed and the weather was just, you know, despicable on Sunday. In the United States we wouldn't have played in weather like that. (Laughter). One of the great memories I have from the Walker Cup and I've shared with many of the guys on the team is we're sitting on the first tee box and I look over to the left and Colt and I called the thing out and it was in the middle of the ocean, a tornado. I never experienced anything like it. Buddy explained to them, a rainsuit was worthless, little things like that. Just the main thing that I have -- in 1995 when I came over when I was their age, I was a 23-year-old deer in the headlights. I wasn't prepared for what was going to transpire and take place. To be quite honest I wasn't prepared for anything, and the thing that I have stressed to them is just be prepared. Your golf game is going to be there and you're going to play well, but just prepare yourself mentally for anything and everything that could happen. You know, even be prepared for an act of God because it could happen in the Walker Cup. STEWART McDOUGAL: I think at that point, half an hour interview, Trip, Colt, Buddy, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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