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WALKER CUP MATCHSeptember 7, 2007Colin DalgleishNigel EdwardsDanny WillettNEWCASTLE, NORTH IRELAND STEWART McDOUGAL: We have from the Great Britain and Ireland Team, Daniel Willett and Nigel Edwards. Nigel, hope you don't mind if I start with you, but as a father figure of the two, do you feel additional responsibility this week to the younger members perhaps? NIGEL EDWARDS: No. (Laughter) I feel quite young standing alongside these two and standing alongside you. (Laughter) No, obviously I've got a little bit of experience in the Walker Cup and as much as I can pass on to the boys, I will. It's a team effort and yeah, they have had a go at me about my age but I don't think there's a barrier. (Laughs) They're fine. Q. How did it compare to the last three teams you've been on, this team? NIGEL EDWARDS: Very different. Obviously 2001 was an exceptional team. The other teams have obviously been very good because The Matches have been close. America can never field a bad team. So with The Matches being so close, we must have had good teams. This team I think is not far off that Sea Island team, and I think we'll do very well. Q. You talk about passing on experience, you've had some really extreme experience in last two months. Can you talk about that and how much you mentioned it in team meetings and everything? NIGEL EDWARDS: Yeah, great experiences and not so great experiences. At Ganton, it all worked out wonderfully well for me, holing a chip from off the green, and then holing a putt from off the green, as well, on 17. And those are probably the two best shots I've ever hit under the circumstances, coming down 18. Yeah, that was great. Didn't really know what was going on in that match because I was trying to concentrate on my own game and winning my own point. So when we got to the end, I didn't really know what was going on and didn't know whether we won or lost or halved. I think Garth told me I had won after what had seemed like an inordinate amount of time. But then at Chicago, yeah, very disappointing to be so close. You know, I mean, I think the ball lipped-out on the last. And I mean, the pictures from what have been published since then showed the anguish on the faces of our players and what it means to win the Walker Cup, or retain it in that instance. So, yeah, I've experienced highs and lows, but I guess that's what golf's about. That's how you deal with it. Punch into the air if you win, slip to go your knees if you lose. Q. The distances of the two putts, what distances were they, please? NIGEL EDWARDS: I think the one at Chicago was about 20, 25 feet, something like that. And at Ganton, the one I holed on 17 was about 30 yards I think. It was quite a long putt. The disappointing thing was the ball had come all the way back down off the green. It landed on top and rolled all the way down and I had two divots in front of me and sort of tried to knock it off of the lip of the one different on to the other and into the hole. (Laughter) It's quite simple, really. Q. Daniel, it's your first time, how well do you know the American players on the team from playing college golf? DANIEL WILLETT: A lot of the college golfers that I play with -- obviously there's a couple of guys that are not in college on the American team. But in college I played fairly small, lower-class kind of circuit. We're not right at the top. A lot of these boys, I know their faces but I don't know them very well. Obviously I got to know a few of them the other night. Not the best really. It's almost back to, you go out there and you play your game and it's easier really to play against them, I guess. Q. How much of an advantage do you think it will be playing a links course? NIGEL EDWARDS: I think it will be an advantage here. This is, although the Americans have been here a while and they are good players they will adapt to it. But this is a seriously difficult golf course. I think it's probably the toughest golf course we play, and you know, there's no let-up anywhere on the golf course. I think whoever wins the Walker Cup will have played very well. But yeah, I think it may give us a slight advantage. Obviously the wind isn't blowing very hard. I think that may have had a bigger factor on it. But I don't know what the forecast is for the weekend. I think it will be a close contest but hopefully it will give us the edge, yeah. Q. Daniel, I wonder if you could tell us something about yourself; are you a shy lad or are you quite an outgoing creature? DANIEL WILLETT: Yeah, the guys think I'm fairly shy I guess. No, around the boys and around people, I'm fairly outgoing, enjoy talking a lot. But on the golf course, sometimes it's different. Depends obviously situation-wise and what's going on. I think this week I'll try and talk as much as possible to my boys and then get the game done with the other guys. Q. Do you talk to yourself? DANIEL WILLETT: I talk to myself all the time on the golf course. (Laughter). Q. (Do you ever talk back)? DANIEL WILLETT: I couldn't tell you that. Q. What's the most nervous you've been? Do you think it's going to come even close to what it is tomorrow? DANIEL WILLETT: No. I mean, a few of the guys on the team have obviously played in Opens and U.S. Opens and they will know kind of what it's like. But I guess the biggest thing for me was one of the two tournaments this year, at Walton Heath or the English, it's not going to be anything like. Q. Will you be nervous? DANIEL WILLETT: I'm always nervous. Even when you're with friends, you're going to be nervous because you want to win and stuff and you want to play well. I think that first tee shot tomorrow is going to be something else. Q. Going back to that situation, obviously you've had an incredible ride this year. Did you envisage perhaps when you came back to Britain from college that it was all going to culminate in teeing up in the Walker Cup? DANIEL WILLETT: It had been in the back of my mind. You know, college, obviously they look -- the selectors and other people look at it a little bit. But obviously you really need to pit yourself against the British lads and see how you're comparing to them guys. This summer's been off the scale really. Apart from playing in The Open, I couldn't have asked for much more this summer. I guess shot myself up there and luckily enough got a phone call and got picked. Q. How big of a turning point was it beating McIlroy in the Amateur? Was that a big moment in your season? DANIEL WILLETT: Yeah, obviously there's a lot of hype. There's a great player and he's done some fantastic things. Beating him and the way we both played, we both had a really good game, kind of gave me a little bit of a feeling that I can play with the top lads in Britain. So, yeah, I think that kind of did spur me on a little bit for the rest of the year, give myself a little bit of self-confidence knowing that I can compete. Q. Both of you, really, what form do your nerves take? Do you quake at the knees or how does it go? NIGEL EDWARDS: That's a good question. I think it totally depends on your mind-set for that day. It can vary. Sometimes you can be right in there really focused and although you're nervous, you've got, I don't know, apprehension. You don't know what to expect. You want to -- you're trying to think positive all the time. Things are coming in and out of your mind. Yeah, there's no reason why you shouldn't be shaking. I think Tiger Woods said he did it, so the rest of us do it, yeah. Q. Will you be nervous playing against Gary? NIGEL EDWARDS: Yeah, I'm always nervous against Gary, you never know what's going to happen. Q. Isn't it an integral part of the game, though, the butterflies; it's part of the game? NIGEL EDWARDS: Absolutely. I think if you're not nervous, it doesn't matter enough to you. But you've got to deal with it. Obviously the best players are able to deal with those situations and get their mind on the job. Yeah, I think they all get nervous. Anybody who says they are not nervous is perhaps not quite telling the truth. Q. (So the more the merrier, bring it on, like a major championship)? NIGEL EDWARDS: Yeah, in certain circumstances. I haven't played a major championship but I think the Walker Cup, for me, is my major championship. So therefore, I guess I would be feeling the same as players who are expecting to win majors and getting themselves in those positions, but a different level. Gary is playing in a monthly medal at the golf club; if we need a four to win the monthly medal, that's their deal, they are going to be nervous. So you deal with it. I like to feel a bit nervous because it heightens the attention and your awareness and increases your focus, and the better your focus, the better you play. Q. The nerves, how do you control them? DANIEL WILLETT: I get fairly nervous, but like Nigel said, it's how you control them. The more nerves you have, the better. But you've got to learn to use them in a good way, you know, you'll be shaking definitely. But I mean, you've got to use it, you've got to take it all in and say, I'm nervous for a reason but I'm also here. You're there for a reason, as well. You shouldn't be nervous to play because they picked you for the team. It's just conquering the little butterflies in front of 10,000 people. Q. How do you stop moving when you're over a putt? DANIEL WILLETT: I'm guessing it will do this week. You get a lot of people around the greens and you have a big putt, and obviously Nigel knows about a couple of them special putts. You're shaking but totally in a good way. Q. Stewart, can we get general comments on pairings? STEWART McDOUGAL: Pairings haven't been submitted yet. Q. Can you give some general comments? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: I can give you some general comments; that everybody will play tomorrow and the pairings that you saw yesterday in practise will probably not be a million miles away from what we have tomorrow. Q. Colin, have you got a curfew for the boys tonight? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: No, no danger there. I think everybody will be probably tucked up in bed for ten o'clock or something like that, I don't know. But no danger of the boys going out, I don't think. Q. A very early start teeing off, so what's the schedule for tomorrow morning? What time are you getting them up? Are you going to have a team talk? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: No, we'll have that this evening. We'll have a private dinner back at the hotel this evening. And tomorrow morning, they can get up whatever time they want to have breakfast whenever they want because they each have different regimes. I imagine people will be down for 7:30 or there about, and 8:30 kickoff, so 7:30, 7:00, something like that. It just depends, up to individuals. Q. Given the weather we've had this summer, we're having a bit of an Indian summer this week, would you have preferred it was probably a little bit tougher for the Americans? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: I don't think so. We'll take any conditions that we get here. Certainly we've come and played the golf course in April and August and now in different wind conditions. If the wind blew different from this week maybe we would handle it a little bit, but whatever the conditions, we're happy to take them on. It's drying out a little bit. Certainly firmer today than it was a couple of days ago and so we know how to deal with that, so, yeah, we'll take whatever weather we've got. Q. What's your main thinking about why we are so much better at this than we were 15, 20, and way back? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Not so much in terms of the results but for openers, the standards between the GB&I players and the U.S. players have certainly closed right up and back and forth and really as everybody knows, kind of world players, moving around much more closely there. I think that's one of the main factors. Certainly, even maybe back eight years ago, a poor result in Nairn which was Peter McEvoy, those Walker Cups and the ones we had won, we had a run of good play '71, through to '95 at Porthcawl. That started a trend of GB&I performing much better and certainly seemed to be that the whole team thing was working very well and that everybody was bonding particularly well and results were kind of happening. Certainly trying to build on what Peter McEvoy did and Garth McGimpsey did. Q. (So they manage themselves quite well)? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: I think so. For one, all of the players are now -- most of them have got sort of the goal of maybe the highest of professional golf ultimately, whereas Nigel, he's a committed amateur. But whether you're going to turn pro or stay amateur, everybody is working at their game so hard and every aspect of it, technique, fitness, diet, the whole thing, very disciplined, very, very thorough in everything they do. That carries through to the team situation. As a team captain, I don't of to worry about what they are doing and how they are prepared. All I have to say is we are going to be somewhere at a certain time, and the rest of it is going to be -- I know they will take care of whatever they have to do themselves for whatever it is. Q. In your job, do you see this situation because of how structured amateur golf is now that our success in this is going to continue for a long time? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: I hope so. I just think that the players are given more opportunities now. If you look 15, 20 years ago, the players weren't going to play in the South African Amateur, the Australian Amateur; all over the world. Our season would start with the amateur tournament and finish with the internationals in September, and you put your clubs away until Christmas and hit a few balls before the first tournament. But it's totally changed. You know, everybody wants to be a successful professional at the highest level and is going to it at the nth degree be successful. I suspect part of that is Tiger Woods, and obviously our players are able to go -- we've got a number of players here who go to college in America, so they are able to benefit through that system. But the players that are based at home have also got opportunity to play, you know, for a full schedule. We've got players going to Venezuela, Argentina, Australia before Christmas. So it's 12 months now and they just keep going and keep practising and keep working at every aspect of their game. Q. Going back to the professional approach, what is your backup team? Have you got a sports psychologist with you and things like that? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Actually that's one thing that was stripped away from the GB&I Walker Cup setup a number of years with Peter McEvoy is that all of the players here tend to have coaching at the Scottish, Irish, English or Welsh level. You have coaches at that level, so we don't try to replicate it here. I think some of the players have their coaches here and will take a look at the range if they want that, that's fine. But at the GB&I level, what we are going to do is just try to manage things to make that happen. We are not involved in the coaching of it because they all have their own coaches back in their own countries. Q. What about a seem psychologist, do you have one of those? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Thankfully not. Q. Going back to Ganton, obviously you had the great time and you had the disappointment, how much would you like to atone for that disappointment this week? NIGEL EDWARDS: Absolutely. That's why we're here. Absolutely. Q. Colin, can I just show my ignorance here, is it usual to name the foursomes and the singles for the following day or were things usually named at lunch time? CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: No, I think it's always been done the day before. I think they announce the foursomes pairings and singles order at the opening ceremony. Q. Can I just ask the players how they sort of relax prior to something as big as this? What are you going to do tonight? NIGEL EDWARDS: Well, we've got your music Gary -- no, we've got a couple of DVDs. There's plenty of entertainment with the players, decent enough time. I think Llewellyn is chief entertainment secretary. No, they all do it in their own way, you know what it's like. Some of the boys sit in a corner and are quite quiet and you've got some others are who not so quiet. And we all -- I have to say this team is getting on extremely well and all having a good time and really enjoying the whole experience from last Sunday when we went to St. Andrews, Kingsbarns, over on the plane and going down to County Louth has all been a great experience and all part of building towards the weekend. But at the same time trying to be relaxed for the weekend, so you get into the right frame of mind and you get ready to play tomorrow morning and be successful. Q. One of the features here obviously is the number of blind shots. Do you feel you've played the course now to know all you need to know about it? NIGEL EDWARDS: Definitely. We've had opportunities. We came over here in April as a squad and then the team was over here in August, what, just three weeks ago. You know, we played plenty of times this week from very many different positions. So, yeah, it's slightly different now because they have taken out some of the marker posts but there are plenty of sighting positions with the TV towers and the crosswalk signs. So, you know, most of the players will have their particular line off a particular tee, and yeah, I'd like to think that we know it very well. Q. The up-and-downs and downs are putting, have you changed anything in terms of practising efforts or psychology or equipment to address putting or the short game? NIGEL EDWARDS: Well, my CHIPPING is usually very, very good, so I haven't changed that. Although I have changed the particular wedges I've used because the grooves wore out in the other wedges. I have changed my putter. That was last August, the week before the St. Andrews Trophy Match. So I thought that was a good time to change, and I putted pretty well there. But these greens are particularly severe. You get the wrong side and they are pretty difficult to get close. You know, I'm sure you've all been watching this week, and very often, the ball goes to three, four feet, and, you know, every player on this team is a very good putter. But I haven't changed any mental process with my putter apart from trying to hole the putts. Q. That leads me to just one last question, the bottom line is you were trying to keep the greens at 10 on the Stimpmeter this week, that was the stated intention I think from the R&A. How are they running now? Some people are saying it's impossible to do that because the greens are so naturally fast, so what are they running at now? NIGEL EDWARDS: I don't know. I didn't realize they were going to try to get them at 10. I suspect, yeah, I can remember playing the home international in '99, and I don't know what speed they were but I can remember the 9th green then being particularly slick. You know, it was very windy, mind you, you can barely get to the bottom of the hill on nine. It was so windy. So the greens, yeah, I guess they have got to be careful. It's the same on any links course, mind you. CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: I think 10 or 11 was the target and if it became very windy they were looking to week that back a little bit but I think they are very cognizant of trying to get the balance right. You want firm, fast greens, that carries good golf and good putting. Hopefully the R&A will get that right. I'm sure they will. STEWART McDOUGAL: Nigel, Daniel, Colin, thank you. End of FastScripts |
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