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WALKER CUP MATCH

September 9, 2007

NEWCASTLE, NORTH IRELAND

STEWART McDOUGAL: Ladies and gentlemen, the GB&I team, David Horsey, Colin Dalgleish the captain, Lloyd Saltman and Rory McIlroy.
Colin, we'll start with you. Obviously difficult result in the end but a great fight back this afternoon?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Yeah, it was another great Walker Cup, but, you know, everyone is obviously gutted. This morning, losing the foursomes 4-0 was just too much to carry, it turned out.
That being said, we went into this afternoon; I don't think for a minute any of us thought that we couldn't win it. Everybody absolutely believed that we could still win it. You know, the results in the afternoon at Nairn and Ocean Forest when GB&I had well beaten United States, 6 1/2 - 1 1/2 and so on, I think today it was 5 1/2 or 2 1/2 or however it finished up. Everybody really believed that we were right there; that the American team would be reasonably comfortable thinking it had more or less secured a win this morning.
But we felt if we could put points on the board early on, we could put a lot of pressure and that's how it worked out. A great win by Rory and Rhys and Lloyd -- well, everyone played great, but the lead games and possibly the point that with we -- Danny played great, a fantastic halve, might have gotten a full point out of that. Everybody played fantastically well, and ended up just that one little bit more than we could manage.
The Americans responded very well this afternoon. Some of them, particularly against Danny -- well, Colt, the pitch he played at the last was absolutely exquisite and from a pretty tough position; and hit it stiff and set him up for that half point.
And also against Nigel, Jonathan Moore, he hit it to three feet or whatever. Pretty cruel blow because at that stage we still felt we could probably do it. But we didn't.
When we came here, left the team from St. Andrews and we were very much looking forward to taking the Walker Cup Trophy back to St. Andrews and the R&A there. I think the last three matches, 12 1/2 - 11 1/2; 12 1/2 - 11 1/2, there's been some fantastic play. As I said at the closing ceremony, it has been an incredible experience and the GB&I team have just been absolutely fantastic.
It just been an incredible eight days or however days, six days, for me and I think for everybody on the team, for everything that we've done, we thought we prepared right and I think we did.
The fact that a few of the guys are ending off their amateur career, finishing on a high could have been that much better on a win. But for Rory to have played his last game here and to go and win that game today the way he did; and again for Lloyd to do the same; the guys are turning pro tomorrow, and David is turning pro very, very soon -- tomorrow, and similar, his great one.
So these guys stayed back to play in the Walker Cup and to stave off their amateur careers and to represent their country in the finest golf contest, the greatest amateur event, speaks volumes for them, and I think it's a decision they will never regret. It's an incredible experience and I think for our team, for the American team, it's something that we've shared and that makes the Walker Cup very special, and I'm sure there will be friendships that grow from this. Disappointed but that's all I can say.

Q. Were you able to be at the first tee, or was the end of the morning overlapping the start of the afternoon?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Well, I think actually it did overlap because -- and it was pretty much the same yesterday. I did make it from 18th green. I did make it across to see Rory on the first tee. And I saw every single player on the putting green; take them all up to the first tee, one-to-one, have a chat on the putting green.
And it was the same we're talking about. The gist of what we're saying is look, they are all playing well, it's been done in the past, we know that we can beat this team. We have all just got to go out there and take individual, collective responsibility, get out of there, win your point, get your responsibility for getting the job done and let's get some points on the board. And absolutely to a man, everybody absolutely believed that we could do that.
And that's how the afternoon started out. Everybody was even or starting at 1-up or 2-up and moving the right direction. I think that it was just -- and it was a fantastic experience when that was happening. It was just all moving the right way. The board was looking good. I was buzzing about the course and everybody could see that we were all feeling good. We still knew then it was still a pretty big ask, but it was achievable.
We knew that we could only give up a point and a half. If we gave up two points, then the U.S. would have retained it, and that was always the case. We had one game that lost, and it sort of run away from us a little bit and beyond that we were always kind of struggling.
Everybody at lunchtime was absolutely electric. Wouldn't you agree, Lloyd?
LLOYD SALTMAN: First on behalf of the team, I'd like to thank Colin for a great week and being a fantastic captain.
Yeah, we thought we could have the -- we thought we could go out and win. And Colin obviously reminded us of the times we've done it before and GB&I had done it. And we wanted to get off to a hot start, which we did, but fell slightly short. But that's golf, and that's match play and that's the Walker Cup.

Q. If I could ask you about Jonathan Caldwell's performance, and did you spend much time with him?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Yes, I did. I tried to get back to you will after the games that were kind of close. I think Johnny has played a huge part in the team this weekend. He just is a great holer of putts. He just keeps on doing what he's got to do and he just did very, very well. He proved that with the great win he had this afternoon. Great player, great competitor. Obviously in foursomes he was great with Rory. Johnny played very, very well. Great team member.

Q. Colin, on television, you said you would like another crack at the Americans, in America, personally; is that true?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Yes.

Q. Do you have to be asked?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: Yes, I think I do have to be asked. I think it's a two-year option, 2006 and 2007. I think generally speaking, unless I was to badly blow my copybook, I would hopefully be asked to do a further two years. I think that is generally the tradition.
But it wasn't something I thought about a great deal. I just wanted to focus on this match. And it's been brilliant times for the last week, and maybe even last month since we picked the team and just the preparation for it and trying to get it all set up. All things being equal, I would love to be asked to captain the 2008 and 2009 teams, including the Walker Cup at Merion.

Q. You've obviously got to know these guys pretty well over the last year or so. As they leave amateur golf, the three guys beside you, what expectations would you have of them going into the professional ranks?
CAPTAIN COLIN DALGLEISH: They each can achieve whatever they want to achieve. They are all incredibly talented, diligent and hard working, and they know what they have to do to reach the highest levels of the game.
And I know it's a very hard school out there and they have to go out, and yes, they have to serve their time, serve their apprenticeship, get used to being on the Tour and traveling on the Tour. They have all each had some experience on the Tour. David did very well last year at a European Tour event, and David and Rory have played in various Challenge Tour events, various European Tour events and they will soon pick that up. They are very, very talented and they can do very, very well there.
STEWART McDOUGAL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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