	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE PRESIDENTS CUP

September 28, 2007

MONTREAL, QUEBEC

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, thanks for joining us. Both of you captured your matches. Vijay, playing with Stuart Appleby, beat Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, and the next match after that, Mike along with Ernie Els beat Zach Johnson and Charles Howell III. Great day, you got some points and got back in the Presidents Cup, maybe brief opening comments from each one of you and we'll go into questions.
VIJAY SINGH: We had a good talk in the bunch coming over, I don't know if all of us were listening, but it was the talk anyway. We just wanted to get some points up there. I mean, five points down on the first day, our morale wasn't very good at the dinner last night. I think we all kind of drank a little too much and tried to drown our sorrows, or some of us did, anyway.
We came out strong. We wanted to put some points up there early and give the guys coming behind something to look up to, and give them some sort of a boost. Our match went really good. We got lucky in the first few holes. I chipped in and made a good pitch in on No. 6.
You know, Stuart played great, as well. He drove the ball beautifully, took a lot of pressure off me and we just molded perfect. When I was out of the hole, he was in. We played some good golf.
You know, if you look at it, 5 & 4, it looks very comfortable, but we had to work on every shot out there. You know, it wasn't easy at all. We're just lucky to come up ahead I guess this time.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: And you played in every Presidents Cup match so far, and I'm guessing you're going to be playing twice tomorrow.
VIJAY SINGH: Yeah, they won't give me a break in the morning. I tried to make some kind of excuse, but I'm going to be playing with Mike tomorrow. So hopefully we can do a little better than yesterday.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mike?
MIKE WEIR: Like Vijay said, we had a good talk this morning. You know, we have 12 great players on our team, and we knew yesterday was a little bit of an aberration. It was closer actually than what the score indicated. We felt we had four matches go to 18 and just didn't turn our way, and we knew if we stuck to our guns today and got off to a good start, and Vijay and Stuart set the tone winning a good match today, and kind of getting us some momentum.
I think you can feed off that. I think all of the guys kind of fed off that, and it was great golf today. You know, playing with Ernie, my first time in four Cups playing with Ernie, I was really looking forward to it. Strategy was for me kind of to get it in play. I was driving it nice and straight, and maybe Ernie take some chances on the par 5s and he took a shot on No. 14. It was a good day for us.

Q. You talked about how important it was to get started early today, which you obviously did when you holed out on 1. Just wondering if it was just as important to make a statement by beating Tiger and Jim, who are obviously --
VIJAY SINGH: Not really. At the beginning of the week, we need no matter who you play, it's one play. Our main goal was to go out there and get that one point. You know, the captain produced the teams according to the numbers and not according to who we were going to play. So whoever we get, we were going to play them as a one-pointer.
So, you know, I don't know how I keep getting Tiger every time I play in the format, but Stuart and myself, we played with Tiger last time. I don't think we won. But, you know, it was a good statement in one respect, I mean, because Tiger, obviously he's playing unbelievable golf, and Jim is never out of the hole.
So for us to beat them, and it was a good beat; at the end of the day, it was a point that really mattered.

Q. Mike, what does it do to the team to see something like that going on?
MIKE WEIR: Well, I think obviously you look on paper, you have as Vijay said, Tiger playing so well, and Jim, as he said, he's never out of the hole; he's No. 3 in the world. So you have No. 1 and No. 3 in the world, they are a tough combination.
But Vijay has been No. 1 for a reason and Stuart has played some solid golf. You know in this format that anybody can beat anybody. But it does give the team a good boost to win a good match like that. You know, I think probably the rest of the team is looking up on the board and on our side, we were excited to see that.

Q. Did you guys enjoy Woody's little bath as much as everybody else?
MIKE WEIR: That was something. (Laughing).
VIJAY SINGH: That's going to be on SportsCenter not only for this week, but I think for the whole rest of the year.

Q. Vijay, I know you said it's just another match against Tiger, but I believe that's Tiger's worst ever defeat in professional match-play competition. That's got to be a pretty special string in your bow to be a part of that.
VIJAY SINGH: I think anybody who is put up against Tiger, you say, that's going to be a tough match, no matter who is on the team. So to beat him, I don't know if it was that bad of a beat. You know, it was a good beat, put it this way.
It gave I guess the point that we wanted from Tiger, we got, because it was almost like, well, we probably have to lose that point at the beginning of the day, because he's playing so well and with Jim, it's going to be a hard match. So that was a point we needed. You know, that's why the score was so close.
But yeah, I didn't know it was his worst defeat. It was first time I heard it.

Q. I'd like to hear each of you explain, do you talk strategies as a team and how do you prepare yourself for a day where you're playing with two rounds?
VIJAY SINGH: I played with Mike already in the same format. The strategy there is we kind of keep the same format going. He drives off the even numbers and I go off the odds. We did pretty good yesterday. It was unfortunate that we got a halve out of it because we should have won that match.
In the afternoon, I'm going to play with Stuart, so I'm going to be the same match as we did today. But strategy there is just go out there and play well. I mean, that's the way, you just go out there and play the best you can. Hopefully you win.
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, the same. Not sure in the afternoon what is going to happen, but you know, I think Vijay and I, we did pair up well. Even though we only had half a point, we felt good about our game and the strategy.
So, yeah, as a team, we sit with Captain Player and we talk about that stuff. Then he makes a final call and puts it all together.

Q. I think this was the first match, Cabrera and Goosen, like 19 matches, where you guys won at the 18th hole. How important is it to break through that way, and win a late match, win on the last hole?
MIKE WEIR: Well, yeah, it seems like the Cups that I've played on, we've had a tough time maybe coming down and closing out some matches.
So, you know, to see the guys respond, I mean, Woody played some great golf there down the stretch, and Rory was able to make a birdie on the last hole. Geoff Ogilvy was able to make a birdie on the last hole. Angel made a birdie on the last hole.
So it's good to see that. It's good for the morale of the team to finish off matches like that, and you know, we needed that today, obviously being five points down. We needed to finish strong, not only start strong, but we need to finish off matches. That's what it comes down to. No matter what you're at, Vijay and I learned that yesterday; guys are never out of the hole. They made three great putts down the stretch, and we need to bear down, dig down even deeper to make sure we finish off the matches.

Q. For both of you, at the team dinner last night when you're sitting around and talking about what happened yesterday, was there an element of, you know, you all being proud professionals that you felt like you were embarrassed, basically, yesterday by how it all eventuated, and what did you do and say to each other to turn it around like you did today?
VIJAY SINGH: Well, we were fine, Mike and myself. We didn't lose, so it was easier for us to give the rest of them a little bit. (Laughter).
No, I think everybody was disappointed. To say the least, they were not happy at all. Like Mike said earlier, he was closer than what the score said. We went down the stretch on the last holes, quite a few of them, and it's just the way it was.
We just said, well, tomorrow is another day and go out and play. It was only six points of how many points was out there. I said, there's a lot more points, and ten tomorrow. There's a lot more golf to play and that's where we are at the end of the day.

Q. Mike, was there anything that you personally contributed to?
MIKE WEIR: Not in particular. I think the teams are so evenly matched that yesterday's matches were not an indication of how the week is going to end up. You know, South Africa, we had a day like that where we won handily, and then the U.S. came back in singles.
That's just the testament of how close the two teams are, and really, as Vijay said, you know, we just had to -- it's a team format, but you really have to look inside yourself and dig down and be able to pull out some good shots when you need to.

Q. Mike, if I ever forget how wacky Canadians can be, I should only watch 18 holes of golf when you're playing well when you're here. But wondering, is there anything about this week in terms of the non-golf stuff felt different than a typical Canadian Open week for you when you're also in demand?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, it's a lot different than a typical Canadian Open week for me. With 11 other teammates, we're going everything together. Obviously I've got a lot of attention on me this week, but we like to say there's 11 other adapted Canadians this week. But at the same time, to have the support that I've had this week, and, you know, walking on every hole, it just kind of gives me goosebumps actually to think about it.
I was asked a question earlier, winning the Masters was obviously very special; but I think when I look back on my career, hopefully way down the road, that this will be something really special. I don't know in my era if we'll ever be back here when I'm still playing, in Canada. Hopefully we'll be back here fairly soon. But it's been a pretty special week.
JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Mike, Vijay, thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297