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OMEGA MISSION HILLS WORLD CUP

November 23, 2007

HONG KONG, CHINA

CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: 1-under par in the foursomes, talk us through your round, quite an exciting day with six birdies and a triple-bogey on the card.
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: We did have an up-and-down round today. You can see, we had a really good start, 4-under on the front nine was difficult a very good start for foursomes, instead of the four-ball yesterday.
Yeah, but unfortunately we lost our track and I pushed my tee shot all the way to the left and it ended up being a double-bogey on the 12th.
And then I had another double, so basically, I'll say, it's to the an easy game as you can see. Most of you were probably on the course, you saw some of the teams are probably playing over par today. So 1-under to us, all things considered, is a good start and a good score.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: After a front nine like that, what changed the tempo for you guys on the back nine?
LIANG WEN-CHONG: Instead of looking at double-bogeys, I would rather say that we had six birdies today, which I consider a very good round, and I think we both always go for the positive side.
So I would say, No. 12, it was an exciting mistake and we'll try our best to avoid this kind of mistake on the final day. But overall, I think we played a really good round today.

Q. Which is the best hole for the day, what was the best shot of the day?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: Definitely as you can see, the birdie on 18 was one of the best. And I would say Liang hit a very good shot and left me a 20-footer for me as a birdie and I was kind of shaking because I know I've got to made the putt. I didn't waste a great shot that came from Liang. This tells everybody how you're going to turn your good shots from your partner and you make yours, that's how we made six birdies and that's how we get through today. So I think that the 18th is the best combination of the day.
LIANG WEN-CHONG: And I would say me and him is the best team ever for China.

Q. You played with Germany, the defending champion, on the first day, and Paraguay today; what is the difference between these two and what do you think about these two teams?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: Of course I've known Alex Cejka from the defending team for years. We used to play on The European Tour and now he moved to Las Vegas and to also be a PGA TOUR member and he won a couple times on the PGA TOUR. He's a very, very strong player and I know him well and he also bring a young guy here to maybe train. This is definitely a good team match, very good combination.
And Carlos Franco, another really good player from the PGA TOUR, as well and I know this guy; I've been playing with him, as well. He also brought another young player here to the World Cup.
But as you can see, these kind of matches, you have to both play well. If one is good and the other cannot catch up, then you end up over par. So that's how the game is. Overall, I think, yeah, it's good to play with these two teams.

Q. You have a huge gallery following you all 18 holes, and your opponent didn't seem to get used to it, and when they played bad they were not very happy. What do you think?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: Well, seriously, yesterday we played with Germany and we had a lot of galleries as well. While they might be making a lot of photos and this and that, but still, we're playing our ball. If you're not playing very well, you want to push the complaints to the other side, I don't think that's the right way.
We just play our own ball, but anything can happen in this kind of match.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: After the triple-bogey on 12, what did you guys say to each other?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: Yeah, of course, we were telling each other, hey, we still have a lot of golf to play. "We've got to go for it, Buddy," and that's what we tell each other after the 12th hole disaster.
But the 13th hole, Liang pushed his drive all the way to the left bunker fairway bunker and I chipped it out of the bunker to 12 feet. And lucky enough, we saved par on the 13th. Then we made another birdie on 14. It kind of balanced everything and let us cool down for a little bit, and then we still had four holes to play.
That's what I think, when you are playing bad, you never give up, because we've been knowing each other for so long, we don't have to say a lot of things to cheer each other up. All we have to do is we never give up and we always back up to each other, that's for sure.

Q. After these first two rounds, do you have a prediction of the winning score, and will that be somewhere around 22 or 25-under?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: You know, I don't think I can do any prediction right now because anything can happen with this kind of team match. And 14-under, 15-under for the first two rounds, it doesn't really indicate 28- or 27-under will be the winning score; I don't think so.
But lucky enough, we were trying to notice tomorrow's pin placements, because I notice that there's a lot of yellow spots on the greens, so I think that might be the pin placements for tomorrow's round. I was saying that it's even harder than today. So I think tomorrow's four-ball will be another exciting match. Sorry, I can't give you any prediction, but it's going to be very exciting.

Q. You received great support today from the galleries, how would you compare the galleries from 2007 World Cup to the galleries at the 1995 World Cup?
ZHANG LIAN-WEI: In 1995, at that time, you were probably pretty young, but I'll let you know what's happening 12 years ago.
We do have a lot of galleries, but it's not like what happened today, because we do have a lot of people who know me and who know Liang, as well, the first round and the second round.
But the good thing is we do have a lot of fans following us, but the bad thing is, they are so excited, they are excited enough to yell at all times, like go for it, even Liang was in the bunker and finished and ready to swing and people started yelling, "Liang Wen-Chong, go for it." So now he has to go back and readdress to do it again.
So it's kind of like a distraction, you know, for a golf tournament. But I will always say we really appreciate it and we need a lot more galleries to support us in golf. But we do need them to know a little bit about when to yell "Liang Wen-Chong" and "Zhang Lian-Wei." It's not like when you finish addressing and you're ready to swing and you start yelling, that's the thing that really bothered us today.
But back in 1995, we do have a lot of galleries, but they don't really know golf. That's the only thing I can share with you.
CHUAH CHOO CHIANG: Thank you very much and all the best for the rest of the week.

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