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WALKER CUP MATCH

September 12, 2009

ARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

RAND JERRIS: We are pleased to welcome from the United States Team Captain Buddy Marucci, who is joined by Rickie Fowler and Peter Uihlein. Maybe if you could start us off with comments on the day, 8-4 lead at the end of the first day.
CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Sure. I thought we had a great day. Foursome matches, terrific. I was hopeful that both sides I knew would play well and I was hopeful that if we could get out 2-2, 2 1/2 - 1 1/2. To get out 3-1 was a great boost.
I thought we went out really strong in the afternoon matches, which I knew we would have to do. GB&I did a marvelous job, as they always do, in fighting back, but at the end of the day, I am thrilled with being able to be ahead 8-4. I think if you had told us that in the morning, we would have stayed in bed and let everybody -- we would just play tomorrow.
But I'm very proud of these young men. They played wonderful golf. Conducted themselves brilliantly and I couldn't be happier right now. I think we are in great shape.
RAND JERRIS: Rickie, two very strong matches for you today. How did you feel coming out here this morning? Were the emotions up? Were you feeling calm? Were you confident going into the morning or a little nervous?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well, I knew, me along with the other nine guys, we were ready to go yesterday right after the Opening Ceremony. So I was definitely ready this morning, and had a good feeling. Bud and I went out and played well and then I played solid this afternoon, as well.
RAND JERRIS: Peter, talk a little about your afternoon. Did you watch the scoreboard and see how your team was doing and did you feed off of that in the afternoon?
PETER UIHLEIN: When I looked on 9, every match or one, we were either winning or tied. I was just trying to focus on my match at that time and trying to just do the best I can and hold Tommy off, because like Buddy said, GB&I team, they fight back. They are not going to give up.
You know, we had a good day.

Q. Peter, in the morning foursomes, the putt you made to win the match, could you talk about the putt, what you were thinking and did you know it was in? How did you get down for the afternoon match?
PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, I hit a lot of good putts all day, and I didn't make anything. You know, I just kind of kept telling myself that they will eventually fall.
Nathan hit a really good pitch after I hit a poor shot in. I was able to take a look at it as his ball was rolling down, and I got a pretty good feel on it. And you know, I just made sure -- it was left edge, made sure I got it there.
Probably when it got about three or four feet there, I knew it was going to go in. Yeah, the reaction, I kind of blacked out. You're on a pretty good high and definitely had to settle down for the afternoon match and I came out strong and was happy with the result.

Q. Kind of a two-part, maybe Peter first, and Buddy, first Peter. You mentioned your putt on 18. What did Nathan say to you afterwards, and how did you like playing with him in the morning? It seemed like your styles meshed pretty good, and Buddy, I assume that might be a reason why you put them together this morning.
PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, after I made it, he goes, "I love you," and that was it. It was definitely one of the sloppiest days we had because me and Nate, we had been playing good in all of the practice sessions, we had been playing great. It was a scrappy day for us, but we got the job done.
CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, certainly, the contrasting styles of Nathan and Peter are what you would love to have in a foursomes partnership. Peter obviously his physical skills that not many people have anywhere. Nathan is extremely accurate and a fabulous putter, and he can, you know, put the ball out there, certainly far enough, and Petey can go from there. And Petey's power to play the par 3s and Nathan could be putting.
It's a dream combination and they had been very successful all week. Although they probably would tell you that they didn't hit the ball as well as they would have liked to, they still were able to get it done, and that's really what it's all about.
So it's a great combination, and you know, we are excited about it.

Q. As the elder statesman, can you talk about what advantage you might have on this golf course? The captain is a member here and knows every inch of it. Can you talk about that, how Merion plays into the U.S.'s hands?
RICKIE FOWLER: Well we have 20 awesome players here so I would not say we have much advantage on the golf course. Being that we are in the States, we have our fans here, I would say that's more of our advantage, more of our home turf, our home field.
You know, they were talking about how the rain and the weather was going to play more towards the GB&I. You know, I think it would have been fine either way; if it was firm and fast or wet and soft, we have a great team and we are going to find a way to play the course.
PETER UIHLEIN: We have 20 great players, and we are all going to be playing the same course. I don't think it favors anybody whatsoever, and you know, we just have got to go out there and take it one shot at a time and not worry too much about the conditions and just try to do the best we can.

Q. Buddy, how do you keep the guys from getting too overconfident? What do you tell them tonight to keep them level headed knowing that anything can happen out at this golf course which kind of showed this afternoon?
CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Well, we don't have any problem with Rickie, because he watched it the last time at County Down. I think what happened this afternoon will actually help us tomorrow, help us stay for focussed.
By the way, you know, I think it's wonderful the way GB&I was able to hang in there. But I also think it was wonderful the way we were able to jump off to such a great start. Our guys played brilliantly. So I think you certainly don't like to see those leads diminish but you certainly don't like to see them from the beginning.
But I think that some of what they witnessed on the back nine where the scoreboard started to change, you know, things get a little tighter, we will certainly talk about that tonight.
I don't think anybody on our team is overconfident. I think they realize tomorrow is going to be a very difficult day. We have two extra points tomorrow. So you know, we will do everything we can tonight to kind of put this day in perspective. We are thrilled to have a four-point lead. We realize we need 5 1/2 points to win. We are going to try to do the best we can to get those points, but no one on our side is expecting any gifts. We are going to go out there and play as hard as we can and try to win every match.

Q. We haven't seen the pairings for tomorrow morning yet, but wonder if you can lend a little insight into what you have?
CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: I don't know if I'm allowed to do that. You tell me. We can talk about that a little bit?
I think you'll see pretty similar to what you saw this morning, but we are going to mix up a few because we have to, you know, the team has decided that they do want to give everybody a three-round opportunity. So a couple of the foursome matches will be adjusted a little bit, but you know, you'll see pretty much the same lineup we had today. We'll go at it pretty much in the same order. We'll put our fast guys out there first and let them go, and then we'll just see what happens.
But you know, pretty much the same thing you saw.

Q. You played with Peter in college, what most impresses you about his game?
RICKIE FOWLER: He hits it long and makes putts.
You know, he may miss a few fairways here and there, but he's up there close enough to the green where if he does have a bad lie, he chops it out, chips it up and make the putt for par. I mean, you don't find many guys who move the ball as well as him and have as good a touch around the greens and can roll the ball the way he does. When you can hit a 3-iron straight up in the air, Drop-and-Stop from 230 or 240, it doesn't hurt.

Q. Rickie and bud went out this morning and built the big lead early and in singles, Rickie had it seemingly wrapped up near the turn; as a captain how comforting is it when you get a point in the bank like that so early?
CAPTAIN BUDDY MARUCCI: Obviously that's great. That's the reason why I sent him out there early.
Rickie has been an incredible teammate to everybody on this team. He was fabulous the last time, you know, as a youngster. He's still a youngster, but back then two years before.
You never know what's going to happen. But we sent him out early at County Down and he was brilliant and he's never stopped impressing me and this afternoon was just another brilliant performance. He played beautifully this morning with Bud. That's a great combination of ball-strikers and you know, Rickie is not only are we thrilled to have him here, but he's a leader and he's just played brilliantly for us. So I can't say enough about how happy we are with Rickie.
RAND JERRIS: Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time this evening.

End of FastScripts

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