WALKER CUP MATCH

August 10, 2001

Luke Donald

Peter McEvoy

Gary Wolstenholme

PETER MCEVOY: All right. I think the course is a very fair one. It's got no real extremities in terms of it's not extremely long, extremely tight, extremely penal or extremely anything, really. But I think it is a genuinely fair test of golf. I think it has been setup in a very sensible way. The rough is -- it's a penalty, but it's not that it's possible to escape from it. And the rough around the greens, definitely affects your ability to control chip shots, but again, it is not just a hack; there is a degree of skill. The greens get faster every day, and I think they will be a critical issue, as they are in all golf, with regard to the outcome of the match.

PETER MCEVOY: Yeah, we spent three days in Spain two weeks ago. To be honest, nowadays, our national golf unions and county golf unions, really, all give good information to the players as they are developing as they are young, so they are all completely conscious of diets and hydration and everything else. The trip to Spain was just a reminder. We brought the English golf union fitness expert with us, and he just went through it all again. He was just reminding people of things they already knew.

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: No. Basically, because people have often reminded me about the match since 1995, and he was the best player in the world at the time. I think that there's quite a few guys who would have liked to have played him, and I was fortunate enough to play him twice. Especially with what he's achieved since then, it just makes it that much more special, I suppose. Particularly winning the Masters the following April. But it was just another game. I mean, I'm looking forward to the matches that I'm going to be playing this week. If I get the chance to play John Harris or Jeff Quinney or any one of the other good players that are here, these guys, certainly, Jeff could be turning pro after this; goes to the Masters or whatever or the U.S. Open next year, wins that. Everyone will be saying, "God, you beat Jeff Quinney." So it was special, but I think it's special because of what Woods has achieved since.

PETER MCEVOY: I don't know if I've been tired of being reminded, but he talks about little else. (Laughter.)

PETER MCEVOY: It's the same as with any match, really, except for I suppose there is a certain additional consideration here because of the weather. And to a greater extent, you are wanting to -- to rotate players maybe more than you would at Narin, for example, where the weather really wasn't an issue at all. Otherwise, it's just that, you know, the end of the day, all you are trying to do is win as many points as you possibly can and combining people that want to play together who you think are your strongest players and putting them in an order where you feel that you will have a good balance of strength. There's no tricks or anything unusual.

PETER MCEVOY: No, I wouldn't say no. Everybody will play -- everybody will play. Once you get going, form becomes more starkly evident and the decisions become clearer on the second day than the first day.

PETER MCEVOY: It has to have an effect on the players, but I think it will have an effect on all of the players. Nowadays, our players are very experienced and accustomed playing abroad. This is not new to any of team them. It may be less familiar than some of the United States team, but it's certainly less of a factor in previous years.

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: I don't think it's going to affect the players particularly. I suppose what might be a factor is if someone doesn't rehydrate properly, their concentration may waver slightly towards the end of a round, but we have all been warned about this, so if it does happen to somebody, it is their own fault. We have all been told you have got to keep drinking lots of fluids. As you can see, I've been sweating a lot. But it doesn't make any difference, I'm quite happy to go out and play 36 holes, no problem at all.

PETER MCEVOY: This is why you're getting on the team.

PETER MCEVOY: Yeah, I think we have certainly benefitted, players from Great Britain and Ireland coming over to college in the States. The benefit would be not exclusively the fact that they are playing good standard and competitive golf in good conditions. It also keeps them amateur a bit longer, to be honest. We tend to lose a lot of good talented players at the age of 18, 19 when they have achieved a lot as amateurs, but the college system keeps them around until they are 22, so it is twofold, really. It is the fact this they get the competition, but the fact that they stay around a bit longer.

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: I would endorse that. I think the other factor particularly is there is a lot more self-belief in the British players, because of the fact that we are able to go abroad to play much more, even the guys that are not in the universities in the States, they are given much more opportunities. I have been to four different continents to play in the last five years and that makes a big difference, having to get used to different conditions. We have been successful all over the world. But I think one of the factors recently is Peter. I think his management is about as good as it possibly could be. He seems to be able to say the right thing at the right team to each of the players, which is a talent in itself, and the good thing is that should we be successful by Sunday evening, you know, we could be starting a definite trend towards British dominance, and certainly that's what the players are very aware of and they are wanting to try and create history. We've certainly got enough talent on the team. One great quote that I was given just recently is that we have been dealt a winning hand; we have just now got to play with it.

PETER MCEVOY: I suppose, it's difficult to draw me on that, really because we are a team and I think it is very important that you are a team and that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Everything that we have done since the team has been picked is designed around trying to have that kind of bond: Going to Spain, going up to Hilton Head. We all play together. We all eat together and we all do everything together. We rarely split apart so we are trying to create a bond and a team. But it would be churlish to suggest that everything that we have achieved that Luke is not the leading player on the team. But I wouldn't have said that if he had not just walked through the door. (Laughter.)

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: The team have talked about this privately among themselves as how best to cope with it, and we have got the opportunity of a marvelous practice facility to be able to chip shots from the bermuda. I think we are all starting to find our legs on that, and I would expect us to cope with it as well as the Americans will. To be honest, there is a technique to playing these shots, but both sides are going to struggle if they go in there, so it's really a scenario of concentrate on what you're doing, make sure that you try and miss greens -- if you're going to miss greens, make sure you concentrate on really almost damage limitation. You don't really want to try and hold shots, but really damage limitation more than anything else. But yeah, everyone is coping with it really well.

PETER MCEVOY: There's no additional problem with regard to motivation. This time, our motivation is that we've never retained the trophy. As a consequence, we have the opportunity to do something historic, and that's really motivation enough for all of us. If you like, that would be the theme and the target, as far as the team is concerned, with regard to how we prepare, and nothing really very different. You know, as I say, the end of the day it's quite a straight forward thing. You're just trying to pin as many points as you possibly can and you prepare accordingly.

GARY WOLSTENHOLME: My intention is to play the next two Walker Cups if I can. If I'm good enough, I would like to think that the experience will be a useful factor with the team, but I've still got to prove myself. So, let's play this match first and then see what happens in two years' time. But certainly, that's my intention. I would love to be able to play the next two. Certainly, the Americans have proved that their experience is a valuable thing, even if it's not a matter of playing every game, I think that sometimes the older players have an idea of what to expect, how to cope with the various pressures involved, and also, to help some of the younger players with regard to any problems they might have. Sometimes they can't really approach Peter with a grumble or a gripe and sometimes they will come to me and say well this has happened or that happened. I'll hopefully be that sort of sequence or buffer between Peter and the players so that maybe I can give them some ideas as to why things are being done the way they are.

LUKE DONALD: Somewhat, yes. I think people have -- more and more people from Britain are coming over to the States to take advantage of the college system, and it's people like me, it really is a great system for any amateur to go through. I think it definitely has improved my golf immensely, and I think it's improved a lot of others. So I would agree somewhat. I mean, we haven't had that much success in America, so I'm not sure, really.

LUKE DONALD: There's a few factors. They have the great facilities imaginable over here. You really don't find practice facilities like you do here overseas back in Britain. The competition, also. I'm playing college events; I'm playing against all of these Walker Cup players every week. So great competition. Great competition and just the best facilities, really, bring out the best in your game, I think.