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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 6, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

LAURA HILL: I'd like to welcome Fred Couples and Greg Norman. It's been a long way since the 2008 announcement that you were both named captain. Maybe just give us some opening thoughts on what it's like to have this event finally arrive and then we'll open it up to Q&A.
GREG NORMAN: Well from my perspective, it's been a great two years. One of my team members just asked me walking around the golf course about 20 minutes ago, and I said the experience has been a tremendous experience, for a number of reasons.
The guy sitting to my right, number one, the way we started our journey together with the same attitude and philosophy really helped, and obviously when the week comes here and Thursday starts, we are going to be obviously more competitive and our spirits are going to be a little bit more competitive.
But the whole nature and demeanor of our approach to this Presidents Cup has been phenomenal. Both Freddie and I, I know we want to pass on the baton to the next captains with The Presidents Cup in a better position, so from my perspective, I've been extremely surprised at how easy it's been and how much I've enjoyed it .
LAURA HILL: Fred?
FRED COUPLES: Yeah, I love the last comment, the last line, how easy it's been. So far it's been a breeze. A couple speeches coming up I guess, huh.
For me, like Greg, we have great team players. We have great guys, a lot of guys, probably more so on my team have played in more Presidents Cups, so they know what's going on. We have hit on this a bunch.
He's got guys from other countries, other places, so it's a little more difficult. I think we all understand that. But for myself, my team is out there having a great time just like Greg had talked about his team enjoying it. The team room has been phenomenal. We have all been here only a day, but I've been here since Friday night with a couple of guys.
And just to end it quickly, I know it's just -- Thursday can't get here quick enough for me.

Q. Greg you had mentioned passing a Cup on or positioning the Cup for the next captain. Have you ruled out being captain beyond this year?
GREG NORMAN: No, I didn't say that. Somewhere down the line, somebody is going to be taking over as captain, whether it's 2011 or 2013, I have no idea. But if it is 2011, then again, I'll hand the baton onto somebody with The Presidents Cup in a better position. I've enjoyed it. If I get asked again, I would love to do it, but I have no control over that.

Q. The Adam Scott pick obviously has been mega-scrutinized. I was wondering whether in a way you were maybe trying to light a fire under him at all, and sort of what your thinking was there. I know you've almost got a mentor/pupil type relationship with him. If you can sort of discuss his addition to the team.
GREG NORMAN: Well, I had to be very careful with that, too, because I didn't want that to be over-analyzed, that one specific subject you mentioned that. But when you look at the five or six other players outside of Adam that were viable for that one spot, because I was always going to pick Ishikawa because of his performance over the last three months.
When you look at Adam in totality, not only his playability, but his compatibility with the other players. He's a great team member. If you ever get to see him connect with the players, like Fred says, in our team rooms, it just phenomenal.
So looking at that aspect, as well. Not saying the other guys wouldn't have been, but if you roll the clock back 11 months with Adam, he was the No. 3 player in the world and doesn't necessarily mean just because his golf game has gone away; it's because of his golf game, there could have been other things going on in his life that may have taken his mind away from it.
And sometimes, to me, a shot of confidence in the arm of an individual, just like giving him a spot, is what is necessary to turn him around. He's playing well, he's excited about being here, and he doesn't feel like there's any extra pressure on him.
You know, our position as captains, we have to make two picks, and there's going to be people who are upset and there's going to be people who probably expected to be on the team, but we had to make those decisions ourselves and we have to bear that responsibility when it comes our way.

Q. Can you talk about how the course is right now?
FRED COUPLES: It's beautiful. The weather's helped out tremendously, although it was windy again, being here Saturday and Sunday, there was a lot of debris around the greens, needles and things. But I think maybe they got out of the trees. And the greens were good. They are getting quicker and quicker every day. I think Greg was here, time flies, maybe within a month and he was giving me input, it's not nearly as bad as what people were saying.
Again, I've played two rounds, and if I can make putts, any of those other 24 other guys can surely make them.
GREG NORMAN: And I agree with Fred. They have done a great job of putting them in position. There's 24 players, and when you've got that light traffic going over the golf course, from the weekend to where we are now, it's easy for a golf course to come to life and it really has come to life.
I have not heard any complaints from my guys and I've been out there watching and Freddie has been playing, I haven't, but the ball seems like it's tracking beautifully on the greens and they have some speed to them. I think they will be consistent for the next five, six days.

Q. Fred, you've played on so many Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups, and had so many different captains, and I'm sure you picked up something from all of them, how would you describe your style?
FRED COUPLES: Well, my style is, about every three questions that I get, I answer one and I look to Jay to find out where we have to be and at what time. So very easy style. I mean, we all know that. I can't change, but you know, I can get -- I'm very -- not people, but with the other golfers, whether it's on Greg's team, too. I have competed as much against probably 80 percent of their team, and the hugs and kisses are fun, and I want them to all play well. I went up to Adam and had been texting Adam, telling him I'm very happy he made the team, because he's a good friend and I want to see him play.
But getting back to my team, to be honest with you, there's always 12 personalities, but on our team, there's really, you know, just a couple two or three guys that maybe won't get my sense of humor until tomorrow or the next day. But it's a very easy thing. They are all great guys and the pairings are going to be fairly simple. They are out there now mixing and matching and trying to see what would gel best.
But for me, again, it's an advantage, but they are still going to go play. My guys have been on -- I've been on a lot of teams and my guys have been on teams for the last 10, 12 years, and they have played with a lot of different players. I just have to figure the right two.

Q. Curious, your view of Tiger's attitude towards team events has evolved over the years. Seems like in the past it has not been that important to him and you played with him early on.
FRED COUPLES: I played with him three different Presidents Cups. It's hard to critique the best player in the world on every little thing that he does, and I think what happens is we have had some major talks about a lot of things with The Presidents Cup, and the easiest way to answer this is he's a team player. And I wasn't trying to tell him he can sleep in longer or he doesn't have to go here or there. Basically it was, I've been on these teams a lot, you've played with me; if I play well, the Tiger Woods part of it is probably going to get a point. And we beat Ernie Els and Vijay one year 7 & 6 in Australia. And when I played poorly, we don't win.
So my goal with him is to give him the best guy that feels comfortable so that they can perform, because Tiger is going to be there. I don't think in past Presidents Cups, I honestly think if you look at it, and Greg will attest, in all of the matches he's played, it's a lot of pressure. There will be the biggest galleries. And Tiger doesn't win or lose every match, but when Tiger plays well and the other guy doesn't, it's really hard to beat two guys, no matter who they are.
And he's into this. He's definitely pumped up and he is ready to go, and we'll see what happens, really, Sunday night.

Q. For Fred, there's two major format differences from The Ryder Cup: You hand-match the games as captains, and everybody plays the first day, no two years to make the team and then sitting out. Do you prefer this kind of a format?
FRED COUPLES: I think as a captain, it's much easier. As a player, it's the greatest setup ever, because like you said, it's very difficult to tell people not to play or to say, well, I'm trying to hide a player. They are all great players.
I mean, Greg may have someone with a little quirk with his back or I may have someone or maybe someone is not hitting it good. That's irrelevant. And they are also -- I've been on all of these teams, and The Ryder Cup, and there's families that get involved; you're not playing my nephew or my uncle or my son, and it's kind of like, wow, I want no part of that.
Whereas The Presidents Cup, everyone plays, they all love it. It's just a great format. Saturday, as you know, two guys will sit in the morning and two guys will sit in the afternoon, but that's understandable. You can't really throw everybody five rounds, to play four days and expect them to excel to their capabilities, so we will rest some choice guys. I'm sure Greg will, too.

Q. Your public announcement over the weekend, the separation, would you tell me how things will change for you generally, but does it also mean you might be playing more tournaments, as well?
GREG NORMAN: Well, first of all, about that, I'm not going to make any comment on that.
As for me playing more golf, pretty hard to make a comment on that with the surgery I just had a week ago on Wednesday.
FRED COUPLES: But we are playing in the Shark Shootout. Right? Don't be throwing me under the bus (laughing).
GREG NORMAN: Yes. We had kind of like a good agreement, Freddie and I, so I'm working my way back for the Australian Open and the Shootout which is a week afterwards. That's my schedule. That's my goal. There's a lot of rehab to take place between now and then, but I'm pretty confident that I'll be back hitting balls ten days before then.

Q. I think it's fair to say that The Ryder Cup never really captured the imagination of the public until the Europeans started winning it regularly. Do you feel like it's really important for your team to produce the goods this week for the sake of the competition?
GREG NORMAN: Well, I wouldn't say for the sake of the competition. I would say for the sake of the players, they really feel at times that their performance that they put up on the board, to not have a victory would be disappointing to them.
I think when I look back over the history of The Presidents Cup and where we as a team have got beaten is in the first day, is in the foursomes, or on Saturday morning in the foursomes. America has been very, very dominating in that department. So when we get behind the 8-ball, it's very hard.
If you look back, the singles matches, the last four groups are really playing for no reason, because it's over and done with. So I think from a player's perspective, they really want to get out there, and whether it's on American soil or whether it's on foreign soil, you want to get out there and you want to win.
And when you look at it, I talked to the guys, when you look at it on paper, these guys are champions. Every one of them are champions and they have won major championships, so they have the ability to do it. It's just a matter of, like Freddie touched on before, it's the team spirit and it's the really coming together of 12 players to do it.
I like the spirit. I've been on a few of the teams. I really like what I'm hearing and seeing in the locker room right now, and like Freddie says, come Sunday, we'll know. When Thursday comes, it's all up to the boys. We have done our job for the last, you know, 100 weeks or whatever it is, and now it's down to the boys to do their job. We'll see.

Q. Following up on that, the importance of the first day, do you plan to go top-heavy and put your best players out in the first matches to try to get the momentum going?
GREG NORMAN: Not necessarily. I'm not going to tell you what it's going to be anyway, but I believe that you've got to talk to your players and there might be a couple of players who would like to get out early, and you would be surprised of those players. They want to get out there and they want to get going, and some of them just want to wait and they want to come in at the end and carry the burden and win or to tie the match or take the lead.
It's interesting when you get 12 great players together, it's interesting to understand how each and every one of them think. You know, my dynamic, the dynamics that I have with the different nationalities, there's a lot more different personalities in those nationalities.
So to hear how the guys feel, and like to be there at the end for certain reasons; and they will tell you, I want this guy, or I don't want this guy, and I think that's a great attitude to have because they are very open about their approach to wanting to win this event.

Q. You've seen both competitions directly; how do you compare The Ryder Cup and The Presidents Cup, and the atmosphere, the feeling, the emotions, and is it even fair to compare the two?
FRED COUPLES: It's fair to compare the two. I mean, as Greg has said, our goal, you know, is to make it more fun, and I think what he means by that is for everybody. The fans, certainly, are coming out to watch. It's been a little bit odd that it's been in America more times than not. Now we are starting to move it around. So that's certainly going to help this scope of things.
But I mean, it's just one of those things where you'll see as Thursday goes along, the people watching, whether they are from San Francisco or America or they have come over from Australia or South Africa, everyone knows everyone at this event a lot better; although The Ryder Cup is changing -- meaning the players. Every time I go to a tournament I get paired with Goosen or Adam Scott or Vijay. So to get paired with them Thursday, the crowd senses no animosity, no hard feelings and they root just as hard.
As the week goes longer, it starts to turn towards the Americans way. But I tell you, you watch tomorrow, they will gently slide into this and they will start figuring out that we see Vijay every day on TV, but now he's going up against Americans, so we will calmly start to turn it the other way.
As far as the event itself, I think we have just as many tents, we have just as many people, we have the best players in the world. In my opinion, it's great for the Internationals because they deserve to play an event like this, and it's getting better for us, it really is.
First it was at RTJ and not moving around and now to come here and to go to Australia, those are the best moves The Presidents Cup can start making and get everyone involved, so it becomes The Ryder Cup, in due time. I don't want to embarrass myself, is this the eighth Presidents Cup? No. 8.
So I wouldn't say that's -- I've got kids, players on my team that have, players on my team that have kids that are eight years old and less. Some of them have been playing every year. It's easy, it's a fun event, not so grueling, you know, five-days of saying some word to someone and it gets blown out of proportion and they hate you. And then you go to Europe and they hate you. That's not going to happen. It's impossible. (Laughter). Correct? I mean, you guys have seen it. I love this format. It's a fun time to have between 24 guys.

Q. And Greg, The Ryder Cup, the nationalism, particularly by fans, is that going to happen with the International Team ever?
GREG NORMAN: You mean from a fan-based perspective?

Q. A guy misses a putt, he's going to hear about it for two years later.
GREG NORMAN: As far as I'm concerned, if I'm captain I wouldn't tolerate that. I think in the spirit of what the game of golf is all about, a very, very fair and even spirit. You can never stop people pulling hard for their country. You can't do that.
But as a captain, I would be discouraging guys to try and rub it in. And I think that's unfair to the game itself, as I said. I would never have guessed that and I think that's one of the things that Freddie and I have touched on, not that we have talked about it, but touched on the periphery of saying, let's make this fun for everybody and make sure we don't get this thing put into a box where it becomes such a vicious rivalry that you really can't pull yourself out of it.
The Presidents Cup is The Presidents Cup. I mean, you've got to honor the name of it, number one, and if you think of the President of the United States being out here, the respect that everybody has got to give the name of the Cup is probably the most appropriate way to look at it. And then the game of golf is right there, as well.

Q. A question for both of you, separately and one together, just Fred, if you can talk about Kenny Perry, the old guy and maybe sort of what his frame of mind is coming in here and what's been going on with him personally? And Greg, you have the young guy, Ishikawa, if you can talk about his frame of mind and your selection of him. And then together, if you would like to see those two paired off, I'm not suggesting any collusion, but have you thought about the youngest guy versus the oldest guy?
FRED COUPLES: I'm sure it will happen one of the days over the four days. Kenny has a big heart. His mother passed away last week. I tried to get in touch with him and texted him a couple of times. And he got me back that he's fine, and through the TOUR, that his family got together and wanted him to play. And he's here and as you know his son has been caddying for him lately.
He's in good shape. I watched him hit some balls. He's been trying to play a little bit. He came out yesterday because he's had a few days off. I don't know the right wording for this; he's fine, that's not a great word, but he's doing okay.
GREG NORMAN: I just want to touch on that, too. From my perspective when I heard about him, you want to make sure that Kenny is in a good place. The interesting thing about the game of golf is we are very much of a tight-knit community. And even though you spend a lot of time with the guys on the golf course, you may not spend a lot of time with them personally.
But when they go through a tough time like that, I made sure that I put a call into Kenny, because he needs to know that the game of golf comes second to your family, and Kenny is just a consummate guy, number one, and a consummate professional. And for him to be here shows the reflection he has for Freddie, number one, as well, but also to the game and what the Presidents Cup is all about.
So I'm glad he's here, and if he gets paired with Ishikawa, then, you know, it will be an interesting match up. My selection of Ishikawa was one that was very easy for me, to tell you the truth. This kid has got a lot of the right qualities that you see.
I secretly went and watched him practice at the British Open this year at Turnberry. I snuck in behind the gallery and I just stood there and he didn't know I was standing there, just to watch him, where the club was at the top.
And I always like to see a guy how he works on the driving range. If he's into it on the driving range, you know he's going to take that energy out on to the golf course. And he was so focused hitting balls, I was extremely impressed for a young guy, because a lot of things happen on the driving range at the British Open as Freddie knows. There's a lot of activity, a lot of cameras, a lot of people, and he was into his game. Technically, he looks great.
And then he started winning. So when you've got -- and he won last week. So he really stepped up to the plate. His English is excellent. He's very engaging with everybody and he wants to be included in everything. For a kid of his young age, he's got heaps of maturity about him. So I look forward to him just go out there and just play golf and just have fun.

Q. You have often spoken publically about Chrissie's positive influence on your game. How do you think her absence will affect your performance and going forward?
GREG NORMAN: Well, I'm not going to talk about any of that personal life right now. I think from my game's perspective and the influence that anybody has, if it's positive, it's always good, no question.
And the situation right now is we are here for The Presidents Cup and it's all about The Presidents Cup and my guys are in a great state of mind about being positive about getting out there and playing, and come Thursday, they are going to perform. I know they will perform in a positive fashion.

Q. You alluded earlier to all of the personalities within the nationalities; is that a challenge to have that congeal into a team when you have so many different countries involved under your aegis as a captain?
GREG NORMAN: What's difficult is having the idle conversation. When you sit in a locker room with all one flag, you can talk about, what do you think about what the President is doing, what do you think about healthcare, or what do you think about sport, and what do you think about the playoffs, and you can really get a great connector going in that way.
From our perspective, my perspective, you just have to make sure that they feel included with everything. And when you have a conversation, you have to make sure that they know exactly what you're saying.
You would probably be surprised, some of them, you probably think they don't speak good English or they don't understand what's going on; these guys, they know what's going on. (Laughing) So it's very easy. My responsibility is to make them feel as comfortable as possible.
Fortunately I've been to just about every country that's on my team except Colombia and I had Camilo fly out with me and we spent five hours on the plane with his family and it was just phenomenal to hear what Colombia is all about. And President Clinton is a huge fan of Colombia in its own right, he wanted to go meet Camilo because of his connection with Colombia.
So it was just great to see that take place this morning and make Camilo feel really, I guess, grounded in a lot of ways that he would be able to have a conversation with a gentleman that just admires his country.
It's just getting down, and it's hard having that general conversation, but at the end of the day, including them all the time in everything.

Q. Your shoulder, the timing on the surgery I guess was the only time you could have had it; is it hurting you at all, and have you got any pain from that? I realize you're not playing, you're a tough guy, and it shouldn't be too bad. But how is it feeling?
GREG NORMAN: Well, it's progressively getting better. It's hard to sleep, obviously, because I have to wear this thing. I was trying to defer it until middle of January, but it got to a position where I couldn't do certain things with my arm. And it's just a degeneration of the joint, and it's called a slap tear, and if you ever want to know what that is, you can Google it.
I have a situation where anatomically, genetically, I'm in the 12 percent bracket where all of my sockets and my joints are just a little bit too big, so it just tears on the socket and the labrum. It was going to happen. And I had decided, I came back from Korea last week and Taipei and I just couldn't do anything, I couldn't sleep, and I said, I've got to do it. I just flew straight into Pittsburgh and had it done.
Timing is bad, obviously, but there's no good timing for it. I was thinking about the Shootout and Freddie and the events in January that I'd like to play in, so it was really looking that far ahead to make sure I had the time to recover.

Q. Greg spoke earlier about the U.S. dominance in The Presidents Cup. Because of that, and the fact that the U.S. won The Ryder Cup last year so impressively, I just wondered if you felt any added pressure of expectation as captain, despite your well-known, laid back, easy-going style.
FRED COUPLES: My expectations of the whole week is certainly for, a, my team to be prepared to play; b, have a good time playing; and then c, have an unbelievable match.
It has been sometimes, like Greg said, I mean, I didn't realize, up in Canada, we won five of the first six matches and tied the other one. It's -- my guys at The Ryder Cup last year, Paul Azinger did a phenomenal job and they got up early the first day and they stayed up.
As Greg has played and watched, even in match-play formats, you get behind, every putt is important. And when you get behind, every match is important. And when we were talking about where you put players, it doesn't really matter, because you come down the last four or five holes and your team is down a point and a half or two, every 4-footer makes it three points.
So there's a lot going on in your mind and there shouldn't be. So we need to be ready to go on Thursday and I know the guys are. And as Greg said, we will make the pairings and then they will go play, and they will do the best they possibly can.
Have we won a few Presidents Cups? Sure. A long time ago. Did we win the last Ryder Cup? Yeah. I have pretty much the same guys on my team. I'm hoping they have a good time and play well. That's about all I can ask for.
GREG NORMAN: Just touching on what Freddie was saying, in this format, I think in match play, or in a team competition like this, it's easier to protect the lead than chase one down. When you play stroke play and you're five or six back in the last round you can actually let it go a little bit and the consequences are either you are going to get there or you are not. So you can bury yourself in obscurity if you don't make it.
But here it's difficult if you are that far down to rev it up and come from behind. It's happened in The Ryder Cup, Ben Crenshaw, they came storming back from just about no where. But it's very difficult to do that and it's a lot easier to protect the lead.
So if you've got quality players like that, they know how to block out things and stay in front. That's why it's been tough for us to really come back as a team from some of the trouncings in the foursomes, like in MontrÃ©al.

Q. Apparently since THE TOUR Championship, Phil has had some back issues, can you update us on that, and might that cause you to sit down him on Saturday perhaps?
FRED COUPLES: Well, there's a great question. He's going to play nine holes today, and then I believe get a little treatment and then he's going to be ready to go on Thursday.
No, he did tweak his back, and he called me, and it was a pretty funny conversation, because he said, "Is Tom Boers going to be there. "
And I said, "Why do you ask that"?
He said, "I'm just curious."
I laid into him, "This is the biggest week of my life, you've got to tell me what's going on."
So Tom came to see him and got him going and Greg and I have both worked with Tom and he's a miracle worker. He looked good on the range. He's going to play nine for precaution and come out and play nine tomorrow, which a lot of guys may only play nine and hit a few balls.
I don't see it as a problem. I have to get through Thursday with Phil before I get to Saturday. I know he's going to tell me if he wants to play both matches, but it just depends. As of now it was a little bit of a concern until I physically saw him on the range today. Anybody's going to tell you they're doing good. You have got to watch them though.

Q. Can you offer anymore specifics on what Michael Jordan's role is going to be this week?
FRED COUPLES: First of all, his role is he's out there walking around with some guys right now while we're in here. He knows a lot about sports and he's talking a lot about sports. And Greg hit it right on the button. I can only imagine their locker room -- I'm not going to say it's harder, but there are guys on his team, he mentioned Camilo; I asked Joey to go caddie for Camilo. Adam Scott is one of my all-time guys. With Michael, he has touched everybody so far in just a fun way.
His role is, we all respect him. I think Greg knows everything about Michael, so does his other team. He'll be doing stuff, talking to them, having fun.
But basically, it's my way of saying thanks. Just like President Clinton coming out today. I mean, these guys love golf and they come out here to spend the day with us; Michael's been to several Ryder Cups, overseas. He's getting ready to go to the next Ryder Cup. He's talking about it, I believe it's in Wales. So this guy is a world-class traveler and I thought it would be nice of me to ask him to come.
So his role is to have fun with the guys. That's it. He's certainly not telling them how to hit a chip shot, that I can promise you. (Laughter).

Q. Usually the captains want to free everything up for the player, so they don't have to worry about anything but their game. But with you being in the news with your shoulder and your announcement last week, have the players lent support or attention to you in any way?
GREG NORMAN: We haven't even talked about it. We talked about my shoulder, absolutely. It's pretty hard to ignore that. But at the end of the day, somebody's private life is their private life. They respect that.
So they just come in, knowing this is all about the Presidents Cup. This has nothing to do about me. Just because I'm the captain of the team, it's all about the team. And I'm making sure they know that. I'm never going to put anybody else in any other position, outside the 12 players are ahead of everybody.
They know what their responsibilities are this week. My guys know that they want to win. I put a lot of good energy into their team room by some of the visual things that they see and they have given great feedback from that. So it's all about The Presidents Cup, not about anything else.

Q. Just to clarify, you expect to be healthy for the Australian Open?
GREG NORMAN: Yes, I'm absolutely targeting that. That will be my warm up for my partner to my right.

Q. I'm sure you've spoken to some of the veteran players about reasons the International Team has not had more success. Have they been able to pinpoint anything or is it just a case of the players have not produced the goods on the weeks at hand?
GREG NORMAN: When you get right down to it, it's foursomes. As simple as that. When you look at what happened to us at Royal Melbourne in '98, I believe it was, when you look back to that, it was like we did very well in the opening day. We held our own going through there, and it's amazing the difference in energy level when you pull through a tough day like that.
The hardest thing Frank Nobilo and I have had to do is figure out, how do you balance these guys out in that type of format in true alternate-shot or true foursome, because the dynamics of my team is again, a little bit more different than Freddie's team, because there's a lot of variables in the styles of play.
So when you look at Harding Park, you have got to look at this as a golf course that really suits the guys who get it out there a long way. So to balance my guys out is an interesting process to say the least.
But I've included many of them in on the process, which is great. But I'm the one who has to finally make the decision on them.

Q. How does your style differ from past Presidents Cup captains, and do the young guys who are playing in this event for the first time, or maybe the second time, can they inject some energy into your team?
GREG NORMAN: I think because I'm still a current player in a lot of ways, and I still compete, and when the players see that you're still very much involved in the game of golf, whether it's going to the first tee and playing or doing well in a major championship or being involved in some other way; the connection is incredible.
Ryo and Y.E. Yang have been two of the nicest guys to get to know. They just have the utmost respect for everybody in the room, and they show it, too. That's just an incredible amount of maturity on both parts. Y.E. is a lot older than Ryo, and it's great to see that type of connection. Ryo just turned 18. And you put them up against some of the ages of the guys on our team, it's pretty hard to talk about what happened 35 years on the golf course.
But he gets them. He's a very young historian in a lot of ways. So that makes the job a lot easier. He really has not shied away from anything. They accept my style of captaincy as being very much hands-on. I have gotten numerous e-mails from my guys all the way through saying this has been the best preparation -- the guys who have played before -- the best they have ever seen a Presidents Cup be prepared for them as players.
That's encouraging in its own right, because as a player, I understand what I would like to have happen, and you structure things around those thoughts to make it easier for them. And they see it and they really appreciate it.
LAURA HILL: Captains, thank you. We'll see you tomorrow for the pairings.

End of FastScripts

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