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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 7, 2009

Robert Allenby

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

Q. Robert, your form coming in, how has it been?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, I had a couple of weeks off and then I went up to Turning Stone last week just to see what I had to work on. That was everything. No, look, I'm hitting the ball great and I'm putting great and the whole game feels really good. I feel fresh and ready to go. Last week, first round wasn't too good, but 37 degrees and raining sideways wasn't my cup of tea at 7:55 in the morning.
So there's one thing for sure, I'm ditching the tournaments that are going to be cold, that's for sure -- (inaudible) -- starting to hurt when it's that time of the morning and it's that cold. Yeah, no wonder I live in Florida.

Q. Do you feel any pressure to perform this week?
ROBERT ALLENBY: No. Not at all. Why would I?

Q. Well, because it's a big event and the Internationals don't have a particularly good record.
ROBERT ALLENBY: You know what, I don't see any pressure to perform. I want to play well, there's no doubt about that. I want our team to win. And you know, it's just my main goal is just to focus on what I have to do and I already know that everyone else is going to be focusing on what they have to do and if we all do it individually on what we actually physically have to do, then as a team, we'll come together.

Q. (Inaudible.)
ROBERT ALLENBY: Vijay and I use the same ball. We use the Srixon. It worked out quite well.

Q. Is that why they put you together?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, he wanted to play with me and I wanted to play with him. But at the same time, we get along really well, and Vijay and I, we go back a long time, obviously. So you know, we gel together. That's important in foursomes especially, you have to gel.
We both have kind of similar games, both good ball-strikers, good iron players. You know, foursomes is one of those things where you just have to have an understanding partner. Because you're not going to hit every shot great. You're going to hit it off somewhere, so if you have a partner that accepts it and moves on, you gel well and what's that we do. Today was our first experiment and it went well. Our plan is to go do the same thing tomorrow.

Q. Some of the Aussie guys, I asked Geoff Ogilvy this yesterday, the guys who play the American tour as their home tour from Australia, do you think there's any interest among those guys to get them included in The Ryder Cup so we have an American tour versus European Tour?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I don't see that ever happening. I don't see Ryder Cup ever changing. There's too much history there. You can't change history.

Q. It's the same bunch of scalawags that populate both continents.
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, but you know what, we have The Presidents Cup. We don't need Ryder Cup.
Ryder Cup is just for Americans that are born here, and European Team is for Europeans only. You know what, I could have played the European, I have a British passport and I'm a British citizen. I could have played some Ryder Cup for The European Team.

Q. Would you rather do this instead?
ROBERT ALLENBY: I'm Australian. Got to go by where you were born and I was born in Australia. You know what, that's why we have a Presidents Cup.

Q. It was obvious from watching your press conference and you and Vijay formed a partnership.
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, obviously Vijay and I go back a long way, and you know, it's so important to go out there and have a good time, and have a good time, just go out there and play the golf that we know that we can play. The more relaxed you are, the better you can play, and that's just a given.
You know, for Vijay and myself, I think we'll be a good team together. We are both really good ball-strikers and we both play our iron shots really well. He has the most amazing short game around the greens, and so, you know, I'm going to be doing everything I can to make sure that we come out on top.
You know, you can only do your best and if your best isn't enough on the day, so be it.

Q. You both also play the same golf ball, how big of a factor will that be?
ROBERT ALLENBY: That's a good thing. Foursomes is such a tricky game, it really is. It's so important that you get the ball right. Because in the past, you know, he might play Srixon and the other guy might play Titleist and then you're up in the air a little bit; well, which one should we use, well, we'll use Titleist off this tee so he can hit the next shot. It's important to have the same ball and if you can get that to work, it can work really well.

Q. Golf is such an individual sport. Is it a nice change to be in a team dynamic and did you play any other team sports growing up?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Yeah, it's nice to play in a team event. You know, it's only every two years, but to me, growing up, I played a lot of cricket, Australian Rules Football. I've played in teams. I was pretty good at cricket, and I had a choice of playing for my country under age golf or country under age cricket, and I went with golf because it's an individual sport.
The thing is, you know, in the team sport, you've got a whole team to rely on, and in an individual sport, you've only got yourself to rely on.
But, the thing is, when you are dealing with guys that are in this tournament, everyone is just an awesome player. But it's very important that we all gel together, as well. You've got to gel. It's very, very important.

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