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THE PRESIDENTS CUP

October 8, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

MARK WILLIAMS: We would like to welcome Robert Allenby, Adam Scott, Ernie Els and Ryo Ishikawa. Just we'll get straight into questions. I think with Robert, you were victorious, just give us some thoughts about your match and what you're looking forward to tomorrow, as well.
ROBERT ALLENBY: I mean, Vijay and I got off to a good start today. I think it's very important, especially in foursomes, to get away to a good start.
It's a funny sort of game. You never know what to expect, and you never know what's going to happen. But we made a bunch of birdies out there, and we knew that our day was always going to be a tough day playing Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink, both coming off major victories this year. So we knew that they were playing well.
You know, even when we were 2-up with four or five holes to go, we knew that it wasn't over until it was over. I made a great putt at 17 for birdie to win the hole, so you know, it came out in our favor, which was good.
MARK WILLIAMS: Adam and Ernie, you guys combined for a victory; just some comments on your day. Adam, you can go first.
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think we had a fairly solid day, Ernie and I. It wasn't the most exciting match with birdies, but it was solid stuff. It wasn't easy out there. This format's never easy, but we came up with some good stuff right at the end, so very pleased to get a point on the board for our team.
ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I think, as Adam says, we were pretty solid. Got up early, kind of kept them there and made two late birdies at the end to beat them.
MARK WILLIAMS: Ryo, if you could give us some comments, your match against Tiger.
RYO ISHIKAWA: This format of the foursomes, it's tough, it's tough rules, but we did our best. We tried hard. Even though we finished 6 & 4, we definitely didn't play to that result.
I think the USA team just played unbelievable, and Geoff and I played our best.

Q. The big difference, maybe Ernie you can answer this one, or actually any of you, but a big difference, 3 1/2-2 1/2, to 4-2, which looked like it could have been 4-2 in the last match. Did you guys encourage Retief not to concede that putt? What was going on there?
ERNIE ELS: Well, first of all, earlier in the day, we were up in four games and down in two. It looked like we were doing pretty well. Then obviously the U.S. Team did rally there and at the end we were pretty fortunate to have 2 1/2 points. That's one of the better starts we've had, believe it or not, for the last three Cups or so.
So we are not too despondent about today. The first day foursomes has always been a bit of an Achilles heel to us.
No, the thing with Retief was really very innocent. He hit a bit of a blank there. He thought they were all-square there for a split second, and he was almost going to be a good sport and give the putt to Justin, but then he realized that they were 1-down. You know, he didn't say anything to Justin or Jim. It was basically he was mumbling to himself. And as it turned out unfortunately for Justin, he missed that putt, and we find ourselves one point behind. These things happen, obviously.
As I say, we are one point behind, but I feel as if we have our tails up a little, believe it or not.

Q. Your match went all 18 holes?
ROBERT ALLENBY: It did.

Q. What do you think of 17 and 18 as finishing holes to have a drivable par 4 and a very reachable par 5?
ROBERT ALLENBY: Well, they had just won 15 and 16 to take us back to all-square.
Obviously 17, Lucas just stood up there and pounded a driver onto the green. I'm thinking, well, I've got -- well Vijay just said, "Hit it anywhere." So I did. (Laughter).
The only good thing is that I gave him a lot of green to work with. And his short game, his chipping is the best; I don't think there's anyone better than him. He's unbelievable. He's probably out there now chipping.
He hit a great shot. He hit it just past -- probably about eight feet past, eight, nine feet past, but he hit a great chip from where he was, or from where I left him, on the right side of the green there.
And then I made the putt. You know, the whole time, once I saw Stewart Cink hit his putt like 3 1/2, four, five feet past him, whatever it was, four and a half feet, I thought if I could make my putt, that would just give Lucas a little bit of pressure there. And obviously it worked out. I made my putt, and, you know, it went in.
And then obviously with 18, Vijay, he hit it in the rough there yesterday for me when we were practicing, so I knew what to do from that spot. And I hit a great 5-wood on to the middle of the green, just did what I had to do. It would have been nicer if he had got the putt a little bit closer to the hole so I didn't have to putt that 3 1/2, 4-footer.
You know, it got hairy there at the end, that's for sure, but we hung in there strong and we did what we had to do.

Q. For Adam and Robert, you guys teed off on 15; if you could talk about the strategy of hitting that shot, and does it change at all, whether it's foursomes or fourball, whether you're up or down the match?
ADAM SCOTT: Not really. 15, I think it's pretty straightforward. It's 240 over that tree there up the middle of the fairway.
The wind was helping a little bit more today than the practice rounds, and I hit a good drive, but it was just on the left edge of the bunkers and it went through the fairway at 308; whereas in the practice rounds, we were way back. So I didn't quite take the right line there today.
But still there's plenty of room to drive it up there. You know, I think it just becomes tough into the wind, and downwind, you can take it; you can carry the left side. Hunter drove it up the left side today. It was fine.

Q. For Ryo, were you at all nervous playing today? This is your first time to play in an event like this.
RYO ISHIKAWA: I was really nervous, you know, and I thought about, I didn't why I was picked on this team and when I started thinking that way, I got more nervous, and up to when I hit my first tee shot. But I wanted to feel the nervous feelings that comes when you're in contention on the 17th and 18th holes.

Q. How much more comfortable will you be tomorrow in a slightly more conventional format?
RYO ISHIKAWA: I think I'll still be nervous, but I'll be able to play my own ball, be able to if I make a bad shot, I'll be the one that has to come up with the recovery shot. So I think it will be a little bit easier, but we are down one point to the USA, so if it's half a point or getting that point for our team, I want to do well and be a part of that, and then be able to speak to the captain afterwards with a victory.

Q. There's always a little bit more pressure on captain's selections than the guys who make the team off of points, and you played with Adam today, and of course Adam probably felt a little more pressure, I think he would admit that; just talk about how well he played and how happy you were with what he was able to do.
ERNIE ELS: I think Adam did very well, and I think Ryo did very well, too. Just Ryo and his partner, Geoff Ogilvy, just came up against the world's best player and second best player in the world, and they had a very good day. I think they can hold their heads up high.
As for Adam, I've always had a good feeling about Adam. You know, I've played with him in his first Presidents Cup in 2003 and we had a really good time. He's had a bit of a tough season, but talent never goes, you know, and I know that.
So we played a couple of practice rounds together Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday/Wednesday, and there's nothing wrong with Adam's game.
But still, you know, being a captain's pick, I think there's extra pressure on the guys, because there's always going to be the question, whether win or lose, what if this other player was picked. So there's added pressure on these guys.
So what they have gone through today was very difficult. And before the first tee shot, I could see Adam was quite riled up, and he nailed it about 350 down the fairway, so I think everything went after that. I think he played awesomely. If I made some more putts, we could have probably beat the guys 5 & 4, so I think he did very well.

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