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VIVENDI SEVE TROPHY

September 16, 2011

Jean Van De Velde

PARIS, FRANCE

SARAH GWYNN: Jean, a little bit of a different mood tonight.
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Yeah, different mood, but if I'm not mistaken, we are still behind, aren't we, but less. It was a good reaction from them. I'm very happy of what I've seen. And the result did follow, as well. So that's -- the intensity was there. The commitment was there. And that's -- none of the players were not on their game. They actually tuned in, and that's what I'm very happy with and very proud of.
SARAH GWYNN: How was the atmosphere in the team room this morning?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: The atmosphere was good. We talked yesterday after the game, and we talked some more, some players together in the evening, and leading to the restaurant, and as a team should be. And yesterday we just lost the battle. We didn't lose a war. We were only three behind. It's nice not like we are three behind and only the singles to play. It's three behind and still four sessions to play.
So, fine, it's not the start that you dream of, but you know, we know better than others that sports has a funny way. It's never over before it's over, and here we go.

Q. What sort of rallying cry did you issue?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Rally? Yesterday? In the team room? I just said, yeah, listen, just I want to see everybody into the game. I know that you didn't do it on purpose. You didn't try to play badly. Just some of you just didn't play, and that's that.
I mean, it's not like they are way down the World Ranking list or way down any thing and this is -- you know, this kind of thing can happen. You can have an off-day. But not three or four guys out of my ten, that's not possible.
So they are either trying too hard or, you know, being disturbed by something or not being able to put themselves in the frame of mind where they can actually compete. And I said, yeah, we had a chat about that and I said what I had to say. And I asked everybody to talk, and to express his opinion, and that was that. We debated and you know, you try to learn from your mistake and you move on.
Today, the look in their eyes was different, even on the first hole. And I wasn't the only one to notice that. So that's what I like. Now, once again, you know, the result came and I'm very pleased. But even if it wouldn't have come, the commitment was there, and that's all you can ask.

Q. You were asked yesterday what you learnt yesterday, and I think you said you learnt you got your backside kicked. What did you learn today as captain?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, what I learned today as a captain is that you need to have convictions. You need to talk with your heart. There's no doubt about it. You need to do your homework, as well, and you need to -- there's many things that I've learned, many things that I've learned from JosÃ©, from the inside of JosÃ©; and even from McGinley, who, let's never forget, we play in competition here. We are both trying to win and we are both trying to have our side winning. But it's a great preparation work for what's to come, as well.
So this has to be a communication of information sooner or later, and that's good. So personally, I learned a lot in the last 24 hours without a doubt.

Q. Did JosÃ© Maria give you some sort of comforting advice after yesterday?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Comforting? He asked me to look at my backside, that's for sure; comforting, he's not going to give me any comforting when we are 4-1 down. What kind of comforting can he give me? No, we spoke about different things. We spoke about obviously a numerous amount of his ideas and personalities -- and you know, what makes a team.
A team is a lot of different individuals that you have to mix together and try to play together. We have one more thing I think which is more difficult on our side, is that you have a mix of people who speak different languages.
GB&I, as far as I'm concerned, they all speak English, unless they cannot speak their dialect. I have a mix of different nationalities under one banner, and that's not an easy thing to -- I don't think it's an easy thing to deal with.
So you're going to tell me, yeah, but it's pretty easy, you have two Danes, you have two French, one guy from Belgium, two Spaniards; well, if that was that easy, thank you very much. No, you need to have the personality at the start of play, as well. There's different ins and outs, fourballs, greensomes, foursomes.
So, yeah, today was a good session. I said to them, you know, we had a good day today, and looking at the board, we are still behind. So tomorrow is another day.

Q. As you English say.
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Absolutely. Absolutely I said it yesterday, and it's going to be tomorrow.

Q. Can I ask you about the Matteo and Nico partnership. You talked yesterday about the rookie mistakes they made. Can you talk about how much they improved today?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Did you see them play today I think yesterday Nicolas picked it up on the 7th hole. Matteo was not comfortable. I spoke with him in the locker room for at least 45 minutes. JosÃ© spoke to him, and we spoke again and he spoke with Nicolas last night when we went to the restaurant for a good 20, 25 minutes outside the restaurant.
At the end of the day, Nico picked it up, Matteo didn't, and he tried to -- he verbalised what he thought was his difficulty and the way that he was feeling about it. And that's the most important thing; it's not like, oh, let's skip over it and tomorrow it's going to get better. What's going to get better? Can you put your finger on something? Because if you can't, let's roll a coin, and yes, it will get better. If you can put your finger on something, then let's talk about it. So I'm not asking you to get better immediately, but at least it's a first step to know where you're heading.
Matteo is going to be here for a long, long, long time, he's going to play in many, many Seve Trophys and very probably in many Ryder Cups. Same as Nicolas. At the end of the day, I have great trust in that spirit. They are young; they are spirited; they are very good. Matteo, it's not like he's 150th in the world. I'll say again, he's 32nd in the world. He knows what he has to do. Fine, he has not played in team competition as much; but that's not even true. He comes from the amateur rank a year and a half ago. So he knows what he needs. He needs to fire it up and gear it up and to tune it up.
And I'm definitely, you know, I'm not going to take away the trust that I have into that team. It's not because it didn't work that I'm going to break it. It didn't work for some reason. Now, if it works, can it get better? Look how they performed under a severe amount of pressure. They were 3-up going down to two going down to one; they help up two holes. They finished with a birdie, another birdie and they won their game.
So, yes, I have trust in them and I know they can deliver and I know they will deliver. And they have.

Q. Part of your hard work was changing not your teams but the order in which they played, and having McGinley not changing anything very much of his.
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, I'm not quite sure about that. I think Paul didn't change the first group -- didn't change any pairing but he mixed them up. Well, why would you change something that works?

Q. Did it help you after your homework was all worked out, that you got your combinations in a different order do you think?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, you know, I put -- I didn't change too much actually. Well, I did change, but my big change was Miguel. Miguel was never going to tee off first on the first day if it wasn't for the commemoration of Seve. That idea, that was for me -- I think that was the right thing to do. So that's why I had Miguel playing first. He would have never been at front of the pack, so that's one thing.
Now, having said that, you know, I made one change, and I thought that Alexander under performed yesterday in regards to what he can deliver. I don't say he played badly, he hit 13 greens out of 15 holes. That's not playing badly. But he was not totally, you know, in a free wheel. He wasn't loose.
It was without a doubt the pressure of the first rounds, the first time he was coming out, his first Seve Trophy. And I spoke with Peter. They speak the same language, Peter has experience anyway. He's not going to have two days like the first day that he had; there's no way. He comes out of The Ryder Cup a few months, 12 months ago, he played -- he fired a 65 I think or a 64 in Crans-sur-Sierre, so I said, listen, I'm going to change that pairing and I'm going to change Thomas.
So that's really -- I changed one pairing, which implicates that you have two new pairings. The other three remained, because I do believe that they are the strongest association that I can do, okay. It happened that today Anders Hansen and Francesco Molinari lost, but it's their first loss in four matches. They have a pretty good record. Yesterday out of three games in fourballs, they have three wins. They ran into better players today and that's the way it is.

Q. The way you've changed things around just that little bit, will it colour your decisions for the greensomes and foursomes?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Oh, yes, I was making my decision along the way and addressed the players some of them and we spoke about it and I expressed why I made those decisions. And everybody seems to be very satisfied with it. So if you have a happy bunch, it's a lot easier.

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