home jobs contact us
Our Clients:
Browse by Sport
Find us on ASAP sports on Facebook ASAP sports on Twitter
ASAP Sports RSS Subscribe to RSS
Click to go to
Asaptext.com		 ASAPtext.com
ASAP Sports e-Brochure View our
e-Brochure

VIVENDI SEVE TROPHY


September 17, 2011


Darren Clarke

David Horsey

Paul McGinley

Ian Poulter

Lee Westwood


PARIS, FRANCE

Q. Tough game, nip and tuck all the day?
DARREN CLARKE: We were leading nearly the whole way, and just the guys kept coming back at us through one way or another and we just couldn't quite get them.

Q. On 17 you got your noses in front again.
DARREN CLARKE: We had so many chances all day to finish it and finish it, and we didn't do it. You know, the guys, they made a nice putt there on the last.

Q. We couldn't believe how many long putts were going in this morning, not just your match but everywhere. Must have counted about six from 30-foot plus. Are the greens rolling really well today?
DARREN CLARKE: Yeah, there was quite a few. Greens are good.

Q. The format, you quite like that? Something you're not familiar with.
DAVID HORSEY: We played foursomes in Walker Cup and I know greensomes. It's different and it's good to make decisions.
DARREN CLARKE: He played absolutely fantastic today, really, really well.

Q. What was your strategy?
DARREN CLARKE: The strategy was David was hitting the fairways, me hit the iron shots, and David hole the putts, which was the strategy, which almost worked. Almost worked.
DAVID HORSEY: Made a lot of birdies but not enough.

Q. Paul told us you were pretty unhappy yesterday.
DARREN CLARKE: I'm not at the races this week; so my ball-striking is not as good as it should be. I'm just not at the races this week. I've worked and I've worked and I've worked, and I'm just not, at the races. I'm not striking the ball the way I should be, far from it. I've worked and worked, put in the time but it's just not quite there this week unfortunately. Not just quite as good as it should be, that's all.

Q. Just what the doctor ordered?
IAN POULTER: Was yesterday was disappointing. We got off to a nice start Thursday. Intensity was not there yesterday for some reason, don't know why. Good to give everyone a good bollocking last night and everyone was down. So the way to combat that is come out, play hard today. I think the whole team did that. We responded very nicely. Paul will be very happy. But again, we need to get out there in foursomes and get straight back out.

Q. A good session, 3 1/2, you needed to do something to get the momentum back again.
IAN POULTER: Yeah, we felt great Thursday and I guess you can get complacent. I don't think anyone really was, but it's too easy. They came back hard which you would have expected them to, but we as a team have managed to press the lead forward again. It's up to us to go out there this afternoon again and try as well as we have this morning.

Q. You and Fisher are a strong partnership, plenty of experience.
IAN POULTER: Thomas and Raph were always going to be a tough match. Thomas is in good form. Raph is a great player. They played nicely and that was always going to be difficult. It was a close match all the way through. It was good shot after good shot, which was winning holes. And that was the outcome of that. I mean, in the end we just out played them.

Q. Just what the doctor ordered today. A great session.
LEE WESTWOOD: It was important to come out today fast and sort of stop their momentum that they built up yesterday. We had it the first day.

Q. You certainly did that, you went 5-up, wasn't it?
LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, we played great around that front nine. Didn't really give them a chance. Greensomes, 5-under for nine holes, you probably are going to be up.

Q. It was very important to do that. What about your young partner, as we know, you had not met him properly until this week. He's performed brilliantly.
LEE WESTWOOD: He did really well today. Hit a lot of good shots, great iron shots, good 5-iron into 4 and lovely 8-iron into 5. You know, we just kept grinding away at them, and he made some nice putts as well, a couple of par saving putts, a nice birdie putt on 9, a nice birdie putt on 7.
Yeah, we fitted well and yeah, he's acquainted himself well to team golf.

Q. You've got the momentum back this afternoon?
LEE WESTWOOD: Foursomes is always the hardest, but I've got a very steady partner, David Horsey, and he's very -- normally plays very assured golf.
PAUL McGINLEY: Hard to say anything, but I'm absolutely delighted with what went on. Great turnaround. Great reaction after what happened yesterday. As I said last night at the press conference, I didn't -- I wasn't too hard on my team yesterday. Sometimes that just happens. We didn't panic. We kept things in perspective. And we went out today with a really good attitude, the lead boys again, Donaldson, Dyson, incredibly strong this week. Started us off and got some red on the board early.
You know the game plan was to not let them use the advantage and momentum. We drew a line under yesterday and started again. The lead guys were very important. I think the Poulter/Fisher game was very big for us.
That was the second game yesterday, we went 4-down after five holes yesterday and I think that had a big effect on the mentality of the rest of the team when they saw that. We were going to make sure that the lead groups, if we were going to go 1-down, it was going to go 1-down, 2-down maximum; it wasn't to go three or four. We spoke about that. We had a great day.

Q. Horsey was superb.
PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, he was. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and I saw a lot of putts holed. A lot of times we were inside them and they holed the putts, and then we missed on the front nine. But then we seemed to reverse it a bit on the back nine.

Q. And your pairing of your top player with the rookie, Lee Westwood and Scott Jamieson?
PAUL McGINLEY: Well, all I can say is Lee Westwood is just the dream player to have on your team. Not alone is his quality of golf as good as it is but he has absolutely no ego whatsoever about who he plays with, what position he plays with, and any role that I give him, he's happy to take on.
I just can't speak highly enough of him as a member; not alone a member of a team that I'm captain of but as a member of a team that I've played with. I've played three Ryder Cups with him. You don't learn as much when you're playing with them as when you're captaining, and I've learned a lot, what he's done, the way he's behaved is not the word, but his attitude this week of totally egoless, all about the team, happy to play any role that I want him to play in and it made it easy for me.
And it will be an invaluable experience for Scott Jamieson, he played really well, it was his best golf this morning. That's going to do his career a whole lot of good.

Q. Your thoughts into the foursomes?
PAUL McGINLEY: Let's not count our chickens. We had a very good day the first day, we were leading 4-1. They come back at us strongly with a very good day this morning, very good morning, 3 1/2 to 1/2, but sure they are going to come back at us again. They are a wounded animal and we know that. I've gone for a lot of strength in my pairings as you can see this afternoon, a lot of strength.
I'm really excited about the Dyson/Poulter pairing, how that's going to fair. Westwood and Horsey, Horsey played fabulous again this morning, as did Darren. I think I've got four very strong pairings. Donaldson and Rock have asked to play with each other during the week. They are very good friends. I thought it would work, splitting up Donaldson and Dyson in order to go with Dyson and Poulter because that's a pairing I'm looking forward to seeing how they go on.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




About ASAP Sports • FastScripts Archive • Recent Interviews • Captioning • Upcoming Events • Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297