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VIVENDI SEVE TROPHY

September 17, 2011

Jean Van De Velde

PARIS, FRANCE

SARAH GWYNN: Jean, thanks for coming in as always. Thanks for sparing your time. Probably not how you wanted things to go today. Just run us through your thoughts.
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, definitely not. I thought this morning that it was -- you know, it's definitely finished not the way that it started. I mean, I think that the games were very, very close, and in the middle, a bit -- we actually ran into a bit of a slump because everybody seems to be doing okay, or it was bordering. It could have gone either way really. Except the last game where Westwood and Jamieson really worked over JimÃ©nez and LarrazÃ¡bal.
The other three matches, it was quite close. So in the straight from 9 onwards until 13, 14, we kind of lost momentum, there's no doubt about it. Thomas BjÃ¶rn was doing well. I mean, they came back into the game against Fisher and Poulter, and they were square playing at No. 13 with RaphaÃ«l and then they seemed to be having a bit of a setback.
Horsey and Clarke, this was an amazing pairing, I have to say. Good thinking from Paul. Because at the end of the day, you know, Horsey is a very good driver of the golf ball, excellent putter. He's been putting incredibly well, as well, the first couple of days, and it really worked like clockwork. I mean, they hit pretty much every single fairway. Clarke hit a lot of greens, put Horsey into a position where, you know, he took advantage of his fantastic putting. He made it from 15 feet on the first, from 18 feet on the second, and then he made it from 30 feet on the fifth.
So, you know, having said that -- and he kept on going pretty much all day long. So, you know, okay, I always say that the morning session didn't reflect at all what pretty much what happened out there. It was tied up until the middle and then unfortunately we had a setback.
Now coming back to this afternoon, you know, RaphaÃ«l Jacquelin and Colsaerts, I would say they were all right up until the 7th, and then they made a mistake. They made an unforced error, we are going to say. They are over the back on 7 and Westwood and Horsey are about ten feet for birdie.
They are about eight yards from the hole. They take them three from there, and of course, they holed the putts and after, that RaphaÃ«l told me, he lost his rhythm. He couldn't hit too many shots coming in. They never managed to make any up-and-downs. And actually the same thing happened with LarrazÃ¡bal and Noren. They went pretty much through the turn in front and they kept losing -- I mean, they lost on 9 to go 1-up, to remain 1-up. And then they lost the 11th, they lost the 12th, they lost 13 I think. So they lost in success on four or five holes. Once again, they couldn't make a point when they needed.
Dyson made a very long putt on the 11th, and you know, the momentum shifted away. Noren missed from four feet on 9, so as I say, to go from 2-up to 1-up. Dyson making a bomb, and then they made up-and-down, Dyson and Poulter on 12 as the other two made a bunker shot and 2-putt.
Then the next hole, LarrazÃ¡bal missed from just under three feet, and then once again, you know, the momentum has shifted there.
I'm very happy that Hansen the boat together because if not, Molinari, Manassero, they left themselves a lot of chances. As I say, the difference is and maybe hit a few more than they did if not, I'm pretty sure we could have gotten ahead on that one.
In and out, yes. An extremely disappointing day, there's no doubt about it. Six points for them, two points for us. We had a load on our plate.
You've seen the draw, and I tried to putt all of my players in form at the front, because if we don't put points on the board straightaway, I'm afraid the competition is going to be over.
So BjÃ¶rn is out first, he's going to play Westwood. That's going to be a very tight game, I'm pretty sure that Thomas is going to be up for it. He's coming out of a win, and yeah, he's playing well, there's no doubt about it. Anders is a fearless competitor. JimÃ©nez, Colsaerts, if we manage to get five points out of the first six games, then the game is on.
So we have seen that in the past. I mean, I remember playing a Ryder Cup in 1999 and we were five ahead, and if I don't mistake, we lost. So worse things have happened in sport, there's no doubt, and now it's about keeping the spirit up. If you take each individual player, they can win the game. It's just a matter of happening. Is that going to happen? Is it likely? Well, if you carry the burden of being so far behind into tomorrow morning, well, then it might be difficult. But if you start fresh, then you never know. Golf is a funny game.

Q. Young Matteo, for only 18 years old, you know, he's remarkably mature for that age. What would you like to say about him and how he's flourished this week?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, I would like to say, that you know, he's got -- first of all, he's got a lot of game, there's no doubt about it.
Second of all, he's got his entire career ahead of him. So he's 18 years of age. How many of these is he going to play. It's true that I could have mixed experience with youth. I decided to put the two youngsters together. Why? Because at the same time, you know, there's different ways of learning in life and I think he's well enough mature and a good enough golfer to be able to cope with the fact that he's playing in the team. There's no doubt about it. He's a Top-30 player in the world. He's an outstanding player.
So you know, obviously defined his groove with Nicolas? I would say they went on very, very well together. I'm not disappointed with what they have done. I'm definitely not disappointed with what Matteo has done, although I have seen him making more putts in the past. I do not think, and I don't think that's typical to Matteo. I do not believe that we have putted have as close as the Great Britain and Ireland team. They have been outstanding on the greens.
I mean, Jamieson has been outstanding, Horsey has been outstanding, Dyson incredible as well. You take them in, you take them out; it's been an amazing display of putting out there. Rock has been amazing. Okay, you're going to tell me there's a few misses here and there; fine, but overall, chip-in, bunker shot in, and it's been a really display and a real display of team spirit and team compatibility out there.
So you know, hats down to them so far.

Q. Do you think there's any reason any deeper explanation as to why you're staring down the barrel of this sixth straight defeat in this competition?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: Well, it's actually hard to explain. I was actually chatting with JimÃ©nez about it. It's hard to putt our finger on anything. I mean, really, to be honest, despite maybe the fact that they come into form, like last week, I think Great Britain and Ireland had four players coming in the Top-10, so obviously that brings a little bit of momentum switching your way. Hansen had to pull out after a round, round and a half; Quiros is missing. So you know, what is it? The players on the team are amazing players.
Now, you know, is it about a combination, about pairing? Well, maybe it is, maybe it was. Maybe I could have done better. But as far as I'm concerned, you know, all of those guys wants to get individually a pretty good -- not pretty good, they are extremely good. And the fact of the matter is, as well, in terms of personality, they get on pretty well.
So, what can I say? I mean, the question I'm faced here, I mean, the past captain had the same problem, so maybe we should all -- we all should meet together and find out the common trends to it and try to resolve it without a doubt.

Q. Do you think it's any question of match-play experience?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: I don't think if it's any question of match-play experience. Why would they be? How come Jamieson has more match play experience?

Q. Maybe because he started at a younger age, that's mostly what they play?
JEAN VAN DE VELDE: It's the same for us. It's the same in Europe. You play a lot of match play in the clubs. Maybe nationally now you play more stroke-play because you can see the players are more prepared when they arrive on Tour. They play a lot of stroke-play events, but they still do play a lot of match play. Maybe the fact that it's such a mix of nationalities.
You know, it's not that easy, because if you look at a guy who is a Spaniard, who is he going to practise with? He's going to practise with another Spanish, usually at the beginning of a week in the tournament. So you're going to tell me, why didn't you put all of the nationalities together. Well, maybe I should have. It's easy afterwards to comment. But right now, you want to know something, if I had an explanation, it would be good.
As far as I'm concerned, in the past, Great Britain and Ireland has been outstanding. It's been in the foursomes. Not so much in the greensomes, or this morning we suffered a big blow, but in the foursomes, there is zero doubt about it. I think for the last four Seve Trophy, they are like 11 1/2 to 4 1/2. So there is a gap that we have to try to shrink.
And definitely in the vision of playing Ryder Cup. There's no greensomes in Ryder Cup. We all know that. But in the foursomes, we need to find kind of a synergy, who is going to shift the momentum to the other side, and it has not happened yet. So now, you know, the individual tomorrow will -- yeah, I think that will be a good vision of what's to come.

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