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THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 23, 2011

Rosie Jones

DUNSANY, IRELAND

MIKE SCANLAN: We'd like to welcome U.S. Captain Rosie Jones to the interview room. Europe currently leads 4 and a half to 3 and a half after the first day of play at the 2011 Solheim Cup. If you would, just give us a quick review of the day, and how you felt it went for the U.S. Team?
ROSIE JONES: I think it went really great both morning sessions and afternoon sessions. Well, the morning session started off pretty good, pretty fast for the U.S., but turned fairly blue midway through it.
And with a lot of heart my team came back. Team USA came back with some win good wins right towards the end there, and Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr, they just played really great today and just kept the momentum going.
Both of those matches, and not only -- I know they weren't playing together, but those matches just meant a lot to be able to pull those out, because we were behind. They're our big players, and we need those players to win, so that was really important. It added motivation and momentum going into the afternoon.
Then it started to slip a little bit on that front nine and going into the back nine. It wasn't even until about 15, 16, 17 that Team USA started to come back and make a move. It was really, really exciting golf to watch. Ryann.
O'Toole played all day with Christina Kim, to watch Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel bring it in at the end and make those putts on the last 17th and 18th holes.
I just can't give these girls enough for digging it out when they really needed to to really be able to dig it out when they needed to. Even the last match that they lost, Michelle Wie and Cristie Kerr were down 3 at one point, but they never gave up. Even when they were 3-down, they still had the walk, they still had the talk, and they knew that they could possibly come back. It's that kind of fight that really makes this team great.
I'm really proud of the 3 and a half points that we have. I think it's a great start with day one. We did real well on foursomes this morning. It could be even better tomorrow.
MIKE SCANLAN: Can you take us through some of the groupings this afternoon? You put Paula and Morgan together, and they squeezed out the first point. Then I think Christina and Ryann pairing, second out turned a few heads in the media center, I know, and amongst the fans. Can you take us through those first two?
ROSIE JONES: Yeah, I'm really kind of surprised about that. You have two personalities, you know, kind of fire and trouble is their nickname. There's just a lot of energy there.
You put a new Solheim player, a rookie player in there with Christina Kim, you have to have the right kind of player that can play with Christina Kim and really exceed. I knew that Ryann had that personality that can go in there and fire each other up, bring it when they needed to, and they showed a lot of fight.
They were 2-down going into 15, 16, and with the big birdie on 16 with Ryann, I mean, there's never any give up. In both of them, you could see it in them that they really believed in each other and they believed in this team and that's what's really important.
MIKE SCANLAN: And Paula and Morgan birdied 17 and 18 to pull out a point. Can you just talk about that match?
ROSIE JONES: Yeah that's at the point when we're like totally down and blue, the whole board was looking blue. You know, those guys play together a lot. They're good friends. You know they're never going to let each other down or give up on each other, and that was really, really fun to watch them. Paula to make that putt on 17, and then Morgan pretty much outdrive everybody on 18, which is incredible and stick it in there and make that 20-25 footer for birdie.
That's what these kids have. They never say no. They don't give up. They fight to the end, and it's really what's fun about this competition.

Q. Even though Europe lead after day one, you could have had a whitewash loss in both sessions. You were three and a half to a half down in the advanced stage of the foursomes, and down in all four matches in the afternoon. Do you think psychologically the American team might be a lot happier tonight because you're bang and touch, and Europe missed the chance to take a big lead?
ROSIE JONES: Well, it's not over until it's over. That's why they put all 18 holes up in there. Even though you can be 1 or 2-down going around, you have to play yourself all the way around. And that's why I give this team so much credit is because they don't give up, they don't like to lose. They know that there's a certain amount of golf that you have to play, and sometimes it's the clutch that wins it.
You come down to the end like that, we just showed a lot of heart, a lot of heart today when we needed it.

Q. Over the last three Solheim Cups, I think it's 24-12 to the United States in singles. So the more you keep it within range going into those singles, do you feel you have an advantage even if you trail by two points, three points?
ROSIE JONES: Absolutely. The last two Solheim Cups, I believe, at least in 2005 when I was there, and in 2009, I know were both even going into the last day of singles. And we do have a really good record in singles. So that's always -- yeah. I want to be up. I don't want to have to look for a cushion.
I'm not really comfortable being behind at all with this team. This is a strong team. We're on a very long golf course. There are a lot of heavy hitters there that are playing really well. I want to be right with them and leading going into Sunday because you never know what's going to happen.

Q. Can you just give us an idea how inexperienced your team are in those sort of conditions?
ROSIE JONES: Well, our players play in a lot of weather. They play year round over in the States and we play in the northern part of the country in Canada. Even though we haven't played recently in a lot of bad weather or cold weather, they do have several tournaments where they're putting on layers and playing. It just probably hasn't been recently because it's just finishing the summer season.
But I think the coldest weather they probably played in was at the British Open when they were here, and there were a couple of days we were putting gloves on and stocking hats.
That's what I love about this team. They don't complain, not one complaint today. Oh, it's raining when they went to go warm up, or it's going to be windy.
I told everybody that was teeing off in the afternoon, it's going to be really windy this afternoon, knuckle down, be patient, stick to your shots, commit to those shots. Don't get carried away with a couple of bad shots. They're going to happen.
You know, they just stuck with their game and kept believing in themselves and they were able to turn around, weather-permitting, they were right there with the Europeans.

Q. Christina and Ryann weren't showing particularly good recent form. So was there anything that you communicated to them coming here?
ROSIE JONES: Well, I've been talking with Ryann quite a bit, because I know she's been under a lot of pressure, a lot of scrutiny since the pick. You know, I know that she has -- I know that she has a lot of talent. I know that she was lacking a little confidence.
We've had some conversations in the past couple of weeks about that, and I knew, and I was pretty confident that once she got here and felt this team camaraderie, the support system that comes with Team USA, that she would feel pretty comfortable and able to really just let it happen and be that player. This is the type of stage that she enjoys. She likes to be up front in a big arena. It's suitable for her.
She still looks humble in that, but she's handling it, and she did a great job today. Really, really fun to see a new Solheim player come out and hang tough and really play well in their first round of golf in the Solheim Cup.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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