	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 24, 2011

DUNSANY, IRELAND

MIKE SCANLAN: Like to welcome Stacy Lewis and Ryann O'Toole. Played in match three of the fourballs this afternoon. 2-1 victory. Ryann, you're 2-0-1 as a captain's pick. We'll start with you. Just take us through the entire week and then this match? How has this week been for you?
RYANN O'TOOLE: This week's been great. I've been striking it well. Definitely felt like I stayed in the moment and not got ahead of myself, not looked back. I feel very calm and confident. You know, especially the last three weeks that I had coming into this event were a bit rough, and obviously not my best finishes and out of character for me.
However, from each of those weeks I've gathered a lot of information about my game and have improved and kind of just learned a bit more and felt like, okay, use those as learning experiences and move forward.
So just coming out this week I just felt like I had my coach on the bag, and that gives me a ton of confidence. Also the format helps. I enjoy playing this game.
MIKE SCANLAN: Stacy, for you, how nice was it to get in the win column today with Ryann?
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, it was awesome. Rosie told me I was going out with Ryann, and I knew how well she was playing, so I said, yes, absolutely. I was frustrated with the last two mornings, because I felt like I was playing okay, and we just couldn't get into a rhythm, just couldn't get anything going. Angela wasn't hitting it very well, and I wasn't making any putts to help, so...
But it was great this afternoon. I played really well, and it gives me a lot of confidence going into tomorrow.
MIKE SCANLAN: Can you just take us through your match today? Obviously, four Solheim Cup rookies in one match, which is kind of rare. How did you guys feel together on the first tee and then throughout the day?
RYANN O'TOOLE: I think we were a good match. I've played quite a few times with Stacy in tournaments, and her and I have very similar games as far as like distance and Stacy's very mellow, very calm, constantly is focused on the shot at hand. I knew that I could have faith that she'd make the par and bring a bunch of birdies to the table and she did.
I had her tee off first, so it allowed me to kind of free up off the tee, and I think that worked out great. She didn't mind, which was even better.
STACY LEWIS: Yeah, we paired really well. I think, I got a couple birdies for us early. I think it kind of calmed us both down a little bit. Making eagle there on 7 kind of got things going, but the match was just back and forth all day. It was 1-up, 2-up, 1-up, 2-up.
We knew it was going to be hard, and Ryann made some awesome putts there toward the end of the match. The bomb on 12, then the one on 17 just kind of capped off the day. But we both hit it well, and made putts when we needed to.

Q. Ryann, you've played with three different partners, and I don't think you can get more opposite than Stacy and Christina.
RYANN O'TOOLE: Correct.

Q. Can you talk about what that's been like and how you've been able to adjust?
RYANN O'TOOLE: Well, Rosie said to me on the first tee today, she was like, You can play with anybody, can't you? And I said, Yeah, pretty much.
I just feel like I have the personality to mesh with whoever she throws at me. Christina is very energetic, very spunky. She's a great player, and you can count on her to make pars and put it on the green. She just kept me loose out there as far as my -- I guess, the way I was playing and my feel over it. That being my first Solheim match, I think that was a great partnership for me to have going into this tournament.
Now playing with Stacy, I played with her a few times, so I knew her game a little bit better, and knew I could rely on her to make a bunch of birdies out there as well as stay steady. I had talked to her, and obviously losing the first two matches that she's played just kind of getting the idea, okay, what's going on? How are you playing?
But alternate shot's tough, especially if you don't have both players playing on their game. You can't count on just one person holding the team. She came into it with confidence, and she proved it.

Q. How important do you think the mental skills and trusting yourself was today? Because you seemed to trust yourselves a lot more than the European girls did.
RYANN O'TOOLE: Yeah, I think this game requires you to really believe in yourself. I think the last three weeks was a big test for me, and I think it built a lot of strength coming into this.
But as any golfer knows, the one thing that you have to do is believe in yourself and commit to the shots and go from there, because without that, you're not going to be able to score, you're not going to be able to hit fairways or greens or make the birdie putts.
STACY LEWIS: And I think especially on the partnerships like today, you have to trust each other, and we really did that out there. Ryann was all over the place on 12, but I knew she was going to get it in the hole and figure out a way to get it done. You've got to trust each other. I don't know. That's just part of the team thing. Not only is it your game, but it's everybody else's.
RYANN O'TOOLE: I just had a steady partner, fairway, green, set-up for a birdie putt. I kind of just got to play around.

Q. Obviously as was just alluded to, you had a tough few weeks before and you missed a few putts. You were seen as kind of a controversial pick by the captain but you've gotten 2.5 points out the first three games, so are you thriving on proving your critics wrong here or are you just trying to enjoy your first Solheim experience?
RYANN O'TOOLE: Secretly I would go with option A, but I think more so I'm just playing my game and going with what I know in my heart I ask do and bring to the table.
I can't control what happened, and at the moment, I was just dealing with obviously playing and not performing as well. Yeah, it created controversy, so I don't know what was said. I stayed away from the media, but I know it was out there.
STACY LEWIS: I don't think she had anything to prove this week. I'd seen her play before. We all knew she was a good player. You never know how a rookie's going to come over and play, and you never know how to handle the emotions.
But once she was picked, we were 12. It wasn't you're a captain's pick and you qualified on points. It was you're part of the team. We knew she could play. Once everybody played a practice round with her, I think everybody wanted to play with her. So I mean, I don't know. I don't think she had anything to prove this week.
RYANN O'TOOLE: Well, thank you.
MIKE SCANLAN: On that unifying note, I think we'll call it quits.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297