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THE PRESIDENTS CUPNovember 19, 2011Fred CouplesGreg NormanMELBOURNE, VICTORIA STEVE CARMAN: Good morning. Grouping sessions for round four, which will commence at 11:50, provided we don't get stopped. U.S. Team picked first in round two and you'll pick first in round four. So Fred, if you'll give your two picks. FRED COUPLES: Well, we are going to go with Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson. GREG NORMAN: We're going to go with Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel. GREG NORMAN: Then we are going to go with Kyung-tae Kim and Y.E. Yang. FRED COUPLES: We'll go with Tiger and DJ. Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson. FRED COUPLES: We'll go Steve Stricker, Matt Kuchar. GREG NORMAN: We'll go with Geoff Ogilvy and K.J. GREG NORMAN: We'll go with Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day. FRED COUPLES: We'll go with Hunter Mahan and Bill Haas. FRED COUPLES: Jim Furyk and Nick Watney. GREG NORMAN: And we have got Adam Scott and Ernie Els. Q. Your thoughts on sitting Phil in this session. FRED COUPLES: Well, we can go quickly. You know, he's played three straight matches and we want him really fresh for the singles. And he asked to sit, if needed be, the same as David Toms. Q. That being said, his record is impeccable over the last 17 matches, compared to some other guys that are playing. How is it that that decision was made? FRED COUPLES: You know, I don't think it's -- it's just a decision he and I made. I mean, I don't really need to get too personal about it. Just two people have to sit, and he and I talked about it with Jay, and that's how it went. He's got an unbelievable record, but he's no longer 38, 40, 42 years old, and he wants to be ready to go on singles. I mean, that's not really an answer but that's the best I can tell you. Q. What can you say about the say Tiger is playing? Do you sense he's pressing at all, or he's just not getting putts to drop? FRED COUPLES: Well, I mean, just like their team, they have some players that -- Ernie Els is not making any putts, but he's made a couple. Tiger has yet to really make any. He made some unbelievable par putts yesterday. But is he pressing? I'm sure he is. He's trying his hardest like he always does. I don't know how they stand now but when I left a couple of holes ago, they were all-square. You know, he's playing Choi and Scott, which is a very, very good team. Q. Greg, can you talk about obviously the morning, at least so far, it's hard to tell exactly, what but the morning doesn't exactly seem to be going your way. Can you talk about how the importance of this afternoon was, and did you have to make some changes to your afternoon lineup to make it as strong as possible? GREG NORMAN: To be honest with you, we had three options in our pairing and we stayed with option one. We just didn't really make any adjustments with what happened this morning. My message to the guys this afternoon, depending on the end result, if it just stays the way it is, they have to go out there and just play loose, play free. They have got to make a move this afternoon. Tomorrow in the singles it will be a big move if you're down too many points. The golf course is playing fantastic today. I mean, you can make birdies out there. So I think a lot of the guys in the alternate-shot are probably -- in my group, seem like they are a little bit tense this morning or maybe a little bit, early morning start, getting out of bed at four o'clock, going to bed at 11, had a little bit of a lagger on them. No different than the American Team; the guys are tired, no question about it. So the end of the day, it's the guys how they take the momentum into the day. I will be trying to get them just play loose and shoot for many as many birdies as they can possibly make. Q. Did yesterday take more out of the guys than you anticipated it would? GREG NORMAN: No, I don't think so. Yesterday gave them an injection actually. They felt really good coming off the golf course and going back in the hotel last night. Everybody felt fantastic, to keep ourselves in the position we are in. But today has just been an on again, off again with the weather conditions. Yes, we are all used to it; yes, we should know what to do. But the end of the day, it's just whether it's flowing your way or not flowing your way -- and the American Team are playing fairly consistently. So we have just got to go and take the task to them, and the one left is the fourball. Q. Can I just get your thoughts on Bubba and Webb, how well they have played; did you expect this from them and what do you attribute this to, two rookies to come out 3-0? FRED COUPLES: I'm very, very proud of them and happy for them. They wanted to play a month ago. And I said that earlier -- they wanted to go first. There's no doubt, I think after doing this every day, Greg has matched up, and they just are very good together and it's kind of fun to watch. You have one guy that hits the ball a hundred miles and putts very well and then Webb is one of our most consistent players on the TOUR the last year and a half, and they are showing it here. It's fun to see. It really is. They are two quality players. Totally different in games. But they get along very, very well. Q. If someone told you they would be 3-0 -- FRED COUPLES: No. I mean, I would be thrilled to death but I would have said 2-1 would be great, too. Q. You mentioned before, you had three alternatives for pairings this afternoon. The resting of Robert Allenby this afternoon, can you give us a couple of lines on that, please? GREG NORMAN: Nothing really. I mean, you've just got to make a decision. It's a tough decision to make. Rob was very keen to play. You've just got to rest the guys. You've got to think into the future. You've got to think about tomorrow, and it's just one of those decisions. I mean, everybody wants to play, there's no question about it. Even though the conditions are tough out there with the rain, they are loving playing out here on this golf course. So just one of those tough decisions we had to make, and it was a collective decision between pretty much everybody. LAURA HILL: Captains, thank you. Good luck this afternoon. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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