Q. How does it feel to leave the captain's seat?
DALE REID: It feels a little bit of a relief. It's a very tough job. At the same time I would like to be the first person to wish Catrin Nilsmark the very best of luck in bringing it back. You are only borrowing it. You have only got it for a year, so all these girls seem quite keen to bring it back.
Q. Carin, I want to follow up on what Dale just said. How difficult was it for you to focus on your own streak when you knew that the cup had been decided?
CARIN KOCH: It was difficult, and I wasn't quite sure if we should just not -- you know, just split the match or what we should do, but, you know, everyone kind of told me to keep going and try to keep my record going. And I didn't want to lose the match, so once we decided to keep going, I wanted to win. But I just hit a bad shot on 18 and didn't quite get to do it.
But at least, you know, I have it and I still haven't lost a match in the history of Solheim Cup, so I am glad Dale picked me twice, so I got the chance to be on the team. It's one of the most exciting things I have ever done in my life, and, you know, even if the crowds are out there cheering for the other team, so to speak, it's so much excitement for us to have all those people around.
I mean, I have never seen so many people, you know, playing the 18th hole before that I did today, and -- like we heard out in the closing ceremony, I think, you know, even if we lost today, I think women's golf has definitely won a few new fans, I would think, and in the European Tour and the European girls that people hadn't seen here before, I think, have made a name for themselves already.
Q. Dale, you said "we lost it." Did you choose your words carefully, meaning America didn't win it, because the scoring -- our scoring wasn't too hot?
DALE REID: There is a couple of players that could have played better than they usually do today. Paula wasn't using all four cylinders today, but I believe Meg played very well, too, but I did see Paula throw a few holes away today, which is very uncharacteristic of her, and you just really can't afford to do that in this level of tournament, and I think when you lose -- we weren't too worried about the board looking too red when there was still girls teeing off. It looked that way yesterday and we turned it around and got it back into the blue, but there was a few matches that got too many holes down early on, and it's very hard to come back from that.
Q. What would you characterize as the key matches?
DALE REID: Sorry?
Q. Which matches would you characterize as the key matches?
DALE REID: Well, every single one is a key match. We were trying to get -- we needed Annika's match to turn, basically. We felt if we could have got Annika's match to turn and a win out of there, we felt we could have done something. And Karine Icher was playing well earlier on and we thought that was a key match, too.
I mean, basically, they are all key matches. Everybody wants to get off to a good start, and the first point on the board means a lot.
Q. Dale, looking at the single matches, what do you think Americans have that the Europeans don't?
DALE REID: I don't think that the Americans have got anything that the Europeans don't, it's just -- you know, it's on the day. I said to the girls this morning, "If you want it, you have to go get it now." Because as far as I am concerned, I wouldn't say the Americans were better than the Europeans. I don't think the Europeans are better than the Americans. It's all on the day. That's why I really do love this tournament.
Q. Just looking ahead, are you happy with the way the European Team is selected, or would you look to maybe change things, given that maybe two or three of these girls may be playing next year in America and -- what would your ideal scenario be for a captain to have a winning European Team?
DALE REID: I don't know that. We have been asked so many times about how, you know, five picks is very hard. You know, I have suggested to do five and five and just give the captain two picks, but I don't really think, with there being so many Europeans playing on the LPGA, and we still, from what -- not we, but the LET still feel that it's still a European event, that there is really no fair way of picking a European team.
But what makes it hard is five picks is so hard when you have got so much talent and you are always going to leave someone out.
Q. Why did you play Karine Icher at the bottom?
DALE REID: I actually played Karine Icher at the bottom because I had very -- three very good anchors there. I thought Mhairi McKay would make a good anchor, Carin a good anchor, and Karine Icher a good anchor.
Q. Did you ever consider asking Carin to play at the bottom since she was the one with the experience?
DALE REID: I did ask her to play at the bottom, but I thought you would expect that.
Q. Does that matter?
DALE REID: No, we just spoke about -- I spoke with Annika and Carin yesterday, and asked them where they wanted to play, where they would feel comfortable, and that's where they decided they were comfortable playing.
Q. Dale, could you just sum up your whole week.
DALE REID: It's been a funny week. I mean, it was -- we were all up in the foursomes, we were all down in the fourballs, and then same again yesterday, you know, it's -- I don't think we have -- I have seen a Solheim week where there has been so many up and downs in one week, so it's been hard. So I don't know if it's been -- if the golf course has played a factor on it. The weather was playing very tough today, Carin would know better than me since she has been playing all week. The wind looked different.
End of FastScripts....
