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THE SOLHEIM CUPAugust 14, 2013Lisolette NeumannPARKER, COLORADO THE MODERATOR: Good morning and welcome back to the 2013 Solheim Cup. It is my pleasure to have Liselotte Neumann, the captain of the European team here with us. Thank you for joining us this morning. LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Thank you. Good to be here. THE MODERATOR: So I hear the Europeans are playing really well out there on the course. LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I think so. I feel like this morning‑‑ I just went out to watch the last group for a couple of holes, but overall, just felt this morning that everyone on our team is a little bit more relaxed. Yesterday was a little bit of tension, but it's kind of the first time they're out on the golf course and today they seemed quite relaxed and looked like they were enjoying themselves. THE MODERATOR: So you're looking to lead Team Europe to the first win in America. How are you approaching that task? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Obviously that's why I took this job. I like the challenge and trying to make some history here and being the first European team to win. Obviously a lot of thought went into picking the team, trying to pick the right players. I tried to pick some young players, some sort of fearless players, some long hitters. This week now we're just obviously looking to trying to find the right combinations, who is going to play with whom, who gets along well, looking at both the four‑ball matches and the foursome matches, trying to figure out, do you put two long hitters together, do you put someone that's more accurate with a long hitter and all that. So we put up quite a lot of different groups and pairings so far, and it's kind of a good time for the girls to see who do I feel like my game compares with best, who do I get along with the best on the golf course. So it's a little bit of testing going on right now out there. THE MODERATOR: Questions, please raise your hand. Q. How do you convince this team that they're the ones that can break through and win for the first time on American soil? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I think that they all sort of have a good feeling about it. Some of the players that were on the team in 2011, obviously they have some confidence, they won the last time, why would we not win again? And I think a lot of the rookies on our team, they were there, they were watching it, they were home watching it on TV, so I feel everybody sort of feels like it's time. I mean you got to win in the U.S. at some point and let's just do it this time. Q. Can you just talk about the how much statistics plays into you making decisions, how much do you sort of pour over those, both when you're making the picks and then as you go about this whole competition? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, leading up to, obviously, doing the picks, I did look a lot at the statistics. Even though, I mean, I was out on tour, I watched quite a few tournaments here and there, but it's hard to follow everybody, every week. So, yeah, you do rely on stats and watching to see who is a good putter and who hits the ball a long way, who hits a lots of fairways and greens. And where are they on the Money List. Do they make a lot of birdies. All those things, obviously, play a role. Now when we are here practicing we're doing stats on their practice rounds and we're trying to get them really into the Tournament mood. Yesterday we had them in some four‑ball matches out there, trying out a couple of pairings to see how that was working out. And we have quite a few helpers here that are helping us out. They're keeping track on their scores and fairways and greens and how they get along and all that. So we do rely quite a lot on the stats, but obviously it's also a communication with the players. I'm not only going to go on the stats, but I think the stats tells us a little bit at least who will now, after three days, be sort of consistently playing well. But we will also have a lot of communication and talking to the players who they're happy being out there on the golf course with. Q. Obviously it's a young team, but so how much‑‑ what kind of key roles with Catriona Matthew and Susan the two most experienced players play? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, I think both Susan and Catriona are stepping in a little bit to the leader role. They do have a lot of experience and I feel like, so far, they have been really great with the other players. We have paired them up with some of the rookies and just to kind of get a feel for how everything is working out. But I think they're handling the role well. They know that they have the experience and so far they have really stepped into their position and they're doing a good job. Q. Meg was talking about the different balls and how they're flying through the air. Have you found that with the players and judging the flight and distance? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, that's also one of the‑‑ when we do our stats thing you check who is playing what golf ball, and especially, obviously for the foursome matches that's obviously could be an important thing. A little bit how the ball is flying, but also I think that ‑‑ I just remember from playing myself, just putting on the different golf ball that you're not used to putting on could be a little tricky. I tell you what, these greens are some of the fastest greens I've seen. We were just down on No. 1 and we did the Stimpmeter test, because they left it on the green down there, and right, at least that green was rolling about 13, 13 and a half this morning. So that's fast. So I don't know if all the greens are like that, but they're quick. Q. What are you telling the rookies what to expect, the pageantry, the excitement, and maybe particularly on the first hole, the first tee box? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, I think that just talking about them really trying to stay within themselves, and it's obviously going to be difficult. But I think even for the players that have been here before, it's always a little bit that feeling, walking up on that first tee box with the crowds and being here in America. It's obviously going to be a lot of people cheering for the Americans. But I don't know, someone told me this morning we've got about 30,000 Europeans coming over. So I'm pretty happy about that. I don't know if that's true or not, but we just hope that our fans are going to be loud and cheer us on. I think for the rookies, or any player in the tournament like this, it's just important to really try to just focus on your game and stay the one shot at a time, and don't worry so much about what has happened. Don't know what the future holds, so you just sort of got to stick to your game and stick to your game plan. Q. Talk about Charley and your thoughts on picking her. How do you think she's coping? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Charley was on my Junior Solheim Cup team two years ago in Ireland in 2011. And already then she was quite impressive at 15. So she's had a great year on the European Tour. She has those five runner‑up finishes, she obviously hasn't won yet. She was in some of the tournaments in Europe where, got shortened because of rain delay and so on, but she does shoot in the 60s about 30 percent of the time, which is sort of a good stat to look at. So it will be good for match play. She obviously can go low. She makes quite a lot of birdies when you lack at those stats. She has that kind of good attitude. She doesn't seem like she's very scared. She sort of plays that fearless golf, she's a great ball‑striker. I think this golf course fits her game quite well. She's quite a long hitter. And I think she will do fine. She has really good energy. I know she's young, but so far she's been handling herself great and she's really enjoying it and having a good time. Q. How important is nationalities when you're making your pairings, do you think? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: To be honest, I look more at their games than their nationalities, actually. Even though I know it is, obviously, a little bit of a tricky part with the European team that so many players come from all these different countries and were brought up different and all that, but I think the one good thing is that a lot of the girls now they do play on the U.S. tour, a lot of them know each other. They do go back to European play, so they know the girls that come from Europe and so on. So I think that we'll do fine as a team. It is a little challenging, but the key is to just sort of bring everybody together and we'll have a good time together. Q. Talk about you and your advise captains, all Swedes, and you guys really represent the best of your country's golf history. Maybe talk a little bit about the friendships, how far they go back, and how you guys communicate and relate to each other and how that's going to help this kind of young team. LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, both Annika and Karin have obviously played on a lot of Solheim Cup teams together in the past. It's been good for us to being able to speak in Swedish here. We sneak off in a corner and we can chat. We don't have to leave the room, we can have our little conversations together. Just from all of us have a lot of experience. Annika is really into her stats and all that and it's been really helpful. She sort of is keeping track on things and just kind of double checking on things so we make sure we don't forget anything. I think we're all three have pretty relaxed and pretty calm personalities and just sort of trying to get that out to the rest of the team. Just trying to be really supportive of them. But yeah, I just feel that the three of us are really working well together. It's been really good week so far. Q. What nationalities merge best? If you had to sort of, looking at Europe as a whole, which nationalities usually get on with others better than some? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: So far it's been pretty easy. Sometimes I guess just when it comes to the language, it's the Spanish, Italian, French, are a little bit closer and then obviously maybe the Swedes, I think, Norwegian, so maybe tends to be a little closer when it comes to a language, when you're talking about speaking to each other and so on. Q. And it's also different in terms of passion, isn't it. The Mediterranean countries are probably more excitable than Swedes, are they not? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I don't know if you can just throw everybody over there. (Laughter.) We got some good Spanish blood on our team, put it that way, but we got some feisty Norwegians in there too, so I don't know, I think we got a little bit of both. It's good. THE MODERATOR: I understand you've had some video messages from Olazabal, McGinley, Monty, G‑Mac, can you share a few? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, they're all wishing us good luck and talking about how it's a great feeling for them when they're picked for the Ryder Cup, and what it means to represent your country and your continent. And they're all just really wishing us the best of luck, and I think it's really nice for the girls. We put together some videos with some great clips and putting these messages in between. So I think it's important for the girls, they know that all the players over in Europe, both on the women's side and the men's side are cheering for us and pulling for us to pull this off. THE MODERATOR: Did you get any special advice from Ollie or any other captains? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: We got some advice, I don't know if I can say that on air here. (Laughter.) THE MODERATOR: Also you have very experienced team around you. Obviously with your advise captains, but obviously your helpers and Sophie Gustafson, I understand is a helper. So that must be brilliant to have someone so close to the players. LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, Sophie is here and obviously she would obviously have loved to be on the team, but just hasn't played that great the last two years. But she just insisted. She called me up and asked if, do you need any help, do you need anything from me, and I would love to be a part of it, even though I'm not playing. And I think that just tells you what the Solheim Cup is all about, that we have a player that actually doesn't qualify for the team, but they still want to be here and just be part of it and help the other players. I think it's great for our players. They also see that a former Solheim Cup player is there bending backwards and forwards for them and helping them out in any way. So it's just great support. And actually a lot of our helpers, Pam Wright, Kathyrn Imrie, they have been on the team, obviously played on the team before, they're here to help, so a lot of experience there. Even all the other helpers, they have been part of being helpers before. So we try to get all different nationalities, too. We got a French girl, we got the Spanish, we got the Scots, the English, so we got it all covered, I think. Q. How much do you or have you been in communication with past captains in terms of them maybe giving you some advice or things that worked for them or do you communicate very much with them or have you? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: I talked to Helen a little bit and she was also at the British. We had quite a lot of discussions when it came to the picks. The same with Alison Nicholas and Pia was also out there, so I think the three of them were really helpful during the British Open when it came down to making those picks. It obviously, I mean, I always had a gut feeling about what I wanted to do, but sometimes you just need someone to sort of bounce your ideas off and hear their opinions about it. And all the three of them were very helpful to me. I really appreciate that. THE MODERATOR: Slightly different, we hear there are a lot of Liselotte Neumanns walking around the course this morning. Can you tell us about that? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Last night we had a little party in our team room and then all of a sudden these little facemasks of my face showed up and I'm sure you heard about that song the Gangnam Style, so we got, some of the caddies put those masks on and then they started dancing to this music. So it was pretty funny. And they were actually on the first tee box this morning too. So I got lots of pictures with them. So I just hope the players won't be sick and tired of my face before the tournament starts. (Laughter.) THE MODERATOR: And they also got a lot of gifts in the team room and from you personally. What's the reasoning behind that? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, we tried to just put a little gift on their bed every evening when they come back to their room they get a little something. So we had a nice little bracelet the other day that we picked out it says Europe on there. It has the little blue thing with little yellow gold or stones on there. It says Colorado on there. Just like things that will be a good memory for them. And obviously more gifts to come this week. But it's kind of fun for them to know that we want to treat them special and I think that it means a lot to them. So it's fun to be able to give them a little something extra this week. Q. Several of you live full‑time or mostly full‑time in the UnitedStates. Does Solheim Cup sort of make you harken back or kind of go back to your roots a little bit and have some pride both in country and Europe that maybe it's just sort of a special feeling for this weekend? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: Yeah, I love being in America and I will probably never move back to Sweden. I lived longer in America than I have in Sweden, actually. I love this country. Actually, Colorado is probably one of my favorite states. I've been here many times skiing and hiking and playing golf and so on.  So in that way it's great to be here. But when it comes to the Solheim Cup, I'm so European that you probably would have a hard time finding someone more Euro than me. I just love this event, being part of the first one in 1990 and just to see how this event has grown into what it is today, it's quite amazing. I think that the Solheim family and Ping and everybody behind it, Rolex, they have just done a really wonderful job of growing this event. And I look at this tournament as one of the best women's sporting events in the world. Just the excitement behind it and everything, it's really an amazing week. THE MODERATOR: Obviously the European team hasn't yet won in America, what would it mean to you to be the first European captain to achieve that? LISELOTTE NEUMANN: For me it will be just a topping of the cake, I think. Just being, obviously, playing on the team six times, being a vice captain, doing the Junior Solheim Cup and then finally get to be here as a captain, I mean some people have a hard time convincing me of being the captain, but then the more I started thinking about it, it's kind of a one‑time opportunity and to actually be able to come to America and try to make some history. And I think that's how I talked Annika and Karin into it as well, I said, we need to go to America, we need to make history. No team has ever won here before, let's do this. So that's our goal and that's why I took on the job and here we are. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. LISELOTTE NEUMANN: All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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