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THE PRESIDENTS CUPOctober 3, 2013Jason DayGraham DeLaetHideki MatsuyamaLouis OosthuizenAdam ScottDUBLIN, OHIO MARK WILLIAMS:  Graham, since you're in the first match and the rookie on the team, give us a little insight into your match today. GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, Jason and I both played great today, and so good the Americans that we were playing against. We were down early, but we weren't even playing bad golf. They were just making a lot of birdies, and we were able to just kind of chip away slowly on the back nine and kind of felt momentum building. Then Jason hit an unbelievable putt on 18 and it was a pretty awesome way to end it. MARK WILLIAMS:  Louis, you and Charl were the first match to get blue on the board. Get some comments on your match. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, we knew it was going to be difficult. Keegan and Phil, a great team, the two of them playing together. 2‑under through seven, and then made two good birdies on 8 and 9, and I think the break did us all really well. It did us good, and came back out and felt refreshed. Just played well. Whenever Charl was in trouble; I played really well. And whenever I was in trouble, Charl played well. So as a team, we did really good. MARK WILLIAMS:  Just a comment from Hideki before we open for questions. Your first experience in The Presidents Cup, pulling out a halve with Adam. I was really nervous today, but playing with Adam helped out and to be able to get a half‑point, I'm very happy. Q. What was the motivation behind the coming up with the wigs, and do you think that that loosened things up a little bit? And then secondly, it's a big team you played. You played a team that went 3‑0 in The Ryder Cup and‑‑ everything's one point, but that's a big one point. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, my wife phoned me this morning, saying she's in one of the shops and there's two wigs there, should we have a go at it. I said, yeah, bring it. Everyone knows about the funny haircut we had and the experience we had, so I thought it would be a good thing to show everyone that we actually love to wear some wigs (laughing). But yeah, the point was huge for us. Me and Charl were really pumped. We wanted to get that win. We knew it would get us going, the week, and we were really focused, especially that back nine. Q. The match obviously you guys were in a hole early and you've come back to be just 1‑down; do you feel even though you were behind your game, given some momentum, you could have been down 6‑0 or 5‑1? ADAM SCOTT: Well, I think what we showed today is that there's plenty of heart on this team. I don't think spirits were low when we sat in the team room in the break, but for everyone to go out and rally, some guys to pull out wins, other guys halves, and even the matches we lost came closer all of a sudden. So there's plenty of heart on the team and I think we should take a lot out of that. We were in ordinary shape for a while, and 3 1/2 ‑  2 1/2 isn't a big deal, if we win the session tomorrow, so if we are neck and neck, that should be our goal to win the session tomorrow. Q. Jason, if you can talk about that putt and what it means to be in moments like that specifically. JASON DAY: Yeah, to have the opportunity to win the match, I know that like Graham said before, myself and Graham, we both played great golf, and we just kept on saying to ourselves, give ourselves the opportunities on the greens and be patient and things will happen. After the rain delay, we came out and played great golf on the back nine, and I just knew that if I could give myself a putt on the 18th green, that I have played here enough to know where the breaks are. Carl and myself, we both had a good read, and it was all about hitting the putts. Moments like that, you just‑‑ that's why you practice so hard. I really enjoy having the putt to win a match like that, and you know, it's just great to see all the hard work that I've put in this year pay off on moments like that. Q. You talked a little bit about being nervous on the first tee; I think you actually had your tee in the ground ready to hit and they said, wait a minute, the Americans have the honor. Can you talk about that experience? GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, there was a little bit of confusion there on the first tee. I was told that we were second and then I was told we were first, so I kind of teed up, and then I kind of looked like an idiot out there by teeing it up first. (Laughter). I was super nervous, I was. I was able to make a birdie somehow, because I could honestly barely feel my hands; my legs were shaking. It was a pretty cool moment and something that I'll treasure and remember for the rest of my life. Q. You mentioned the break and the rain, if you could maybe share what you guys talked about during that break, maybe what the message was from Nick or any sort of moments from that break you guys had. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think everyone, I don't think we really went around talking to each other. It's more you could see everyone knew what they had to do and everyone was just waiting to actually take that breather. Everyone was sitting at their tables, looked around, asked how you're playing; oh, we're playing well, just not making putts. Everyone is focused on what we want to achieve, and I think it was just a good‑‑ it was a good time to just really get a little bit of a break to just realize that, you know, again, we have to go out there and take it from them. We are not going to just get it. ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, I think, you know, we weren't going to gain momentum, but we might have stopped theirs a little bit at that point. They were rolling pretty good, and more of a case they were making the putts and getting it to happen, and we had not started yet. So timely break, which might have just slowed their momentum a little bit and let us creep back in at the end of the day. Q. With your experience playing the golf course a number of times, do you feel that one nine maybe offers better scoring opportunities than the other? JASON DAY: You know what, it's definitely the front nine where you need to get off to a good start. The two par 5s on the front nine are reachable, but I feel like the front nine plays maybe a shot or so better than the back nine. 12 and 16 are tough par 3s. I think they are inside the top 5 toughest on the PGA TOUR. But being a member here, knowing what kind of clubs I need to hit off each tee, and being able to feed off what Graham's doing out there, where he's hitting tee shots down the middle; knowing that I can just relax a little bit and just let it go really helped me a lot today. We both hit the ball off the tee great, and this golf course is a second shot golf course. You really need to give yourself the opportunity to hit the fairways to be able to set yourself up on the greens, because there is a lot of pitch on these greens, and the greens were a little bit slower today, obviously due to the weather, and the conditions, setup. It's very difficult to find straight putts. But we played great on the back nine, and actually played better on the back nine than they did on the front nine. But being a member here definitely helps when the tournament comes around. Q. Looking at the way that you played the 18th hole, you're not scared. HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: Not that I was squared but I knew Adam was going to follow me, and I aimed at the pin and if I missed, I missed and I knew he would hold me up. Q. You didn't miss. HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: It was one of the best shots I've ever hit, yeah. Q. What was the key shot for you guys against Phil and Keegan? They had formed such a good team last year at The Ryder Cup, you guys cut it to a deficit on 8 and 9. What was the key putt or shot you think from the match today? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Well, there was a few. I mean, the birdie putt on 8 that I made was to get us away from‑‑ we just lost 7 to an eagle and that birdie on 8 got us back and then Charl hit it to a foot on 9. So those two were crucial, and then, you know, we went‑‑ Charl was in trouble on 11, and I made a good birdie. But from 11 on, we wanted to give ourselves birdie putts, and we did that really well. On 13, we had two short birdie putts; Charl had to make his for birdie or for the halve. We got to 14, didn't go for it. But there were so many, I mean, I put Charl under so much pressure on the last two holes. I hit a poor tee shot on 16 and he hit a great shot, and then on 17, he hit even a worse shot on my second. And then he pulled that wedge out of the bunker to five foot; he's playing so well. It's always great playing with him, and you know, he's reading the greens well, he's putting well. So to me it was good playing with him. Q. Tomorrow is the notorious struggle session. What's it going to take to make it different? ADAM SCOTT: (Shaking head). Well, there's no secret, is there. It's just about playing some good golf. I think everyone's feeling pretty confident after this afternoon the way they played the last ten, 12 holes, whatever we had left out there. Take some of that confidence into tomorrow. I know I'm happy with my partner (laughter). I look forward to it. Like I said, if we can win the session tomorrow, then it's back to level and we might have an advantage and get the momentum going our way. Q. You're new to this, and you're playing with a member here at Muirfield Village. Did you tap into that as the round went along, and then secondly, are you hoping to play with Jason tomorrow? GRAHAM DeLAET: Yeah, well, I mean, same thing. I've got an unbelievable partner. It definitely helps that he's played this golf course a lot, but it's not because he plays here all the time that he's playing well. Sorry, what's the second part of the question? Q. Do you hope to play with him tomorrow? GRAHAM DeLAET: That's all up to Captain Price. I think we gelled well out there. I would be more than happy to play with Jason again tomorrow, and you know, I think we are a good team, and you know, hopefully we can just kind of keep rolling. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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