WALKER CUP MATCH

August 13, 2005

Anthony Kim

Bob Lewis, Jr.

Jeff Overton

Q. Our Captain in the middle, Bob Lewis, on the far side from me is Jeff, over near me is Anthony.

6 and a half, 5 and a half. Bob, I'm sure your emotions were up, down, inside, outside.

BOB LEWIS: Welcome to the Walker Cup. It's just the way it is. I was it was a very emotional day, typical of the Walker Cup. There is so many ebbs and flows. At the beginning there, I saw my lead match down, and next thing I know, we're up and it looks like we can maybe make a touch of a runaway, and then it closes up again and a lot of matches were close at the end, and we finally made a long putt.

John made a great putt at 17 for a change. They had a couple go in again, but it was a good sign. I mean, that's what this team is all about. We have a lot of long hitters on this team and we also have a lot of good putters.

Q. Bob, you've sat here before two years ago after the first day with an even bigger lead. I'm sure if you could, just in "G" terms, tell us what you imparted to the team?

BOB LEWIS: Well, this is a different team. It's a very team, it's a very confident team. It's young, as I said yesterday. It's also very mature for a young team. I don't have to say a lot with this team. I've gotten to knows these guys more as friends and players, and I think they respect me for that.

And so, we have kind of formed a bond, and I know what they're thinking and I don't have to press it so much sometimes, and so, basically, when we made our decisions for pairings tomorrow, I knew how it was going to come down. I knew it was going to be fast. I knew there weren't going to be my problems because we talked about it for a long time and that's exactly the way it fell. We made a team decision.

I kind of thought I knew the way it would go and it went exactly the way I thought it was going to go. Everybody was in agreement. It was a question of determining the order.

Q. I know we don't have lineups yet. Have you shared lineups enough with your players you might be able to talk about them with us?

BOB LEWIS: Is it 6:00 yet?

Q. Yeah, if your players know.

BOB LEWIS: Well, I have not seen the match ups yet though. I only know what we're doing.

Q. They're coming to you as quickly as we can get them.

BOB LEWIS: Pretty much, we already knew that we were going to throw Holmes and Thompson in on Sunday morning. We knew that anyhow. The only disappointing aspect of our pairing schedule probably is that Billy Hurley won't play tomorrow. You know, he's a great kid. He played a phenomenal match today, one of their great players right down to the end, and a long putt at 17 took him down. That was a great match.

And Kyle Reifers hadn't played singles on Saturday, and it was his turn to step up on Sunday. He will step in. Outside of that, I don't think there will be a lot of surprises in the players that are going out.

Q. Why are you laughing, Anthony?

BOB LEWIS: We're not laughing. It was just we were looking at the way we figured out what they were going to do. That's good.

Q. Does that matter to you, Bob?

BOB LEWIS: Not really. It's interesting, as I told the guys, my second go around at this, it's you know, we have a really good team, so it wasn't real difficult for us to determine where we were going to put people, but I told them, they also have a very good team, and they have a couple of players that have been on their team more than one time.

So, I said I'm going to guess where they're going to put certain people. We pretty much guessed right. Some of the match ups we have look great. I mean, I'm real happy with the way this has fallen. I think the guys will be too.

So, it's going to be great.

Q. I guess the overall part of this is, and you experienced this last time being the Captain, you were leading after the first day, it didn't work out for you in the previous two Walker Cups, before that it was the same situation. You've talked about this team being different. Still that's got to be something that's in the back of your mind, and these guys are aware of that as well.

Do you have to spin that some way? How do you spin that.

BOB LEWIS: It's in the back of my mind. I don't think it's in the back of my players' minds. There was only one player on the last team. That's Lee, and he's right there where I want him in that last spot, you know, and the rest of the guys on the team, this is their first Walker Cup, and as I said, they're very mature anyhow, and they just expect to go out and play well tomorrow, and they're not thinking about anything else.

So, you know, we've been strong in singles in the past. The last number of times we haven't been as good in singles. That's been disappointing, so it's our time to see. These guys are loose, they're not tight. They're going to play loose tomorrow. I know they are, and we'll see if we come back in the old tradition of the United States and play solid in the singles. We'll find out tomorrow.

Q. Anthony, you had a big birdie run this afternoon, a little sooner than Jeff, but talk about the transition from morning to the afternoon from a half to a landslide win.

ANTHONY KIM: I thought it was pretty important to get some momentum going our way. Once a couple birdies went in, it seemed like they started to pour. You make one birdie out there, and everyone is cheering you on. It just it makes it a little bit easier for you to make another birdie on top of that.

And the GB&I team are so good that once you get them down, you have to keep them down. It was pretty important for me to stay on my game and stay focused.

Q. Jeff, I think they probably looked for you for support and you came through pretty big. You had 2 points?

JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, I mean, it's just a great opportunity to play in this Walker Cup. It's unbelievable. It's something that you only dream about as a little kid, and all of a sudden you're here and you're in the moment, and it's just around all the people, and it was just a great feeling to capture that moment today.

Q. Jeff, you talked about this a little this morning, but talk a little bit about the decision about yourself and the other recent graduates to remain amateurs and play in this. Was it difficult, and did any of you discuss it together?

JEFF OVERTON: Yeah, me and Michael Putnam had a discussion months ago along with Captain Lewis. We were sitting talking about it's a lifetime opportunity. In ten years we'll look back at the experience as not necessarily the money we made two months earlier. The reason why we play golf is because we love it. We love to compete. In this case, we love to represent the United States of America in the Walker Cup, and I'm glad I made that decision.

Q. Anthony, could you talk about your singles match today. Obviously, as you've said, once you start making birdies, they start pouring in.

Can you talk about Lockerbie as well. Did you ever feel like he was not in the match, that he didn't seem to have his game.

ANTHONY KIM: He probably didn't play his best game today, and I played well. It seemed as though once I got him down a little early, I took a little wind out of his sail, and by me making a couple more birdies late, I think that pretty much sealed the deal.

Q. Anthony, what do you think about being in that lead off position twice tomorrow, maybe being in a position to set a tone?

ANTHONY KIM: I love it. I'm a fast player. I feel like I can make some birdies if I play well. I know they will be tough matches. They're a really solid team, but all I can do is play my game and let the chips fall where they may.

Q. Bob, how important was it to get that half point out of the first four some match?

BOB LEWIS: These guys are laughing I'm sure because I have preached the half point for two years now. Half points are very important in this match. We have to get 12 and a half points to win the cup. They only have to tie us to retain the cup. That's another reason for the half point.

So many times in the history of the Walker Cup, the ones I've played in and the ones I've seen, you can go back and think of a specific moment where a half point would have changed everything. That's why they're so important to me and we talk about it so much. When somebody is coming up the 18th hole, and they're even in their match, like what was going on a couple times today, I kept telling the guys hit a great shot try to win the match, but don't be stupid, that half point still means something.

I think our guys understand that. They're aggressive players. You have to be careful because you don't want to take that aggressiveness away from them. At the same time, it's match play, Walker Cup match play, and it's just a little bit different than what they'll be doing later on in their life. Hopefully they'll get some experience from it when they eventually play other big match play events, like the Ryder Cup.

Q. When they were 3 down, did you think you could get a half point?

BOB LEWIS: Absolutely. With any player I have on this team or any foursome team I have here. I'll tell you I was a little bit nervous when I saw it, because I said to myself, I can't believe they're 3 down. I just couldn't believe it, but then I said to myself, there is a lot of holes left to play, and then it started to turn, and I just said, here we go.

Very difficult, I'll tell you. Anthony and Brian Harman are a tough team. You know, somebody better play really well to beat them, I'll tell you that.

Q. Bob, Lee's not here, so if I can ask you to speak on his behalf. He didn't win a full point or a match at all in Ganton. He's now won 2 points for you. He cleaned up I guess for you in the singles today. Can you just talk about what that was to him?

BOB LEWIS: Well, you know, we call him the Gov, and he's the great kid. He stuck around again to go after another Walker Cup. He works extremely hard in his game. He puts a lot of time into his putting. I know when I was standing there on the 18th hole and he had a 5 or 6 footer to make it for par, and someone asked me, do you think he'll make it, I didn't hesitate a second. I said, absolutely he'll make the putt. I've watched him spend time in the putting greens in the practice sessions.

Here, he's out putting now. He does that for those moments. That's what all good players do. He had two or three of these today that I guarantee you he made because he was comfortable standing over the ball, and he's practiced those and it happened. That putt he made on 18 was not only a huge putt because what it did for the team. It was also a huge putt for his confidence and with all the work he's put into his putting. Those are the key putts that really mean something. Those are the ones that stick with you and help you in the end.

Q. Jeff, the history of your bucket hat, is this the one and only bucket hat for this team, and what is the origin of it for you?

JEFF OVERTON: Just a long time after my sophomore year, I had a wrist injury and took some time off to heal, and I was working in the pro shop at IU and put it on and then I came on and played the best golf of my life and haven't stopped playing well since, and I just figured it wasn't me, it was the bucket hat, so I try to keep it on.

Q. No superstition there?

JEFF OVERTON: Not one bit.

BOB LEWIS: You know we haven't done anything to change it either.

Q. Are there any other superstitions on the team?

BOB LEWIS: I don't really think so. I don't think we have a really superstitious team. Some guys don't like to hit many balls or hit balls before they play. There is some we've got some crazy guys on this team, but I'll tell you they're all loose though. That's the good thing about it.

Q. Bob, you said yesterday that you might have some surprises in store for the dinner last night, but couldn't tell us yesterday. Can you tell us anything now?

BOB LEWIS: Well, yeah, we thought there was a really, really, really good chance that the President was going to call last night. It just didn't happen. It was a little disappointing. In this day and age, with everything he's got going on, that's fine. We were hoping he was going to call. The guys were playing a little poker, and he didn't make the call. They finished their poker, and we all went to bed.

I was hoping it was going to happen, but it didn't. I totally understand he couldn't make the call. There is a lot more important things going on in the world than the Walker Cup.

Q. Who's the winner in the poker stakes?

BOB LEWIS: They just play for fun. Probably the worst player on the team is probably Anthony. Oh, maybe not.

ANTHONY KIM: Bob's the worst.

BOB LEWIS: Ask him about go carting though.

Q. Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.