THE SOLHEIM CUP

September 10, 2003

Catriona Matthew

Mhairi McKay

Janice Moodie

MARTIN PARK: Welcome, Catriona, Janice. Another round in the rain? Can you tell us a little bit about how soggy it was out there or how different it was from yesterday.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: It got pretty heavy after the fourth hole. We had to stop for about an hour and we went out and played nine holes. It was pretty wet, a little different from yesterday. Obviously not as windy today.

Q. A few words about your captain. She's obviously struggling, how are you getting along with Catrin being on crutches?

JANICE MOODIE: I think we're doing absolutely pretty well. Believe it or not she's been to dinner last night, breakfast this morning, lunch this afternoon. She's lying obviously horizontal. But wherever we are she's there. I think she's definitely making the best of it and trying to put a very brave and smiling face on it.

Q. Is that an example you can take from her?

JANICE MOODIE: Absolutely. I think the tough thing maybe for her is the fact that she can't go out and see us play. But you never know, by Friday she might be better. She's standing a little bit more vertically upright.

Q. She can still encourage you from where, the clubhouse?

JANICE MOODIE: Absolutely.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think they've actually modified a cart for her today. I think she's going to be able to go out on the course.

Q. What are her qualities as a captain, Catriona?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: She's very encouraging. She's always very upbeat, kind of keeps everyone together. I think that's probably the main thing is to keep everyone kind of up for it and looking forward to it and relaxed.

Q. You've all played and won before the Solheim Cup. Can each of you say what the difference is playing in the second one?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I played in one, the one I played in was in America, so obviously playing in Europe I think obviously we'll have the home advantage, which I'm looking forward to. One of the memories I have certainly when we were playing singles is hearing all the U.S.A. chants. I think the Europe one is going to drown them out this year, which will be nice.

JANICE MOODIE: I think my memory was one of the best I ever had playing in Loch Lomond in front of a Scottish crowd. I didn't play last year, but this year I'm back on home turf again. Hopefully it will be a repeat.

MHAIRI MCKAY: My appearance was last year at Interlochen and probably similar to Catriona, the crowd. It's nice to have it on our turf and the supporters definitely chanting Europe. I think just having been there once you feel a lot better prepared and know what to expect the second time round just as far as approaching the whole week. Just in the lead up to the matches you know what to expect and how busy it is and how to manage your time better.

Q. Just a few weeks ago Dale Reid was worried there wasn't going to be a Scot on the team. Now there's three of you. Do you actually find that you help each other as a team unity?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: The three of us or Dale as well?

Q. The three of you particularly.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah. I think the three of us, we've played a lot of golf together. We played amateur golf together on amateur teams. It's great that the three of us are here playing the pinnacle of ladies golf.

Q. Could each of you talk about how physically and how mentally tiring the week is.

JANICE MOODIE: We had a long flight from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Catriona and I were on that flight. And Mhairi, she came from the west coast states as well. I think we were on a different time zone. After a couple of days here I feel we're kind of on the same planet. You get an out of body experience. Definitely yesterday was a little bit like that. I played 18. I went to play the golf course and it was a little windy. Today I was going to try and play 9, but obviously got waterlogged. We're kind of pacing ourselves. I think the tough thing coming back out here we're realizing how many photographs, as I get clicked on again, that we actually had to stand up and take. We stood there for two hours yesterday. It's just a little bit time consuming. No pro-am so you've got to expect it.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: A nice advantage of all playing it before I think like Mhairi said earlier, you can manage your time better. It's a very difficult week and you've got to be careful to be tired by the time Friday comes along.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think that's really just kind of part and parcel of the event. You know you're going to do it and you just have to manage your time well.

Q. Is it at all odd to be on the same charter plane with the dreaded enemies on the way over? And what do you recall about returning if you were on the charter from Loch Lomond two years ago or how many years ago?

JANICE MOODIE: That was a tough charter flight on the way over a couple of years ago. But you know what, we all -- I don't know. We all sat there. It's different. But this year we're all friends. I don't think there's any animosity between any of us. I was the only one to actually bring a wine cork or a cork screw on the airplane, so everybody was my friend at that time on the way over.

Q. No security policies?

JANICE MOODIE: I smuggled it on there. Managed to get it through security. So everybody, even on the American team they were all coming up asking me for the wine cork screw.

Q. This is all the way from Tulsa?

JANICE MOODIE: Yeah. On the way from Tulsa.

Q. What do you remember about the trip home? Were you on the charter from Loch Lomond back to the states after you won in 2 thousand?

JANICE MOODIE: Yeah. I think it was me, Annika, and Sophie. I think it was three of us there. I slept a lot of the way. Hungover from the night before.

Q. Are you going to be on the charter going back, or are you staying?

JANICE MOODIE: I'm on the charter on the way back.

CATRIONA MATTHEW: On the charter.

Q. Is that a little extra incentive that you don't want to be on the losing side and sitting on the same plane with the winning side?

JANICE MOODIE: Well, we have three seats to ourself and we're kind of like blocked out in a little shell. So if you want to go to sleep again you can, I guess. We're all friends. We all know one another. We're all going to play against one another the following week. I have a lot of good friends on the American team, and I like to think that either way we're all going to still be friends at the end of it.

Q. Do you think you're going to renew the Annika/Janice team?

JANICE MOODIE: I really don't know. Catrin has kept that close to the heart, and we'll soon find out.

Q. In 2000 you explicitly said you wanted to be paired or you sort of made a decision beforehand that's what you'd like to do.

JANICE MOODIE: I don't know if she would like to play with me. So I don't know.

Q. Did any of you catch the Walker Cup?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: I watched a bit of it on Sunday.

Q. Did it add a little bit of incentive to go three in a row, Walker Cup, Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: It would be great. They seemed to be holing all kinds of putts. It would be great if we could follow this up as the third.

Q. Janice, could you explain what perhaps your view is of the success of the competition? If you had one piece of advice, a couple of minutes to spend with a newcomer, and give her one piece of advice about this week, what would it be?

JANICE MOODIE: I think it's to -- we have 12 people here, we have one of the best in the world. And it's to try and get to know each other and try to get to know the players as people. That's what I think we're finding. We spend so much time on the golf course with one another, we really don't know each other as people. We don't know the other side. I think there's a lot of people out here that have a lot of fun to them, a lot of good intentions, just different personalities. I think you've got to draw off that. And then also we're all professional athletes. This is a time where we can maybe improve on ourselves and see how other people do it as well, how other people approach shots and kind of look into the book of other people. I think you've just got to draw a lot of camaraderie and realize that finally we can have an individual sport, which is what we play in the profession, and make it into a team sport. We know we're all professionals, it's the only time we can ever do it.

Q. Is it as much to do with not playing golf as it is with playing golf?

JANICE MOODIE: We have to be a team this week. I think if we have a lot of individuals out there, it's not really -- and we seem to be gelling all well and having a lot of fun and playing matches and things like that. I think we're definitely gelling well as a team.

Q. Does that help you hole putts?

CATRIONA MATTHEW: We'll find out.

Q. Seriously.

JANICE MOODIE: Hole putts?

Q. Do you play better that way? Essentially don't you have to hit the shots?

JANICE MOODIE: I understand what you're saying, is it going to make you focus more? Well, you've got to realize that we're going out there as a team together in the first few days and you're playing with somebody. And you have to -- I read a putt. I'm not going to be asking who I'm playing with to read that putt because they might read it differently than I do. Just like I don't always use my caddie to read my putt. I think to be calm and to be relaxed, you've got to know the person you're playing with and get on with them, yes.

Q. Have you got a ping pong table? Because Cristie Kerr was complaining that they wanted one and didn't have one?

MHAIRI MCKAY: She must have walked through our team room then.

JANICE MOODIE: She was obviously born in the wrong country. We've got a pool table as well and a dart board. Laura is beating everybody at everything.

Q. Have you guys spoken to Liz about the Scotland/German performance?

MHAIRI MCKAY: No. It's a foregone conclusion we'll win.

Q. Do you have a bet?

MHAIRI MCKAY: No. I'm not that stupid.

MARTIN PARK: Thank you, ladies. Very much.

End of FastScripts.