Captains speak during rain delay

CAPTAIN COLIN MONTGOMERIE

Q.  Tell us how pleased you are with the start that your team made this morning?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  Very good.  The first three games leading, our team room is obviously happier than our opponent’s right now, and the last game, of course, if you are going to lose the first ‑‑ lose holes, better off losing them early, and that’s what Luke and Pádraig have done, to two very good birdies, I must admit, to Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson.  That’s okay, they are 2‑down, but that’s after two holes, that’s like scoring very early in a football match, better off for the team that goes down to lose it early.

Q. What of you what saw most impressed you about your team’s performance, the rookies?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  Well, wanting to get going, I think Ross Fisher did particularly well with Ian.  Ian’s pumped up for this, and especially having to play Tiger, as well.  He’s pumped up about that, and Martin has not started firing yet to give Lee that confidence with him.  Lee is swinging the club particularly well right now, and he’s winning the holes, and it’s all ‑‑ it doesn’t matter who wins the holes in a fourball.  Result matters; if you’re confident with the guy behind you, which Lee is with Martin, so it helps, so they got off to a great start in being 2‑up and the other two being 1‑up.

Q. How big of a relief was it that Lee Westwood was able to come into the form we have seen, because there was a doubt he would be able to play at one stage?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  Very fortunate.  He has not played in seven weeks.  Competitive golf is normally vital going into these competitions but he’s been playing and he’s been practising hard and playing match‑play golf, and it shows.  He’s right up for the battle.

Q. You constantly talk about the importance of momentum.  You’ve got it early on.  How frustrating was it to then be called off the course or accept that you had to come off the course?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  Both captains were offered an opportunity to say what they felt about the conditions out there, and yes, I wanted to stay on, in a perfect world, but at the same time, there was nothing we could do. I mean, hopefully the spectators understood that our decision along with John Paramor, the Chief Referee, there was nothing we could do but call it off.  The forecast is supposed to be at 1.30, the sun is supposed to shine.  I don’t know if it is or not.  But we have another very important deadline coming up at one o’clock, very important.  Meaning that we can start at 1.45, and we’ve got to start at 1.45.  That’s us lost four hours and we can make up that four hours on Sunday among, we can start at 7.30, finish at 11.30 on Sunday and the singles goes off at 11.35.  That’s how tight we are right now. If we don’t start at 1.45 as we hope we do it, we are not finishing on Sunday and that’s the way it’s looking right now, so we have got to start, and I hope you all agree, we all want to finish this on Sunday; that we have got to start at 1.45.

Q. In your quest to recapture the momentum when you get back out there, how big of an influence are these guys (the gallery).
COLIN MONTGOMERIE: This is our 13th man here, and we said that – and the first tee has proved that, and to gain that momentum in the first three games has proved that, and we need you, the fans, out there cheering as loud as you possibly can for the rest of the day to help our side maintain the momentum that we have gathered the first couple of hours of play this morning.

Q. How does the weather delay and the likelihood that we are going to be going to bed not knowing the resolution of certain matches, how does that affect the way you put your pairings?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  I have to putt my pairings in 45 minutes before the next session. So I think we are going to start the foursomes around about 5.00, which means I don’t have to put my foursomes pairs in until 4.15.  And of course I don’t have to put my fourball pairings in until mid‑day tomorrow, until we are finished the foursomes.  So it’s a bizarre situation that nobody really know, including ourselves, what’s going on here.
But at the same time, no one ever talks about the weather in these Ryder Cups.  I mean, the weather in Valderrama, we had this weather and had to finish on Sunday morning.  Nobody talks about that, only the result, and the Irish weather was as bad as this, but nobody talks about that, only the result.
And let’s hope we don’t talk about the weather here in Wales; we only talk about the result.

Q. You’re very keen to not make this personal and talk about yourself and it’s all about the team, but from an emotional point of view, how have you fared being captain as opposed to playing?
COLIN MONTGOMERIE:  It was a lot easier this morning.  I slept a lot better last night than I would have done if I had had Lee Westwood’s shot I must admit.  I thought they performed very, very well on that first tee.  It was difficult for them.  I know the fans are cheering and everything, but the expectation is that high on this team, that sometimes expectation can hurt.  On this occasion, we have gained momentum but we must maintain that. As I said, the fans are most, most important here.

CAPTAIN COREY PAVIN

Q. I understand the captains were involved in the decision to call off play.  Tell us about that?
COREY PAVIN:  We were just getting John on the wake I talk Is, John Paramor, and we had a little three‑way conversation.  Colin and I both deferred to John to let him make the call.  As soon as we deferred, he called play, because he thought it was unplayable, obviously, and we are all hoping we can get back out there and finish this off today.  

Q. You mentioned that you’re down in the first three matches and up in the last one, last night you said you have confidence in those two rookies out, how pleased are you to see how well they have started?
COREY PAVIN:  Very pleased obviously, any time anybody is up in a match, I’m happy about it, and they got off to a great start birdieing the first two holes and they are 2‑up, and hopefully they can keep going and hope the other guys will come back and win their matches.

Q. Momentum in Ryder Cup is huge, we talk about it all the time, in a football match if it came to this situation and there was a stop in play or another sporting scenario, they would say that was a good thing for The American Team; what did you feel?
COREY PAVIN:  You know, it could be.  I guess we’ll figure it out and when we get be back out and play and see if it was a good thing or not and see how it plays out.  We didn’t need a stoppage or something to regroup or anything like that. The guys are all professionals and they know how to play and they know how to deal with adversity, whether it’s being down in a match or nice weather like this.

Q.  I understand The PGA of America have had to buy new waterproofs because the other ones were leaking.  Were they not tested?  What happened?
COREY PAVIN:  Well, we were disappointed with the performance of them, and you know, we just fixed it.  They were not doing what we wanted them to do so we went out and bought some more waterproofs.

Q. Enlighten us what your players are doing during this break and how they are keeping themselves busy.
COREY PAVIN:  Eating, sleeping, watching TV and that’s about it.  There’s really not much else to do up there, just a lot of conversation and a lot of chitchat, and we are just talking about whatever conversation comes up, just to pass the time.

Q. As we have been saying to Monty earlier on, the matches are destined to go bay after day where the matches in the evening will not be resolved.  Tell us your thoughts on that and keeping your players in the frame of mind in that it’s going to be an awfully long week.
COREY PAVIN:  Yeah, it’s going to be a week where we start at dawn and finish at dusk and sometimes that happens.  We’ll just keep going and hopefully we can get the whole Ryder Cup in, every match, that’s the ultimate goal, so we will get a proper result, so to speak.

Q. What have you been saying to your players during this break?
COREY PAVIN:  I haven’t really had to say much to them.  They are all relaxed and just sitting around and like I said, just talking and just waiting.  Some are taking little naps and just relaxing.

Q. Obviously as we say, Monty has got the momentum as the moment, the crowd are going to be behind them when they get back out; is your job to silence them?
COREY PAVIN:  The crowd will be behind them no matter what’s going on out there.  That’s the great thing about playing on your home soil.  Guys are just going to go back out there and try to win some holes and get up in their matches and hopefully turn those around.