Players speak during rain delay

RORY McILROY

RORY McILROY: The good thing is we have all of the dinners and stuff done with at the start of the week and myself and Fish have been having a few good games on the Xbox.

Q.  Who is winning?
RORY McILROY:  Well, he got dragged away by his wife and it was one‑nil to me.  We might have to resume that tonight.

Q.  Maybe he told his wife to drag him away.
RORY McILROY:  It’s great, and just chill out and have a – it’s been so relaxed so far and everybody has got on great.  You know, we just have to do that again.  There’s going to be early starts, but I’m sure everyone is looking forward to it. 

MARTIN KAYMER

Q.  I spoke to your caddie in the practise rounds this morning and I said, how is Martin feeling, and he said, “He feels like all of his Christmases have come together.”  Tell us how excited you were.
MARTIN KAYMER:  Sitting on the first tee is probably a moment that I will never forget in my career.  Even just thinking about that moment, I get goosebumps talking about it.  I made a good tee shot.  It was important for me, but it was one of the best moments I had on the golf course so far.

Q.  Lee Westwood obviously alongside you, very experienced Ryder Cup player, he was alongside Nick Faldo when he was playing in his first Ryder Cup match; what sort of help has Lee been able to give you? 
 MARTIN KAYMER:  Just that he’s standing next to me.  He’s a very strong, experienced player, and when we were talking about it with Colin Montgomerie the last few days and he was asking me if I wanted to play with Lee and of course it’s such a great pleasure for me to play with such an experience player.  He won The Race to Dubai last year and everybody knows that he has been so many times close to majors, and last year, TPC Sawgrass, or this year, and it helped me a lot already that I have an experienced player next to me.

Q.  Tell us about the few holes you did play, how you felt and how you played and the atmosphere out there.
MARTIN KAYMER:  I didn’t play my best golf so far today.  Hopefully I can come back to my form as soon as possible.  He kept us alive.  He played solid golf, I think he’s 1‑under after five holes now and he made a very nice and important birdie on the second hole to get us 1‑up already after two holes.  That was important. And obviously the weather is not so nice now, but I mean, I would have loved to keep playing, you know, because that’s our weather.  It’s the European weather.

Q.  Give us an update on what the players are doing to keep themselves busy while all this is going on.
MARTIN KAYMER:  We are just playing PlayStation up there and playing Tiger Woods 2011.  We are trying to beat each other.  There’s probably some players that will take their own, Luke Donald is playing with himself, so it’s quite funny up there.

Q.  You had a quiz the other night.  How did you get on?
MARTIN KAYMER:  We finished second.  We were actually even with Darren Clarke ‑‑ no, with Thomas Björn’s group.  That was like a sudden death question and we lost that one.

Q.  Outside of the first tee, what’s your favourite moment of the week?
MARTIN KAYMER:  Definitely the Opening Ceremony.  When you’re standing up there and you are announced by one of the top players in Europe, to be part of The Ryder Cup here, that was a very proud moment for me and I’m sure for my dad and brother, as well.

Q. Obviously now that we’ve got this delay, the matches are not going to finish this evening, the foursomes, even if we do get started, it’s going to be playing catch‑up, what problems does that create for you as players?
MARTIN KAYMER:  Well, we haven’t got a lot of sleep the last few days already, so we will sleep for even less the next couple of days, because that’s okay.  Hopefully we have the support of the spectators here, that they keep us going, can keep us motivated.  But so far already, the first five holes we have played, they have been fantastic, and if you smile a little bit, you get it a thousand times back.  It’s been a fun week and hopefully we can finish on Sunday.

IAN POULTER

Q. As you came in, one of the spectators shouted, can I get a refund, there’s no golf, and you said, “Wasn’t my putt at the third worth it.” Tell us about it.
IAN POULTER:  Yeah, that was a nice one, that 77 yard par 3 was playing a little more difficult than in practise.  It was a good fire iron and managed to roll a nice putt in from 25 feet.

Q. Give us your view on the first tee atmosphere.  The other guys were saying it was just electric?
IAN POULTER:  It was awesome.  I knew it was going to be, and I truly think it’s an amazing experience to be able to be out there to tee off under those conditions.  It is difficult getting your ball on the tee but I tell you what, it’s an experience you’ll remember forever.

Q.  When do those nerves go away, if at all?
 IAN POULTER:  I don’t think they really do.  You’re nervous but excited, so as much as you have the little butterflies, you have so much adrenaline going through your veins which is hard to control.  That’s the difficult thing, you get so much of a buzz from the crowd, your body cannot take it all in, so it’s in there waiting to get out. Hopefully you can play under those conditions and keep that kind of a buzz the whole way around.

Q.  With that much adrenaline flowing through your veins, you have to really club accordingly. 
IAN POULTER:  Normally we do, but we have a little bit of wet stuff pushing it back down again.  So you know, you do have to play for it, but you know, it’s wet and the ball is not going very far right now.

Q. You’re out playing against the world No. 1 player Tiger Woods.  Give us your thoughts on that challenge.
IAN POULTER:  When I saw the pairing yesterday sitting on the stage, I was not expecting him to go out No. Three, I thought he would either be out No. 1 or 4.  I was pleasantly happy, shall we say. Whenever you have the world’s best player and you have to play against him, it’s a huge challenge and one that I feel ready for and you know, if we can get out there, there’s blue on the board right now, even though it’s only two holes, it’s nice to have blue on the board and hopefully we can win our match, too.

Q.  When you get back out there, obviously you have the momentum at the moment, what’s the secret to recapturing it and making sure you can push this forward?
IAN POULTER:  Staying patient in these conditions.  I think that’s going to be most difficult for everybody.  The waterproofs are doing a great job right now for us keeping us pretty much dry.  Hundreds of towels and just staying patient.  There’s obviously not going to be any clock today to play quickly.  So stay patient, stay dry and commit to every single shot you’ve got.  Give the crowd something to roar about.

Q.  And the Americans have to go to the merchandise tent and buy new waterproofs because they were leaking, did you enjoy that story?
IAN POULTER:  Yeah, I can see them on right now.  Ours are keeping us nice and dry, that’s all I’m going to say.