1 October 2010
Quotes from:
PETER HANSON
GRAEME McDOWELL
PETER HANSON: It's great, to get a feel
of this atmosphere this morning, I was down there
watching Lee and I thought standing on that tee
would be absolutely fantastic, I can't wait.
Q. Do you think that experience helped
in terms of preparing for the time you do face it
yourself; that you've seen what it's like?
PETER HANSON: It's going to be a tough
shot and it's going to be nervous. And like Lee
said, the other guys who have been playing so
many, it could be a tough shot but I hope I'm ready
for it.
We'll see what happens, if I get to play in
foursomes, one guy has to get off the tee. But at
the same time you have to enjoy it with the crowd
behind.
Q. Monty said everybody would play
the first day, he's going to be wrong by the
look of it, but you must be ready to play in the
foursomes; you must be ready to play
presumably.
PETER HANSON:
Yeah, he said
everybody was going to play and hopefully I'll be
out there tomorrow morning after these boys are
done. Really looking forward to it.
Q.
You have been practising with
Jiménez, would it be mice to partner with him?
Can we expect that?
PETER HANSON: Not really. Not sure
about that. I can't say anything. (Laughter).
Yeah, it would be great, like we said, we
try to maybe get some people, experienced people
with some of us fresh guys.
Q. What's been the highlight of your
week so far?
PETER HANSON:
Everything.
This
crowd here is unbelievable, being here for so many
hours and waiting for us to play, it's a fantastic
week.
Q. How frustrating has this been?
GRAEME McDOWELL:
Yeah, it's
frustrating. It's frustrating for everyone. Obviously
we have got the dry and all the food inside. These
guys are the ones that deserve all the respect and
need to give them a big thank you for standing
around and supporting us.
The reception we got on the first tee was
amazing and says a lot for what this Ryder Cup is
all about. Let's hope we can get out there this
afternoon and give the fans what they came here
to see, some golf.
Q. How special was to be on the first
tee with your fellow countryman?
GRAEME McDOWELL:
Yeah, very
special. Despite the rain, despite the kind of, how
miserable I'm sure all the crowd felt waiting around
for us this morning, they lifted our spirits and were
loud and were great. We were able to feed off
them.
As tough as it was out there for the
Americans, we were getting energy from these
guys behind me. They were really carrying us
through, and you know, it wasn't raining much in
The European Team room when we came off the
course. We all felt pretty good and charged up
and we are ready to get back out there again.
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Q. Rory told us many times he was
inspired by your U.S. Open victory; are you
mentoring him?
GRAEME McDOWELL: He looks up to me
and I look up to him a bit, as well, because of how
talented he is. We have a great relationship from
my point of view. I hope I can kind of add
something to his career and he certainly brings a
lot to my career.
I sort of said in the past, if I can slipstream
him for the next ten years, I'd be pretty happy with
that. There's no doubt he's going to win lots of
majors and play in lots of Ryder Cups, and it's an
honour to play aside such a talented, young
individual.
the team spirit was very good there, is it
different here?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, there's a
different buzz in the team room this week. I said a
few weeks ago that I felt like the X-factor was
missing in the team room a couple of years ago.
Monty has done a really great job for us this week.
We have wanted for nothing.
We have got a great backroom staff with
Thomas and Darren and ball and Sergio, and just
a great team with a real mix of experience and
young blood, obviously, some rookies. We have
got an extremely talented team. Guys are playing
great and just excited to go out and try to do the
job this weekend.
FastScripts by ASAP Sports ...
Q. You did get to play a few holes, give
us a take on what happened on the few holes
you did play.
GRAEME McDOWELL:
It was really
difficult. The fairways were under water and
nowhere to drop the golf ball. My second shot to
the first was casual water and I just had to play it
and the same with my shot to two and my shot to
four. I realised that I could have taken relief but
there was just nowhere to go.
The ball was not travelling very far at all.
The greens are superb, though, I have to say, all
credit to the staff here at Celtic Manor. The greens
are in magnificent condition and running good.
And you know, we won the first with a par
and we won the fourth with a par, says a lot about
how difficult it is, if you do keep the ball in the
fairway, you get in a lot of trouble.
Q. What are the main challenges, even
though it's playable?
GRAEME McDOWELL: The bunkers have
become real hazards. I drove in the bunker on 5
and just before play got suss approximate ended, I
had casual water and I had to take a drop and it
plugged and the bunkers, the rough is heavy, wet,
nasty. So fairways become a priority. And when
you are in the fairway, obviously you have to
realise that you are going to be playing off very wet
lies. You can't really get as steep as you normally
do, you have to maintain your posture and your
height and try to putt the ball off the top and realise
there's a percentage of yardage that you're going
to lose in this atmosphere.
Q. You played your first Ryder Cup in
Valhalla the last time around, and you tell us
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