September 26, 2011
RYDER CUP NEWS CONFERENCE
JULIUS MASON: Good afternoon everyone. I'm The PGA of America's Julius Mason, and I'd like to welcome those of you joining us on the phone lines around the world and those onsite here at Medinah Golf Club in Medinah, Illinois to our “OneYearToGo Ryder Cup Captains News Conference.”.
We have some guests in attendance that I'd like to introduce: Representing The PGA Board of Directors: Asuka Nakahara and Bruce Patterson. From the Illinois PGA Section, President, Casey Brosack, Vice President and also Medinah Country Club's Director of Golf, Mike Scully; Secretary, Jim Opp, and Executive Director, Mike Miller. From Medinah Country Club, Executive Committee Members, Jason Kinander and Bob Moore and Mike Lombardo, President Joe Ebner, Vice President Tony Graffia,
General Manager, Barry Garrett, and Director of Golf Course Operations, Curtis Tyrrell. From Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, PGA of America CEO and Honorary PGA Member, Joe Steranka.
Managing Director, Kerry Haigh. And from our Ryder Cup offices right here at Medinah Country Club, Michael Belot. From the European Tour and Ryder Cup Europe please welcome Director of Corporate Affairs and Public Relations, Mitchell Platts; Ryder Cup Match Director, Edward Kitson, and Assistant Ryder Cup Director, Julia FischerWasels.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to introduce one of the most dynamic energetic and connected general chairman, and has been a pleasure to work with, a true friend ever the PGA of America's, Mr.Don Larson.
DON LARSON: Thank you, Julius. On behalf of Medinah Country Club, it's my pleasure to welcome you in attendance here today. All of the European guests that we have, José and Richard, and welcome to everyone online.
It's a pleasure for Medinah to host The Ryder Cup. As all of you know, Medinah has a steep history of major golf tournaments, and we are ready and ready to go today, and we will be ready to go next year and host this great event.
Not only can I say welcome on behalf of Medinah. I can say welcome on behalf of DuPageCounty, the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. Every one of the people in the State of Illinois have been great partners and are excited to present this great event to our world.
José, when you throw out the first pitch tonight at the White Sox game, both you and Davis, you will get a taste of Chicago sports and Chicago sports enthusiasts. That is, if it doesn't rain out the game. But I'm sure you'll receive a warm welcome at the White Sox game this evening.
It's wonderful to have our friend, Davis Love, back again, and a pleasure to give a warm welcome again to José Maria Olazábal. José, we would like to welcome you with open arms, and if there's anything that we can ever do for you or any of your team, please do not hesitate to call on the members of Medinah.
Ladies and gentlemen, we all look forward to presenting The Ryder Cup to the world. Thank you very much.
JULIUS MASON: Thank you very much, Don. And now, ladies and gentlemen, from Hillendale Country Club in Phoenix, Maryland, please welcome the 37th president of The PGA of America, Mr.Allen Wronowski.
ALLEN WRONOWSKI: Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Julius, and it is my privilege to welcome you on behalf of the 27,000 men and women professionals of The PGA of America who go to work each and every day to grow the participation, the enjoyment and the game of golf, and this is an especially celebratory year for us as we go through our 95th anniversary of The PGA of America.
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the entire European contingent, led by our good friend and Ryder Cup Director, RichardHills. Richard, I certainly hope you enjoy the hospitality of these few days, as well as we know that you will next September, as much as we enjoyed your hospitality at Celtic Manor. It was a very, very special experience for all of us.
José Maria, when you were named captain, we could not have been more pleased and delighted with the announcement. Your passion and enthusiasm for The Ryder Cup is clear and very, very evident. And like Davis, we have watched you for many years as a competitor in The Ryder Cup. And we witnessed one of most powerful partnerships in the history of any sport when you teamed with Seve Ballesteros, and your legacy will be The Ryder Cup.
Davis, you're our 27th Ryder Cup Captain, and you are a person that we were delighted that you are our captain and we are so proud of the way you represent The PGA of America, The Ryder Cup and the game of golf.
And from being a PGA Champion, the son of one of our most renowned PGA professionals, and one of the greatest teachers in our association, we know that you were born to lead, and you will have the full support of us, as you take dead aim on returning The Ryder Cup back to American soil.
JULIUS MASON: Allen, thank you very much. Now, ladies and gentlemen, from Wentworth in Surrey, England and the PGA European Tour, Ryder Cup Director, Richard Hills. Richard?
RICHARDHILLS: Thank you, Julius, Davis, José Maria, Don, Allen, it is a great honor and pleasure for me to be on this top table with you gentlemen representing Ryder Cup Europe. To Allen, Joe Steranka, Kerry Haigh, Michael Belot and all of the team from PGA of America, we thank you for being up great hosts and for continuing our strong partnership, which every two years gives the world one of its finest team competitions.
To Don, and all of the officials, members and staff of the Medinah Country Club, we are delighted to return to this magnificent club here in Chicago. We consider it an honor and a privilege to be playing the next edition of The Ryder Cup on No. 3, which since 1928 has earned the reputation of being one of the world's elite championship golf courses.
Don, you've been a truly fantastic friend to the membership and staff of The European Tour, and we are proud of our association that now extends to The Ryder Cup. I would like to also welcome our friends joining us here from the media today and around the world. And one particular mention to Paul Bush from EventScotland, who in 2014 will host the Match when it returns to Gleneagles.
Now to the captains. Davis, we have followed your outstanding career since the Walker Cup days, and embraced your successes at every level of the game. You have many friends in Europe. We are delighted to be here with you. We welcome you as 2012 United States Ryder Cup Captain, and we are all delighted to see you here today.
José Maria, with Seve, you fall into one of the game's most charismatic partnerships. We know The Ryder Cup has a very special place in your mind, and we are thrilled to have you as the 2012 captain. Thank you for joining us from Spain over these couple of days, and we would also like to welcome your very great friend, Sergio Gomez.
Julius, thank you.
JULIUS MASON: Thank you very much, Richard. And now, ladies and gentlemen, from Sea Island, Georgia, please welcome the 2012 United States Ryder Cup Captain, Mr.Davis Love III.
DAVIS LOVE III: Thank you. Well, thank you, and welcome to Medinah. Like to thank Richard and his staff for coming over here and helping us kick off this YeartoGo event.
It's hard to believe it's been a year since I was last in this room, announcing that I would be the captain. It has flown by. I'm sure this next year will fly by, as well. I'm looking forward to working closely with Richard and all of his team in the next year to get prepared for this Ryder Cup.
Like to thank José Maria for coming over. It's always great to see him. We have been competitors and friends for a long, long time. I have really enjoyed this day. We didn't get to play golf but we've had a good time hanging out in the locker room in this great clubhouse.
We have been friends and competitors for a long time, and I think this twoyear process is certainly going to bring us even closer together. When he won the Masters, one of the times he won the Masters, I finished second to him and he was kind enough after the Masters past Champions Dinner the next year to send me the leftover wine, and that's the kind of a friend he is. He was still thinking of me a year later after I got the Silver Salver and I have some empty wine bottles to put on it.
But I also reminded him today that after that tournament my daughter named her first little horse after him. She rides this little South American breed of horses and they always have to have Spanish names and she named her first little horse after him. So we were all disappointed in that second place finish but we got a lot of great friendship out of it.
But I'm excited to be the 2012 Ryder Cup Captain. I'm honored to lead this team. It's going to be an exciting tournament because we are trying to win the Cup back, but also because we are playing at home, we are playing at Medinah which is going to be an incredible place for a Ryder Cup. Chicago fans have been great to me already in the last year. I know they are going to be very supportive of both sides but I feel like we'll have a nice homefield advantage playing here at Medinah, a great history of the game, and great sports fans.
As the son of a PGA professional, as Allen said, I'm very excited to have made this journey, not only to make it on the PGA TOUR, to play in Ryder Cup Matches, but now to be in charge of trying to win the Cup back for The PGA of America. I know my dad would be extremely proud of me; to not only have played The Ryder Cup, but to try to uphold the traditions of the game that he taught me. I am excited to be here and excited to kick this year to go event off and look forward, as Don said, in bringing and presenting a great 2012 Ryder Cup.
JULIUS MASON: Thank you very much, Davis and now ladies and gentlemen, from if you know Spain, the 2012 European Ryder Cup Captain José Maria Olazábal.
JOSÉ MARIA OLAZÁBAL: Thank you very much. Obviously I'm also thrilled to be here kicking off this one year to go for The Ryder Cup. First of all to Don Larson, we first met a year ago at Celtic Manor and it's been a very warm relationship ever since, and I want to thank you for the way you treated us and for the way that you helped The European Tour all this time.
To Allen, the president of The PGA of America, you have a magnificent group of people working for you. You are doing wonderful things for the game of golf and I know they are really working hard to organize this event the best way possible. You are taking care of all the little details in a magnificent way and I want to thank you for the warm welcome and hospitality that you have given us.
To Medinah, Medinah Country Club, there is a lot of history. It's a place that we have played a lot of major events here. I cannot imagine a better host for this event. The clubhouse is just amazing. But also, the golf course. It's a traditional treelined course and I think with the changes that you've done to the 15th hole, I think those last four holes are going to be very exciting for the Matches in a year to come.
To Davis, we go back a long way. Actually we turned professional the same year. Your first year on Tour was '86 and it was the same for me on The European Tour. We have played a lot of times together. We have played against each other quite a few times at The Ryder Cup. You've had a successful career, but I think most important of all is that you've earned the respect of the golf community, your peers, and mine, for the way you have conducted through all of these years and I think that is very important.
I think we are kind of similar guys. I think we are kind of sentimental in a way. We do have similarities. I know that your father passed away early, and unfortunately I lost a dear friend and a mentor not long ago, and I'm pretty sure that both of them will be looking on us and when everything is done and over, all I can hope for is that both of them will be proud of us.
Thank you very much, gentlemen, and as I said, really looking forward to the 2012 Ryder Cup here in Chicago, Medinah.
JULIUS MASON: Thank you very much, José. And ladies and gentlemen, it's that time to open the floor and the phone lines to questions.
Q. For both captains, you have to look at the 15th hole today, and just your thoughts on the change.
DAVIS LOVE III: We got to look. We didn't get to play but it looks like an exciting hole, and it looked long today, but you know, 280, certainly is reachable, and I think it will make for some exciting decisions. We have to decide where we want to put the tee and how we want to play it.
I'm sure Kerry Haigh will lead us in the right direction on how to set the golf course up to make it exciting. We hope that it's not a deciding hole. I think as José said, it will be very exciting coming down those last few holes because you've got some risk/reward and you have the 16th hole can play over 500 yards now. Obviously 17 and 18 have been the scene of a lot of dramatic shots and putts in major championships.
As I said, I hope we don't get that far but 15 could be a pivotal hole.
JOSÉ MARIA OLAZÁBAL: I have to agree with Davis. I think the hole has changed a lot. Now, it can be a risk and reward hole. Obviously it depends how the matches will be when you get to that point. I don't think it might be a pivotal hole, but it can be an important one depending on how much you get to that hole. You can see a lot of things going on on that hole, guys going for the green, guys actually playing safe, but it's still water in play for your second shot.
So I think that the last four holes are perfect for match play. You have the combination of two tough holes like 16 and 18, and two exciting holes like 15 and 17; I think that is perfect when you're playing match play down the stretch.
Q. Speaking in that vein, going forward, will you guys be making trips to Medinah next year to get to know the course better and do you anticipate at some point bringing prospective players to the course to get them familiarized with the course prior to the event next year?
JOSÉ MARIA OLAZÁBAL: Well, to be honest, I don't think I'm going to force any player to come here and play the course before the tournament is played. You know, they have a busy schedule. Some of them actually have played the course; they know the course quite well.
You know, I might pay a visit just to really check the setup of the course just before the tournament starts, and then pass that information on to the players. But apart from that, I don't think I'm going to force anybody to come here and get to know the course.
DAVIS LOVE III: Well, I've spent some time with Jeff Sluman last night and he said I could stay at his house any time I wanted. I might come a little more than José Maria and look at the golf course (smiling).
I agree with him. We have got professional players that all prepare in different ways, and I'm sure I'll have some guys on my team that will want to, will need to, and then some guys that will be can get ready Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is a long time. I think we'll probably mix it up. I agree with him; I won't force anybody, but I will be here. I need to get to know the golf course a little bit better just as far as which strategy we are going to play for alternateshot and things like that. So I'm prepared.
But I think the players will all prepare in their own way.
Q. For both captains, what's it like having the dynamic of the fact that you like and respect each other so much; would it almost be easier in some ways if you didn't have such affection for each other if you were trying to beat each other?
JOSÉ MARIA OLAZÁBAL: (Laughing).
JULIUS MASON: Go ahead and start, Davis.
DAVIS LOVE III: You want me to start? I think what José Maria said earlier, we both grew up with a respect for the players that have gone ahead of us, whether it was our fathers and people like Seve and Tom Kite and Byron Nelson and Ben Crenshaw, and the players and the people of the game that we were lucky enough to be around that we have a respect for the game.