JONATHAN COE: Good evening, everyone. We're here with the USA team. Captain Smith, what can you say about the GB&I resistance this afternoon?
NATHAN SMITH: It was incredible. It was definitely a tale of two days, with what happened this morning and going forward now and how they played this afternoon.
Really we knew how great their team was. They're a great team. They're a deep team. We knew they were capable of anything. Really at no time did we take the foot off the accelerator.
But they played great. All you can do is really tip your cap to them. They played great.
JONATHAN COE: What did you tell the guys afterwards?
NATHAN SMITH: Well, we just talked. I told them how proud I was of them. They played their hearts out. It's a big trip. It's a tough trip. Everything we as a team tried to overcome. Just told them I loved them. Anything they need in this life, they got it from me.
JONATHAN COE: Ryder, this is obviously your first Walker Cup. What are going to be some of your big takeaways from the week even though you came up just short?
RYDER COWAN: Yeah, I mean, it sucks. It sucks losing, but at the end of the day, someone's got to lose. What we can take from it is what means the most.
I don't know, just being around all these guys, being around Stew, it's a blessing. It really is. We had a great week. No matter where we ended up, we had an amazing week, and I feel like we all grew together as a team.
We tried our hardest. We laid it all out there, and unfortunately, we just didn't come out on top. But it is what it is.
JONATHAN COE: Stew, this is a new feeling for you. How do you think you'll go about processing this?
STEWART HAGESTAD: Yeah, it sucks. It sucks right now, but sports, right? That's why we do it. That's why every one of us practice. That's why we try and put ourselves in situations to be a part of stuff like this.
It came down to literally the last match. It's an honour to be a part of it. It's an honour to be in the Walker Cup Society. As bummed as I am for me and our team and USGA and amateur golf and all the things, they earned it. They played great.
As Nathan said, all you can do is tip your cap to them. They played great.
Q. Nathan, this, the last chapter in your book called --
NATHAN SMITH: Well, I hope not.
Q. Well, not in amateur golf, but as it relates to the Walker Cup. As you look back over the last 16, 17 years, how do you reflect on that? What's it meant to you in your life, in your golf life, your amateur golf life?
NATHAN SMITH: It's meant everything to me, right? I think I said a few times with the speeches, everything because of the USGA in golf is -- I am because of the USGA: The championships, the Walker Cups. It's been incredible.
Then to play on three and then to be asked to be a captain for two. It was exciting for me too to do it when I was younger and my parents were around. I could share it with Caroline. I think that's really special.
I'm honoured that I could do it. I think being younger too, I could relate a little bit better to the guys than when I was older, and it was fun. I would say that I'm -- yeah, it's really -- I mean, it's tough right now after everything we just went through for the week and what happened in the last hour or two, to process all that, but I know that it's been incredible and I feel really honoured and blessed.
Q. To Stew and to Ryder, that was a wild afternoon. There's not a lot of leaderboards out on the course. How aware are you of what's going on elsewhere on the course, and how do you balance sort of tapping into that momentum along with what's going on in your match?
STEWART HAGESTAD: There were more cheers -- having been a part of these before, there was more noise than in other years. I looked pretty early. I looked on 6 and saw what the board was doing, and it wasn't great.
Then you kind of sit there and you try and say, okay, just do your job. You're playing one guy. Focus on that. Expect everyone else to do the same.
Yeah, like you could kind of read body language and you could kind of see what was going on and the momentum that was beginning to take place and the groundswell that was beginning to take place.
Two things are true at the same time, right? You're trying to focus on your match, but at the same time, like you knew that something was going on and you were doing everything you could to fight it.
But it was tough.
RYDER COWAN: Yeah, I'm not much of a leaderboard checker myself, but I don't know, you could feel it. It was like you could hear the cheers. You could hear everything going on. It's tough to like see different holes out there, so you couldn't really see, but you could definitely hear it. It didn't feel great.
Q. One follow-up for Nathan, in that last match, we saw you heading back to be with Tyler there on his approach. Did you share any words with him or talk to him at all on the way up there?
NATHAN SMITH: Well, we -- yeah, I think it was a little help. There might have been a little skip, but at the same time, I think mostly I just didn't want him to be out there on an island by himself. I think that can be pretty engulfing when you feel like you're out there by yourself and 10,000 people surround you.
It was more that. I don't really know honestly what you're going to tell a player like that. I mean, he's a top player in the world. There's really not much I'm going to tell him. I think it was just more about me running back and just me trying to be with him so he really wasn't on an island in that situation.
And to know the situation. When I came back, he asked do I need to win this hole or do I have to halve the match? So that was a big part of the conversation there rather than details of shots.
Q. Two different topics. Just back to this morning, you went 4-0 in foursomes, not always America's best format; incredible performance there. Just any thoughts on the morning?
NATHAN SMITH: Well, all the credit to the guys. They played incredible. I think we knew what we had to do to come out, and we were at least trying to win the session to play well.
That's a format, it's no secret, we've struggled in through the years. GB&I, whether it's Ryder Cup or Walker Cup, they're always great in that format, so we knew we had to play well.
We felt great about our teams, and all the credit to the guys. They played incredible this morning. Absolutely.
Q. You guys wouldn't know, but the crowd was commenting to some of us rather regularly just in great admiration for your play, the way you carried yourselves. Any feelings you'd like to give back just to the experience and what you experienced out there on the course?
RYDER COWAN: No, I feel like the crowds were actually pretty good to us all week. We didn't really get any bad banter. They were great to us.
Other than that, I don't know. I don't know.
STEWART HAGESTAD: I'll echo that. I think there's been other events where the crowds have maybe gone a little bit too far, and I think everyone is kind of on board that, hey, maybe the pendulum went a little bit too far in one direction.
It's sports and we're all fans and we get excited, and sometimes maybe we need to take a look in the mirror and be like, hey, maybe that was a bit far.
To everyone's credit here, I'm sure -- I spoke to someone this morning that drove in from 2 1/2 hours away. I was blown away at how courteous and how lovely and supportive and like genuinely excited to be here and excited to watch great golf. It was a lot of just moments with parents and their kids.
That's what the event's all about. That's the definition of growing the game, and I have my own thoughts on that expression as a whole, but like that is -- it was really, really great to see just the sincere appreciation for the sport, for the event. Everyone was wonderful. So credit to them.
Q. Nathan, did you have your singles pairings planned ahead, or did you react to what happened in the morning?
NATHAN SMITH: Well, a little bit of both, a little bit of both. I think that any time you have -- it's a little bit of both.
I mean, you have 10 great players. So to me it's more putting guys who maybe might feel comfortable with each other teeing off. It's hard to say you want certain guys leading off or closing or different things like that, but yeah, I had an idea.
I wanted to keep it similar to how it was kind of all week so they had a flow through the singles basically, and I think they were in similar positions.
Q. This is for Ryder. You're going to be able to share your experience with players at Oklahoma. You're also going to be able to share them with junior golfers, and you'll be part of the Walker Cup Society for the rest of your life. Any thoughts on what you would share about players that are aspiring to be where you are, be part of a Walker Cup?
RYDER COWAN: Yeah, I think being a part of this society and Walker Cup Society is so, it's just amazing. And being able to be out here with all the team that we have this week and just being able to like learn from them.
We have some of the best players in the world on our team, and to be able to just kind of all come together and be one for the week, I think that's the most special thing that I kind of saw all week.
I don't know, that's pretty much what I would say, I think.
Q. Stew, did you say anything to the team? I know Captain Smith addressed them obviously and you guys. Any comments you made to them? I'm sure you will in the future.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Like last night?
Q. No, just today, like after.
STEWART HAGESTAD: Listen, this is an amazing event, and it's one that I've not been shy about sharing that it's been a big part of my life and I'm honoured to be a part of it. I think that this is one of those things where, as they get older, they're going to appreciate it more and more.
So to that extent for them, I'm really excited for them, and as they look back, I'm sure they'll have a lot of really fond memories.
It stinks in the moment right now, but at the same time, this is one of those things that ages really, really well. It's just an incredible community, and we're really, really fortunate to be a part of it.
So just to be around like legends of amateur golf and whatever they go on to do in their pro careers, like if that's the direction that they choose, we'll always have that in common and we're always going to have that shared bond.
It's crazy to say that because you're only together for a week, but you compete against each other all summer over the course of two years. I'm not in college obviously. They know each other through that. But there's this push, and if you're fortunate enough to be a part of the Walker Cup team, it's a really, really special phone call to get.
And then obviously to go through the week, to hit the first tee shot, hopefully you play well; obviously we didn't this week. It's something that as we all get older, we'll all come together and we'll all have a really neat bond.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports