Q. What was it like playing today?
JOSÉ ANDRES: I mean, it's like a Forrest Gump movie. You are playing before the Ryder Cup 10 holes on this beautiful golf course. It feels good.
Q. I know you were competing against Bobby Flay who's also a chef. Was it a battle out there?
JOSÉ ANDRES: Listen, Bobby plays so well, it's amazing how well he plays. I wish I played half.
But a few years ago, we did Iron Chef, and I beat him. And I know he didn't like it.
Now we played again, and I beat him.
Q. Is he kind of mad about that?
JOSÉ ANDRES: Not mad. My slice is better than his slice. No, he slices so well, especially on the golf course. My ball always goes right. I'm the best slicer in history.
Q. Did you do a lot of practice before today?
JOSÉ ANDRES: We played yesterday, but today we were able to go to the range. It was amazing. I've been like a month and a half without playing, so it was rough to start, but short game is my game, and short game I did okay. It was a fun day. Having so many people around, oh, my God. It's very tense.
Q. The best part of today, what did you enjoy the most today?
JOSÉ ANDRES: The crowd. The crowd was great, was amazing. This is a good golf course, difficult golf course. The rough, different roughs. My God, if you are in the fairway, maybe, but today I'm a handicap 20 and we were playing from the blacks, par-5s 620 yards. It's like, already that gets you a really, like, oh, my God. So it was great, but my God, we played from where the pros play, and that's very hard.
Q. This is not your first Ryder Cup. What do you remember from Hazeltine?
JOSÉ ANDRES: Well, Hazeltine I did this amazing sand shot in an impossible flag position that you were there or you were in the water. That one was my shot. It's an amazing thing about golf, you do 90 bad shots and then you do the one that keeps you going, and I think that's the beauty of golf. Something may go wrong on the shot you did, but you have to forget and keep going and only think about the next shot.
All of a sudden, you can do the best shot of your entire life and everything is going to be fine. The good thing about golf is like life itself; you have to keep going at it because very often things are not going to go as you planned, but cannot just be head down or being sad over your last shot. You have to be looking forward because on the next shot, your life can change. That's the beauty of golf because it's like life itself.
Q. As a golf fan, what do you think is going to happen here this week?
JOSÉ ANDRES: Well, I think the crowd is going to be a very important player, obviously. That's why a win away is so celebrated in the Ryder Cup. The players know that the crowd is another player, an important player, and we know New York is a great place. The fans are unbelievable. They're going to be rowdy. That's something that can get in the heads of Team Europe.
But I think Team Europe has a very solid team, very good all-around players. I think we're going to see a fascinating three days where it's probably going to go down on the last three or four matches. But we'll see.
Listen, I love players like Morikawa. I love the guy as a person, as a player, so I want him to play well. But also I want Jon to play well and I want Rory to play well. For me, I already won. I'm Spanish, I'm American, and when they ask me, hey, who do you want to win, you know -- I grew up watching Severiano, and when you are from Spain, Severiano is in the head of everybody. Even if you never watched golf, you were on the Severiano team, and we know the impact Severiano had on the Ryder Cup and how his memory still today is an important one on players like Olazábal and players like Sergio.
But I think those things -- the history of the Ryder Cup is also so important into the young players of today. I think we'll see. I think if Europe wins here, it's going to be a big one because again, it's not easy to win away from home.
Q. You were saying you go to places where nobody has been in your work. Do you go to places where nobody has been in golf?
JOSÉ ANDRES: Usually I am always in places because everybody always says why I am a handicap 20, I'm such a good player from the most difficult locations, because I play from those difficult locations all the time. So if you want to be good from difficult places, just be like me. What fun is it to play from the fairway? Gimme a break. Just put it in the woods, put it in the rough. That's me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports