Los Angeles Golf Club 6, Boston Common Golf 2
Q. Tommy, it was your first time out here, your debut for the team. Can you talk a little bit about your overall experience.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, the last couple of days have been great. I think I've really, really enjoyed the preparation that's gone into it with the lads, and then tonight -- again, as I said before, having watched it, it's obviously as players so much better playing, and I loved getting into the flow of it. I loved getting into that team atmosphere.
We got off to a great start. I felt like the crowd, like the atmosphere inside the arena was great.
Yeah, the start obviously couldn't have gone any better, and yeah, I've really enjoyed the last couple of days, not just playing tonight but the build-up to and the preparation.
Q. Justin, what do you think was the winning formula out there tonight?
JUSTIN ROSE: Potentially our preparation and the hard work we've put in the last couple days. Like Tommy said out there early, maybe what surprised him is how much we've actually treated it like this is exactly what we do. This is how we prepare for any other big tournament that we play in. We are competitive. We want to be prepared.
I think that's exactly how we worked as a team out there. Even in practice we were sort of getting the rhythm going of okay, how does the triples feel. We wanted to integrate Tommy into the rhythm of it all; how do we read putts; okay, in this scenario who's going to call the shot clock, try to give the other player comfort and time.
So there was a lot of mini-strategies out there, obviously, and then you have to hit golf shots, which these two lads are pretty awesome at.
But yeah, I think the teamwork behind the good golf shots was there, in place.
Q. Collin, LAGC made 88 percent of their putts inside 10 feet. Can you talk a little bit about how that impacted the game today?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Like Rosey said, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out these greens and reading them. They're really difficult. Around the holes don't always go the same way so you've got to figure it out and feel it out while we're there. Golf is always going to come down to putting. Those are the big moments. You can hit great shots but you can miss the putts.
You're not going to really be given too many putts, especially if you have it for birdie, and it was nice to hit some close but also make some putts out there, and I think this is just another learning curve for us to figure out, okay, how do we keep putting well if not better.
Q. There was a lot of talk about your preparation like you guys just talked about, but I heard you also had a little fun playing a game trying to chip the ball through the executive suites on to the green. Did anyone get a hole-in-one in that? Secondly, how much fun is it just to be able to do crazy stuff like that while you're preparing for something like this?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: It's more frustrating than fun in the end.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: You're going to have to watch the video.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Yeah, watch the video. It was good. It was a great idea. Collin holed it a couple times in the wrong hole.
But yeah, it was cool. I got nowhere near, so I was getting more frustrated than having a good time because I felt like I should be able to do better, but these guys were good at that.
JUSTIN ROSE: It started off we were just meant to hit 10 each, and we hit like 10 buckets each, so the competitive juices started kicking in, or then you started to get into a bit of a flow where you're beginning to hone in on it and you can feel yourself getting close.
But ultimately we didn't have any joy.
Q. Both the matches you guys have played have been pretty dominant performances. Can you explain the chemistry that you guys have brought to it?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think just a good intensity, I think the right intensity. Obviously you want to get out there, you want to be focused and keep encouraging the guys, okay, no complacency, stay focused, this is your shot, you ready, let's go. Good planning. Then all the planning was in place and you just have to execute.
But yeah, the fast start helps because then the other team, they have to start to press. Maybe they chase pins. Who knows, maybe make mistakes, maybe start to get aggressive on the greens. Yeah, but obviously we had them exactly where we wanted them today, but we just kept piling on the pressure. I don't think the lads really missed too many shots at all.
Q. Justin, you mentioned some of the mini-strategies and one of those tonight was definitely holding on to the hammer. Could you sense that was starting to cause some frustration as they were running out of holes down the stretch? We heard some comments during the broadcast.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, who frustrated who? Hopefully it was frustrating Boston. That's the whole point of it. That's the beauty of getting up to a fast lead. I think if we were 1-up through 8 holes and then on the 9th hole we had an opportunity to hammer to get a 3-up lead, that's a great opportunity to hammer because then you're building that sort of lead that gives you a little bit of leeway going into the singles.
But all we could do was get them back in the game by giving them the opportunity to win a two-hole situation. The fact that we were 3-up through 3 I think it was, that was it. From that point, if it got close, then 100 percent the hammer is back in the game, but if you have a little bit of a lead and a little bit of a cushion there, great. If you don't, if you have a mini-lead, you use it if you have an advantage.
Q. It felt like the most animated you got when you could stick it to a fan that was in the crowd giving you a fake shot clock. Obviously Waste Management coming up, Bethpage has the Ryder Cup. Does it feel better to hole a putt when the crowd is behind you or when it's against you?
JUSTIN ROSE: That's a good question. I think with you. There's nothing better than the cheer and the noise and the excitement. I played my first Ryder Cup away and we lost and I still thought it was a fantastic week, and then I had the opportunity to play Ryder Cup at home, and I was like, oh, wow, that was fun.
The energy you get from the crowd that are pulling for you is big, but the satisfaction, sure, of making a putt when you can feel like there's a little bit of angst, that's awesome, too, but that takes a little bit more out of you maybe and more and more focus.
But I think in this environment, yeah, you're hearing it but it's playful. You've got to keep it playful. The guy screaming for hammers today and things like that, at the end of the day I threw him my glove, and I said, hey, we didn't throw the hammer but I'll throw you my glove, and they love it. It's all good. But got to play the right way out here and we've got to win. We came here to win, and that's what it's all about.
Q. For both Justin and Tommy, was there a little bit of a European Ryder Cup feeling going on amongst the two of you that obviously helped you and Collin win?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: No, no, I don't think so. I think for me on a personal level, I'm close to both of the guys, so for me it was great to be in that team atmosphere.
No, we've played a lot of golf together but we're lucky that we get on so well, all three of us. I feel like over the last two days in the preparation that we've had, we've created a really good chemistry, and we just felt like a unit out there.
I felt particularly comfortable with these two guys around me making decisions, hitting shots, whatever happened. That's a really nice feeling when you're out there playing.
As fun as it was and as good as I felt, it's still a different environment, so being made to feel as comfortable as you possibly can with the guys that are around is a massive advantage. Yeah, I think we just molded really well over the last couple of days, and we were just a great team unit out there.
Q. Gentlemen, obviously you've all played in the biggest events in the world. You're very familiar with distractions and pressure, but Tommy, I'm curious for you, was there anything here tonight that surprised you, caught you off guard or was maybe unexpected from practice to actually being here in game time?
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Obviously got close a couple of times with the shot clock on the putting, so that can sharpen up. No, I think the way that it flowed was really, really good. A lot of times, your time is also dictated by breaks and things like that. But the guys had made me well aware of that.
I thought the atmosphere was great, and of course you don't truly know what it's going to be like until you play it live. But I do think being in the arena the last couple of days prepares you for a lot of it, and again, we got off to a great start. That always helps. It was comfortable from there on in.
I didn't get to -- none of us have really, I guess, got to experience it being tight at the end, having an overtime, having that shot, so that was kind of different experiences, which I have no interest in experiencing either; I'd just like it to be like that all the time.
I don't know about taking me by surprise, but I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it a lot. Having watched some games, like I said before, being part of it and playing is definitely for us better than watching. You get so into it, and again, just lucky with the guys that I have.
Q. You holed so many putts inside 10 feet. I'm curious does the undulation on the green change hole to hole, or were you able in your scouting yesterday to -- there's only so many hole locations. Are you starting to get more comfortable with some of the reads and how the green breaks?
JUSTIN ROSE: I feel like there's 30 holes. They've designed 30 different golf holes, and on those 30 different golf holes there's six pin placements possible, and with those six pin placements they have the jacks in the three different areas that can change the topography, so I don't know how many thousands of variations that would actually be, and no, you can't prepare for the subtlety and nuance of learning all of that individual.
We can kind of do our scouting report and when it's set up for how we're going to see it you can remember, oh, this putt actually went more right than we thought it would. But that's what practice rounds are all about on TOUR, as well. There's always the illusion there of the ball breaking towards the ocean more or whatever it might be.
But I don't think you can learn it by heart, no.
Q. To the three of you, whoever wants to tackle it. There's another open letter today to the membership. This one seemed a little bit more personal for guys who were playing in things like TGL and specifically mentioned TGL. Your reaction to that?
JUSTIN ROSE: What letter? I hadn't read it.
TOMMY FLEETWOOD: Look, I think everybody in the world of golf at the moment is trying their best to obviously give their opinion on what is best for the game and what is best for golf and what is best for their respective tours.
I don't particularly try and look too much into those things. I think obviously what everybody says, people are going to agree with, disagree with. Some of those opinions will be valid.
Speaking of -- I play golf all around the world. I feel like I'm very lucky to do that. I play two tours, and now I feel like I'm lucky to be part of a style of golf here in TGL in an arena that is different. It comes through a new audience. I feel lucky that I get to do those things really.
You can only really look at things from a personal standpoint on how you feel about things. I like how my, sort of, life as a professional golfer is, and I think that the ability to play in these events is really cool.
You look at the guys that are playing, I think everybody is excited about the opportunity and really, really enjoying it. Nobody really knows what the future of golf holes and we've seen that over the last two years. You don't know what direction things are going to take.
But for now, I think we have a lot of good initiatives. I think that the standard of golf is unbelievably high with the talent of golf out there. I think you look last week at Pebble Beach, like being out there playing it and then seeing the scores that come in, I think that's an unbelievably high level.
Then things like this are really, really cool. I can't wait for my kids to see this. I think they're going to be amazed by it, and I think kids that would see this event would actually be really excited about the prospect of playing golf and maybe start indoors somewhere, which is something that I'm guessing the three of us never did.
So I think there's a lot of good going on in the world of golf at the moment, and of course everybody wants to continue to improve it. But I think there's a lot of things to be happy about, as well.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports