The Bay Golf Club 5, Boston Common Golf 4
THE MODERATOR: We'd like to welcome Boston Common Golf into the media center here at SoFi Center. Unfortunately, you guys came up on the rough end of the stick tonight. Can you talk a little bit about the match, Rory or Keegan, overall?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Well, tough loss again, third week in a row. This is the best we've played. They just played a little better.
I thought we handled the hammers pretty well, made some great shots, great putts. But we just were just short in the end.
Q. Hideki, this was your first time being out here this week; can you talk a little bit about your experience here at SoFi?
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: Yeah, first time here. I was definitely nervous, a lot more than last week when we were playing the PGA TOUR. But I had a really good experience. So, you know, the only good part I played today was the first putt on the first hole. So, hopefully, I can do better next week.
Q. You guys have experienced nerves in a lot of different scenarios, a lot of different tournament play and matches and whatever. What are the nerves out there at the end of the match similar to?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you feel it. You do feel it. Like, I'm not going to try to compare it to, like, coming down the stretch of the Ryder Cup or a major, but you definitely feel it. You know, especially -- I think the singles is interesting because you have to wait those couple of holes to get another opportunity.
So, like, I knew what shot I was hitting -- you know, after I lost my first hole to Ludvig, I knew what shot I was hitting next, and you've got to wait 10 minutes or more to hit that next shot. So, you're sort of thinking about it, and I know what the shot is, but I got up there. Especially after Keegan tied the match, I knew that that was a really important hole and I had to step up and make a good swing, and thankfully, I did.
But you feel it a little bit. You don't want to let these guys down, either. It's okay if you're out there on your own and you hit a bad shot and it's on you. But a bad shot here affects everyone else, and that adds its own pressure, as well.
Q. Rory, now that you've had a chance to play with the new hammer rule, what were your thoughts on it? How much discussion and conversations have you had within your group in terms of, maybe, a need for the change, the updated rules with the hammer?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think -- I mean, if you look at these three -- you know, this is the first day that we've had these new hammer rules, and every match was really tight. I think it enables a team, if they do go down in the match, to come back.
We were 4-3 down going into the last three holes, but we still had two hammers, so it felt like we were almost -- it felt like we were tied, you know, just knowing we had those extra two hammers.
So I think it's a really good change. You still have to be strategic with them because you don't want to -- The Bay threw their hammers early in the match and didn't have any for the last few holes, and we kept ours a little bit, and that enabled us to keep ourselves in the match.
If it wasn't for Ludvig holing that putt on the par-3, we actually would have went up in the match without going into that last hole. So I think these new hammer rules are really good.
Q. Question for Hideki. Being your first live match, how different was it to read the putts on these greens inside versus reading putts on the regular PGA TOUR courses?
HIDEKI MATSUYAMA: There aren't much grains on the greens, but there's lots of undulations compared to the regular greens, so that was something that I kind of had difficulty today. But thanks to Keegan and Rory, they helped me read the lines. So, hopefully, I can putt better next time.
Q. Question for Keegan. You drove in today with the USA sweater on. You get to play with Boston on your uniform, and your future is going to be playing with USA on uniform. How do you compare those two feelings? Are they similar?
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, I mean, I just was so -- I watched the USA hockey team the other night. I was just so proud of them. It was so fun to watch.
It's a real honor to be the Ryder Cup captain. I feel everywhere I go, I have to be the captain and hold myself to a standard that is of a leader and somebody that's the captain of the United States Ryder Cup team.
So I feel a heavy weight to honor the role and to also respect and give it the respect it deserves. But it's so fun representing the U.S., and then representing Boston and New England. It's been a really special time.
Q. Keegan, could you take us through the pitch-in or chip-in on No. 10? What were you looking at? Did you hit your spot? Take us kind of through what you were thinking and the process to hit it.
KEEGAN BRADLEY: Yeah, so there's a section of the grass that's into the grain that's really, really difficult, and that's where I hit that weird first chip. When I got there, Rory and I were talking; he was telling me it was downgrain, and Rory told me right at the last second to be really aggressive at it because they really spin. And I picked out a little spot, landed right on top of it. I didn't expect it to go in. But what a fun feeling that was. That was nothing like I've ever felt. It was not better or worse, but we were indoors with a loud cheer. It's just different.
I'll remember it forever. It was awesome.
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