Los Angeles Golf Club 5, New York Golf Club 4
Q. Rickie, the one putt that didn't go in was that last one. Talk about hole 15, and then I'll ask the other guys about the rest of the match.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, hit a good putt, obviously. Just not quite hard enough. It looked good from my angle. Cam was right there behind me. I thought it would hold its speed a little bit more there, but yeah, I was trying to hit it with good speed, as I did, and yeah, I thought I made it.
This one is a bummer because we got off to a good start, but those boys closed pretty hard on us, making some birdies in singles.
Yeah, it is what it is.
Q. Cam, Matt, you guys got really hot with the putter. Talk a little bit as a team the momentum you had in triples especially.
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, it certainly felt that way. It felt kind of like running downhill a little bit there with the ball going in. But yeah, like Rick said, they closed pretty hard, and there's not a ton you can do in that situation. We played really well and unfortunate not to get both points tonight.
Q. Cam, I think that was the longest putt ever made, right? Well, Rick's was and then Cam's was. Can you walk us through your putt?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, all those ones getting it down the ridge are kind of just trying to find a spot right on the crest to let it die, and Rick had already made one from up there, so I kind of had some idea based on his what it would do at the end. Yeah, just got right to where we pointed, and nice for that one to go in.
Q. Rick, do you have a strategy when it comes to the hammer? You guys were a couple of matches in. Obviously you had a big lead so you're not going to use it. But do you have a strategy when it comes to it?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yes and no. But say when Fitzy had a par putt there and they were still putting for birdie, they hammered us there. If you're looking at statistically and analytics, you wouldn't take it, but we'd be putting well, and I asked Fitzy and he said, let's go.
So in a way, strategy-wise or anything, some of it with the new system we're learning and adapting as we go, but yeah, some of it you kind of have to go with feel, and definitely having some in your pocket there at the end of the match can make a big difference, obviously what you saw tonight. Tony getting that birdie there from a long ways out, that put them in a position to do what they did.
Obviously a lot more interesting than where we were when it was just one team having it. We were on the wrong side of it tonight, but it's definitely made it better having multiple hammers as a team.
Q. Since Xander has been out, you guys having played more matches together as a team than anyone else, are you feeling more comfortable as a team, gelling together in any way?
MATT FITZPATRICK: I definitely think so, yeah. I think we gel really well. Just like the way we do things -- funny, I was thinking about it tonight, it feels really easy to play with these boys, and no offense to Xander, but we obviously had three matches together now, and yeah, definitely feels comfortable.
CAMERON YOUNG: I feel like the golf keeps getting better and better, too. We couldn't have played much better tonight. We played really well, obviously, last week. So I feel like that's all kind of a product of us getting used to it and play together a lot.
Q. Can you guys talk about Tony a little bit. He gets called in from the bullpen this week and makes that huge two-point putt on 13 to get them back in the match. How difficult is it to do that in your kind of first appearance of playing in TGL?
MATT FITZPATRICK: Do we get any transfers? I'd like for someone to transfer for me. They'd do a better job.
RICKIE FOWLER: No, at the end of the day, it's still hitting shots and hitting quality golf shots. Tony did that tonight. I know he didn't hit his drive where he wanted to there, but he stepped up and hit a hell of a shot in there.
Again, you still have to make the putt on top of that. Yeah, he did a great job. I know he was able to get in, have some practice today and at least get acclimated and see what it's like in there. No, I'm sure he had a good time. You'll hear from him shortly. But I don't see him saying anything bad about his experience.
Q. Cam, you bring up a good point about the golf getting better. Is there any correlation, like New York Golf Club had one of the very early matches. It was very early in your season. You guys come back from the West Coast, at one point tonight you had won between last week and this week seven par-4s in a row. As a team you're playing very well and you're gelling. Does that have anything to do with what you're doing out there on TOUR? Is your game also ramping up, and do you feel like there's a correlation there?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I think that's something that Matt actually brought up last week, too, is we had played a lot better, and he mentioned, I think I'm also just hitting it better than I was a week ago. I think there's some of that.
I feel like I'm experiencing a bit of the same thing that he brought up last week.
Yeah, anytime any of us gets on any kind of positive kind of trajectory playing on TOUR or in our own practice even at home, that's going to show up in here, and I think that's what you've seen the last few weeks.
Q. Getting reps on the putting green here, is there something different about this putting green that you need to get used to? How do you go about adapting to that and intricacies that you have to adapt to putting indoors versus on greens?
MATT FITZPATRICK: I think the greens are so different. I compare it to like a new build of a new golf course. The green almost hasn't settled. There's so many subtle breaks. You can see it one way, it might just go a little bit the other way, and you've under-read that and it stays high, whatever it may be.
I just think there's a ton of subtleties, but one thing I know is certainly tonight and last week, as well, when we were talking about the shots themselves or the putts themselves, it was definitely like, oh, it's not outside the hole. There's less break.
I think that way -- obviously they've reduced the slope percentage a little bit, as well, and I think that's made it a little bit easier to putt on them, as well.
Q. You guys get one point for the overtime loss. Any thoughts on next week? It's going to be a must-win situation.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, we know what we need to do, so we've been playing well, and like the boys have said, we've gotten better and better and more comfortable with the more reps in here. Yeah, we know exactly what we need to go do and play some good golf and win some holes and win the match.
Q. Cam, any pride in beating Boston as a New Yorker?
CAMERON YOUNG: Yeah, I wouldn't mind it. I think probably more so just situationally, obviously I want our season to continue. I'm not ready to be done for a year.
But yeah, being from up there, especially in the baseball arena, that's a big rivalry, and it would be a lot of fun to close those guys out next week.
Q. Rickie, any comments on playing in front of the home fans at Cognizant and the PGA TOUR this week?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, looking forward to playing this week. I know Cam is playing, as well. This is always a fun week, sleeping in your own bed and staying at home. I've had success here, and hopefully we can get the weather to blow through, and then looks like a great week. It's always a fun event. Like I said, I always enjoyed playing it, and see if we can get ourselves in the mix.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports