FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 8th, 2015

NOTABLE QUOTES – PRESIDENTS CUP, DAY 1 FOURSOMES MATCHES ON GOLF CHANNEL (USA 4, INTERNATIONAL 1)

Golf Channel Notable Quotes
Presidents Cup, Day 1 Foursome Matches
Golf Central Live From the Presidents Cup (Quotes from opening segments)
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015, 10 p.m. 4:10 a.m. ET
Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea
Incheon, South Korea

**Team U.S.A. leads Team International 4-1 after Day 1 foursomes matches. 

**Golf Channel will re-air Day 1 foursomes matches on Thursday from 2-7 p.m. ET. Live coverage of Day 2 four-ball matches will air on Golf Channel in primetime on Thursday beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET.

On Day 1 of the Presidents Cup
Johnny Miller – “Bottom line, the putting has been better for the U.S. side. That’s all there is too it. That’s the same thing that Europe does against the U.S. in the Ryder Cup. Match play is really all about the putts. Every hole is a match in itself, and there is a lot of pressure on every single hole.”
Miller – “If you are going to win match play, you’ve got to demoralize people with your putter. Ugly pars to halve holes are very worthwhile.”
Tom Abbott – “This is not the start that Nick Price was envisioning.”
Frank Nobilo – “The Americans got off to the early lead and they continued to push forward.”

On J.B Holmes and Bubba Watson defeating Adam Scott and Hideki Matsuyama 3&2
Jerry Foltz – “They just couldn’t miss earlier in the day. They got the momentum going.”
Gary Koch – “Holmes started out hot in the early going by making a lot of putts, and they finish it up with good ones at 15 and 16.”

J.B. Holmes and Bubba Watson speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following their match
Bubba Watson – “We play the same game. We hit a driver pretty well, we can find the fairways, we hit long irons and can chip and putt pretty well. J.B. putted really good today. That’s why I picked him as a partner because he has been putting unbelievable the past couple of weeks. It was fun.”
J.B. Holmes – “It feels great. I was just happy to have a chance to play. I felt bad for Jim, but am excited about the opportunity. Once we got over here, Bubba and I played excellent all of the practice rounds together. We like how the course set up and how we were playing, so it was a no-brainer for us to come out here and play aggressive and play well and we did what we wanted to do.”

On Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen defeating Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed 3&2
Johnny Miller – “Strong team this South African team. They know each other’s game so well.”
Miller – “Oosthuizen sometimes doesn’t putt so well, but he putted really well today.”

Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following their match
Louis Oosthuizen – “We knew the U.S. always starts really strong and we needed to start better.  Our thought was let’s try and get a blue number and we can pull the guys along. We played nicely, but the U.S. was just a bit stronger overall today.”
Branden Grace – “We live quite close back home and we play a lot of golf together. It makes it easier when you play foursomes like this. We know each other’s games inside out. We had a good game plan. We clicked and every time one made a mistake, the other picked it up and that was the main key for today.”

On Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker defeating Thongchai Jaidee and Anirban Lahiri 5&4
Frank Nobilo – “It is hard to believe in professional team events going into this week, he [Rickie Fowler] was winless.”
Miller – “That silky stroke did it again for Fowler today.”

Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker Speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following their match
Rickie Fowler – “Playing at the team event there [Ryder Cup] helped, and we play a lot of practice rounds together. We are around each other practicing, so we know each other’s games very well. Having that experience at the Ryder Cup helped set us up this week to go out and finally get ourselves a point.”
Jimmy Walker – “Key was Rickie made some great putts starting out of the gate. I hit a couple of really good iron shots for him coming in, and he kept burying them and burying them. Just solid play. We had a couple of three putts, but other than that, it was really solid putting by Rickie and I made some quality iron shots.”

On Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson defeating Steve Bowditch and Jason Day 2 up
Nobilo – “Those two looked like the odd couple at the start of the day. I think they are happily married now.”
Peter Jacobsen – “When he [Mickelson] found out that Jay Haas had called him and made him a captain’s pick, he told me that meant more to him than any other team that he has made. He said he got emotional after Jay called. I think when your peers show you that type of attention and give you that type of respect, that means more than anything.”
Miller – “It is very rare for a 45-year-old to get the nod as a captain’s pick. Very rare.”
Terry Gannon – “When it feels good off the clubface for Johnson, he is maybe the best wedge player in the game.”
Nobilo – “I imagine whatever happens in the outcome of this match, Day will be the one to voice his opinion in the team room tonight.”

On Mickelson’s hole-out on 13 from the greenside bunker
Dan Hicks – “Mickelson likes these kinds of challenges, doesn’t he.”
Miller – “What a golf shot. Shot of the day. That was crazy good.”

Zach Johnson and Phil Mickelson speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following their match
Phil Mickelson – “This is the best. Zach and I have been on a number of teams together and we’ve been wanting to play together for some time. It hasn’t worked out pairings-wise and it did this week and we were so excited. We had so much fun and we have even better golf in us.”
Mickelson – “We came up with a very subdued handshake to celebrate our successes.”
Zach Johnson – “It is a strange dynamic in that our personalities do differ in a lot of ways, but at the same time when it comes to being athletes and being competitive, there are a lot of similarities. We both want the ball. We both want the shot and we feed off of each other. We wanted to do this for a while. Fortunately Captain Haas allowed us to do it and we had fun with it. Our goal today was to hit quality shots and see what happens.”

On Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth defeating Danny Lee and Marc Leishman 4&3
Curt Byrum – “They [Johnson and Spieth] poured it on during the back nine.”
Notah Begay – “He [Spieth] has been impeccable with the putter. He has made putt after putt. You throw in a couple of long ones and he is just tough to beat.”

Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following their match
Jordan Spieth – “We hung in there, we made a couple of mistakes each but ultimately there was a lot of good golf between the two of us. We felt like this is a good matchup and we hope to keep it going.”
Dustin Johnson – “It’s a lot of fun. We both played really well. I hit a couple of bad tee balls, but other than that I hit them good and had a lot of great iron shoots. I felt we had a lot of great birdie putts and chances to win each hole. That is the goal for today, is to have those putts to win the hole and we played well.”

Golf Central Live From the Presidents Cup
Ryan Burr – “If the Americans can bottle the relaxation and confidence they play in the Presidents Cup and take that to the Ryder Cup, we’d have something because once again the U.S. is dominating the Presidents Cup.”
Arron Oberholser – “The beat just keeps on going in the direction of the U.S. team. The Internationals just don’t seem to have the answer, especially in the foursomes format. Today, it was rinse and repeat, once again and the International team got rinsed.”
Jim Gallagher Jr. – “Going into today, the International team had to get a least two points out of this session to have a chance at keeping this close. They didn’t want this because they have struggled in this format.”

-NBC Sports Group-