CAPTAIN NEUMANN LEADS OFF WITH HER SWEDISH VIKINGS IN SOLHEIM CUP

NEWS RELEASE FROM LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
PARKER, Colorado.  European Captain Liselotte Neumann (herself a native of Sweden) has chosen to send out her “Swedish Vikings” in the first match of the 13th Solheim Cup as Europe defend the trophy and aim for a first win on US soil.
Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall, both stars of the triumph at Killeen Castle in Ireland two years ago, will face Ricoh Women’s British Open Champion Stacy Lewis and rookie Lizette Salas in an intriguing opening encounter.
In the second match, Suzann Pettersen and Beatriz Recari take on Brittany Lang and Angela Stanford, while the all-British pair of Catriona Matthew and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff tackle Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda and the bottom tie is Azahara Munoz and Karine Icher versus Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer.
Meg Mallon, the US Captain, stated that no one in her team will play in all five sessions, while she also intends to give everyone an outing on the opening day.
Neumann was a little more reticent. “We will probably give everyone a rest, but I haven’t quite decided,” said the Swede. “I would love to see everyone on the golf course tomorrow, but I’ll wait and see what happens in the morning matches.”
Mallon has put out two of her four rookies in the opening session – Salas and Korda – while Recari and Ewart-Shadoff are two of the six European rookies.

“I wanted to go with some experienced players in the morning and I’ve also got a couple of rookies in there,” said Neumann. “I’m very comfortable with the pairings.”

Both Captains agreed that the form on the greens will be the key to success. “They are so undulated and so fast,” commented Neumann. 

“In some places you can’t get even close to the hole. Even with chipping you can’t throw it high enough to get the ball to stop.”

 

Foursomes:

7.40am Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall v Stacy Lewis and Lizette Salas

 

7.52am Suzann Pettersen and Beatriz Recari v Brittany Lang and Angela Stanford

 

8.04am Catriona Matthew and Jodi Ewart-Shadoff v Morgan Pressel and Jessica Korda

 

8.16am Azahara Munoz and Karine Icher v Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer 

 

Interview Transcripts

 

 

An Interview with:

 

            LISELOTTE NEUMANN

            MEG MALLON

 

            THE MODERATOR:  Good afternoon.  We would like to welcome Meg Mallon and Liselotte Neumann to the interview room.  We will be hearing from both captains with their pairings for tomorrow morning's foursome matches beginning at 7:40.  Just a reminder, before we start, these pairings are under a strict embargo until they are announced live at the opening ceremony.  We do this as a favor.  Should we just end it now then?  We do this as a favor to you to get your stories done as we know you're all on deadline so you can hit send immediately when they are announced later this evening.  Without further adieu, we'll ask the visiting captain Liselotte Neumann, the first match at 7:40 a.m. who do you have paired?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I've got the Swedes going out first with Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall.

            THE MODERATOR:  Meg.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Going against Stacy Lewis and Lizette Salas.

            THE MODERATOR:  Pairing No. 2 at 7:52 a.m.  Captain?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Europe, Suzann Pettersen with Beatriz Recari.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Versus Brittany Lang and Angela Stanford.

            THE MODERATOR:  Pairing number three at 8:04 a.m.?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Catriona Matthew with Jodi Ewart Shadoff.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  And best friends playing against each other, Jessica Korda and Morgan Pressel.

            THE MODERATOR:  The final foursome match at 8:16 a.m. tomorrow will be?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  For Europe, Azahara Munoz with Karine Icher.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Against Cristie Kerr and Paula Creamer.

            THE MODERATOR:  One question from me and then we turn it over to the media.  Only four rookies playing tomorrow morning.  There's 10 in all this week.  Why the decision to put only two for both of you out?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I think we wanted to go with some experienced players in the morning for sure.  We put a couple of rookies in there, but they matchup very good with some experienced players.  So we feel very comfortable with these pairings.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  I wanted to get Lizette out right away.  I wanted to get her the first pairing out and Stacy is so ready to go that I got them together to get started.

            Then Jessica Korda, I think, can handle any position out here as she kind of relishes this stage a little bit.  So I'm happy with these pairings.

            THE MODERATOR:  Questions?  Raise your hand.

 

            Q.  So why, what's up with Lizette?  Is she a morning person?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Well, this is the first time she's played in the Solheim Cup, and I didn't want her sitting around listening to everybody go off, go off, go off, I wanted to get her off right away.

 

            Q.  Meg, can you talk about Jessica, how much do you think her dad has talked to her about his Davis Cup experiences?  Have you thought of having him talk to the team about his Davis Cup experiences?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  That's a good idea, actually, but actually her father just showed up today.
            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Isn't he European?
            (Laughter.)
            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  He is.
            (Laughter.)
            Yeah, she ‑‑ I can't, there's not a player that's embracing this moment more than Jessica Korda right now.  So obviously she's got some good background and history there with her parents.  So I'll be excited to see how she handles it when she actually tees off.

 

            Q.  Lotta, your thoughts on Charley Hull.  She was in here a minute ago and sounded like she was ready to conquer the world.  Kind of your thoughts on that.  And then, Meg, as a follow‑up to whatever Lotta say, reminded me a little bit of Paula at Crooked Stick.  Sometimes when they're so young they don't know any better and they play better.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I didn't see the press conference, but I heard it was quite funny.  Suzann Pettersen came in the locker room just sort of falling over laughing.  So she said that it was quite good.  I haven't seen it yet.  Hopefully I get to see it tonight.
            But she said that Charley was very comfortable and sort of relaxed, and that she was basically just going to step on that first tee and try to ‑‑ even though she's not playing tomorrow morning, but when she will go get on the first tee, that she was just going to pretend that she was going out at home playing in the sort of in the club championship or whatever it was.
            (Laughter.)
            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Well it's funny, when Paula said all that at our first press conference and then when it came time to go to the first tee, Beth Daniel had to go get her on the green.  She said, I knew it was going to be like this, but I didn't know it was going to be like this.  She was literally frozen on the green.  So it will be interesting to see how they respond.

 

            Q.  You mentioned earlier in the week that sometimes when you get some young players that it can be kind of scary, you don't know what they're going to give you?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Absolutely.  And I said that all week.  It's being the underdog and having no fear is a scary, especially in match play.  It's anyone's day in match play.  So I'm going to make my team fully aware of that.

 

            Q.  I know you spent a lot of time trying to figure out who to pick, how much time did you spend on the pairings and especially getting off to a fast start tomorrow morning?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Yeah, a lot of time on the pairings.  Probably a couple of months on these pairings.  And we were really, Laura, Dottie, and I, were really excited about our Friday morning matches.  So we think we have a strong group going out, going out there, and we're looking forward to see what happens.  But pairings are tough.

            You talk about alternate shot, the golf ball, when you throw the altitude and adrenaline into it and there's a lot more factors involved then.  So we had a lot of research going on into these pairings, for sure.

 

            Q.  Can you both talk about your philosophy in coming up with foursomes alternate shot, what is most important in the mixture of the two players?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I think that one thing that you look at is that the two players definitely have to have some sort of connection out there, communicate, a lot of trust.  I think that you have to believe in each other, and you really can't set out two people that are not comfortable with each other.  You don't want to send someone out that's sort of ‑‑ if you hit a bad shot you are apologizing for what's happening out there.  So I look very much at players that are friends or they're comfortable around each other.  That's probably the main thing.

            We all feel like they're all here, they're all playing well at the moment, so you feel like pretty much any pairing sort of goes together.  But in the foursomes, I think the communication and that they are comfortable with each other, and they can fire each other up out there, that's probably the most important.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  That's what our practice sessions were for.  To kind of work through those problems, potential problems.  When I had them out last week, we discovered there was some golf ball problems with some people I wanted to put together and it just wasn't going to happen.  So I'm glad we had that session last week, especially for the foursomes.  It really helped us a lot.

 

            Q.  Meg, with a couple of the pairings, Angela was talking before that Brittany was one of her favorite people to play with because she kind of balances her out.  Brittany is always sunny and Angela isn't always.  I wonder if you could maybe talk about that.  And then also the high emotion of having Korda and Pressel together.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Yeah, Brittany Lang is one of the funniest human beings on the planet, so, and Angela tends to get intense.  And they're very, very good friends.  They play a lot of golf together at home.  So to me that was one of my easiest foursome pairings to put together.  They played a lot together in the last two weeks.  So I'm really comfortable with that.

            Morgan and Jessica were a little work in progress.  It was a little sort of the golf ball issue there, but they worked it out for me over the weekend, which was great.  And they are really excited to play together.  They're both high energy people and it will be fun to watch them play out there.

 

            Q.  Have you considered an all‑Spanish people on a team?  An all‑Spanish team?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Yeah, obviously with three Spanish players it's definitely ‑‑ we have been sending them out in the practice rounds and you never know what's going to happen the rest of the week, but for tomorrow's morning matches we felt like these were the best matchups.

 

            Q.  For the players who do sit out the first session, I'm sure it's a little bit deflating.  What do you say to them?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Well, I told them the pairings on the bus this morning, and I didn't see one person's head go down at all.  This team's ready to play.  I've told them from the beginning that my goal is not to have them play five matches.  So they knew that they there would be a session that they would sit out.  Whether we have to adjust after tomorrow or not is another thing to be said.  But right now we have a plan going forward.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I think we didn't have our matches done this morning, we waited a little longer to just really make sure that these players were comfortable together that we put out in the morning.  I can't remember what I was going to say.
            (Laughter.)  But it sounded good.
            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  It's only your second language.  What's wrong with you?
            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Yeah.  Exactly.
            (Laughter.)
            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  Say it in Swedish and see what happens.
            (Laughter.)

 

            Q.  Meg said that she's not going to have everybody playing five.  Lotta, are you the same?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  We haven't quite decided that yet.  Actually, we'll, we're just going to have to sort of go and adjust and see.  I think with the altitude, it would be probably wise to rest all the girls once and save some energy for the singles.  I'm not going to make any promises now, we're just going to wait and see what happens.

 

            Q.  For both of you, I'm wondering if there was a player in particular that you leaned on for advice or their thoughts, and if there was anyone who came to you with strong suggestions of who they would like to play with.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  The strong personalities I have on my team, there were strong suggestions, but I appreciated it and Laura and Dottie and I pretty much had it figured out.
            It's funny when you're on all these teams and players try to get involved with what's going on, it just muddles it.  I sent out a sheet to them two weeks ago, asked them three or four people they wanted to play with, what golf ball they had, and all that.  So that was their opportunity to kind of have their input.  And from that point on we have kind of taken it, the captains have taken it and made our decisions.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I did a little bit the same.  I've been talking to the players, kind of asking who are the players that you can imagine playing with and so on.  And I ‑‑ obviously with Annika and Karin, there's so much experience that I obviously talked to them a lot about the pairings.  And so I've been pretty much ‑‑ I really discussed with all the players, I mean we have had a lot of communication between me and the players and the other vice captains to really see who they get along with, who they want to play with.

            So it's been a little bit of a long process leading up to this, but you also lean on a little bit of the experienced players on the team.  So I'm talking quite a lot with Suzann, Catriona, Anna, on our team as well.

 

            Q.  After watching your players practice here for a few days, what do you see as the largest element in the game that will affect the outcome here?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I think the greens.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  The greens.  I was going to say, the greens.  Yeah.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  They are so undulated and they have been running so fast.  And I don't know if you guys did the test yesterday on the first green, but we thought the greens were rolling over a 13 when we did the Stimpmeter test.  So they're quick.

            And if you're in some places of these greens, you just can't even get it close to the hole, depending upon obviously where the pin placements are.  And even chipping, a couple of times you throw some balls down just short of the green, trying to chip at some of those pins, you just can't play it high enough, it just won't stop.

            So we'll see, they might be a little bit slower for the tournament, but I think that they're still going to be running close to 12.  So the greens are tricky.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  The problem is the greens, there's so few pin placements on them, so all the placements they have had have been ridiculous.  So you're seeing them at their worst and the slopes at their worst.  So hopefully with the pin placements they have saved they will be a little more fair than they have been.

 

            Q.  Lotta, why did you choose to put out the Swedes first?

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  The Swedish Vikings.
            (Laughter.)  They're going first.
            (Laughter.)
            I feel that the two of them have such a strong connection and they're just strong players, they have good energy, I just figured to just get the Swedes out there and lead our troops for tomorrow.

 

            Q.  For both, 10 newcomers to this Solheim Cup.  Which is probably a record, we think.  Talk about the dynamic of that.

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  I've said all along, this is great because you're seeing the present of the Solheim Cup, the present and the future of the Solheim Cup.  And it's kind of cool having these young players that are going to be a part of this event for a very long time.

            So I'm excited to see how they respond to this.  They're so fired up right now and I'm not quite sure they know what they're getting into.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  The rookies?  The young players?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  We're so sleep deprived.  We're so tired.

            (Laughter.)

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  I think that, yeah, the young players, they're just, overall, they're just excited to be here, they're handling everything so far great, just enjoying themselves.  They're obviously nervous and excited and everything at the same time.  So I know they just can't wait for these matches to start tomorrow.

 

            Q.  Do you both plan on getting everybody out, meaning the ones that sit out, are they guaranteed to play in the afternoon?

            CAPTAIN MEG MALLON:  I know that's our goal, but we certainly, the thing is we have to have our afternoon pairings in an hour before the first tee time, so hopefully we'll see enough golf in the morning to stick with our afternoon times, but it's definitely for adjustment.

            CAPTAIN LISELOTTE NEUMANN:  Yeah, it's the same for us.  I would love to see all the players on the golf course tomorrow.  I want them to feel that they're part of the team.  And at this moment everybody's playing so well that I couldn't even really pick a player that I want to sit out.  They're so, if everything goes as it is, as I want in the morning, I will probably try to stick to the tee times that I have in my mind for the afternoon.  But, of course, you never know what can happen in the morning matches, so it could change.