Q & A
Question:
Hunter, I met you today at TP. You signed a ball and hat for me. I just wanted to tell you, “I like how you golf”. I am your fan. Nicholas age 7 (San Diego)
Answer:
Thanks Nicholas! Hope you had fun. Thanks for coming out!
Question:
How did the environment of the Ryder Cup differ from that of a normal tournament?
Answer:
There was just more crazy energy. There’s always pressure in any tournament you play, but like I said, it’s so definitive on one side or the other. When you play a major, there are a ton of guys trying to win. You don’t feel like the fans are cheering for anyone; they just want to see good shots. It was nothing I’ve ever seen or felt before. It’s just different. It’s hard to describe to someone how it’s different from a major, but it is. You’ve got teammates and wives and captains and fans completely cheering against you. But it was a great feeling. That’s what the Ryder Cup is all about. They had a home-field advantage. That’s what helped us succeed in ’08 and that’s what helped them succeed this year.
Question:
What do you do off of the course during tournament weeks?
Answer:
It depends on the city, but as a big basketball fan I like to take in a game anytime I can. At the Northern Trust Open in L.A. I caught a Lakers game. During baseball season I always try to catch a game in cities with teams. The worst thing you can do is sit around and think about your round. You have to give your mind a rest.
Updates
Sat, Nov 19th 2011, 08:59
Hunter's birdie on 17 seals the match on day-3
HUNTER MAHAN: This has definitely The Ryder Cup atmosphere. It was difficult. It was tough. We grinded. We got 2 up and we got it back to even and Bill made two birdies. Boy, it was a lot going on today. This is an Australian team we were playing today, we heard it all day and to make it like that feels good.
Q. Talk about the last putt, what it felt like.
HUNTER MAHAN: Interesting hole. I felt like coming into the green, I hit a perfect shot, it’s a brutal pin to get close to. I mean, Bill, I hit it 20 feet probably. Bill out of the rough hits it six feet, I mean, incredible shot.
I told him we have to be prepared to make our putts and sure enough Jason drills it right in the middle. It broke a couple feet. The greens are perfect so if you get it on line and I had a pure roll, and boy, it looked good the whole way. Felt good when it dropped.
Q. Talk about playing against the Australians all day, I’m sure it was a great atmosphere and a little emotion in the end when it went in.
HUNTER MAHAN: Yeah we were playing the Australian team and felt like we were playing all of Australia out there. It was fun. You have to enjoy that because this is great, and this is great to be a part of and it’s special.
It’s a great team, just I mean, they were playing well, they hit a lot of great shots when they had to, so it feels nice to get a point because we needed a full one.
Q. Talk about where you stand now, 12 9, maybe 13 9 going into tomorrow.
HUNTER MAHAN: I knew I don’t know how Jim and if we are playing every match is tough. We needed a full point right there. We had the lead, two out of the four to go and we needed a full point. A halve was going to be disappointing and we knew that.
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