Martin Dempster at Ryder Cup day 1

Transcript

00:00Hello, it's Martin Dempster, the Scotsman Golf Correspondent here, coming to you from

00:06Bethpage State Park venue for this week's 45th Ryder Cup. The first day today where the teams

00:19were at the course together. The Americans, they played 18 holes this morning. The Europeans

00:29having been here last Monday and Tuesday, they didn't actually go out on the course. However,

00:36they did some practice this afternoon. Bob McIntyre, he was the first European to arrive

00:43at the course. He came this morning, did some practice and hit some shots out in the range

00:48and then the rest of the team turned up this afternoon as well when the two captains, Team

00:56USA skipper Keegan Bradley and his European counterpart, Luke Donald, hosted their first joint captain's

01:05press conference at the start of the week. It was a pretty friendly affair, both praising

01:10each other. They're good friends, they stay close together and certainly got the utmost

01:17respect for each other. One of the topics that was put to Bradley was the American players being paid

01:24to play in this Ryder Cup. $500,000, $300,000 of which is to go to charity with the other $200,000

01:34team. He said that the players had not necessarily asked for it. It was the PG America had asked him

01:46to be involved in a process to maybe bring it up to date with the event. It's grown obviously,

01:52both in terms of stature and a monetary aspect. He said that it was a personal decision as far

02:02as how that money was used by the players. The Europeans, of course, are playing in this event

02:09for nothing. They wouldn't have it any other way. Bradley, not in a bad tone, said that he didn't

02:16really care about the Europeans. He's just concentrating on his team. The Europeans, they'll have

02:23their team photographed first thing tomorrow morning before going out for 18 holes of practice.

02:30And of course, I had a walk round today, first time for me here. It's certainly going to be an

02:35arduous walk for the fans for the first nine holes. It's a lot of up and down slopes, etc.

02:40It flattens out a little bit in the middle and then gets a little bit up and down again towards

02:46the end. I wouldn't say it's a brilliant golf course, but it's certainly one that is renowned.

02:52It's a municipal golf course. The huge bit of property and certainly the New Yorkers are

03:01excited to be hosting this event. To keep up to date with everything about the 45th Ryder Cup,

03:06log on to scotsman.com or buy the Scotsman.

03:10Call it so much.