PIF SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SOFTBANK INVESTMENT ADVISERS

February 1, 2022

Jazz Janewattananond

Paul Casey

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us here for our first press conference ahead of the PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisors. We're joined this morning by Jazz Janewattananond and Paul Casey.

Jazz, I'll just come to you first. It's great to have you back for what I think is your third appearance in the Saudi International. How pleased are you to be back here for the tournament?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: Pretty pleased. I always enjoy my experience here. The golf course is great. Just a good experience overall. I'm just excited to play again.

THE MODERATOR: You have finished in the top half of the field in your two previous appearances. Is Royal Greens a course that you like and a course that maybe fits your play?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: I think it's a pretty new golf course, and the first year I played here, and now I think it's getting better every year, and it's improving every year. Just want to see how good it is this year.

THE MODERATOR: The Saudi International of course is an Asian Tour event. You started on the Asian Tour, had six wins on it and a regular playing member. With $5 million prize money, how significant is this now for the Asian Tour?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: It's really good. I think this is the strongest Asian Tour field we've ever had. For someone from the region, it's really good to see the Asian players have a chance to improve and get to play on the bigger stage.

THE MODERATOR: Paul, great to have you back once again, as well. It's once again an exceptional field here at the Saudi International. What are you expecting from the week ahead?

PAUL CASEY: I think a tough week ahead. We've got a tough golf course. I think it's a well-designed golf course, but the way the wind blows around here, and I think the forecast for the week is for it to pick up on the weekend, and with such an unbelievable field that's gathered here, I'm keen to play well.

A lot of World Ranking points on offer, and I feel like my game is progressing. I played the start of the season in Singapore a couple of weeks ago and then Dubai, and haven't cracked a top 10 yet, but the results have been okay, so I'm looking to push on this week and have a really good finish.

THE MODERATOR: I think you finished 12th in Dubai last week. It looked like you were playing with a bit of an injury towards the end?

PAUL CASEY: No, that was just one day, honestly I pulled a muscle in my neck on the range picking up a tee. Old age or something. Bad pillow, who knows. No, that was just a one-day thing and battled through it and it hurt, but no, otherwise I'm very physically good. Probably a little rusty I said in Singapore. Hadn't played as much golf in the off-season as I normally would. With still COVID and things like that that kind of got in the way a little bit. The rust is being chipped off, and I feel like I'm in a good place now.

THE MODERATOR: A few career wins on the circuit, the Asian Tour. You must have fond memories there. How pleased are you to see the Tour benefiting from this type of investment from Golf Saudi and to be hosting a tournament that's as big as the Saudi International?

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, we touched on that a couple of weeks ago. I've always enjoyed playing international golf and pride myself on the fact that I've played -- I don't know if I've won on something like DP World Tour, PGA Tour, Asian, ANZ Tour, Korean Tour. I think I've won in eight different countries. Really enjoy travelling the globe.

My participation a couple of weeks ago was, I think, thanked by a lot of the members of the Tour that week, and this week for the Asian Tour, it's huge.

But I think the investment -- look, it's important for the membership, playing opportunities. Those that run a Tour have an obligation to look after its membership, and that's what's happening over here.

Q. Jazz, coming from a position a couple of years ago when you just couldn't do anything wrong, you were playing such good golf, how disappointing was last year, and where is your game right now given that you have fallen below 200 in the World Ranking? Where is your game right now? What are you doing? What has changed?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: The pandemic probably affected everyone. It affected a lot of Asian players, especially in my region, because we couldn't even go home at the start. I was stuck out there for like a year and 11 months, outside the country.

It kind of had an impact on my golf and my life, as well. When that happens, you didn't care about playing golf as much.

Now I'm just trying to get back into the groove again. Thailand just opened up, so it will hopefully help my golf a bit more, and I think the game is looking on the bright side.

Q. Are you trying to blame Daniel Chopra for all your problems?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: No, no, he's very kind. He let me stay with him for four months. A random stranger in someone's house for four months is pretty amazing.

Q. Paul, if you were a member of any Tour and you didn't get to play any tournament for 21 months, just can you give us an appreciation of if something like this happens, a big tournament like this

where you get to play, what would be your reaction to that?

PAUL CASEY: I think it would be -- I mean, first of all, I can't comprehend having that kind of forced break. You talk about Jazz, his trajectory has been phenomenal. He shot a brilliant 65 in the final round of the Singapore Open to beat me back in 2019. It's unfortunate that players' trajectories are affected by outside forces.

I'm not worried about him. He is a world-class player, and he has an impressive and very bright future, so to come after a 21-month break into something like this, I think a lot of guys will feel incredible excitement but probably a sense of pressure, as well, because they want to kind of make up for lost time, and what an opportunity this is to be playing against a Dustin or a Phil or whoever it is, and for let's say a lesser known player, not talking Jazz but really a lesser-known player, this week to sort of break through and maybe have a win could literally catapult them into the crosshairs in world golf, which is a fabulous opportunity.

Q. Paul, you just mentioned all these countries in Asia. Playing that world schedule that you've had in your career, has that made you the golfer you are now?

PAUL CASEY: I don't know. I've never thought about it, but it's probably a Catch 22 in some regard. If you stay in one place and things are a little more steady, maybe a golf game ends up being better in terms of sort of output, but then is that as enjoyable. I don't know.

For me there's the golf side of things and then there's the seeing the world and experiencing cultures and countries and people, which I've always sort of relished and embraced. It's a balance, isn't it. If it's all about golf output, or is it about a little bit of life, as well, so I try to strike that balance.

Q. Would you like to see more young players -- Jazz plays around the world. I know he's played in the States and he's played in Europe. Is that something you'd like to see the younger guys starting off doing that? They seem to be going straight to the PGA Tour.

PAUL CASEY: It's opportunities, isn't it. Look, everybody, the PGA Tour is the strongest tour in the world, so that's where everybody sort of wants to be, and I understand that. I wanted to be on that tour, I am on that tour, and I understand players want to get there, as well.

Like you say, it's that balance, isn't it. When I played with KT a couple of weeks ago, that's what he was talking about. We'll see what happens in the next, I guess, few years. There seems to be quite a fluid situation in the world of golf right now, so we'll see what happens.

Q. You touched on this earlier, Paul; how much importance do you put on World Ranking points when you're looking at where you're going to play?

PAUL CASEY: I'll let Jazz answer, as well. Yes is the answer to that. I don't think about it too much right now, but if you're somebody that's outside the top 50 then that's something you worry about, you know that, that magic number. If you start outside the top 10, I think you think about it. Similarly a guy who's probably No. 2 in the world thinks about it. Some of us have contracts which are based on World Ranking points, as well. I do.

So World Ranking points, yes, they do factor into decisions. Ultimately you've got to play good golf. That will take care of it. But ultimately, yes, it is a factor in determining schedule.

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: I absolutely agree. With me right now trying to get back in the top 100, get in the PGA Championships and all that, so once you get that, you have to pick which one has the biggest ranking points to go play.

PAUL CASEY: And it's going to be interesting when it changes later this year what that does to people's schedules and where they play.

Q. Have you given it a thought on how it is being structured later in the year and how it is going to be kind of -- I don't know if that's the right word, but you mentioned the Asian Tour, the Korean Tour, the other smaller tours in the world.

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I understand that viewpoint, but there was also -- I think one of the scenarios we had a couple of years ago was when Tommy Fleetwood finished, you guys can look it up, it was like third or fourth at THE PLAYERS Championship, and there was a tournament opposite that week where the winner of that tournament amassed more World Ranking points than Tommy, and you just look at that and you go, that was not right, plain and simple. No disrespect to the other players who were playing somewhere else on the planet, but the strength of field was the strength of field at THE PLAYERS.

You know, just handing out World Ranking points for a national open or something like that, it had to change. Whether the new -- I'm not a mathematician, whether the new algorithms are going to be correct. We'll see, but it had to change.

Q. What's it like being here the Kingdom and experiencing the Kingdom and being part of the Saudi International and its strongest field so far in the fourth edition?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: I'm really happy to be back. Last year I got to experience a bit of Jeddah, as well, after the tournament. I went to the old town which is really nice, so just have a lot of fun travelling around the world, like Paul said. There's got to be a little life in there, as well. You can't just be travelling playing golf all the time. I'm just happy to see the world, and Saudi -- like when I was growing up I never dreamed I was going to have a chance to come to Saudi, and here I am.

PAUL CASEY: Yeah, I haven't got out as much as Jazz. I'd like to. My experience here has been nothing but very, very enjoyable, and everybody I've had interactions with, interactions outside of the golf events, as well, when I've been on my travels here, very warm, very friendly, and a country I don't know a lot about still.

Going off tangent, but motorsports is one of my passions, so looking at the Dakar rally, for example, around the Kingdom, if there's the possibility to maybe kind of experience the deserts and the mountains and everything maybe in a race car - can we sort that one out? Yeah, it's something I'm interested in. Never, ever thought I would be here, like Jazz said, but it's embracing what I'm seeing.

Q. Paul, you mentioned in the beginning that you've participated in a lot of Asian countries. How do you compare Royal Greens here and the field to the other countries in your experience here?

PAUL CASEY: Well, some of the courses I've played on on the Asian Tour, we've played some phenomenal places. Just two weeks ago we were in Sentosa. The courses are second to none, and Royal Greens is right up there, as well.

It's something quite amazing what's been developed here. Condition is perfect. But the field is something else. That's a testament to the energy and excitement and the ambition of everybody that is here with this event and what they want to create.

Every player that's got on a plane this week to come here, they can see that in everything that goes on.

Q. Jazz, the sport of golf is growing in Saudi. This is the fourth edition of the Saudi International. They've had other ladies' tournaments, as well. In terms of growing the sport, how important is it for you to be part of that?

JAZZ JANEWATTANANOND: I'm from that generation where when I started golf, golf was not to say dying but a bit more quiet, but now with the pandemic it's actually helped us a lot, I think, with people I don't even know starting golf just to hang out, because during the pandemic you can't do anything except golf. So it's really good.

I think what Saudi is doing with sponsoring the Asian Tour, they're growing the region of golf there, as well, so I'm really happy to see that.

Q. Tell us a bit about playing with the young amateur K.T., 14 years old, two weeks ago.

PAUL CASEY: I said it a couple weeks ago and I'll say it again. He was brilliant. Every aspect of his game I was impressed with. Drove it well, chipped it well, putted well. He could genuinely compete right now at a level which I can't even fathom when I was 14. I was -- I don't know what I was doing. Just sort of in my room or at school. Not playing tour events. I didn't play my first professional event until after I turned professional.

He has such a bright future. He's only 14. He's going to pick up speed. He's going to hit the ball further. But I think the thing that was most impressive is his maturity, his emotional control. He finished third the previous week and then when we teed off, he could have been 3-under through 3. He did everything that you would expect from a seasoned professional.

I mean, absolutely brilliant. I'll be interested to watch his trajectory just like Jazz and everything. And he's a credit to his country. Never met a kid so polite and well equipped for the world.