LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL SERIES: LONDON

June 11, 2022

Hennie du Plessis

Branden Grace

Louis Oosthuizen

Charl Schwartzel

Centurion Club

Press Conference

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I really wanted to win again, I worked very hard the last few years and there were signs of good golf and just haven't really been able to be in contention, and I played really god the first 11 holes. I hit a wayward shot on 12 and it sort of derailed me.

And then from there on, I was just trying to hang in. Hennie was playing some really good golf, he was hitting good shots and playing pressure.

So you know, you could see it was a bit of -- a little bit of just get in the house at the end. But you know rebound couldn't be more pleased and happy with how it turned out today.

Q. Obviously this meant something to you but with 54 holes and the shotgun start, does it still feel like a real hard I'd core golf tournament you just won?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I'm tired. Yeah, you know, I came here on Saturday already, and I played actually with Branden. We played at Queenwood a practice round and we came over, and I played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

So I've played a full week of hard preparation, and I think for the amount that's at stake, what LIV has put up, I could see myself doing that for almost all the event, really trying to prepare like I did for majors. Majors I used to come early and be real prepared. Because you have got three rounds now, so you don't have four rounds to maybe catch up if you were behind. You have to play well all three rounds, otherwise you won't win.

So, you know, 54 holes was the tournament, but my week has been very long.

Q. If I could ask, how does playing for this kind of money compare with playing for an Augusta green jacket in terms of the pressure you're feeling?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't know if there's anything that will ever come to a jacket. Majors is what define our careers. Obviously I was fortunate to win the green jacket and I'm very proud of that.

Yeah, major pressure is definitely different. You know, money is one thing but there you're playing for prestige, history. Yeah, winning a major will always top anything you do.

Q. Hennie, going into this week, do you have a rough estimate of your career earnings?

HENNIE DU PLESSIS: No.

Q. I assume the 2.875, I think, is what you ended up with today.

HENNIE DU PLESSIS: Yeah.

Q. How do you deal with that mentally?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Do you know what his career earnings is?

Q. I have a rough estimate.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Because we are curious as well.

Q. The latest exchange rate is about 900 to a million.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Tripled it.

HENNIE DU PLESSIS: Yeah, I mean, this is -- dealing with it? I mean, obviously I've worked hard to be in this position and to earn this amount of money. I've got LIV Golf to thank for that, for giving me the opportunity. It's been an incredible week and I'm very grateful and I'm very happy.

Q. Did you feel any pressure at all? Did you think about the money?

HENNIE DU PLESSIS: It's hard not to think about the money. But you're still trying to win a tournament and put a decent result in. So I didn't really think about the money. I just thought about the trophy.

Q. Congratulations to all of you. It feels for good or ill, that golf has changed this week. Do you accept that? Do you believe what Greg Norman's talked about out there about this is the start of future of golf?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think this week was great. I mean, to me it was a lot of positives out of this week. Just being part of a team is something that -- we've played Presidents Cups. It's something that is so completely different to any tournament.

I know we still had the individual and we had the team as well. Down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if the team competition gets even more prestigious in the LIV league rather than individual.

But you know, change, I think it's nice to see golf doing something -- something different what LIV Golf is bringing here to golf. You'll always have your major championships and your big events, which is unbelievable. There's nothing that's going to take away me I think The Open Championships, and sure, I won the Masters in 2011. Those are the tournaments you grew up and played for.

But this is so exciting and so new, and having this -- being part of this is, I feel really honored to be part of this because I think this is going to kick off and be really something good down the line.

Q. Charl, you make a lot obviously about how this is undoubtedly about the money more than the prestige of, say, a major. How do you respond to those concerns raised that it's Saudi sovereign wealth funding, which is something human rights groups, and now a 9/11 survivors and victims family are protesting that you're earning from that and that's the funding of it.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I've never -- where the money comes from is not something that I as ever -- that I've ever looked at playing in my 20 years career, you know. I think if I start digging everywhere where we played, you could find fault in anything.

Yeah, I -- you know, it's a question there that's just hard for me to answer it because it's really rhetorical at the end. We can argue this all day long.

Q. You're all South African. We've heard a lot this week about how sport can have a greater good. Curious as to what role you think sport played in the evolution of South Africa. If Greg is saying this is a force of good, do you think sport played any role in how South Africa changed during your lives?

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I think for South Africa the historical moment was when Nelson Mandela held the trophy with Francois Pienaar in the Rugby World Cup. Was that in 1995?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: He wasn't born yet.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Hennie wasn't born yet.

CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I think for a country try that just came out of apartheid, that was a big unit -- it united South African; it's only sport that can really do that, and it doesn't matter which sport.

BRANDEN GRACE: I think it almost started before that, the Cricket World Cup before the Rugby World Cup was a big thing with Hansie. I think that's the first time everything actually came together as a nation.

You know, I watched a thing on Netflix the other day about that, and so I think sport's got a big thing to do with how things have changed in South Africa.

Q. Do you believe that's part of what's happening here?

BRANDEN GRACE: Lien, I think sports, any sport, has got the chance to change things in the world. You know, you get sports people that come together. You see a lot of it in America, how the basketball players, the NFL players, all these type of guys come together, you know, the Formula I. You know, they change lives. And sport does so much for charities around the world, and everybody can just benefit from this.

Q. This is for Louis. I'm just curious, have you been told or do you know, will you be able to keep the same four at the next event? How will this transpire in this year where obviously we'll have different fields from week-to-week?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, so Charl and Branden is in my team. I sort of looked them up and said I want them on my team. I would love to have a full South African team every week.

I know Hennie has got a few things struggling with getting visa appointments and stuff like that with the backlogs, and so you know, if he can sort that out, there's a space on my team for him.

But yeah, I would love to just, if I can keep, a South African team, and if it works out, have the four of us play the next ones coming up.