LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL SERIES: CHICAGO

September 18, 2022

Talor Gooch

Dustin Johnson

Pat Perez

Patrick Reed

Rich Harvest Farms

Press Conference

Q. Talor Gooch, growing up in Oklahoma, did you ever think you would be a champagne sommelier someday?

TALOR GOOCH: No, and I didn't think I would know what four wins in a row was on a team. I'm learning a lot these days, but I like these learning curves.

Q. Dustin, you were locked in a pretty good battle there with Pete and Cam individually; how much of the edge does that take off to know you guys pulled it out on the team side again?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Obviously the team part I wasn't too stressed about. Myself, obviously, I was in a very good spot, just didn't get off to a great start, especially 8 and 9 kind of killed me. Especially hitting the fairway on 8, and then 9 I wasn't in a bad spot, just made two really bad bogeys there.

But as a team we've got a great group of guys. I knew they were playing well, too.

On that front, but obviously coming down to the last hole, I knew we were one shot ahead. Playing with Pete and Cam, I knew I needed to at least tie Pete on the last hole for us to get the win.

Great day, though. Really proud of the guys. It was really nice to get that fourth victory in a row, though.

Q. Pat, you got the okay to wear shorts yesterday; obviously that turned around your game?

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, I was shooting amateur scores, so I figured I'd wear shorts. But I had to change something up, and the last two days were good. Plus it was hot. I had to go with shorts. I asked the captain --

DUSTIN JOHNSON: We had a team dinner on Friday night after the first round, and yeah, we told Pat to just do Pat. Just wear shorts, do whatever you want, hat backwards, whatever. Just play better.

PAT PEREZ: Bottom line, just play better. So I had to come through.

Q. Early in the week you guys said you weren't a dynasty. What does it take to become a dynasty? Is it four? Is it five?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, it doesn't matter how many in a row we get. We need to do it multiple years in a row, then we can be a dynasty.

How many in a row we get right now doesn't -- I mean, it's great, and obviously we love it, but we need to do it a few years in a row, and then we can talk.

PAT PEREZ: I think it is cool, though, that the WNBA Aces won today and we won. I think it's pretty cool because you don't get too teams named Aces that win on a Sunday too often, so I think that was pretty cool. It came on my phone. I knew it. I was watching it all day. I had the Aces.

Q. Patrick, when you get off to a hot start like that, you're probably not going to win the individual but you're playing for the team. How did the nerves and adrenaline compare with what you've experienced in the past?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, the adrenaline was kind of up all day. Right when I started, I get on that first hole, which I started on 5, and not thinking that a soft 9-iron was going to fly the green. We obviously were a little jacked up to start.

I knew from that, the good thing coming up was if I hit some quality tee shots, I'd have nothing into the greens.

I knew coming in, especially with the way I played the first day, that I needed to go out and get off to a fast start and try to help out the team as much as I can and kind of rally these guys. I really couldn't ask for really a better start with two chip-ins and a couple made birdie putts --

PAT PEREZ: You chipped in twice?

PATRICK REED: Yeah, chipped in for eagle on 7 and birdied 9, chip-in birdie and 10 and birdied 11.

Q. For all of you, just your thoughts on the week, this venue, the gallery response from people here in Chicago, and would you all like to hopefully come back with LIV Golf here next year?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, absolutely. I think the course was great. It was in really good condition. Fans were unbelievable. Yeah, I would definitely love to come back here. I think it was a great setup.

PAT PEREZ: The fans have been amazing at every event. They're behind us, they're for it. They get to see top players every day, and you can see the battle of Cam and DJ and Peter today. You're getting top players to compete every day.

It's incredible. But the fan support has been amazing out there every week.

PATRICK REED: Yeah, I second and third what they said about the fans. They were amazing from start to finish this week. To go out there and just kind of how that golf course is all kind of combined in each other, you can hear all the roars coming from everywhere, so you're wondering what's going on.

The good thing is when you get on a run there, it's always fun watching that leaderboard because I think at one point it was all over the place. We had three-, four-shoot swings because of the format we had.

Yeah, this was a golf course that was exciting. You hit the fairway, it gets you opportunities. If you miss fairways, you're going to struggle. I think that's why a lot of us like it.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, so for me today, I had a tough day, and it was cool hearing all the Aces cheering going on. The fans embraced the team part of it in a great way, so that was super, super cool. I was cheering on the Aces today, as well, knowing that I probably wasn't going to contribute.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Hold on, at least through nine holes you were definitely contributing because I was over par, you were under par.

TALOR GOOCH: Hey, things change quickly in this game.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I know that, but I'm saying you were playing fairly well. You just didn't finish very well.

TALOR GOOCH: Right, so those last three or four holes when I was --

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I thought I wasn't going to count today, which was fine, because I was playing like s---

TALOR GOOCH: What's what's cool, too; I was talking with one of our guys over there. It's pretty cool when we aren't firing on all cylinders and we can still get a win. I think that's --

DUSTIN JOHNSON: That is true.

I like how they show the leaderboard, they show our whole team and they show the scores. I'm like, okay, guys are playing good, now I need to start playing better.

Q. Would you all like to come back next year? Would you love to have another --

PAT PEREZ: Yeah, Chicago is a great sports town, and like we said, the fans are incredible. We'd love to come back again.

PATRICK REED: Oh, for sure.

Q. DJ, it was almost going to be a tie between Four Aces and Smash. If it was going to be a tie, who were the two people you would have picked to go compete --

PAT PEREZ: It was not going to be me; I know that.

Q. Could be yourself, as well.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Well, of course I'm picking myself.

PAT PEREZ: And then the other low score. You've got to go with the two major champions.

TALOR GOOCH: By the way, she was rooting for a tie the whole time. I'm like, why are you rooting for a tie? We're trying to win this.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: That would have been fine, too. We wanted to win, but a tie would have been kind of fun.

PATRICK REED: No, I like winning.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: If we're in a tie, I'm going in and then we're going to have a team meeting on the other person.

PAT PEREZ: You take the other Masters champion is who you take.