LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL SERIES: BANGKOK

October 5, 2022

Ian Poulter

Lee Westwood

Stonehill Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. Do you relish the prospect of the possibility of playing more in Asia? Is that something you look forward to?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I mean, right from the beginning of my career, 1994, I think my second or third event ever was the Johnnie Walker Classic in Phuket, Blue Canyon, and fell in love with Asia then, and have always enjoyed coming back here.

Obviously wasn't possible through COVID over the past couple of years, three years, and I've missed it. I've been a regular coming back for the Thailand Golf Championship and Indonesia Masters and a lot of other tournaments all over Asia. I think I've got 11 or 12 wins in Asia. It's somewhere I've always tried to --

IAN POULTER: Just 11 or 12?

LEE WESTWOOD: I can't remember. It's been a long time. It's nice to be back. It's a part of the world I look to come and play in and I've been successful, which makes it even better. It's nice to be here with LIV and taking golf around the globe again.

IAN POULTER: Really similar. Right from the year 2000, once I got my European Tour card, traveling around Asia, playing, and having a level of success, as you said, Singapore, I won in Hong Kong, I won in Japan, runner-up in Korea, won down in Australia, so enjoyed the aspect of playing internationally and obviously just not in one place.

I've loved my success in all the years that I've been traveling for the last 24 years, and as Lee said, we really didn't have that option through COVID, but obviously now the new schedule and how it's going to lay itself out with LIV, it's a fantastic opportunity because we've got so many fans that we've picked up through all the years of winning great tournaments in this part of the world, and it will be great to see them all again.

Q. You're basically playing a course that nobody has played before. Just your thoughts on this golf course and what it's like to play a course nobody has played?

LEE WESTWOOD: We're all starting off from the same page really. I played the front nine yesterday, and then we've just played four holes of the back nine, and we'll be on the back nine again tomorrow for the pro-am.

It's pretty straightforward off the tee I would say. There's quite a lot of room. I think knowing this golf course is going to be on and around the greens, so try and put a good bit of work in, like I said, on and around the greens.

It's long, and obviously the rain doesn't make it any shorter. I think it'll favor the longer hitters, and I think the scoring will be pretty good out there. I think it will favor good iron players because everybody is pretty long, so shouldn't find it too taxing in that regard.

But I think everybody is going to be coming out of the fairway, so you're going to have the kind of advantage of -- you don't have to hit the fairways quite so much, but good iron play is definitely going to get rewarded this week.

IAN POULTER: I've played four holes with Lee this afternoon before we just got called in, and yeah, there's plenty of room off the tee. Visually a lot of bunkers out there, some of them I can't get in because they're 330 yards off the tee. It lends itself to where some of the other guys may even be able to get into the traps or carry them. But positional play into the greens, distance control, just like Lee said, is paramount. We've all got new green complexes this week, so nobody is going to be at the advantage of having the reads on some of the putts.

From that aspect, level playing field, and it should give every team an opportunity, do their homework before we play on Friday and hopefully Majesticks can have a really strong week.

Q. With this new format, what do you enjoy most? Is it the atmosphere? Is it the format?

IAN POULTER: So many things, to be honest. Just the fact back in the hotel room we've got a wonderful ballroom where everybody is socializing, dining, hanging out. There's more of a team atmosphere like we would normally see at like a Ryder Cup, and because of that itself, it's much more enjoyable. It's more social.

Then getting to the golf course we've got our own little locker room areas and we've got the ability to spend quite a lot of time together, play practice rounds together, and it's exciting. It kind of gives you a bit of an energy boost, the fact that we've got the team aspect as well as individual aspect, and even if you're not up on the leaderboard with a chance to win, like your score really counts, which is exciting, so it keeps you 100 percent focused, fully energized and ready to go.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I would agree with Ian. I think the pace of play seems to be faster out here. I like the fact that it is a shotgun starts and it starts and is all done after about four and a half, four hours, 45 minutes. I like the team aspect where not only -- if you're out of the individual, you're playing for somebody else, especially this week where they've increased the number of scores counting over the first two days. That appeals to me.

Yeah, there are so many different aspects to it that I enjoy, even down to I'm 50 years of age, and when I was playing on the European Tour and the PGA TOUR, I didn't really have anything in common with the younger guys that we were playing with. Now on the LIV there's a lot of my friends playing on there, get to spend more time with them, and there's definitely more of a family kind of attitude and feeling to the environment.

Q. How do you feel the team format will affect the younger generation or the golf community as a whole? What's your secret sauce to --

LEE WESTWOOD: I think the team aspect really appeals to the younger generation and the people that also play amateur golf. The people who play amateur golf can relate to the team golf a little bit because that's what they play week in and week out at their clubs.

Definitely that aspect of it has brought us, I think, closer together with the people that are paying to watch us play, amateur golfers. We're here to entertain them, and if they can relate to what we're doing, that's even better.

IAN POULTER: I'm a football fan. I support Arsenal. Lee supports Forest. But we're top of the league.

LEE WESTWOOD: We're not.

IAN POULTER: Just the whole aspect of following a team, whether you support Formula 1 or you support a race team or McLaren, if it's in the NBA and you follow the Orlando Magic, whatever it is, we all have team we like to watch, and for the first time we have that ability every single time we go and play golf. That's what's cool.

We've had so many messages on our social channels which say we love team Majesticks, so we're already starting to build the fan situation there, and hopefully we can continue that and we can have a global audience that obviously want to follow certain teams, and it gives a certain dynamic.

Q. We've had a couple of conversations today with some of the other players from Thailand, and getting the experience playing with professionals like you guys is quite a nice experience for these guys coming through.

IAN POULTER: Well, I don't know how old Phil is. Is he the oldest man in the field? We've got a couple of oldies like Lee and Phil and players like myself and Henrik who have been out here collectively, and Sergio -- you can add up a lot of guys and hundreds of years of experience, and then we've also got the mix of guys coming out for the first time, guys coming out of college.

LEE WESTWOOD: We've just played a few holes with Shergo, a kid who stood in for Henrik in Boston, and his dad said could he come play -- we were hoping to play all the back nine, but anytime he can be put into that environment and watch all the players play and people that have played events all over the world and ask questions and just -- that's a huge advantage, to have that to draw from, that learning experience.

IAN POULTER: I remember when I was in my first year on Tour, and Lee had already been out there a number of years, and you would look up to players. It took a while to feel comfortable around them because you've watched them play and you've admired what they do, and this is what you have. You have that dynamic, him with the younger guys, that now all of a sudden can feel comfortable, hopefully gives them a boost of confidence to ask whatever questions they need, and it should bring the younger generation on quicker.

Q. You guys have known each other for a long time but err spending a lot of time together. Have you learned anything new about each other in the last few months?

LEE WESTWOOD: Not that I can say in here. I think we pretty much know all there is to know about each other now. This is my 29th year out here, and I think it's about 25 for Ian, and we've spent a lot of that time together. There's not a lot else to know. What you see is what you get here, I'm afraid. (Laughter.)

But it's nice to be out playing on TOUR again. For 14 weeks a year, we're friends. I said it before, I walk up and down the range the last few years, two, three years, whether it be a PGA TOUR event or European Tour event, and I have to look at the names on the bags. I don't know 75 percent of the players out there. That was starting to get a bit lonely for me.

It's one of the disadvantages of playing well into a ripe old age. My son would have more in common with most people on the range than I would. It's nice to be out with people like Ian and Henrik and Phil and guys more my age.

IAN POULTER: I think you realize when you're 50 or 46, and Sam, Lee's son, is wanting to become a professional golfer and he has a lot in common obviously with Luke, because Luke is trying to do exactly the same thing. We have the ability now where with the shotgun start, we can dine every night together, so therefore sometimes you might be off at 7:20 or you'll be off at 1:30 in the afternoon and you're never really going to be -- your times are never going to work where you can actually get every single night to be able to, again, grow that friendship, have lots obviously to talk about week in, week out.

That's exactly what we have here. It's more of a family atmosphere. There's a lot more camaraderie because you are dining together, traveling to the course together, and it just feels very natural.

Q. (On the choice to wear shorts)

IAN POULTER: It's really simple. You walk outside and tell me how hot you are. I have not brought any trousers on this trip, which is a first time ever. It's actually quite nice. The suitcase is a lot lighter than normal.

Q. (Indiscernible) because of the new socks?

IAN POULTER: It's mainly because your moisture reading outside is quite high, so I want to stay as cool as I possibly can.

LEE WESTWOOD: It is nice to be able to wear shorts. Some of us have got great legs and should wear shorts anyway. And at the end of the day, it's a sport, and back to my other point, relating to the guys that are playing at country clubs or golf clubs, wherever, when it's warm weather, those guys go out in shorts, so why shouldn't we.

IAN POULTER: I live in Orlando. It's roasting. I only play golf in shots.

LEE WESTWOOD: I think this is part of the reason why LIV is working so well. We are in the entertainment industry, and golf has certainly got to get away from this elitist thinking. It's always been frowned upon really. We need to get back to making golf more inclusive and trying to bring as many people as possible into it.

Q. The race is heating up for the season-ending team championship. Majesticks are currently in third place. The top 5 teams get a bye --

IAN POULTER: Four teams.

LEE WESTWOOD: You really nearly made my day there.

Q. But you guys are neck-and-neck with the Crushers right now. They're only one point behind you. These next two week are really going to count for you. What's the strategy going into the next two week, and do you think these courses suit the Majesticks' game?

IAN POULTER: There's a lot of emphasis in making sure -- there's many reasons to make sure you are in that bye situation come what -- obviously you're either playing on the Friday or you have an extra day to prepare for Saturday in Miami. We're fully well aware, just as much as every other team is aware of how valuable that is to make sure you're in that bye position to obviously get through that quarterfinals stage.

We know we're only a point ahead, and we need to maintain that and if not increase that, and we're very conscious, so thanks for reminding us.

LEE WESTWOOD: We are 20 points ahead of fifth. I'm not bothered who's in fourth, so we're 20 points ahead of fifth. We're the important team to focus on, but if anything you've got to look at who's in fifth. They're the ones that could kick us out or somebody behind there. If we can control what we're doing, then we know we're good enough to play well these next couple of weeks and hang on to third or even more up.

Q. Do you feel confident?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'd rather be in third than fifth position, yeah.