LIV GOLF INVITATIONAL SERIES: BANGKOK

October 5, 2022

Anirban Lahiri

Kevin Na

Stonehill Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. You've spent the better part of your career in North America and now you're with LIV Golf. Do you see the possibility of traveling more and spending more time in Asia? Do you feel more comfortable now, the prospect of playing more in this part of the world rather than spending most of your professional life in North America?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Actually, you're spot on. I turned pro in 2007, and I moved to the U.S. in 2016. I've pretty much gone 50/50 over my professional career playing in North America specifically and Asia and globally otherwise.

I'm as global a professional golfer as you're going to find. I'm as comfortable on Bermuda or zoysia or bentgrass or bluegrass, and some of those things were alien to me five or six years ago. I had to reinvent myself and relearn a lot of things. So actually coming back to Asia, it feels like coming back home.

Am I comfortable? Yes, I'm very comfortable. I'm comfortable with the food. I'm comfortable with the weather. I'm comfortable with the grasses.

I love coming back to my roots. This is where I started. This is where my story began.

Yeah, it's great. I think I'm also coming back at a different stage in my career. I'm coming back having done a lot of things, and I'm coming back with the opportunity to do a lot of things going forward.

Like they say in Thailand, same-same but different.

Q. Kevin, you've spent the best part of your life playing in North America. Now that you're with LIV Golf, you can play more in Asia. Do you have a personal preference of where you would enjoy playing more?

KEVIN NA: You just said best part of my life I played on the PGA TOUR. I don't know, I think the best part of my life is coming. I played Asian Tour in 2002 and 2003. I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of great memories playing the Asian Tour, and I was able to see guys, former players that work for the Tour or in TV, it's nice to catch up with them and see that they're still in the golf world.

Yes, I plan to play a little bit more in Asia here and there. It's nice that we're in Thailand. The last time I played in Thailand was probably 2013, and I really enjoyed playing there, playing in Thailand then, and I'm already enjoying it now.

Playing LIV, I know we're going to play some in Asia. It's going to be in the schedule. But apart from LIV, I probably plan to play one or two more a year over here.

Q. Do you feel more comfortable in Asia than you were --

KEVIN NA: Well, I'm Asian. I feel comfortable all around the world. I really do enjoy coming here. It brought me old memories of playing the Asian Tour. People are so polite, so nice, and the food is great, and I really enjoy coming here.

Q. (On the investment in the Asian Tour)

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Well, it's already doing it. You look at where the Asian Tour was post-COVID. I know a lot of my friends who play on the Asian Tour were without a job for almost 18 months. Asia being such a strong economic region in the world, the professional golf industry hasn't quite reflected that.

I think this investment into the Asian Tour is necessary, and it's timely, because there's a lot of potential. There's so many golfers. Golf is huge, even in terms of tourism, in terms of a lot of these countries and how the economies work.

I think in so many ways, golf is integral and important to this region, and this investment is going to do a lot for right across the industry, not just for the professional golfers, also for all the affiliated industries. It's also going to grow how many people watch the game, how many people come out, how many kids get exposed, how many parents say, oh, I want my son or daughter to play golf, or I want to grow up and be like Kevin, I want to grow up and be like all the guys who are here this week. That's what makes the long-term difference.

I think it's timely, it was necessary, and I'm very glad and grateful that it's come when it's come because I know the Asian Tour and the region needed it. I think it's fantastic and it can only get better and grow from here in every which way.

Q. Can we get your take on that, Kevin?

KEVIN NA: I was hoping you wouldn't ask because he answered it so perfectly. The only thing I can add, and he mentioned it, as well, is Asia has produced so many great golfers into the majors, into the world stage. If you look at how many guys have won on Tour and how many guys won on the European Tour and worldwide, it's fantastic. But they get to see all those guys come back and play, and these youngsters will come out and watch them and have their dream of their own and playing on the LIV Tour and being able to compete against the best.

I think we're going to be excited to see a bunch of young fans out here.

Q. The atmosphere here has a bit more energy and bit more music around the Tour. How do you view that?

KEVIN NA: Well, TK is already a star. He's already an amazing player and he's already a star, and he's only going to become a bigger star. To have him around us and we're going to watch him under our radar and how he grows and how he becomes an adult and a star -- he's a kid right now, but he's so talented. We're lucky to watch that growth as he gets older. The atmosphere is amazing. The music on the range, the music and the camaraderie within the 48 players has been great, and the team aspect.

I tell this to everyone, look, you would think with the $20 million purse in the individual, guys are going to be thinking about more individual than a $5 million team purse, but it's almost the other way around. Guys get more excited about the team aspect sometimes more than the individual. It's because I think to win something together means more than just by yourself, and that's how I feel.

Q. Kevin, since you are captain of the Iron Heads, you have both the Thai players in the field on your team. Do you feel like you have home course advantage here and they're going to get some support from the Thai fans?

KEVIN NA: You know it, and a lot of pressure on you guys. I feel like we have a home court advantage. The two Thai guys are amazing golfers. They're very talented. Sadom had a great finish at the Open Championship; Phachara bombs it, and the course is going to set up perfect for him.

I'm really excited. I know poor Phachara had to eat some worms -- what else? He ate a worm and he ate the century egg. He'll be all right. I told him, are you feeling okay, and he's feeling fine. We're going to have the Thai fans supporting us, so I'm excited.

Q. Kevin, curious your stance on the World Ranking issue. Have you looked at it? Are you worried about it or do you just take it how it comes?

KEVIN NA: A little bit of both. Do I look at it? Yeah, I do, because I want to play the majors, and that's the way to get into the majors.

I strongly feel that we will get World Ranking points, and I'm not too worried about that. I feel like it's just a matter of timing of when. I don't think it's an accurate World Ranking without every tour and every player being ranked. I really believe that we're going to get it, and hopefully sooner than later.

I'm not too worried about it.

Q. We just released the season-long team standings, and the Crushers are currently in fourth, but you're only one point behind the Majesticks. In the next two weeks you guys have an opportunity to make it to the podium in Miami. Do you guys have a strategy going into the next two weeks that you can eke out the Majesticks and make it to that podium?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I don't think it's just about one team; I think we want to win the whole thing. Let's start by winning Bangkok or Jeddah. The whole goal is to get a win, see if we can be the ones to dethrone the Aces.

But every single team member, every single one of the 48 players is excited about Miami. It's a phenomenal format. It's going to be engaging, and I'm pretty sure everyone wants that bye. Everyone wants to get to the Saturday without having to worry about playing on Friday. That's a given.

I'm pretty sure all the teams are going to be looking at it, but I think as a team, the Crushers are just focused on just all of us pulling our own weight, doing our job and going out and playing our best and making our scores count, and basically on Sunday being on the podium week to week and kind of let our performances take care of where we finish in the team standings.

I think the one thing we're all unanimous about is as a team we still haven't played to our potential. We've got some really good players on the team who haven't yet hit the straps. So we're all just trying to focus on our games and bringing our "A" game week to week and kind of letting our game do the talking for us.

Q. What's it like to play a course that is essentially as you played on the Tour?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think in terms of the conditions, it's pristine. It's literally -- it's holy ground. It's so pure out there. I would say this is the closest you'd come to maybe comparing to conditions in Augusta, just in terms of the pure turf conditions. It's phenomenal. So that's an advantage. But it's also some spots, it's very new, so the grass is still settling in.

So I think there's a little bit of like gauging the lie and understanding what the ball is going to do.

For me, I haven't played on a lot of zoysia, especially in Asia. I think this is a new grass for this region, so adjusting to that.

But yeah, I think the good thing is everybody is playing it for the first time, so no one has got an advantage. I think obviously it's wide open, so you've got to hit it good off the tee, but it's a second-shot golf course.

The biggest defense on this golf course are definitely the greens. How you manage the greens, how you putt, where you leave yourself is key.

Yeah, I think it's a fair test for everyone, and like I just said, it's in unbelievable shape. It's ridiculous how good it is.

KEVIN NA: Ditto. I can't follow up his answers. He says everything perfectly. Can I get a different question?

Q. Would you say it's not necessarily a bomber's course or is it?

KEVIN NA: I think I need to eat a lot of curry and pad Thai maybe and help my distance, find another 30 yards before I tee off. It's a very, very long golf course.

The only thing I feel like that can play in my favor, like he said, there's good undulations on the green. There's some runoffs. I feel like you have to putt very well out here, and I think that's one way that I can make up for the driving distance.

The fairways are wide. Bombers are going to be loving this golf course. It's a great golf course, perfect condition, and I'm really excited about the golf course.

I'd like to see what the scores -- nobody knows, and that's another thing about playing a brand new golf course is nobody has seen a professional tournament there, so you have no idea what the score is going to be like versus when you keep playing that golf course year in and year out, you have an idea what the winning score is going to be in relation to the conditions, but you have no clue. I can shoot 2-under and feel like I didn't play that great, and it could be a good score, or I could shoot 5-under and feel like I played amazing and I could be four back of the lead. You just don't know.

Q. Is there a particular stretch of holes on this golf course where you have to be really focused?

KEVIN NA: Look, because it's a shotgun start, you don't know where you're going to start. That's the difficult part of knowing or having any strategy going into the week.

But I feel like these last few finishing holes are going to be exciting. I think 16 is a great par-3. You go for the pin, it could be a little risky, but you could make birdie. But the hazard comes into play.

I think 17, they're going to make it reachable where a 3 is in play but also 6 is also in play.

18 is an amazing finishing hole where you can make 3 but the hazard also comes into play. I feel like the last three holes if you're in contention of winning this golf tournament, I feel like you can be 2- or 3-under and your opponent can be over par on the last three holes. There could be a big swing.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think the only thing I can add is when you get a golf course like this with green complexes which are I think the specialty of this golf course is how good the green complexes are, the one huge factor becomes setup. You could set it up very gettable because it's going to be soft and raining pretty much all week, but there are enough pin positions where guys are going to be sweating even with a wedge in their hand.

This is one of those golf courses where if the tournament committee decides to, okay, we're going to make it really hard, you can make that golf course even harder than it is, and then you could have a lot of pins which are going to be green lights which are going to be in bowls.

You might have a situation where that strategy then comes into play is where do I leave myself. Like Kevin said, I think the finishing stretch is great. I think 15, there was talk about making that drivable, as well.

You know, especially -- the only thing I'm going to add is this week with three scores counting -- are we talking about that? I guess I am now. We're going to be -- so instead of seven rounds, you're going to have nine rounds count. So the winning score might just go up above 30 because you've got so many more scores, and you could also have a case of a huge swing because two guys have an off day and one guy shoots -- two guys shoot over par and the other team, three guys shoot 5. On any given day you could have a huge swing.

I think that's going to be a big factor especially on a course like this if it gets windy and they tuck the pins, you could have a lot more movement than we've seen before. That's what I like.

KEVIN NA: It all depends on the course setup. I hope the rules committee set it up sensible because if you play a back tee every hole and tuck every pin, I just don't think that'll be exciting. It won't be exciting. The fans are out here to see birdies and eagles. I'm not saying set it up easy, but I'm saying you have to have a good mixture, and especially with a golf course that nobody has ever played and we don't know what's capable.

I think the first day you have to play it on the safe side and see what happens.

I've talked to the rules officials a little bit about making some drivable par-4s and having some par-5s reachable. But it's up to them, so hopefully -- I don't mind it being a little difficult, but I just hope they're sensible.

Q. Do you think golf should be played more as a team sport, and what is your advice on building a good team and winning together as one?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: You're the captain. You should answer that. Sorry, but you're not dodging that one.

KEVIN NA: I think this team aspect of LIV has been very successful. I think it's created a lot of buzz around the golf world. I think people are learning more and more about it, and as they're learning about it they're getting more excited about it. Even the players, as well; we feel very excited about who's going to be on our team, who's going to be our sponsor. We're constantly talking about who to recruit.

We have a great 48 players right now, but I know some of them might not make it to next year, and obviously those players have to be replaced, and I think there's a battle of who's coming and who gets who, and it's been very exciting. Obviously the Presidents Cup, the Ryder Cup, any team event that golf has had has created a huge buzz and it's really drove the ratings up, and I think it's going to be the same for LIV.

As for our team, I'm hoping that some of our boys make the top 24 and get exempt next year, and once we find out who's on my team next year, we're going to go, and if some of them don't make it, we're going to go find some of the best players and chase them down and take them out to dinner and kind of put our arm around them, hey, man, we need to chat.

But there's already been plenty of guys that have texted me, off the record, and asking about it and showing interest. So I'm already in talks with one player that's wanting to come over next year, and he's probably going to come -- nine out of ten he's going to come over. He's getting an offer and he's excited. He's already excited. We're already talking about it.

Look, LIV is only going to grow.

Q. You won't tell us who it is?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I'll just add to that. I think the whole idea about the team thing is like if you go out and play on a weekend with your buddies, are you not going to play a four-ball game? Because that's what's entertaining and that's what's fun with golf. I know that; we've all done it. But 90 percent of the world, amateur world, when they go out and play for fun, they have some kind of a team thing going on on the side. That's what makes golf fun. That's what makes golf entertaining, and that's what we want to bring from a different angle in professional golf. That's what excites people. It excites kids.

I think that's also an aspect that hasn't quite been explored enough, and I think LIV is the first entity to actually go out and actually explore it, but it goes on every single day. I don't think anyone goes out and plays a four-ball without playing a match with a partner. Why not have it here? Why not bring that same element here because it happens every day.

It's been something that's not been looked at and now it's looked at and it's a lot of fun. Like Kevin said, any team event. But something like this where you have so many different angles, fan followings, people who love him following -- the Thai kids, the Thai kids are going to follow him because of association, and that's something that's just never happened before.

It's exciting to see how that develops. It's exciting to see how that might grow a certain demographic that hasn't been tapped into before. That's also something that people don't actually think about.

KEVIN NA: I think you're going to see these young kids, the next generation, having team uniforms and playing against each other at their home course. They're going to say, this is a putt -- I'm team Iron Heads, this is the putt to beat the Hy Flyers or the Crushers. It's going to happen, and these kids are going to grow up obviously to win majors, but they're going to have their favorite teams. They're going to say it's my dream to go play -- to be able to play and get picked on Flyers or Crushers or Iron Heads. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen soon.

Q. Obviously we've played four team events by LIV in the States and they have college golf there, as well, which is team golf. Team golf is new to the Asia region. How do you think Asian fans are going to embrace team golf being here this week?

KEVIN NA: They're just going to support Iron Heads. They're just going to follow up. We're going to have a massive crowd following the Iron Heads, and they're not going to care about any other team, and all the merchandise Iron Heads are going to sell out.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I think it's already catching on because I already have people in India reaching out to me saying, oh, is there any Crushers merchandise that we can buy. I want a shirt, a want to come and rep your team, and these are kids in India. They probably would not have followed the team if I wasn't on it.

So you see that association, you see that growth by association, and you also see a whole different demographic of oh, I'm wearing a Crushers shirt, so I'm going to follow all four guys. It's already catching on. It's not something that's going to happen, it's already happening, and it's only going to grow with us physically being here with people actually coming out physically and seeing us play.

I think it's going to make a big difference, as well. That's the thing; I think our responsibility as playing on this Tour is going out and playing the absolute best golf that we can play, giving the absolute best product that we can give and make it as entertaining as possible, because that's how this goes from strength to strength.

Q. How do you feel the weather conditions will affect your game?

KEVIN NA: I think we're expecting rain every day. Hopefully we don't have any delays. Delays, nobody likes delays.

It's going to be wet out there. I actually like it because these are new greens, and if it wasn't getting the amount of rain that we have been getting, they would be brick hard and very hard to hold. I think because of the rain, it'll help to shoot lower scores, but obviously your driver is not going to run out as much and you're going to lose some distance.

Hopefully if it gets too wet, we play lift, clean and place so we don't get any mud balls or wet areas.

Look, we just hope that it's not too bad.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: That's just something that you expect when you come to Asia. I've played here so much that -- I think the only thing that you can do is probably tee off a little bit earlier. I know we're doing a shotgun start so it helps. You only need a four-and-a-half-hour window. I'm pretty sure we can find 13 and a half hours through the week, through the three days that we are here. I don't see an issue there.

But yeah, if it is the situation of coming on and off, I think it's just something you've got to prepare for and something that if you complain and if you get negative about it, then you're hurting yourself because everyone is going through the same thing.

You just have to prepare for it in whichever way you find best, but it's a part of what we do. We're going to go to Jeddah next week and it's not going to be cold, and you have to just prepare for that. It's what we do. We have to adapt to wherever we go and whatever conditions we have in front of us, and that's why we're professionals. It's fine.

I think we'll still play pretty good.

KEVIN NA: This course does have great drainage. It's amazing how much rain it's got how good of a condition it is, so I'm not too worried about the conditions.