INTERNATIONAL SERIES OMAN

February 8, 2023

Brooks Koepka

Azzan Al Rumhy

Sergio Garcia

Sihwan Kim

Al Mouj Golf

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to this afternoon's press conference for the International Series Oman. Welcome to our marquee players here this week starting with Sergio Garcia, Brooks Koepka, Sihwan Kim and Azzan Al Rumhy. Great to have you here.

I know you played in the pro-am this morning; Brooks, let's start with you and get your thoughts on the golf course and how you played this morning and your thoughts for the week.

BROOKS KOEPKA: It's a great golf course. I think it's phenomenal. These greens are quite firm, a lot firmer than I thought they'd be.

Putting surface is very true. Fairways are in great shape. I wouldn't say they're very firm, but they're firm enough where they're -- I've been very, very impressed with the shape it's in, so props to the superintendent for that.

Like I said, this might be one of the better golf courses we're going to see.

THE MODERATOR: Sergio, your thoughts?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yes, I agree with Brooks. I think it's in very good shape. It's a beautiful part of the country with the water next to it, and obviously it can get windy and very tricky.

But it also gives you for the most part, gives you good room off the tees to be able to hit some of these fairways, and then the tricky part is going to be hitting towards the greens, because like Brooks is saying, the greens are quite firm, and you have to fly it in the right spot to be able to hit it close. You can hit it to 20, 30 feet, but if you want to hit it close, you have to bounce it in the perfect spot, so I think it's going to be a good challenge.

THE MODERATOR: Sihwan, your thoughts on the golf course?

SIHWAN KIM: I've been here a couple of times with DP World, and it's always been in good shape, and pretty much like those two guys said, it's firming up, and with wind supposed to pick up a little bit tomorrow and Friday, I think it's going to continue to firm up, and just those shots towards the green with a lot of false fronts and stuff like that, it's going to be a little tricky. Whoever does that the best, I think, has the best chance to win.

THE MODERATOR: Azzan, I know you've obviously played here a few times before. What does it mean to you to have the event here this week for the first time?

AZZAN AL RUMHY: Yeah, I'm so fortunate to get this opportunity. As you mentioned, I did get to play some of the other events in the past. We've been so lucky and blessed to have such a great golf course in our country, and a big event like this means a lot to us as golfers.

The golfing community are all excited about this tournament. There's a big buzz out there with the presence of Brooks, Sergio and Louis Oosthuizen and the other big names. We've got such a great field, an international field, a world-class field, and I'm really excited to be representing my country, Oman, in this tournament, and I'm also happy that we've got two other amateur golfers from Oman representing us in this big tournament.

THE MODERATOR: How is your game right now? How are you playing and what are your thoughts on the week ahead?

AZZAN AL RUMHY: Yeah, I keep on trying to improve and improve. Lately I've been working with Stephen Deane from Jumeirah Golf Estates, who works with Pete Cowan. Always trying to get better and better. We had a good session this morning at the driving range, and we'll see how the swing turns out during the week.

But I'm excited, yeah. I had some good practice rounds. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Should be a great week.

THE MODERATOR: Brooks, let's talk about your form right now. You won in Jeddah last year. What did that mean for your confidence?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, it was good. It was nice to finally win one again. I felt like it had been a while. Obviously injuries played a big part in that.

Really haven't been healthy for three years, left knee and then right knee. Just feels good to be healthy. A lot of confidence coming off the end of last year where I start today play exactly how I wanted to, and I can see it now. Hitting it further, being able to move the way I want to, doing things I want to do.

First time in three years I've been healthy, so I expect some good results, just trying to knock some rust off right now and kind of see where we're at.

THE MODERATOR: Sergio, you're a six-time winner on the Asian Tour. What are your chances this week of getting another Asian Tour victory?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it would be great. Obviously, yeah, we're coming off three months off, which is nice. I obviously had meniscus surgery on my left knee, but it feels good.

I'm excited about it. I feel like I played pretty well last week. Didn't hole out as well as I would like to. But hopefully this week I'll play solid again and hole out a little bit better and give ourselves a chance at being up there with a good solid chance at winning. Obviously it would be great, and kind of keep building up into Mexico in a couple of weeks.

It's an exciting year, and we're looking forward to it.

THE MODERATOR: Sihwan, you had an amazing year last year, two wins, won the Order of Merit. Has that changed your life this year?

SIHWAN KIM: Financially, yes, but other than that, not really. Still hungry for more. Still want to win. But at the same time, everyone is just trying to do the same thing on the golf course, right? Trying to shoot the best score and trying to do the best you can to win.

Q. What makes this game challenging, and what makes it interesting? What would you advise beginners like us to become one day stars like you?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I'm searching for that answer still right now. (Laughter).

This game, I think it's such an incredible game to play. It kind of coincides with life a little bit, and I think that's what makes it so special.

Golf is hard. Golf is really hard. You can see everybody up here has gone through ebbs and flows, ups and downs. It makes us just want to come back for more, and I think that's the beauty of golf. There's no such thing as perfection. No matter what, a guy goes out and shoots 63, 64, whatever it was, and they always think they could have done one, two better, no matter what. I think that's the challenge of golf, right? But it's fun.

I think just the grind of it I think is what we enjoy the most. There's always something to get better at.

AZZAN AL RUMHY: On the challenges, was that the question, how challenging it is? Yeah, very challenging. You always want to improve. You always want to get better and better, and you always think you can get better, it just needs more dedication, more commitment, more hours practicing.

As Brooks mentioned, yeah, everyone goes through ups and downs in the game of golf, and I always ask myself the question about my son who's nine years old and I'm wondering whether I should get him into -- he likes golf a lot, and he's so competitive, but whether I'd want him to be a golf professional or not, that's a tough question because I know how tough it is from what I've seen.

It's not the easiest of games, yeah, for sure.

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I think we all love -- we're all competitors, and we all love the challenges, and golf brings out so many challenges on every single shot. It's testing you, kind of like life, like Brooks said. I think that's one of the most amazing things about the game.

Also the feel that you get when you hit a shot the way you want to, it's difficult to recreate that in anything else because you're hitting the ball so far away and with wind and slopes and all this stuff, and to be able to hit a shot exactly like you want, it gives you a feeling of power that is difficult to get anywhere else.

I think those are some of the beauties of it.

Like they were saying, obviously it's just a game where you have to keep practicing and practicing, and every time you feel like or you think you have it under control, then it kind of slaps you and puts you back in your place.

I think that's one of the beautiful things about it.

SIHWAN KIM: I think just the fairways are too narrow, ball is too small, wind here and there. But all jokes aside, you could play a golf course, four rounds, and with different wind it can play like four different golf courses. I think that's the beauty of it, and I think that's why it makes it so hard.

Every day, same golf course, different pins, and your golf management can change and everything can change on a golf course, and your body, the way you're feeling on your body and stuff like that can change.

I think it's just a great game overall. I wish I hadn't really started it when I was younger, having had a tough time before.

Q. Recently one of the top footballers, Gareth Bale, is taking up active golf. He already started a tournament. What's your opinion as the top players? With the popularity of golf -- it is already popular, but still, in the footballing nations everybody took note of it, so what will this do to develop golf?

SERGIO GARCIA: Actually he's a friend of mine, and he loves golf. He's a good golfer, as everyone saw last week in Pebble Beach.

Yeah, any help we get to improve the game or make it more popular, it's welcome from all of us. I think that when you have a big star like Gareth Bale or Michael Jordan or Stephen Curry, any of those guys that come and play the game, it's very welcome because it's just helping our game overall. We're always super excited about that.

It was fun to watch him play a little bit. I know he's been wanting to do it for a while, but obviously because he was playing soccer, he couldn't do it. I'm sure he had a great time.

Q. I need also from the best players in the world to say a few words to encourage Omanis to play golf. I want their point of view of Al Mouj Golf Club, if they have a good chance to see Oman around or tomorrow they can leave the game and kick it around and see the beauty of Oman.

BROOKS KOEPKA: You can take it wherever you want. We've got, what, three amateurs playing? So I think that says something about it. Young kids growing up, right, Sergio did the same, I guarantee Sihwan did the exact same thing. I went to events or watched it on TV. For me it was Tiger Woods and Adam Scott. Those were my two idols. Adam Scott I remember when he won THE PLAYERS, that was kind of my -- the reason why I enjoyed watching him play. That was kind of the first tournament where I was really glued to the TV watching as a young kid and loved his golf swing.

Anybody that's going to come out, I'd just encourage them just to find somebody, idolize that guy, whatever it is, and go out and go play, go have fun, enjoy it. We're all here because of somebody, whether that be a guy that's played the Tour for years and years or a family member that's taught us the game, whatever the case may be.

I think bringing these guys here, bringing the likes of, like you said, Sergio, Louis, guys like that, the fact that they're here shows that we're looking to make this as good as possible. Hopefully these young kids can come out and enjoy it and watch these guys play, and who knows. Maybe the next guy that's playing up here, hopefully just continues to grow and grow.

AZZAN AL RUMHY: On inspiring Omanis, actually the point that was mentioned about Gareth Bale, and I was telling Sergio, having other sportsmen like Gareth Bale and other superstars from other sports loving the game of golf will encourage Omanis that don't know much about the game of golf to find out more about golf and find out why are these superstars of other sports loving the game of golf.

Yesterday we had Ali Al-Habsi, who is our biggest sporting celebrity, the goalkeeper, he came over and he was very impressed, and I think probably it was his first time to come to a golf course, and he said that he'll try and start learning the game. So if we get people like him picking up the game and learning, I think it's going to encourage other Omanis to pick up the sport and show more interest about the game of golf.

SERGIO GARCIA: I guess they've said everything. I think at the end of the day, they have a beautiful golf course to come play here. It's in great condition to learn and hit different shots and stuff.

Like Brooks was saying, I grew up idolizing Olazábal and Ballesteros, and remember when I think I was seven years old and they played the Spanish Open at El Saler and I was able to meet them and take a picture with them, for me it was -- even though I was already a golfer and I was playing a lot of golf, it was like a dream come true. Any kid that can come out and watch us play and enjoy us and take a picture with us or get a signature or something like that, it's always going to help the game, and hopefully lit a little flame in their desire to play the game. That's always very welcome.

SIHWAN KIM: Pretty much what they said, really. Young kid comes over with their family, have a good time, just watch us golf. I think, yeah, the more exposure to golf that they have at an early age, I think, it's going to be good. Young memory goes a long way.

Q. Sergio and Brooksy, I know you're going into this month with the team competition, but how much is the goal to win a individual title still in your career? Is that passion still to win individual titles, as much as you're enjoying the new LIV format, is that still strong?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, absolutely. If I win, then my team has got a better chance of winning the team title or one of the guys on my team winning.

Yeah, the desire is still there. It's not lost. Winning is pretty fun.

Q. Away from that LIV format, individual titles --

SERGIO GARCIA: Same thing. That doesn't change. Obviously if we didn't have the desire and we didn't want to compete, we wouldn't be here. Obviously we still have that fire within ourselves, and we love the challenges and stuff, and we're out there grinding. I can guarantee you that when I don't hit a good shot, I'm not happy.

It's not like it doesn't matter.

Yeah, winning is always a great feeling. It's not easy, and probably that's why it's such a great feeling. But that's one of the reasons why we practice so hard, and that's what we try to do.

BROOKS KOEPKA: I'd say our preparation is still the same, whether it's here, anywhere -- anytime we tee it up, my preparation doesn't change. What I'll do here is what I'll do at Augusta, the same type of stuff. No dedication is lost, I can promise you that.

SIHWAN KIM: I think what you do -- either I'm here or at LIV, it's the same. Essentially when you play well, you're helping the team out. You're doing yourself good and you're doing your team good. Based on that, pretty much -- I'm pretty sure all these guys -- I've seen these guys out here just working their butt off every week. It's not like there's no cut, somebody is going to slack off. No. Guys out there are grinding and getting their game dialed down.

Q. If you could tell us your story, how you started golf, and what are your thoughts on seeing in the field players from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Qatar.

AZZAN AL RUMHY: Okay, I'll try to brief this as much as I can. I started playing golf in 1998. I might look young but I'm not. Actually I used to play tennis and switched to golf, and it was 1998 right after Tiger, right after he won the Masters, that time of year where I thought, yeah, golf seemed to be more fun, more exciting. When my dad would travel around the world I would go with him and we thought it would be nice to play different golf courses around the world when we'd go for summer vacations. I liked golf since then, and since 2002, so more than 21 years, I've been representing Oman in the national team, so I've got the opportunity to play so many big tournaments being an amateur, and I've enjoyed that.

The second question about the Arab golfers playing with us in the field, yeah, thanks to the Asian Tour, thanks to LIV Golf, thanks to the International Series for giving us an opportunity. Of course the Arab Golf Federation have been putting a lot of emphasis on having more Arab golfers playing in these events.

Yeah, we usually used to compete with each other in other amateur events between the regional countries, the GCC, the six countries, and then the Pan Arab Golf Championship, but now we get to see each other in Tour events, in bigger tournaments, and that gives us bigger exposure, and we get to play with some of the best players of the world.

Thanks to all of who I've mentioned for giving us this opportunity. It means a lot to us.

Q. (No microphone.)

BROOKS KOEPKA: You sat on the couch, didn't you, after surgery?

SERGIO GARCIA: No, second day after surgery I was already doing rehab.

BROOKS KOEPKA: Rehab, yeah, I meant on the course.

SERGIO GARCIA: No, I played golf 16 days after surgery.

BROOKS KOEPKA: That's pretty good.

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, for me, yes, like you said, it was the first time ever in my life I had three months off, even amateur days and stuff like that. I probably played more golf when I was an amateur.

But yeah, it was really nice to, obviously, like I said, to be able to take care of my knee and fix it and then rehab. It gives you -- I think Brooks has mentioned this before, it gives us a bit more time to work on our bodies, kind of try to stay a little bit fitter, be a bit healthier, and then you can work on -- you can take a little bit of time off from the game and then start practicing again.

It's something that we never really had before. But at the same time, after a couple months, you start kind of jumping up the walls and just want to get going a little bit, too. It's a funny feeling and situation. But very happy to be at home, work on your body, practice a little bit and spend time with family, wife and kids. That's obviously something that since COVID days we weren't able to spend that much time together, so it was great.

Q. All you guys are professional, and then you look at this from a sports perspective, but how do you actually -- golf, when people think about golf, it's actually also a social networking, too. I want to hear how you guys use the sport as a networking part of golf.

BROOKS KOEPKA: I think it's crazy, right? Even if you're playing at home, you've got someone trapped for five hours, so whether it's for business, you've got a guy's attention for four hours minimum, whether you're hitting balls on the range and might have lunch afterwards or before, whatever the deal may be.

It's great. Some of -- probably everybody down this line, some of their best friends they met playing junior golf just playing or when we were younger started playing. Some of the guys I play with at home are the guys I hang out with off the golf course.

You build these lifelong friendships. I think golf is pretty much the only sport where no matter what, I can play the same golf course as you. At the end of the day, I think that's pretty cool. It's a little different. You're not just going to step on an NBA court -- I mean, you can, but it's not going to be the exact same to play with the guys. I think that's what makes this sport pretty special.

AZZAN AL RUMHY: Yes, I agree completely. Well, my dad who served as a government official, he was a minister of oil and gas and energy, and he mentioned a lot of so many business deals he had or discussions during a game of golf, especially with the Asians, especially from (end of video stream).