LIV GOLF MAYAKOBA

February 26, 2023

Charles Howell

Bryson DeChambeau

Anirban Lahiri

Paul Casey

El Camaleón Golf Course

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We have Paul Casey, Bryson DeChambeau, Charles Howell III, our champion, congratulations, and Anirban Lahiri. This is your first win on LIV Golf league, both for you, Charles, and you guys as a team. How does it feel?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Oh, gosh, this is what we've been working on for all of last year, and we didn't get it done, so to come off with a crushing start I guess you could say was pretty fun.

We won by 10, and it was all thanks to Chucky over here, shooting 16-under on this golf course three days. You couldn't ask for more as a captain. Very proud of these guys, and this is the reason why I re-signed them.

CHARLES HOWELL III: I think Mayakoba is a special place, and it showed it again today. I know all the players are thrilled to be here and families, so obviously a huge thank you to everyone that had us here and believed in LIV Golf and what we're doing.

Yeah, and obviously I don't think you ever see a win coming. I've played a lot of golf tournaments in my life, and I haven't won a lot of them, and you have the doubts and the feelings, will you ever win again, and to do it against this competition with these guys standing up here around is more than I could ever dream of. I'm extremely thankful.

But yeah, it's a special place, and fortunately I came out on top.

Q. Were you guys watching the leaderboard today, and if so were you watching individual and team or just team? What was that like for you?

PAUL CASEY: I don't watch any of it. I knew nothing until the 18th green. Actually the first thing I saw the Crushers up there, I was shocked, happily shocked at the 10-shot -- then the first question I asked Johnny Long Socks was how is Chucky doing, and he's like you're second punt crushing it. So I don't know how it -- did it get close?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: No. I looked at it maybe through seven or eight holes, and he had already just set the front nine on fire. Bryson got off to a hot start. I'm like, whoa, these guys, I'd better pull my socks up because I wasn't playing my best. That's amazing. That's what it's about because there will be days like this where you kind of ride the hot round, and Charles pulled it through for us.

PAUL CASEY: We saw changes in scores last year, four, five, six shot swings in one hole, so deep down for me probably the rest of these guys standing next to me, it was just head down all day today and foot down and take care of business.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Especially on this golf course.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, because anything can happen.

Q. Did you do any off-season training camps and did you do anything this week like team building?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I made them run sprints all off-season.

Q. Did you guys get together as a team in the off-season?

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I don't know how to get together when you're in Dubai and on the other side of the world.

CHARLES HOWELL III: But I'll say this about our team. I think everyone knows their recipe and what works for them, and one thing I'll give Bryson as captain is he lets us do what we think is best for us because everybody has a different formula and recipe, and Paul and I are dinosaurs out here, so we're kind of stuck in our ways. All credit to Bryson on that. As captain and leader, he lets us kind of do how we prepare and what makes us play our best.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I actually lean on these guys more than anyone would probably think. I ask them a lot of questions. I'm the young one in the group, and honestly that's why I picked them because they're superstars and they've done a lot of great things in golf, and I can lean on them to help me figure out some stuff even.

Obviously I'm super proud of them, and this off-season we didn't really do much. My coach Josh Gregory back in college, he always told us, do your own thing. That's what's going to make the team great is if everyone can do their own thing. They have their own recipes, they have their own secret sauce that makes them tick, makes their clock tick. So that's what we did this off-season, and it's obviously proven to pay off this week.

Q. Did you guys do any team get-togethers this week on-site at Mayakoba?

PAUL CASEY: Some piñata smashing.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah. That was it.

PAUL CASEY: You can see it on Instagram. There's a long cut coming on YouTube.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: If I have to add, I think one thing is a great thing that Bryson did, I think last year, I think it was Bangkok, we all sat down, had a dinner, and we said, all right, guys, there's going to be the four of us, we're going to do this, we're in this for the long run, let's bank on each other, trust each other. I think right through the off season, it wasn't like, what's going to happen with my team. It was that implicit kind of trust in each other that we had towards the end of last year. It's easy. You don't have to make an effort to do anything. It flows.

PAUL CASEY: There's a great synergy in this team, and there's glue, whatever it is, that sticks us all together. This is not hard work. This is really, really easy hanging out with these three guys and trying to play amazing golf.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: I even look like them, even without my mustache.

Q. Charles, yesterday you told me that this course was 18 birdieable holes and 18 hard holes. It looked like you were playing a different course than Talor and Peter at times.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, you know, I said that. I obviously played a lot of other events here, and I've seen a lot of crazy things happen on every hole out here. I think most guys would agree, if you drive the ball well in the fairway, a lot of holes you can make birdie on. If you miss it just slightly you can make double really quick.

On the 12th tee, example, today, we had our group of three hit seven tee balls off that tee. Talor hit three drives and Peter hit three drives. I mean, that shows you how crazy it is. That can happen at any moment.

I think that goes back to the team thing, as well. You can see massive changes on a golf course like this really. I know we won by a lot, but we were still grinding there towards the end.

Q. When was it that you felt like this is mine to lose?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh --

PAUL CASEY: His to win.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yeah, I think -- oh, I don't know. Maybe with a couple holes to play. But still, you're still never comfortable here. It's not -- we don't have a couple of easy finishing holes here with big ol' fairways out there.

Maybe with a couple holes to go I thought it's kind of, okay, think about what you're doing. But you're never really comfortable.

Q. You first started coming here in 2007, I believe --

CHARLES HOWELL III: Yes.

Q. What was the impetus to keep coming back here every year? This is your 14th time that you've played here as a pro.

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, a few things. I really love the resort. My kids would leave me and disown me if we didn't come back. That's one. Two, the weather is always good this time of year, so you knew you'd get a week in of really nice weather, and I love the golf course. I think you can have a love hate relationship with the golf course, but we all love the golf course, and if you do play well you can get rewarded for it.

Q. Did you feel like you were due here?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Oh, I don't know about that. But I'd seen -- I had a lot of experience here, and I think that helped a bit in the wind. I would say that. Versus guys that are now just seeing it for the first time, I think having played it in the wind for so many years, I think that helped a little bit.

Q. Bryson, you guys got so close so many times last year. How important was it to finally get into the podium at the top of the podium?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, I knew it would happen, I just didn't know when it would happen. To start off the year with a crushing victory - pun - but winning -- how many did we win by, 10? How much more can you ask for a statement piece? The 4Aces, okay, yeah, great, they won a lot last year, but it's a different year, it's 2023.

Q. You came into today, hadn't counted for the first --

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Thanks for reminding me.

Q. You were going to be due for a big one, I think, today.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, I mean, look. My game is definitely trending in the right direction. I'm figuring a lot of stuff out with my swing. Happy about that. But I knew I needed to shoot a good one today for these guys because I've been struggling a little bit, but thankfully I've had a great team to kind of push me forward and say, hey, come on, get your act together, let's go. I see them playing really well.

To see Chucky shooting what he did, it's inspiring. To me, it makes me work harder and makes me want to grind every single shot out.

Today, I'll tell you out there, I was fighting like I was playing for an individual title. Just the way it feels out there when you're competing for your guys. Every shot mattered. It didn't matter where I was, what position I was in for the individual title. It was how can I make birdie on this hole, what can I do to make birdie, whatever. That's what my goal was today, and I was proud that these guys pulled it out, and we all -- I obviously counted, which was great, but hopefully I can count a couple more times next time as captain.

Look, it doesn't matter. It's a team deal. We got the W, and we're going to get more this year.

Q. Anirban, you took the lead for two rounds in a mustache and you challenged karma there by shaving --

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: We were 14-under for the match, and I think we were 11 today or 12. I guess my score didn't count, so I need to grow mine back. But it's like Bryson said, you need one person or ideally two people in the team to run hard all week, and you need the rest of the team to rally and count, and I think that's the recipe. When you have three scores counting, you need that to happen.

I think there was a perfect storm for us this week, and it's a tough course. It's very, very possible for two weeks or three people to have a bad day, and that didn't happen, and that's why we kind of separated from the field, because if you look at what happened to everyone else, that's exactly what happened.

I think that was a cornerstone for us last year. We were really consistent as a team, and I think we've come out and started the same way, and I think we'll continue the trend.

Q. What do you enjoy most about Mexico, to be here on the first date of the schedule?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: I love the people. They're fantastic. The crowds are awesome, and they're all vibrant. They've got their own personality, a bit loud at times, but I love it. That's what LIV Golf is about.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: We also like the tequila that we got, so I think we're going to take a little taste of that.

CHARLES HOWELL III: And the food, my gosh.

PAUL CASEY: You should move here, Chucky.

Q. Are you willing to come back again?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Absolutely.

ANIRBAN LAHIRI: Yeah, we look forward to it.

PAUL CASEY: We would come here outside of golf. In fact, I am, I'm going to Mexico in about two weeks on holiday.

Q. Charles, what do you think was the clue today to get eight birdies?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I was able to drive it in play today, and that's massive around here. Getting the ball off the tee, getting it in the fairway is huge. If you do that, the course isn't terribly long, and there's a lot of birdie opportunities. Fortunately today I drove the ball in play.

Q. What about all the next stops of the LIV Golf? What do you think about here Mayakoba and the other places that you're going to go? What do you think really about Mayakoba?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I think Mayakoba will probably be the hardest driving golf course of the year. I haven't played every golf course we're going to play, but I have an idea. So I think Mayakoba places the most emphasis on driving the ball of anyplace we'll play, but we have a mix of golf courses. We've got some long wide open, we've got some stuff with some wind and going down to Australia, haven't played there yet, but quite sure it'll be firm and fast. LIV has done a wonderful job of a whole variety of golf courses around the world.

Q. What do you think about this new format that counts individual and counts also as a team?

CHARLES HOWELL III: Well, I think three scores counting each day -- I feel the pressure. I'm perfectly fine letting myself down. I don't want to disappoint these guys.

Yeah, I think it's a new added element, and whether you're playing to win a tournament or not, I'm accountable to these guys standing next to me. I feel it every day.

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Yeah, not counting the first few days for me, it was pretty rough last night, so I gave myself a kick in the butt and played a little better today.

Q. A few days ago Martin was in Colombia and beat the world record. Have you ever think about to go to Colombia to beat his record?

BRYSON DECHAMBEAU: Well, shoot, he's still got a faster ball speed than me, so I don't know what I have to do to get up there, but Martin is a great guy. If I was to get or acquire ball speeds change my golf swing again, which I'm not willing to do. I'm just starting to get my golf swing back on track from long drive, so I don't think I would beat him, and I didn't beat him in the world long drive championships, I finished second. He's a great guy, and would I go there, yes, would I beat it, probably not.

Q. Charles, your last win game in 2018; you're playing against an absolutely stacked field. There are 13 major champions out here of the 48 that account for 24 major champion victories. Can you put into context what this win means in that stacked field, being on the top of the leaderboard and on top of that podium?

CHARLES HOWELL III: No, I can't. First off, extremely grateful and fortunate to do it. No, and I think the depth of the fields out here really need to be talked about and appreciated because these are 48 world class golfers up here. You just take a field sheet and you go down in every single one of them and see their accomplishments, and some of the young guys we have, Eugenio is a good example, won a golf tournament last year. Let's not sleep on the fact that the extremely young guys out here can play and win, as well.

For me, it's a huge deal. You're fortunate to win anywhere, anytime, but against this field that we have, it's awesome.