LIV GOLF TUCSON

March 15, 2023

Pat Perez

Matt Jones

David Puig

The Gallery Golf Club

Press Conference

Q. We have three LIV golfers from ASU, how does it feel to be here?

MATT JONES: It's been home for me the last 23 years. Came over in 1999 from Australia and went to ASU. It will be good. Have plenty of friends, family coming out and I'm looking forward to it.

PAT PEREZ: Be better if it wasn't so close to Tucson. Yeah, we live just up the road. Nice to play a desert course that we're used to.

And I've been here since '94, so I love Arizona. Everything about it is just phenomenal. So I'm excited to be here.

DAVID PUIG: Yeah, same for me. I got here four years ago, but it's been really, really nice to live here. So yeah, looking forward for the week with some friends and my parents actually coming.

Q. So turned pro last year on the LIV Golf League and you were playing for ASU prior to that; correct?

DAVID PUIG: Yes.

Q. And you're living with three teammates from the ASU golf team; correct?

DAVID PUIG: Yes.

Q. Are they coming out to support you?

DAVID PUIG: Yes, I think all of them are coming on Sunday. They are actually playing in Tucson National, the NIT event, and the U-of-A event on Friday, Saturday, but they are going to try to come out on Sunday and hopefully support me.

Q. Do you think you guys have an edge this week with the fans cheering for you? Your faces are all over the posters this week.

PAT PEREZ: If they are U-of-A fans, they won't be cheering for us.

Q. You guys both have a lot of family in town this week; right?

PAT PEREZ: They will be in on the weekend.

MATT JONES: I have friends and family coming down from Scottsdale Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so it should be good.

Q. Pat and Matt, you guys are playing together with Paul Casey. Do you think there will be a watt of war stories told?

MATT JONES: No.

PAT PEREZ: It's too long ago.

MATT JONES: I think it will be just humorous banter out on the golf course, making fun of each other probably when we hit a bad shot, if we do.

Q. How did an Aussie come to get to the desert? What was the connection there with ASU?

MATT JONES: It's a weird story. I was playing in an amateur event in Australia and there was a coach from the University of Tennessee over there, and he saw me play and he asked me to go there on a recruiting trip.

When I was coming on the recruiting trip, there was a friend of mine in community college in Arizona, I think at Scottsdale Community College and he said, would you come to ASU to have look at it and that's how it all started.

And there used to be a Titleist rep called Jim Ahern, and he saw me when I was playing in Australia and he was looking after me with equipment and stuff back then. So he was good friend with Randy, who was the coach at ASU, and that's really how it all started.

Q. And David, Phil was in here and telling us that he played with you about a month ago and you made 11 birdies; is that correct?

DAVID PUIG: Yes.

Q. What was that like?

DAVID PUIG: It was good. So my caddie is actually a member at The Grand in San Diego, and one of his friends is friends with Phil. So we got a group of four, and yeah, we had a great round. And I mean, I was the lowest one with 11 birdies, yes, so it was pretty cool.

Q. When is the last time you had a round with 11 birdies?

DAVID PUIG: Probably that was the last round I had with 11 birdies, yeah.

Q. The only one?

DAVID PUIG: I don't know if the only one but the one for sure I remember, it was that one, yeah.

Q. And Pat, so you come off your best finish in LIV off Mayakoba. Can you tell us about the state of your game, and do you feel like you've gotten to a point where you're really comfortable out there now?

PAT PEREZ: No, I've been comfortable out here since I got here. But I wasn't playing that great for about a year and a half before I got out here. I mean, I wasn't playing good on the TOUR, and then I got here and I didn't really work at it that much.

This off-season after Miami, I kind of got motivated to practice more and play more. Plus at Mayakoba, I've played great there in the past. I've been there since 2007. I know all the shots and the wind everything and. So I was really comfortable getting there. I couldn't wait to kind of start there.

That was one of those weeks that -- it's just one of those weeks you're really comfortable on a course and if you hit the shots and make some putts you can play well. There's not many people that have been to that course for LIV. It's the first time they have seen it. Like Charles and I have played it the most of anybody since 2007. So we have pretty good knowledge around there, and obviously he played phenomenal.

But yeah, I'm really trying to work hard on my game, and Claude and I have done a lot of work in the off-season. You know, just trying to have a good year and help the team out.

Q. And this is for both Matt and Pat. Because of the extended off-season, you guys may have had a lot more opportunity to work out, focus on the fitness. Was that something that you took advantage of?

PAT PEREZ: I've just been riding Peleton. That's it. I'm not doing any more weights. I've tried everything. I've tried weights. I've tried all this other stuff. I just like kind of riding the bike because I get to watch TV and I've got someone yelling at me on the screen here, and it's right at home. I don't have to go to anywhere. I don't have to go to the gym, I don't have to see anybody and I don't have to listen to anything. It's actually just perfect.

My daughter plays in our theatre for an hour, and it's kind of fun. We have this thing now where we go upstairs and she destroys the room when I ride the bike and then when I get done, I clean it up, and that's about it.

So yeah, so that was one of my things. I wanted to lose some weight and I wanted to get -- kind of feel better, and it was -- you know, it was nice. The extended period was nice. I haven't had a real off-season like that since 2006. It was nice.

Q. How much weight did you lose?

PAT PEREZ: I don't know. Probably 20. I haven't been on a scale or anything. But you won't find me on Instagram with the pictures like these guys do but I've lost weight. I feel better. I feel stronger. I'm not going to look like him (turning to David Puig) but I feel better. It's hard to lose weight at 47 but I feel a hell of a lot better than I did six months ago, so that's kind of the goal.

Q. Matt, did you utilize the off-season?

MATT JONES: I did. I got to go back to Australia, so I played back there and I came back to America at the end of December. So I had -- what did I have, all of January off. But the Rippers and Cam, he has his trainer over here, and he works with all of us now, too.

So we have a program. It's one aspect that I have probably worked more that the in the last month, two months than I would have normally just because we've had time to do it. The last thing you want to do after three weeks on the road a lot of the time is get in the gym and wear yourself down again.

To have three weeks off in that time, be in the gym working out, being on the bike, it's beneficial. I do feel physically and mentally stronger than I have before.

Q. What's the secret of playing desert golf? You guys have a lot of experience here.

PAT PEREZ: I don't want to tell the people that don't know it (laughter).

Q. Give us one thing.

DAVID PUIG: In my case, it's to avoid the desert.

MATT JONES: That's everyone's case.

PAT PEREZ: It's different because you don't really have targets out there that you can find. So you have to get to really know the course. It's hard in only a couple days here, but picking a spot somewhere, it's different, because the targets are more in the fairways. They are not really out -- like tree-lined courses, you can pick a tree or something like that. You might be able to find a bush or if you're going into the mountain, you can pick a side of the mountain to shoot at.

But desert golf is tricky because a lot of blind shots, especially off the tees. Especially up in Scottsdale, a lot of the courses are really blind shots and you have to really know where you're going and kind of trust that that's the spot. You know, the greens are pretty firm and fast, and obviously chipping around here could get kind of tricky because the way the run-offs are. So you really -- desert golf, you've just got to be in the right spots.

MATT JONES: Desert golf, the designers, they try to trick you into seeing not much fairway there but there is fairway there. It looks like there's not much because all you'll see is the desert around it. But there's more room there than you think but if you do hit a bad shot, it's pretty much unplayable.

Q. How does it feel playing with a team? How has your experience been in?

DAVID PUIG: It's been great. We are a group of young guys, and we all speak the same language, which is good.

Yeah, Mayakoba was our first event obviously together, and they are very nice, you know, very friendly. So we are having a great time, especially in practice round and dinners, so yeah.

Q. ASU is known as a golf powerhouse. Obviously you've got three touring professionals and a bunch of other people that played for ASU, but it's also got a little bit of a reputation for being a party school.

PAT PEREZ: There's a reason for that.

Q. I want to know, I'm sure all three of you have amazing stories to tell about your time at ASU but my question is: Do you think that that flavor, that festivitous [sic] nature is going to work its way to Tucson for this event and marry approximately for what LIV Golf is: A festive new thing for the professional golf scene.

PAT PEREZ: I hope they do. I hope they come down. I hope we get some Scottsdale, Tempe people that come down. It will be fun. I don't know if they will or not, but it would be nice to rival some of the Wildcats.

Q. Are you going to be watching the game tonight? Big game for you?

PAT PEREZ: That's why I'm not going to the party until 7:30 because the game is 6:10. I will be at the bar at the Ritz at 6:05.