LIV GOLF ORLANDO

March 30, 2023

Ian Poulter

Lee Westwood

Sam Horsfield

Henrik Stenson

Orange County National

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, Majesticks GC, we have Captain Lee Westwood, Captain Ian Poulter, Sam Horsfield and Captain Henrik Stenson, welcome, guys.

LEE WESTWOOD: That's a lot of captains.

THE MODERATOR: Despite being the Euro team, this is actually a home game here for most of you this week. Tell us about what it's like to have a LIV event in your backyard and how this week is different for you.

HENRIK STENSON: Bed. Sleeping in your own bed that's always nice.

IAN POULTER: We don't -- very rarely, wherever we've played on tour, very rarely do you get the opportunity to have home-cooked food, sleep in your own bed, the luxuries of being around the house with family, friends and your pets, and it's pretty cool.

HENRIK STENSON: What are you cooking this week?

IAN POULTER: Whatever you want, Henrik, darling, whatever you want.

HENRIK STENSON: That's good.

LEE WESTWOOD: Thanks for the invite.

THE MODERATOR: Later this afternoon you are holding a Little Sticks clinic for disabled children. Can you tell us about the clinic and what you guys have planned for this afternoon?

IAN POULTER: Absolutely. Little Sticks is a community-based charity which is going to be on the front of our golf bags. We are very proud to help these children this afternoon.

It's something that we are going to be sharing in numerous places wherever we play, and a really cool initiative for us to give back and help out. We all aspire as kids to be golfers, and it's wonderful for us to be able to help these kids learn this great game of golf.

Q. So this is for the three captains. Bubba and Brooks were in here yesterday talking about the business side of things, and I'm just wondering how much you guys are kind of enjoying the business side of being captains. Henrik?

HENRIK STENSON: Well, I mean, it's obviously interesting. But then you've got some challenges and --

LEE WESTWOOD: Why did you look at me then, "challenges"? (Laughter)

HENRIK STENSON: That's obviously part of it. I feel fortunate to have these guys by my side, and we in Majesticks are a different position with three captains, and obviously we can bounce a lot of ideas and share knowledge, together with the strong team that we have around us to try to make that side work. That's one part of it.

Of course, we want to make sure that we can be the best we can in that department but I think ultimately it's about playing golf as well, and we haven't had the best start to the season for our team.

So we've got some work to do, and yeah, I think all three of us are equally or more focused on getting the birdie putts to drop rather than -- rather than business side of things, as we stand here now.

So yeah, it's one part of it and I'm happy to have these guys by my side.

Q. Lee, do you ultimately have the most voting power?

LEE WESTWOOD: Well, we've had this franchise model in place for a little bit longer than maybe some of the other teams. So we've got a structure in place, and the team in there already. So really the day-to-day running of the franchise, we leave to them. It's their speciality. Ours is going out on the golf course and playing good golf. Hopefully that will start this week because we've not started so well this season.

But all the off-course decisions are made day-to-day by other people, and then if there are any decisions we should be involved in, then it's brought to us. So it's like a delegation of duties, really, which happens in all companies, doesn't it.

HENRIK STENSON: Lee does carry a little bit more weight in decision-making.

IAN POULTER: Literally.

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm the oldest, aren't I.

HENRIK STENSON: Well...

LEE WESTWOOD: We'll see. We'll see.

IAN POULTER: Although, tell you what, have you seen the new stealth-like Westwood.

LEE WESTWOOD: I probably still carry the most weight, just.

Q. Ian, you're a big car collector, I assume you're commuting each day here so what's your thought process in terms of which car you decide to drive?

IAN POULTER: I've left them all at home today. I know we live very close but we decided to SpeedBird, who help us fly around, had an option to pop in on a helicopter this morning.

So we're just kind of doing a site visit around Orlando to see if there's any cool areas where we may be able to build a Stix stadium golf course. Took about six minutes door-to-door and made it very easy.

Q. Helicopter every day?

IAN POULTER: It's looking like it, yes. Orlando traffic gets pretty busy at home. More time at home will be great.

Q. Just going back to Little Sticks, have you guys had a chance or opportunities in the past to work with adaptive golfers, and if, so do you have any personal, specific stories you can share about that?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I've done a lot of stuff with junior golf and para-golfers back in Sweden. I've been involved with that for more that be a decade now. Yeah, I've got some pretty cool stories, I don't know how much time we have.

But it's more I think about using the game of golf to have fun, to get out, to create friendships and just seeing the pure joy in being out there playing golf, practicing golf, and we've had a lot of fun over the years and you know, I've been thoroughly enjoying it myself being part of that, and that's anything from -- from organizing tournaments for the para-golfers to having these camps where beginners or someone that's has never been in contact with the game of golf, or maybe any sport, to be able to come out and really get a chance to do that.

That's something that I've done through my foundation back in Sweden, and really pleased to see that we can kind of join forces here and create something with the Little Sticks, as well.

So yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun and we'll have the first clinic this afternoon.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, this Little Sticks initiative is obviously something that's closely linked to our franchise, Majesticks, but there's a lot being said about growing the game and stuff like that, and people thinking about doing that.

I've been doing that for 25 years. Henrik and Ian pretty much similar. I've had Westwood Academies, two of them in the U.K., 20 years ago, and we've all been linked to junior initiatives and having our own tournaments and championships in the U.K. for me and Ian, and in Sweden for Henrik.

So this is not a new thing to us, growing the game. You grow the game by trying to get as many young people involved, and there's many ways of doing that.

Obviously this Little Sticks thing is new to us and to the franchise and it's another way of getting, I guess, young people and junior golfers involved in the game of golf, and branching out the game of golf to different people, I guess.

But this is nothing new. We have been doing it for years. I get slightly irritated when people think that, you know, now we've joined LIV and we've got a franchise, this growing the game is a new thing.

We've been doing it for a quarter of a century. I think people have very short memories sometimes.

Q. Ian, your whole family is playing today. How did you swing that?

LEE WESTWOOD: I hope they are not slow because I'm playing behind them.

IAN POULTER: Working with LIV, obviously the guys know I live in town. My dad flew in a couple of days ago. Luke drove down from Gainesville, and it was nice of them to give us the opportunity to have three generations playing in the Pro-Am.

So hopefully I can get them off to a reasonable start, and Branden Grace around the back nine can enjoy the Poulter family as a whole.

LEE WESTWOOD: But Branden is going to be loving it when Luke is crushing had 50-yard past him on the back nine.

HENRIK STENSON: If you ask me it's too much Poulter in one place, but we'll try and figure it out.

Q. You're playing with an NFL player, Tommy Townsend. Are you a Chiefs fan?

SAM HORSFIELD: We are like best friends. We went to Florida together. He played on the football team there and it was pretty cool to watch him win the Super Bowl this year. I got to go to the one they played in a few years ago in Tampa.

So it's going to be a really cool day today to play with Tommy, and yeah, just going to enjoy it.

THE MODERATOR: Something struck me when Lee was talking about how he's had an organization for 25 years, and been giving back for 25 years. How old are you?

SAM HORSFIELD: 26 (laughter).

LEE WESTWOOD: Thanks, Jane.

THE MODERATOR: What's it been like the last year playing with the legends of the game and learning from them? Tell us what that experience has been like and how you've grown as a person and as a golfer.

SAM HORSFIELD: It's amazing, not many 26 years old get to say they play with legends of the game.

IAN POULTER: Three really old people.

SAM HORSFIELD: It's been amazing. We play -- every week we play our Tuesday practice round -- or Wednesday practice round.

LEE WESTWOOD: Have that going for you.

SAM HORSFIELD: Me and Henrik keep getting slapped.

HENRIK STENSON: It's the young guys against the old guys, not won yet.

LEE WESTWOOD: 10-0, I think that's the statistic.

SAM HORSFIELD: But no, it's been a lot of fun, and as you can see they have great camaraderie between them and we have a lot of fun wherever we are in the world doing whatever we're doing. So yeah, it's been a great time.

Q. Henrik and Ian, are there any down sides to being in a home game here situation?

HENRIK STENSON: No, it's just if you eat too much of Ian's home-cooked food maybe, you could feel a little sluggish.

It's good. I've always enjoyed that, whether it's been here and playing tournaments nearby or it's been back in Sweden and you've had the opportunity to have a home event.

No, I don't really see that -- maybe trying to organize all the tickets for friend and family, but we've got some good help on that side. So no, I can't see any downside.

IAN POULTER: To downside. Obviously lots of friends and family that send you a text message that want to come out and watch you play. The team are assisting them to make sure that we have plenty of people out there.

Q. Sam, I guess this is somewhat of a home game for you being a Florida guy. What is it like for you to may in a tournament so close to where you went to school?

SAM HORSFIELD: I grew up like 15 minutes from here. Pretty much the same as Ian and Henrik. It's awesome to be able to have my family here. My grandma, she's 87. She hasn't watched me play in like 15 years, so she's coming out this week. So that's going to be really, really cool. So yeah, just enjoy the moment and just have a good time, yeah.

Q. With three captains, obviously I'm sure there's a lot of collaboration but do you have specialties? Is somebody overseeing stadium development, somebody in charge of entertainment, something like that?

IAN POULTER: Well, we are in charge of not finishing 12th, which is --

LEE WESTWOOD: Not going well.

IAN POULTER: Which is not going well at the minute but we are working on that. But we have a great team of people behind us that as the guys have said, we leave to do the day-to-day running of the business, which is their speciality, and our job is really to have as much time as we can focusing on our golf game so we don't finish 12th.

There is a small stable of people that help run Team Majesticks.

Q. Are you perhaps further along than the other teams in terms of having that back up staff?

HENRIK STENSON: I think so.

IAN POULTER: I would say we probably are. We've kind of been ahead of the curve on a number of aspects in getting the franchise set up, and everything that we've kind of established to date. So you know, proudly, I think we have done a really nice collective job in putting together the right people to push our Team Majesticks forward.

Q. And Sam, what do you do when they are having meetings?

SAM HORSFIELD: Sit there and listen and put my input in a little bit.

Q. Go where you're told?

SAM HORSFIELD: No, they're -- no.

IAN POULTER: There's no "I" in team.

SAM HORSFIELD: Because they are captains, they still involve me in things. I definitely do not feel like I'm left out or singled out sort of thing. They are good.

Q. Going back to the local angle, do you feel like you will have higher local support than the other teams out this year this weekend?

SAM HORSFIELD: Hope so.

HENRIK STENSON: I think so. I think we're going to have great support. The only thing that you might think normally is that if you have a home game, you would have a home game advantage on the golf course. I don't think that might be the case this week because we haven't played out here a lot. I've been around this golf course twice in my life, so you know, I wouldn't say I know every blade of grass out there and kind of --

IAN POULTER: Hope you don't find it this week, either.

HENRIK STENSON: That's kind of the difference. Sometimes when you have a home game, you will be very familiar with a golf course, and I don't think that would be the case for us this week.

So we are just on our normal prep like we could do on any other events. Yeah, we'll come out strong and hopefully not in 12th. What do you say, boys?

SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah.

Q. I know you won in Hong Kong before, maybe that was perhaps part of the reason for going back, but was also trying to get in The Open, one of the four spots, a thought in going there? And would you think about trying one of the qualifiers in the U.K. since you'll be over there for a LIV event, anyway?

IAN POULTER: I haven't really thought about that yet. Obviously I didn't play well enough last week to take one of the four spots.

So I am planned to go back about the 30th of May, which is going to be a nice period of time for me to have at home with the family. I'm not sure what my position is yet on qualifying for any of those tournaments. U.S. Open, I will not be going to qualify for. The Open Championship, I'm not sure.

I had a go last week. It didn't work out. Haven't entered any other qualifying as yet.

Q. Lee, you mentioned that everyone grows the game of golf individually, but LIV brings about the team aspect of it all and this is a very culturally diverse league. How does that advance the game of golf globally?

LEE WESTWOOD: I think each franchise has to do as much as they can globally, but you know, focus on their local markets more importantly, the areas where they are.

But I think you've just got to take as many opportunities as you can. Obviously we are here to play golf and shoot low scores as often as possible, and outside of that, you know, we've got to try and grow the game and do the initiatives that we're doing as often as possible, no matter where that is.

Obviously if we go down and play in Australia, the Australian team will be the team down there. But you know, maybe the franchises can help out -- help them out in that area. You know, each franchise will have an area where they are favorite in, really.

So I know Taylor is doing something in Oklahoma on the Monday in a few weeks' time. You know, that's obviously in his local community, and then there will be other places that we play where teams have kind of connected to where it makes sense.

Q. You kind of touched on it earlier. You guys haven't really seen this course very often for all of you. So how important are these days, the practice round, the Pro-Am, to try to get a feel for the course and prepare yourself for the weekend?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, the Pro-Am is obviously the last chances the day before we play, so this is going to be the closest to the tournament conditions that we will see in terms of green speed and firmness and everything else.

We were out here a couple of weeks ago. We knew it was going to be a bit of a busy turnaround, especially for Ian and myself coming back from Asia playing last week.

Yeah, we've been around the golf course and today is kind of the final checks. I'm seeing how it plays and going through the game plan kind of one last time. I think it's pretty straightforward for the most part, and it's all there in front of you. And it might be, you know, wind-dependent, conditions-depending and pin positions and so on. You might have some last-minute tweaks but other than that, it's pretty straightforward.

Q. From a player perspective, how does the fan experience of LIV Golf compare to, say, the PGA?

LEE WESTWOOD: They appear to be more relaxed. I think the music's a good thing for that. You know, they seem to be -- they appear to be a younger demographic, as well.

IAN POULTER: Less 'mashed potatoes,' anyway.

LEE WESTWOOD: I will say with -- I kind of don't like to compare the two, but there seems to be more rules implemented on tours away from LIV. You know, more focus on not moving and staying quiet.

Yet when I come and play on the LIV Tour, really, you don't hear anything because there's that white noise all the time. You know, people are just kind of wandering around and having a good time, and are pretty chilled about it all.

HENRIK STENSON: As a golf fan, I think you can enjoy all golf. It doesn't have to be one or the other. You can enjoy watching it on TV. You can enjoy watching it in person.

It's two different kind of products, and we have the team aspect here, and if you want to get behind a team and so on, you've got that option. But I think a lot of fans will enjoy all of it. So you don't have to choose.

Q. The white noise aspect that you were talking about, is that something that was an adjustment as you came over to this tour or had that kind of become the standard maybe at some of the bigger events, anyway?

IAN POULTER: I practice every day with music in my ears; as Henrik might attest to, I have music on my golf cart when I'm hitting balls on the range. There's always, if we are out on the golf course, as you guys know, a lot of people will carry a speaker in their golf cart or golf bag and play music.

I don't think it's anything new that we've had to adjust to. I think it's quite -- I think it's quite nice to have that kind of ambient noise, music in the background playing all the time. As Lee said, you know, it kind of takes away some of the other distractions that could possibly happen. Guys moving around or if telephones go off, you don't really -- you don't really hear it. So I think it's a great thing for us to have at any venue and every venue.

LEE WESTWOOD: Certainly when I played The Open last year and Wentworth, that's when it struck me. I kind of teed it up, and I was like, wow, this is quiet. You start to notice everything.