LIV GOLF ORLANDO

March 31, 2023

Brooks Koepka

Richard Bland

Orange County National

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome Brooks Koepka, the captain of Smash GC and welcome Richard Bland of Cleeks GC. Brooks, Team Smash is also in first place. Tell us a little bit about your day and if you were watching the Smash leaderboard.

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, good day. Got off to a bad start again; I bogeyed the first. I think I've done that in every LIV event. I don't know what's wrong, just sitting around for 20 minutes, and got to figure that out.

But yeah, I played really well, responded nicely, and made a few putts. It's nice to see the team finally playing well. Chase played well and then Matt has been doing what he's been doing.

Just nice to see us actually compete, and hopefully we're there on Sunday.

Q. Are you going to do anything as a team tonight, team bonding or preparation for tomorrow?

BROOKS KOEPKA: No, I'm going to go get work done and chill at the hotel.

Q. Blandy, you had an excellent day, 7-under. Tell us a little bit about your day.

RICHARD BLAND: Yeah, well, I kind of one-upped Brooks. I started with a double. But yeah, I kind of righted the ship pretty quick, and yeah, I played the front nine great. Whenever I kind of had a look, I made it. It was nice to finish with a 3 on 14.

I kind of bookended the day with a double and then an eagle. Yeah, that'll make probably room service taste a little bit sweeter tonight.

Q. Nice to see your name and the Cleeks up on the leaderboard.

RICHARD BLAND: Yeah, it's nice. We've had a rough couple of weeks, so it's nice that we've maybe got a little bit of momentum out of today, and hopefully, like Brooks has just said, we can fight for it come Sunday.

Yeah, I think as a team we needed today. Looking forward to seeing the guys in the locker room and hopefully we can build on that.

Q. Both the teams that you guys have have gone pointless the first two events. Was that kind of a point of discussion this week, or do you even need to bring that up in terms of maybe we need to ramp up things? How do those discussions work within the team dynamic?

BROOKS KOEPKA: It's pretty simple. Just play better. I mean, I had to look at myself and do the same thing. I told them they've all got to start playing better. Wolffy has been playing fine. But they know they need to play better. I don't need to harp on them too much. It's not the end of the world, it's just two events.

We've all had two bad events, so just go on from there, make sure you finish off the year.

Q. Richard, did you guys have any discussions during the week leading up?

RICHARD BLAND: No, not really. Yeah, we knew we needed to play better. We just don't seem to get any momentum in that first day. We've got kind of three guys all shooting maybe level par, maybe 1-under, and we're kind of behind the 8-ball before we even start.

Yeah, everybody knows they've got to do their bit. In this game if you play well, kind of everything else takes care of itself. We know what we've got to do. We've been around long enough.

Yeah, it's pretty simple.

Q. Brooks, what kind of experience did you have on this course before this week? Any?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I think I played some Florida junior tournaments, maybe some junior golf. I probably haven't been back here in 20 years. That's just a guess. Maybe less than that, 15? I had no real recollection of the golf course until I played it on Wednesday.

Q. Did you think it was gettable through the practice rounds? Did you think the scores would be pretty low this week?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I think we all knew the scores were going to be pretty low.

RICHARD BLAND: Yeah, I think the fairways are pretty generous. Even I'm one of the shorter hitters out here, so if I can post a number out here, then yeah, the guys that can really send it out there are hitting a lot shorter irons than I am. As the greens are probably going to firm up, that's going to be probably more of an advantage.

It's still one of the courses you're going to have to play from the fairway. Yeah, but exciting to see what comes over the weekend.

Q. Wanted to ask you about the wind today. It seemed like when the tournament teed off around 1:00 there were some gusts and it was blowing pretty good, but it didn't seem to affect your games. Did you have to adjust to the wind at the beginning?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I thought it was blowing pretty good on the driving range, but I think probably for about the first 30 minutes the wind was all over the place. It wasn't one direction. I think that was kind of odd because it was blowing so hard. Usually when it's blowing that hard it's in one direction. Usually when it's just very light it'll come from any direction, so that was kind of odd. But it settled down after like 30 minutes, so it was fine.

Q. Wanted to get your impression on the turnout, the crowds today. How did they compare to Tucson or Mayakoba?

RICHARD BLAND: Well, for me, no one really wants to come and watch me play, so they're more here for this guy. I think my wife followed me for 18 holes; that's about it. So yeah, it's fine for me. I don't really get too much whooping and hollering. Maybe I'll get a bit more tomorrow. But the crowds are great. The atmosphere even at Mayakoba was great. You can always tell whenever we play in America it's always a great atmosphere. They really get behind the players.

Yeah, it certainly fires you up to play better.

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, I thought the same thing. Anytime we're playing -- it was nice to see so many people turn out for Tucson and then today there was a lot of people here. This is a good thing. I'm sure come the weekend, tomorrow is usually the day that everybody comes. But it was a good turnout today. Very pleased with it.

Q. Brooks, you and your brother Chase I think totaled 10-, 11-under today. Do you think being back here in Florida, it's pretty much a home game for you guys, the benefit of this course, a Florida course that you're used to playing benefitted to your play?

BROOKS KOEPKA: I would say it definitely benefits him more. I think he's played it because he's had Q-school here so many times. He was refreshed and all -- he was telling us what to do in the practice rounds, so that doesn't happen too often, just because we've played so many different golf courses over the years. But he was telling us where to hit it. Sometimes it was a little different line than what he's going to take. But it definitely helps, so I'll take his advice.

Q. Your play has improved week by week. You look way more comfortable with your game as the season advances. How important is that for you to finish out this week strong heading into Augusta next weekend?

BROOKS KOEPKA: Yeah, just keep doing what I'm doing. There's a major around the corner, so...