MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 4, 2023

Thomas Pieters

Quick Quotes

Q. Thomas, back at Augusta. How's the feeling like?

THOMAS PIETERS: It's always nice to be here. Obviously family's here, mom and dad are even here. So first time for them. So that's pretty cool.

I played with Bubba. Like if you would have told me three, four months ago, I was going to be on this team and obviously having him as a mentor is pretty cool around this place.

He wanted to play with me, so I think he just wanted to share his knowledge. He was just lonely. So he just wanted to have a friend.

Q. It looked like he was really eager to like tell you stuff and so on. How was it to get advice from him? Like he's a past champion and everything.

THOMAS PIETERS: Obviously you lay in bed and you think about stuff. You know, on No. 5 what do you do when you're out of position? They always have like these little things that they can share with you, and you just take notes, yeah.

Q. You played the course now with No. 13. You've been here before, so you know what it's like. What do you think about the changes that have been made?

THOMAS PIETERS: Yeah, it's good. It's playing soft this year. Obviously a lot of guys are going to lay up, including me. I had a decent drive, and obviously that upslope that we're hitting into now is very severe, where we always used to hit it past that slope.

You stand there with a 4-iron, ball's above your feet.

So I think I'm going to be laying up. Unless I've got 5-iron or something, I'll go for it.

Q. You're one of 18 LIV Golfers, like you mentioned before. You're on a team with Bubba. How is it for you getting back here together with your old buddies from the PGA TOUR? There's been rumors about animosity, about some tension. What's your experience like?

THOMAS PIETERS: I haven't felt any tension. It's just nice to see them again. Yeah, it's nice to see them again.

The media's making it much of a bigger thing than it really is.

Q. The crowd, you have a big following now, you and Bubba. How was the reception?

THOMAS PIETERS: They all came for Bubba. You can hear that. But that's okay. I'm just along for the ride.

Q. When you left the PGA TOUR, you were quite open about it both on social media and also on the fore play pod I remember. Now that you've gotten it like on a bit of a distance, what's your thoughts on it? Any regrets or anything like that?

THOMAS PIETERS: No. Those are my thoughts, and if people don't like it, that's their opinion. I just shared my feelings, my opinion, and that's the way I felt. I feel much better now.

Q. Lastly, there's a rumor that LIV Golf will have to make money within five years to not have to shut down. Are you concerned about that?

THOMAS PIETERS: I'm glad I'm not on the board. I'm a player, man. We show up. We play. We obviously get informed by Bubba how the team stuff works, but behind the scenes, that's not our stuff.

Q. And lastly, the World Golf Ranking, you guys are still not earning any points on the LIV Golf Tour. A lot of guys who's on the LIV tour are in danger of not making it, for example, here next year. Are you concerned about that?

THOMAS PIETERS: Not really. I took my parents here because it could be my last one. That's just being realistic. I don't know. Time will tell. We'll see.