LIV GOLF ANDALUCíA

June 28, 2023

Eugenio Chacarra

Sergio Garcia

David Puig

Victor González

Javier Reviriego

Real Club Valderrama

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are here today to make a very, very exciting announcement. Many of you have maybe seen the branding across the course, but this is now officially as of today LIV Golf Andalucía, and we are here to announce our LIV Golf partnership with Andalucía. We are now the official destination partner of LIV Golf in Spain, and we are joined by some very special guests who are going to talk about the partnership.

We're joined by Eugenio Chacarra from Fireballs GC; we are joined by Victor González, who is the vice minister of tourism, culture and sport for Andalucía; we are joined by Sergio Garcia, the captain of Fireballs GC; Javier Reviriego, the general manager of Real Golf Club Valderrama; and we are joined by David Puig from Torque GC.

Javier?

JAVIER REVIRIEGO: Thank you very much. I wanted to say on behalf of our members, on behalf of our board, all our staff, we'd like to welcome everyone to this week for this very, very exciting event. We're very thankful to LIV Golf and to Andalucía and the players for putting together this fantastic event.

We have been looking forward to it for many months. I would even say years. Sergio knows very well. It was always our dream to have some of the best players in the world, and I think there's no doubt that that's what we have this week.

It was very exciting to see the range this morning, to see it yesterday, to say hello to some of these unbelievable golfers. I can say that from the club, we're going to do our best to showcase a great golf course. We're going to present it in top condition, I think. I think it's going to be a good challenge for the players. I think they're going to also enjoy the challenge.

We hope everybody has a very special week.

To finalize, I would like to thank the press for taking the time to be here, for giving us always very good treatment, I have to say. I always read very good things about our club and our golf course. So thank you.

I wish everybody a fantastic week.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Javier. Sergio, can you share with us a little bit about this partnership?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, obviously super excited to be here at Valderrama and Andalucía again. I think Valderrama has deserved this kind of event and this kind of field for a long, long time. We couldn't be happier to have a multiyear deal with Andalucía here in Valderrama. It's going to be amazing for me to host, in a way, all these amazing players here at my favorite golf course in the world and a place that I love and that I am actually an honorary member. Very proud of that.

Yeah, super excited to be here and have a chance of having all these amazing players enjoy our beautiful course.

VICTOR GONZÁLEZ: Good morning, everybody. The government of Andalucía is very pleasured to take this beautiful adventure around golf, around the world.

Now Valderrama is in the middle of the world because we are going to enjoy a lot of experience with the best players in the world right here in one of the temples of golf, Valderrama.

In Andalucía we've got around more than 100 golf courses. Golf for us is a big industry. Around 1 million players visit us every year. Around 2,000 million of incomes, so it's very important, and we generate around 50,000 jobs around golf.

We love golf. We love tourists. We love culture. We love sports. Andalucía is right now one of the regions in the world that makes sports a way of life, really, because five years ago we organized around eight, ten international events. Right now, around 200 events, the Davis Cup, Valderrama, international selection footballs.

But now we are talking about golf. Golf here in Valderrama is the best experience of all, right here.

THE MODERATOR: I think I can speak on behalf of everybody at LIV, we are so excited to be in Spain and we are so excited to be in Andalucía. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world. Andalucía is home to more than 100 golf courses, and it's widely considered the best region in Spain for golf.

Can you tell us a little bit about what makes Andalucía so special?

VICTOR GONZÁLEZ: Andalucía is so special because it has the climate. You can see the climate; you can see the culture; you can see the gastronomy; you can see the communications, by sea, by air, by roads.

Andalucía right now is one of the best destinations in the world. We are strategically situated in the world: On the north Europe, on the South we've got Africa, and east and the west we have Asia and North America, Central America, South America. It's very well connected, and we enjoy that people who visit us always, always, always repeat.

THE MODERATOR: Sergio, with Andalucía now the official destination partner of LIV Golf in Spain, what do you think this will do for growing the game of golf in your home country?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I think anytime that you can have a multiyear deal and a sponsor like this, like Andalucía is, and the way they've promoted golf, not only now but for many, many years, it's great.

As a Spaniard for me to see the game grow everywhere and especially in our country, it's amazing. We're super excited about it. It's great to have something settled for a little future to come here over and over and showcase not only us but Andalucía, the course, Valderrama, the beautiful weather we have here. Everything that you can enjoy.

I'm sure that is going to help not only here but all around the world.

Q. Javier, this golf course is often referred to as the Augusta of Europe, has a very storied history. Does hosting a LIV event bring even more global attention to the club?

JAVIER REVIRIEGO: Well, without a doubt. It's obvious we have a long history of hosting many events. I think we've hosted more than 26, 27 professional events, including the Ryder Cup, obviously.

It's part of the culture of our club to support professional golf. It's exciting for our members to see the players here. Without a doubt, this new exciting time with LIV Golf will elevate the visibility of Valderrama, will elevate our brand, our positioning, and most of all, as Sergio was saying, it gives us a chance to showcase the great golf course, the great weather, the great region that we have in Andalucía here.

I think there's no better way than associating our club to some of these incredible players.

We are committed to do this for the future. We want to have a great professional tournament every year. We will keep working on it, and we will keep working hard to present the golf course in the best possible condition.

As you say, we compare ourselves, we benchmark ourselves with the best golf courses in the world, and we're proud of that, and we will continue to do that and try to get better every year so the golf course gets better.

THE MODERATOR: I want to talk to Eugenio. I was speaking with you yesterday, and you told me Andalucía is a place that you vacation with your family. You're from Madrid, but you vacation down here. What do you love about Andalucía and this region?

EUGENIO CHACARRA: Yeah, what Victor and Javier said. I think that Andalucía brings pretty much everything you need in life. You've got really nice people; you've got nice food; you've got nice places to be. Me as a golfer, I love golf. Just in this area I have eight or nine golf courses to practice at. It's really special.

Obviously this week we're going to talk about Valderrama. Like I always said, it's one of my favorite courses I ever played. I always say it's the Augusta of Europe, and like Javier said, the course is in great shape.

I got lucky now that I played on Monday and I was afraid of hitting divots. It looked so nice, and everything was so great. It's going to be a great week, and we're excited to be here. We're happy to be here, and we're thankful for LIV Golf, for Andalucía and obviously for Valderrama to give us a chance to be here.

I'm excited to start the week, and obviously if I play good, it's going to be more fun, but if not it's still going to be a great week. We're really thankful to be here and can't wait to be here in the next years.

THE MODERATOR: David, you are the youngest player on Tour. You turned professional last year. Now you're sitting up on the stage with Sergio Garcia, with government officials. Did you ever think in your wildest dreams that you'd be sitting up here in this moment?

DAVID PUIG: I mean, I dreamt of, and I obviously worked very hard to get in this position. But even though it feels great to be here with Sergio, it's a player that I've followed and watched growing up, and sitting here with him, it's awesome. It feels great. It feels that I made the right decision to join LIV and made a lot of good decisions and good work during my amateur career to allow me to be here.

Again, I know it's not a question that you guys ask to me right now, but it's a great place. I'm very excited to be here, very happy to be here with two Spaniards and also Torque and all the players, and looking forward for the week, and hopefully we have a good week.

THE MODERATOR: All three of you do an excellent job representing your home country, and we're proud to be here this week.

Q. Mr. González, obviously there's been a lot of discussion back and forth about LIV and if it's going to survive and not survive. As an executive as you are, you probably had to bring that all in the fray before you decided to design an agreement, what you call a multiyear agreement. Can you talk about why you decided to make this decision to go along with LIV?

VICTOR GONZÁLEZ: LIV is -- we have a lot of offers around sports, different sports, that can work with us. When we started, we have a committee. At the committee we started, which are we going to work to.

LIV right now is one of the most important elements. We need to -- we love to work with LIV because players like Sergio Garcia love to play here.

We think we are going to continue to work with LIV because the experience I told minutes ago, and I think this year will be a great year. Perhaps next year will be better than this year. This is a winner bet for us to work with LIV Golf.

Q. Javier, you are here at Valderrama CEO. How difficult was the decision or how easy was the decision for you going into LIV because we know all the history about Valderrama, that you have been very deep with the European Tour.

JAVIER REVIRIEGO: Well, it was not an easy decision, obviously. We have a partnership for many years, 25 years, I think, of partnership.

But when we evaluated the progress of our previous event, we considered that it was not what we wanted. I'm not blaming anyone. I'm not blaming the European Tour. I'm just saying that our expectations of growth of the event when we started, I think we started the Andalucía Masters in 2010, then there was a couple years where we stopped. But from the club, we worked very hard to obtain sponsorships and partners. We worked very hard with Andalucía because they're our partners. We worked very hard to stay with them. We did all we could to make this a fantastic event. I don't mean to say that Valderrama is better than others and needs to have a super event just because it's Valderrama. Not at all.

SERGIO GARCIA: I think so.

JAVIER REVIRIEGO: Thanks.

It's just that we're not happy. We had made the decision to probably not continue with the event. We don't have an obligation to have an event as a club. We're a private members club. We're in a great situation. Our membership is happy. We even considered not having an event for years.

When the possibility and the discussions started with LIV, we saw a potential opportunity to host an event with top talent, top players, to host an event with quality. You will see the quality of the staging of this event.

We saw an opportunity to host a world-class tournament, and that's what we wanted. It's as simple as that.

We're very happy that we made this decision. As you said, of course it's not easy because it was a longtime partnership before. But looking back now, especially with the news of the last few weeks, I feel pretty confident. I'm pretty happy that we made the decision.

Q. Sergio, after what Alex said regarding the multiyear deal and everything with Andalucía and the uncertainty with LIV, are you confident that LIV will be here next year in whatever shape or form?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yes, very confident. I mean, that's what I can see. That's all I can say. I think we're in a good spot. I think there's a lot of details that are not finalized yet, and there's a lot of speculation.

But I think it's going to be a great deal for everyone, and I don't expect us to not be here next year.

Q. And the fact that LIV have signed a deal like that, that obviously must show that there is confidence?

SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. I think that says it all. Thank you.

Q. Just to follow on that, Sergio, do you have a desire to play on the PGA TOUR in the future?

SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, to be totally honest, I came to LIV because of different reasons, but one of them was to be able to play a little bit less. Obviously that's not going to change.

If everything goes according to plan like we expect it to be, I will not be playing much at all on the PGA TOUR because I don't plan on playing 30 events a year.

That's not something that is in my mind at the moment. Obviously as things settle and we know exactly where we all stand, then we can make decisions. But I wouldn't think so. Not at the moment, I guess.

Q. Sergio, the merger looks like a peaceful thing for golf. Do you feel this and your colleagues? Can you just expand on the feeling?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I think so. I think it's great. I think in my personal opinion, I wish this would have happened a year and a half ago when we all started, and it would have been better for all of us. I really think so.

To give you an example, it wasn't because of the merger, but the U.S. Open a week and a half ago, it was a great -- or two weeks ago, it was a great event for me. Not obviously you would say why. I finished 27th. Not only because of that. I feel like I played well. But more than anything, because I gained a friend back, a friend that I kind of felt like I lost in the last year or so. We talked and we had a great conversation, and I feel like I have that friend back, and that to me means a lot. That's a very positive thing.