LIV GOLF GREENBRIER

August 4, 2023

Joaquin Niemann

The Old White

Torque GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Joaquin Niemann, the captain of Torque GC. You had an excellent day out there, shot 5-under, currently T6. Tell us a little bit about your day.

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, it was a good day. I had a great start. Yeah, obviously I wanted to do a few more birdies and didn't finish the way I wanted. But yeah, pretty happy with the day.

I think Torque is also up there, so pretty happy the way everything is going today.

THE MODERATOR: You mentioned Torque is currently in fourth place, and I believe your colleague David Puig had an excellent day, as well. What are you guys going to do this afternoon after the round? Are you guys going to have a team meeting, send him another motivational text?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: I think he's doing great, so I don't think I've got to do much.

Yeah, what we just do every day. If we see each other downstairs in the dining, we'll have dinner together. If not, everybody is doing their own stuff. Everybody is getting prepared to do their best tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: As we know, you're a past champion here at Greenbrier and you feel like you're defending your title. Do you feel like your past experience here helped your game today?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, having all the good memories, kind of like a good vibe to be here. Obviously I've got to play really good golf this weekend to have a chance.

I'm excited for what could happen the next two days.

Q. Joaco, was there any particular shot that you had that you kind of called upon the information that -- from 2019 when you won, anything that was kind of reminiscent?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: I'm trying to remember. But no.

Q. Was it just a matter of feeling some good vibes out there overall?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, just being at the Greenbrier. It just feels nice. From being in the room with all the colors on the walls, from being on the golf course, to doing outdoor activities, yeah, everything kind of feels pretty similar.

Q. Did you put some new irons in the bag this week?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I put the new Ping irons, the new Blueprints. They've been great. I actually tried them last week, and I fell in love right away. It felt pretty good.

Q. Do you change irons much?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Not really. I think I had the iBlades for the last six years I would say, and this is the first time I actually tried different clubs. I just put them on the ground and I felt like they were going to be good, so yeah, they feel pretty good for now.

Q. You have new head covers, or your team does, has your new covers on their bag this week featuring images of your face and David's face. Can you tell us about that and the the genesis of it?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, so I've got a friend from Chile that does these head covers for me, and he sent me these head covers that they have our faces on them, me, Sebastian, Mito and David's faces on them. I never told him this, but we didn't actually like them. So I'll try to say it in a good way. We did a bet this week, and it was me and David against Mito and Sebastian, and we were betting whoever lose has to use the other's face head covers on them.

Right now Sebastian and Mito has my face and David's face on their bag. Pretty cool.

Q. How much have you talked with the other guys about how to play Greenbrier?

JOAQUIN NIEMANN: Yeah, I mean, Sebastian had played here before. He actually had a few good weeks here in the past.

David just plays different golf. He hits drivers everywhere, so there is not much I can tell him; just let him be.

And Mito has got pretty similar shots that I hit, so yeah, there's not much what they need to learn from me. I think they already know what to do, and they just need to hit the golf shots.