LIV GOLF BEDMINSTER

August 9, 2023

Henrik Stenson

Trump National Golf Club

Majesticks GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Henrik Stenson, the captain of Majesticks GC. Welcome. It has been a year since you won in your LIV Golf debut. Can you reflect on that moment a year ago and tell us a little bit about what this past year has been like for you since then.

HENRIK STENSON: Was it only a year ago? Yeah, it feels like a lot of things have happened in a year's time, on and off the golf course. Great to be back. It's a great golf course.

I obviously brought some really nice game last year to be able to come out on top here. Tough track. Haven't been out yet, but I hear the rough is really lush. A lot more of those fairways and greens that I hit last year is going to be the recipe, I'm sure, and I could see it playing even longer given the rain we had the day before yesterday.

It's going to be fun to head out there again and figure out all the golfing parts.

Brings back great memories. It was intense but a great week for me.

THE MODERATOR: This marks a year since you've joined LIV, as well. What's this past year on LIV Golf League been like for you?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it's kind of been a bit of a whirlwind for everyone, right. It's been a lot of things happening in the golfing world and a lot of new venues, exciting tournaments across the world. Like Australia, to mention one, was a really cool week.

We've been out and about, and it's been great. It's been great.

THE MODERATOR: You've had a full year of team golf now and being part of one of the most cohesive teams out here. Has that impacted your game at all? Talk about what it's been like to be playing team golf for a year.

HENRIK STENSON: I'm just trying to win one of those Wednesday afternoon matches. We've got a big one coming up this afternoon, and I'm starting to question myself because I keep on losing with Sam Horsfield, kept on losing with Laurie. I guess it's me because Poults and Westwood seems to come out on top every Wednesday. Never mind that I managed to beat them quite a few times on the regular week afterwards, but it's been a lot of fun traveling with the guys, and we're a tight group of players and team members.

We're enjoying the team aspect, and we just need to step it up a little bit, as well. We haven't had a solid season really even though we've been trending in the right direction as of late.

It would be nice to follow up last year's podium with another one here this week for the team.

Q. The Majesticks came in second place at Bedminster last year. That was your best LIV Golf finish to date. You guys are currently in 10th place in the season-long standings --

HENRIK STENSON: Ooh.

Q. At this point it's mathematically impossible to get into fourth in order to get that first-week bye so you guys are playing Friday of Miami. What's going through your mind week in, week out from a team perspective, and how are you guys preparing for Miami, because now you guys have got to play three solid rounds to make it to the end?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, Miami was a great venue last year. It's another good test of golf. We'll be ready.

I think it doesn't really matter if you get a bye on the first round or not. You've got to bring some good game within the team, and we'll be ready for it.

Whoever you face, you've got to play well. As always in kind of a playoff situation, what's been there throughout the rest of the season doesn't matter as much, and you've got to bring some good game.

We'll be ready, and looking forward to that, as well. But one week at a time, and we'll try -- even if we can't get to fourth, we'll still try and get something good going to build up some momentum.

Q. Talking about Bryson's historic 58 --

HENRIK STENSON: Bryson who? (Laughs.)

Q. Tell us a little bit from a colleague perspective, what was that like to witness that, and have you had a chance to talk to Bryson?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I have. I saw him both afterwards and saw him yesterday, as well. Hugely impressive weekend, and of course a lot of focus on the 58, but he also shot 61 the day before, so to have a 119 score week and normally if you shoot around 130 you're having a heck of a weekend.

It was two very impressive days of golf. We all know he can hit it a country mile, and he obviously did that straight. But there's a lot more going into it than just hitting it long and straight. You've got to hit those approaches and make the putts.

He made so many birdies that I think we all lost count.

Hugely impressive weekend, and yeah, be interesting to see if he can follow that up this week and keep on driving the ball that way. I think we can see ourselves in a bit of trouble here.

Q. In the year you've been here, has there been one surprise about the whole team competition that you didn't expect to see or didn't think about when you first joined?

HENRIK STENSON: I think we obviously seen a couple of the teams play really, really solid throughout the year. That's just been, for us, the Majesticks, as a team, we haven't been able to put those scores down as needed to really challenge some of the best teams out there.

We've got some work to do, and there's been some impressive teams, and as you know, with the team format, counting three out of four scores, it's not just enough to shoot three solid scores. You've got to get those low numbers on the board, as well, and that's where I feel like we've kind of been lacking on our end. We've just got to shoot some lower scores.

I think it's been a lot of fun, like I said, traveling and spending that extra bit of time with my teammates, players that I've known for a long time, and you kind of feel like you're getting even tighter playing that much and traveling together.

I'm enjoying it, and we just need to make a few more birdies here and there.

Q. Is there one thing about Lee or Ian that you've learned in the last year that you didn't know about?

HENRIK STENSON: No, I don't know if there's one thing. I'm sure there's multiple things. Some of them might not be able to be repeated here. (Smiling.)

Q. I did want to ask you, who do you actually consider the team to beat, because the 4 Aces are at the top, but Torque has won four times this year. Is there one team over the other that you think, that's the team to beat?

HENRIK STENSON: I'd pick one of them two. Yeah, it's a tough choice between them, but they both played really, really well and really solid this year. It will be interesting to see if any of the other teams can bring them down in Miami.

Q. On Sunday you played with G-Mac and Patrick --

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah.

Q. Was there any Ryder Cup talk since it's coming up next month?

HENRIK STENSON: No, not really. I think we all kind of focus on where we're at. We'll see -- we know the situation kind of with the Ryder Cup. There might still be some kind of loose ends coming into September here. There's going to be some decisions made up on who's going to be there, but I just hope in the long run that we might be in a different situation going into the next one or going forward with anything from involvement from different players and players on the field. But that's not my decision, so we'll see what happens.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the framework agreement. Phil has said that if a deal does get hammered out, there's not a single player on LIV who would want to play on the PGA TOUR. Do you think that's an accurate assessment from conversations you've had with your fellow players out here?

HENRIK STENSON: Well, I think it's so early, we don't know how this agreement would look to start with, but if I'm kind of stepping away from the overall, like, combined new co, all the things that would be set up to kind of work out and regulate, just looking at a separate kind of playing side of things, we don't know if anything would change in the regulations on how many tournaments you should play, whether that be in Europe, whether that be on the PGA TOUR and everything.

For me personally, if I got 14 LIV events, I got the Open Championship, I might play one or two other tournaments, I'm not looking to add another 15 PGA TOUR events even if I could.

It's all to be -- it's kind of hard to comment on that one if I don't know what I'm going to comment on. For me personally, if it's still to play 15 PGA TOUR events, I wouldn't be interested in adding 15 more to my schedule at this point.

I've played my busiest years kind of throughout my career. I've probably played close to 30 tournaments for the most part. It's been about 25-ish, 23, 25 on a worldwide schedule, and if I've already got 15 I'm not looking to add another 15 at age 47.

But again, I'm not going to answer for the other guys. I can only answer for myself.

Q. When is the last time you've done a solo press conference like this?

HENRIK STENSON: Normally when you win you do a solo press conference. But I might have had the team with me because we were on the podium last year, as well.

It might have been a little while. I don't keep track of the single and the team press conferences.

Q. Do you like the dynamic of doing press conferences with your fellow teammates, or do you kind of like having the mic to yourself once in a while?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, it works both ways. Not really -- I don't really care. It's fine either-or.

I think dynamically you might get more out of it being more, if someone is really boring like myself, might get a little...

Q. How have you seen the LIV league grow so far, and what would you like to see LIV changed going into the future? What improvements would you like to see made?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, the one thing that strikes me is that we only really play just over a year. It feels like we've been going on for a lot longer. I don't know if that's been with the whole kind of intensity and everything that's been going on, but it feels like we've been playing golf on LIV a lot longer than just over a year.

As with anything, there's always room for improvements. Personally when I look at my game, I'm always trying to make little improvements, and you analyze and you evaluate and so on, and that goes for LIV, as well. Everyone in the hardworking team are looking into different ways to make it better.

I don't know if I got something straight up to give you. Nothing that really comes to mind straight up. But nothing is perfect. There's always room for little improvements, and the day you sit down and you're totally happy with everything, that's when you kind of get run passed by by other players, so that goes for anything.

Q. Are there any PGA TOUR or DP World Tour events that you miss playing now that you've been out here on LIV?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, there's always going to be a couple. I've been a touring professional since the early 2000s, 20 plus years, so you're always going to have a few favorite events.

I lived in Dubai. I've had great success down in that part of the world. Yeah, of course I'll miss playing in Dubai on the odd occasion, and being based in Florida, there's a couple of home events around Orlando and near Orlando that you kind of miss.

But over the course of a career, you qualified for certain events, and some that you have been in the past and now you're not in the future. I played Augusta for 15 years; I'm not qualified for the Masters the last couple, and of course you're going to miss not going there.

But that's just the nature of the game and your rankings and so on.

Like I said, we'll see if there's a day in the future where you can maybe get an invite to an event if the tournament wants to invite certain players on their sponsor's exemptions and invites. Maybe we can go back and play one or two of those events in the future; we'll see.

Q. Given how anything went down last year, would you have any interest in being involved in the Ryder Cup on the European side going forward?

HENRIK STENSON: I hope. I hope maybe we can see a different future down the line somewhere, whether that involves me or some of the other guys. It's kind of a lot of speculation, and I'll just -- I'll just wait and see what happens. If things change in the future, which I hope they will, we'll see if there's a time and a place for some of us to be involved going forward.

Q. Do you think you'll watch the Ryder Cup this year? How closely will you be paying attention?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I'll be -- Ryder Cup has been a big part of my career. I've got some of my greatest golfing memories from the Ryder Cup, and a lot of my friendships were built from the Ryder Cup. Yeah, I'll follow. I'm a golf fan, as well, and I'll follow the scores.

I don't know, it's not like I've decided that I got my lounge chair and the popcorn bucket and that I'm going to sit there every hour of it, but of course I'll check in.

I know what the bags are going to look like.

Q. What do you think you'll miss most about being part of that program?

HENRIK STENSON: It's a special week. The team room and the team, that's something very special. Yeah, of course it'll be missed, whether it comes from the situation that we found ourselves in or just not being part of it. That's kind of -- that goes both ways.

If you've been part of something and then you're not part of it, there's certain aspects you're going to miss, but I'll follow and obviously support from a distance.

Q. Obviously the hot topic on the U.S. side is whether Justin Thomas should be a captain's pick or not. Wondering if you have any opinions on whether Zach Johnson should pick him.

HENRIK STENSON: No, I don't have any opinions on who's going to get picked on the U.S. side. I'm interested hearing your thoughts, though.

Q. I'm undecided.

HENRIK STENSON: Undecided, okay. That's very political. Are you Swedish or Swiss?

Q. I'm curious, were you surprised or shocked when the PGA merger made the move to try and merge with LIV Golf? What's your reaction when you heard the news?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I was surprised, as many with me. It was actually on the 6th of June, which is the Swedish national day, so I was having some family time, and all of a sudden someone showed me an Instagram post, and I went to pick up my two phones out of my friend's pram where they had been resting for a couple hours, and I had tons of messages and phone calls and all the rest.

I realized it was for real.

Yeah, a lot of surprise. I thought it was always going to come down to sit down at some point. I had heard one or two rumors that there might have been a meeting going on or something, but yeah, I was surprised, as well, that it happened that kind of quickly, and it was all kept very quietly, as well.

But I think it's been good for the overall, for the world of golf, to kind of calm down a little bit, and at this point it's hard to predict what's going to come out of it and how it's all going to look.

But I think it's good at least to kind of sit down and try and find a way forward.

Q. How shocking is it to you that this upstart organization, LIV Golf, after one year forced the PGA to the bargaining table that fast? What kind of impact has this league had on the game do you think?

HENRIK STENSON: It's obviously had a big impact. As I tried to get across in an interview a couple of weeks ago that unfortunately it all got kind of tangled up in a bit of a misunderstanding with the Ryder Cup on my part there. It was more of I just wish that those meetings and those discussions could have happened a year, year and a half or two years ago.

I believe that it would have been less messy in this last couple of years if those meetings could have taken place, and unfortunately one side rejected to sit down, and it took a lot longer.

But it is what it is, and we look forward, not backwards now.

Q. Finally for me, can you describe what this past year has been like for you and what you like best about the LIV Golf setup.

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I think it's been quite a busy year, quite intense. But for me, when you're making decisions about your career, you can only make them from where you're at, your own position. I'm 47 years old. I've been a touring professional for almost 25 years. Been a member both of the U.S. Tour and European Tour, and I'm just super happy to have a three-month off-season where I can be home, rest, recuperate, and really feel fresh when I'm heading out into a new season.

I feel like the intensity from kind of February up until the end of October is not a whole lot different for me than it has been. There might be one or two parts of there where you've got a little bit of a longer break, but all in all, when it's golf season, it's golf season. But I finally got an off-season. That means a lot to me at this point in time, 47, three kids. I have a chance to kind of build up and feel fresh going into a new season.

It's been a lot of fun to be traveling, playing a few tournaments less. I haven't minded going back to some of the places where I kind of started out my career, playing in Asia, playing in Australia. I hadn't been down to Australia since 2006. We had a huge reception when we came down there, and Australia got some of the best golf courses in the world, so yeah, that was great.

I kind of feel like I've gone back to the roots a little bit with some of the venues that we've visited and played at over this past year.

I'm very happy and feel good going forward.

Q. I had asked you last year at the end of the -- when you won, that you donate a portion of your earnings to your foundation, the Henrik Stenson Foundation and the work you do with adaptive golf and kids. You've had two big seasons. My question is what have you been able to do at the Henrik Stenson Foundation more with this new influx of resources?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, I've got a great team that works with the foundation and the different events that we put on. You mentioned a few there, like we have a big national junior event in Sweden together with my former caddie, Fanny Sunesson, so we had that this year again.

Then we also do a para golf tournament. We're having camps for young para golfers who want to try and take up the sport and see what it's all about.

We've got some pretty good stuff in the pipeline going forward, without spilling any secrets. But I'm excited. Like I said, I've got a great team. We have a possibility to do a lot of good stuff and change young kids' future for the better through golf and other initiatives also that just involve sport.

Yeah, I'm excited for that, and that's something I can also focus more on the day I kind of wind down my playing, active playing career. That's certainly one thing that I'm looking into in the future to be able to expand even more.

But we've got some good stuff there, and then we're also doing a lot of initiatives through Little Sticks, which is the team Majesticks kind of charity and focus, which very much aligns with the stuff that I've done through my own foundation.

Yeah, exciting times, and please go in and keep updated with all the things we do there.

Q. You've talked about how the future is a little uncertain, but certainly you must imagine what it could be looking forward. What would you like to see happen in the next year, two years, three years in professional golf?

HENRIK STENSON: Well, since it's not on my table, I really haven't thought that much about it. I'm happy with the schedule at LIV. That's what I have in front of me.

Yeah, it would be nice to maybe add one or two more tournaments like the ones that I mentioned earlier that I've played many times over the years, if there's a way to do that.

But I'll just wait and see what comes out of this and what the tours might try and come up with combined going forward.

I haven't really, to be honest, thought much about how it could look and what would be my ideal scenario. I'm playing here, and I'm happy with that. That's what I'm focusing on.

We'll see what the opportunities will be in terms of if that's to take up another membership in the future somewhere and so on, but like I said, I'm not looking to play 30 plus weeks of golf. So if the criteria that's kind of been over the last -- for the different tours over many years, I'm not looking to add a PGA TOUR schedule of 15 tournaments even if I had the opportunity.

We'll see what happens.