LIV GOLF CHICAGO

September 20, 2023

Eugenio Chacarra

David Puig

Andy Ogletree

Rich Harvest Farms

Fireballs GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Andy Ogltree, we have Eugenio Chacarra from Fireballs GC and David Puig from Torque GC.

We are joined by two recent winners on the International Series. Andy, you just won the International Series Close House, and Eugenio, and you just won the International Series Scotland.

We'll start with you, Andy. Tell us a little bit about that win.

ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, obviously for me the International Series Order of Merit is my utmost priority right now, trying to get on LIV full-time and that's kind of my pathway, the way that I can earn my way out here.

So to have the International Series Order of Merit lead, going into that stretch at Close House and St Andrews, it was great to get the win in Close House and build up my lead a little more, so the last four events I can kind of control my own destiny.

THE MODERATOR: You won by seven strokes and you really dominated the field. Did it feel like an easy win for you?

ANDY OGLETREE: It's never easy. I was hitting it good and it was pretty windy so it was hard for the guys chasing me to make a lot of birdies. I just kind of controlled my ball well and played great. I didn't actually get off to a great start. I shot 1-over in the final round, and figured something out in my golf swing that I kind of ran with the next three days and it was pretty good golf.

THE MODERATOR: Eugenio, you won in a ten-hole playoff against Matt Jones. Tell us a little about your win in that playoff.

EUGENIO CHACARRA: Yeah, it was fun. It was a lot of fun. It's things you want to do when you're growing up. I'm working every day to be able to perform in the highest level in a playoff against a great player like Matt was. It took a long time. We both birdied the first six holes and we then both parred the hard par 3.

It was fun. It came out my way, that's always good but I think we both did a great job. It was fun to win again. I mean, I only played 17 tournaments as a pro and I've got two wins. Feels unreal. I'm working hard every day. I'm healthier. I had a season where I couldn't barely walk the first couple events.

So I'm getting back to normal. I' hitting the ball better and I feel comfortable. See if I can have good final tournaments on LIV and the International Series.

I think The Asian Tour has done a great job with all those tournaments. Fields are getting better and better, and courses are great. Having a lot of fun, and yeah, happy to get the win and happy to keep improving.

THE MODERATOR: With two professional wins in your first two years out on Tour, fair to stay that you're happy with your decision to turn professional and come out and join LIV?

EUGENIO CHACARRA: Yeah, I always said I think LIV is the best decision I ever made. Really proud to be here. Lucky enough I've got another year on my contract. Just learning every day. I'm having a lot of fun out here.

Like I said, I feel like I have a great first five events here. The first year, I came a little late, and this year, so far the first events, I was kind of hurt.

It was kind of hard but that's what professional golf, professional athletes go through. But it's been fun to just recover and get back to normal and grind it out. Yeah, I'm feeling better and better every day, and I'm ready to keep winning and playing good.

THE MODERATOR: You have a fairly new caddie on your bag who was Bryson's caddie before. How has that impacted your game?

EUGENIO CHACARRA: Yeah, he helped me a lot. Like you said, I feel like I needed someone more like -- that talks Spanish because my coach didn't talk English, so it was hard to communicate with them.

Last week, one of my roommates and teammate in the past at Oklahoma State, he caddied for me just those two weeks. He plays actually on The Asian Tour as well, and he's back to playing. And I have a new caddie friend of mine from Spain, and I think it will be good. We're ready. I'm playing great again, so it will be a fun couple weeks coming up.

THE MODERATOR: David, you're up here because you are knocking at the door. You have had an incredibly impressive last couple weeks. You played lights-out in Greenbrier, you were in the final group at Greenbrier. You were leading, I believe, the first round at Close House. You were also in contention, I believe, in Scotland as well.

You've just been playing incredible golf. Tell us about what's clicked for you and if you feel like you're getting close to your first professional win.

DAVID PUIG: Yeah, I think this last five weeks worked pretty good to me. Been learning every day how to get better and try to score better. Yeah, I played five tournaments the last six weeks and I led four of them at some point. Couldn't get it done at the end. You know, these players are very good and these two guys next to me are very good.

But you know, all these guys here on LIV or Asian Tour, they are very good and consistent. I just wasn't consistent enough to probably get the win. Still made some mistakes in some of those tournaments. I would say that Greenbrier was the best. I mean, you cannot do anything against a 58.

But yeah, it was a cool experience for sure. Been working very hard these last two or three months, and yeah, I think I'm playing good. I don't know if the first professional win is going to come, I don't know, this week or if it's going to take, you know, two more years. You never know. But I know that I'll put the work in for sure and try to do my best.

THE MODERATOR: What do you think the biggest difference is in your game from last year when you turned professional to this year? Like I said, your star is rising. What's been the biggest difference in your game?

DAVID PUIG: Well, I think I'm getting more mature every day. I wasn't a good driver of the ball in college. I struggled a lot off the tee. I think I'm getting a lot better on that.

I always hit the ball kind of far but I wasn't very accurate, and I think I'm getting a lot better on that. Probably still need to get a lot better in greens in regulation. It's a thing I want to get better at, and I think it's -- or at least I didn't do very good this year but overall, I think off the tee, I got a lot better which is obviously helping me to get those scores.

THE MODERATOR: I think Mito is leading greens in regulation for the players for the season. How helpful is it to have the group of guys on Torque kind of helping you, mentoring you, guiding you along? Has that been a huge difference in the progression of your game?

DAVID PUIG: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, played 11 tournaments alongside these guys and also some International Series, and you know, we had a lot of practice rounds together, even we played twice together as a team throughout this year.

Yeah, it's for sure super helpful. These guys are very good at what they do, and I think I am, too.

But I don't think I'm as high as they are or as high as they was, and yeah, I mean, playing alongside Mito and Sebastián and Joaquín, they hit the ball very good, everybody knows that.

But once you're there with them and practicing with them every single day, for sure it helps you a lot to want to improve, and I think I'm on the right path. I need maybe some more time to get a little more accurate but it's for sure very helpful.

THE MODERATOR: What's been the biggest thing that you've learned out here, having all these incredible mentors? What's really helped you improve your game and get to this place?

EUGENIO CHACARRA: David said everything. I mean, being along side, in my case, being Carlos around and Sergio, they all won on tour before. They all came here, great players like they are, and learning from them every day, not just golf but as a person and how to handle things, how to handle injuries, how to handle bad play.

We all go through those things, even those that are the best players in the world, they go through those things. Us young guys coming in from college, and just not having as much experience, having your back and telling you what it's all about and what everyone going through it, it makes it way nicer. And always having people to support you, it's fun. It's been a lot of fun. Can't wait for the finish of this year and next year, and hopefully more years to come.

THE MODERATOR: Andy, back to you. So in case everybody doesn't remember, we've been together since day one. You played LIV London in 2022. You've had quite the journey since then. You didn't play great in LIV London. Went on to play in the International Series, and we love a good underdog story. You've come back. You've won three of your last ten starts. Is that what we said?

ANDY OGLETREE: Something like that.

THE MODERATOR: You've won three of your last ten starts. You're basically a lock now to win the Order of Merit for the International Series, which now gives you an automatic berth into LIV for next year. So basically welcome to the League. What an incredible journey. Can you tell us just a little bit about this what roller coaster has been like for you and looking forward to next year?

ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, obviously, I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that it's a lock, but I'm definitely in a good position for next year.

You know, super rewarding, just being where I was, even before I joined LIV, I had conditional Korn Ferry status. I was chasing Monday qualifiers, wasn't getting into tournaments, was super pressured with my game and kind of a year and a half later, it's just a completely different story for me. It's been a really cool progression. It's happened pretty fast.

But the biggest thing for me is getting my body healthy. I had a lot of injuries, I had hip surgery right when I turned pro, was battling a lot of stuff when I played the first LIV Golf event and thankfully The Asian Tour gave me somewhere to build my game and build a schedule and have events to get ready for. It gave me just a lift off of my shoulders, so to speak of just having that pressure of not knowing where my next event is going to be kind of lifted off my shoulders.

It's been great, and very thankful for LIV and the Asian Tour have given me somewhere to play, because all this stuff wouldn't have happened. And I'm getting to show people kind of what I can do when I'm healthy now, and looking forward to keep doing that.

THE MODERATOR: We are finishing out the season. We are going to have a promotions event at the end of the season. So the bottom four players from here get relegated; the Order of Merit from the International Series which will hopefully be you gets the automatic berth to come to live and then the other three in the promotions event. How life-changing is that going to be, because it could be anybody's tournament to win; right?

ANDY OGLETREE: I know, I haven't dug deep enough into the qualifying for that event and I don't know exactly how many people from Asian Tour or how many people from Official World Ranking or what the qualification system looks like.

But I know there's a lot of people that can change their life very quickly. I think you're going to see players from all parts of the world and players that had a taste out here and had a year or two out here and really know that that's what they want to do, and there's going to be some huge motivation in that event.

I think it's going to be great for TV as well because you're going to get to see people just like Korn Ferry, Q-School, we watched that every year but I mean, instead of qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour, they are qualifying for LIV Golf, and 14 events, and these purses and everything, it's really life-changing experience. It's going to be cool to see. I hope that I'm not there but if I am, it will be a fun tournament.

THE MODERATOR: These are three very compelling storylines to follow, all three of you guys, congratulations on an incredibly successful career thus far.

Q. Curious, all three of you guys, mid 20s are obviously younger. I think you're the youngest guy here. When you look at you guys standing here, do you feel like you're the future of LIV in terms of like long-range?

EUGENIO CHACARRA: We probably want to think that. I don't know if we are or not. But obviously once you're here, you want to perform. You want to show the world what you're able to do. I feel like, talking for myself, but I feel like they are probably thinking the same way. Once you're in college and once you're in junior golf, you're just working every day. You just want to perform at the highest level and beat the best players in the world.

So I think like working hard every day for that it's fun and I got lucky enough that I won last year in Bangkok and I beat all these guys that's been my idol since I was little watching TV, winning tournaments, winning majors, Dustin, Cam Smith, Sergio, all these names.

So it was a lot of fun just being able to show the world that I made the good decision to be here. I think that's where I wanted to be and I have a lot of criticism since I was probably the first guy to -- I mean, I was in great position, I was No. 1 in university and I was playing probably the best golf of my life that senior year out of Oklahoma State. I won five times, and I was going to be really ahead of that ranking.

So everyone was thinking I was going to get my Korn Ferry Tour card and everything and suddenly I made a decision to come here and everyone was probably giving me crap and all that stuff and hearing a lot of stuff. It was just tough moments.

But just to show the world that I made the right decision and that I'm happy where I am and getting better. I'm performing well and now that I'm getting healthier I'm back in my level and I'm back playing good golf, so it was fun and that's why we work every day to be out with the best players in the world.

So yeah, I want to think I'm probably one of the future LIV stars or future LIV golfers.

DAVID PUIG: Same for me. As he said, we started playing this sport, at least myself, when I was six years old and then since then, my dream was to be in the highest level and we all know that LIV is the highest level.

Since we started here, you don't want to lose your spot here and go back. This is, as I said, the peak, and yeah, I want to believe hopefully I'll be one of the future golfers here. I'll keep working as hard as I've been doing to try to stay here and win golf tournaments.

Q. You're 25, oldest of the three up here, do you feel like --

ANDY OGLETREE: Old man.

Q. Do you feel like you've got a path now that could be long-range?

ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, if I can keep playing the way I have been and keep my body how it has progressed this year, just keep getting better overall, yeah, I think there's no reason that we can't play out here for a long time and have a long career and be at the top of the game for an extended amount of time.

Looking forward to keep doing it with these guys. We've played some college golf together and now we are getting to start our professional careers together. It's pretty cool.

Q. Have younger players reached out to you, realized your story and see the path you've taken?

ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, I've talked to a lot of college guys, and I think you're going to start seeing a lot more kids go to Asian Tour, Q-School from America, just because, I mean, the purses next year, there's rumours of $3 million purses on the Asian Tour International Series, and you either have that, or you go play Korn Ferry Tour for 1 million against stronger competition.

From a financial standpoint, it doesn't make much sense. I think a lot of guys are starting to realize that, especially if they don't get their Korn Ferry card or play bad at Q-School or something, then instead of going to PGA TOUR Canada or PGA TOUR Latin America, Asia is the next best option.

I don't know. It's going to be really interesting to see what people do and I think people have seen kind of what I have done and been able to do and how it gets you to LIV. Obviously there's a huge market for people wanting to play LIV Golf.

It's cool -- it's just cool to kind of be on the front end of it. Hopefully LIV is here for a long time and we get to the reap the benefits of this for years to come.

EUGENIO CHACARRA: I feel like Andy said, it's going to be a lot of people but it's also a lot of people that doesn't like it and that's totally fine. Everyone has different opinions. I have people that, like I said hate on it and I have people that love it.

I feel like we are in a world that everyone thinks different. Everyone has their own opinion. I think for me, my team and what I thought is the best part, I love being here and hopefully I have another year for sure but hopefully I can stay for a long time. I'm going to try to play by best and win out here and be one of the stars.

But for me, it's the best path, even though like LIV TOUR obviously is the pick, but even though Asian Tour International Series and everything, they are doing a great job.

So yeah, it's fun. I think some of them will come this way and other ones go the other way. But at the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion and they are both great and they are both a pick. So you decide, like in soccer, you decide to play in Spain or you decide to play in England. They are both great leagues. You just decide where to go. Everyone has different opinions.

It's going to be fun who comes to the Asian Tour Q-School and who gets to play in The Asian Tour International Series and get a chance to win the International Series Order of Merit and come to LIV.

Q. How important has it been from your learning process to be part of a team element? Because a lot of guys when they start their careers, are kind of out on their own but you guys get a chance to be part of the team and kind of help you along the way.

DAVID PUIG: For sure. It's been very cool and helpful for sure. You know, golf is probably a pretty, I don't know, you feel kind of alone all the time, or at least it's what you see. It's not a team sport but LIV made -- I think they made a great decision just making it a team competition.

And also, I was very lucky to be part of Torque and just to share my start with this group of guys, and yeah, they have been very helpful and yeah, they help me a lot to improve and get better and get to know this world a little better and to be better.

So yeah, very thankful for that.

Q. You've won the International Series three times, three events. Do you feel like the one in England was your biggest statement, considering all the LIV guys that were in the field?

ANDY OGLETREE: Yeah, I think there were 22 current LIV players in the field. So probably the best field that I've played against in the International Series.

So yeah, I feel like it definitely was, and it kind of hopefully shows some of these captains that I'm ready to go out here. You know, we'll see what happens.