LIV GOLF TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MIAMI

October 19, 2023

Bubba Watson

Dustin Johnson

Joaquin Niemann

Trump National Doral

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome our teams with the byes this week. We have captain of RangeGoats GC Bubba Watson; captain of 4Aces GC Dustin Johnson, and captain of Torque, Joaquín Niemann.

You guys are back at Trump Doral Miami. Tell us about your experience with this course last year and if you're excited to be back this year.

BUBBA WATSON: Well, the Niblicks weren't very good last year, and I was commentating. It was cool for me, obviously watching DJ and his team, the Aces, dominate.

But it was cool because I got to make the call for Patrick Reed on No. 2. He had a 10-footer for birdie. It was so close coming down the stretch. And so being able to make that call when he had a 10-footer; he makes it. Pretty much gave them the win. But still, he still had to play 18.

So it was cool to be able to see, it feel it and be a part of it in a different way, and so I'm just excited to be here and know that we have a bye. I want that chance on Sunday, that chance to be -- the tope four teams have a chance.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Last year was a totally new experience but it was a lot of fun, and yeah, like Bubba said, it came down to the last hole, which is pretty much came down to me and Cam on 18.

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't that far of a putt but still, was definitely a little shaky over it; I'm not going to lie. It was a lot of fun. You couldn't have drawn it up any better the way it finished where it literally came down -- yeah, I watched Patrick make the putt on 2 because we had the scoreboard there, and then obviously knew I just needed to 2-putt for us to win.

But yeah, I think hopefully this year, we've got a chance again on Sunday. Obviously we've got to make it to Sunday but if you make it to Sunday any team has a chance.

THE MODERATOR: Joaquín, you had a very different team last year. You were able to build your team in the off-season, and now you have one of the strongest teams out here. Are you looking forward to entering the week in that position?

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Yeah, last year was different, and this year we have got a really strong team.

Yeah, like these two guys said, I was watching on Sunday on the TV, and it was cool to see what was going on between the guys, the 4Aces, you had to make your putts in the last couple holes to be winning the tournament. And you can feel the atmosphere, the pressure that they have.

It would be nice to be in that position. We have to play a good match on Saturday and hopefully be up there fighting for Sunday, so it WILL be fun.

THE MODERATOR: How important is the bye from a rest perspective, since you came off the week in Jeddah, and also it's one less day you guys have to compete?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: It's one less chance you have to get knocked out, too.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: It's match play.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's match play, anything can happen, doesn't matter if it's the best team playing the worst team, it's golf. Whatever team that's playing has a chance to win. You can be favored or not, but it's really easy to have a bad day on the golf course.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: A golf course like this, not easy.

THE MODERATOR: You guys all love match play? Is it one of your favourites? I know it's a fan favourite for sure.

BUBBA WATSON: Love it when I win.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah.

BUBBA WATSON: Leaked, this place is tough. This place is long when it gets windy. It's going to be fun doing match play but you have to be grinding because anybody can win at any moment.

THE MODERATOR: So on Friday, you guys are going to get to make your picks for who you are playing on Saturday. You obviously don't know who your options are going to be yet but do you guys think there is a team to beat out here yet?

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: For Saturday, I think the strongest two teams, what I think, is going to be the Stingers and the Fireballs. But it's match play. Friday, anything can happen. They can probably not make it or they can make it.

Yeah, I think we have to wait until Friday to see what happens and then make our picks.

THE MODERATOR: Who do you think is the team to beat this year?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Like he said, obviously Saturday is the most important day, most likely. I could pick one of these teams, I'm not going to, but I could.

BUBBA WATSON: Good.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Don't worry. But we've got to wait and see who wins their matches Friday afternoon and then we will kind of sit down and talk and figure out what team do we match up the best again and give ourselves the best chance to win. Because all we're trying to do is get to Sunday. It starts all over Sunday and it's a shootout, 18-hole shootout for the team championship.

THE MODERATOR: Bubba, you have taken the captain role seriously, mentoring all your guys. What are you doing this week with the team to get them into competition mode and ready to win?

BUBBA WATSON: We're going to go off-site tomorrow, hang out, play a little golf up the street there. We might have another team that's going to have a little match against.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: You'd better practice today.

BUBBA WATSON: There is a team called the Aces that we are going to hang out with and try to beat. But it will be fun. We want to just kind of loosen up. We have that time. The bye gives us the opportunity to do that.

Just get out and enjoy the team atmosphere and have some fun with some other guys, and then get ready for Saturday and hopefully pull it out.

Q. Last year as we mentioned, you guys were the dominant team. This year, do you feel like you're coming in with a bit of different vibe, maybe more depth amongst the other teams that are competing?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, obviously after last year, just with the guys that signed and played this year, the teams got a lot more kind of evenly -- you know, I'd say the top six teams are all really solid and have a chance to win. Where last year, we felt like coming in, we pretty much won every tournament. It's one of those, we never thought there was anything that was going to happen other than us winning.

Obviously this year, yeah, we won a couple times and Torque won a bunch, they won a couple times. So we saw the teams are a lot more even.

Yeah, it's going to be a tough match. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. About chasing the Aces, you guys have talked about them all season. Now that you're finally here, do you feel like there's really not that much difference between your teams and DJ's team?

BUBBA WATSON: The difference is, the history of LIV, they are the only team to win. So we're trying to get a trophy on our mantle as well. We want to win as a team.

And yeah, all these teams are getting better. Like Phil said yesterday, after this off-season, LIV is going to get even better. There's going to be more competition next year.

Right now, the Aces are the team we are all trying to chase. We all want that trophy like they have. But everybody has a chance to win. I mean, the teams are getting so -- especially on Saturday, the teams are going to get tighter and tighter, and then on Sunday every ball counts. Hopefully I won't throw up on myself.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Yeah, I think obviously the Aces are the ones to beat. They won it last year. We've got to try hard to take the trophy out of their hands. Yeah, I think it's going to be -- a lot of golf to happen and anything can happen these next three, two days.

So yeah, we are excited to see what's going to happen on Sunday and hopefully it goes our way.

Q. Just wanted to get your reaction to Talor winning the individual champion this year, obviously he was a teammate last year?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Obviously Talor is a really good player and he's had a great year. What did he win, three times? Second once or twice, too. Yeah, he had an unbelievable year and deserved to win and he played better than all of us.

Excited for him, yeah. Obviously I'd have liked to challenge him a little bit more but I didn't have the greatest year but I still did okay.

Q. You mentioned that you had a different role with LIV last year but now a year in the captaincy role, how have you seen the league change over the year and what would you like to see evolve for the next year and going forward?

BUBBA WATSON: Man, there's a lot of stuff next year. For me personally, it's learning. It's learning how to be an owner/captain and get people to do things but also practice golf at the same time.

Coming off surgery, nine months off, trying to get the knee right and feel better and all these things, get the muscles firing the right way, there's a big learning process for me.

So there's a lot I had to learn in a short period of time and I'm still learning. I haven't perfected it yet, but I've got the right team around me helping me. You know, that's the thing that I see that I'm learning about this.

And then being behind the scenes, learning about LIV and seeing where it's going, it's pretty special and seeing the interest of players outside of LIV wanting to come here, it's pretty cool being part of a franchise and being able to be a part of the opening of this and being a piece of it.

Q. What do you guys make of the mix of stroke play and match play format? Do you like that and is it tough to switch from match play to stroke play for that final round?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: No. We don't play that much match play throughout the year, so when we do play, it's nice. I think Sunday, having the top four teams battle out for the trophy with all four scores counting, I think it's great because it takes a complete team effort to win.

Match play, even if we did all singles or whatever it is, three guys can play good and one guy not, and you still win. But on this, all four guys have to play well if you want to win.

Q. I know you said you're doing a little match with the Aces. Are you going to work out pairings or treat it like a competitive round out here? How is that going to work?

BUBBA WATSON: Just match, just throw balls in the air whatever we do. I'm going to call out DJ and play him straight up (laughing).

Your question you said earlier, there's one thing that I wish if I was looking at it, and we're going to look at it this off-season, is right now, the league is dictating captains play against captains. So Saturday or Friday, and then the captains play against captains.

Like I would rather we could pick and choose. Put Talor out first, right, he's played pretty good this year. That's the one thing in the League that I wish we could change just so that if DJ called us out, I could put him against Talor, you know what I'm saying.

But then that would be a good TV matchup because y'all are going to create the drama, and they are just going to be friends trying to beat each other. That's the one thing I wish we could change. Just so we can make those kind of matchups, or kind of like the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup, you pick your players where you want them to be and who you want them to play against and all that.

Q. You talk about LIV getting better. Looking at the off-season, putting your captain's hat on, what's your plan in the off-season?

BUBBA WATSON: Just for me, I changed my diet over the last month. I'm trying to look at it differently and how to train and get ready for golf.

So that's the first thing. I'm the weak link right now on our team. I've had some good rounds. I've had a couple finishes but Sundays have been a struggle, and so that's where I have to -- to make the team better, I've got to play better.

We had two guys play pretty good. I think Harold finished 7th and the other one finished No. 1. So I've got to play better.

Thomas was thrown into the fire at the last minute. We had a person get injured. Thomas got thrown in there three days before the tournament started in México. So Thomas is learning, trying to figure it all out. He didn't really know what LIV was all about. He knew some of the details but not all of the details. So those are the two things that we would fix, just get more communication as a team but then me get better as a player.

The other stuff will work itself out, getting the right tee shirts and shirts.

Q. You mentioned "team" over and over again. You played most of your careers as individuals in stroke play. How do you adjust to being part of a team and coordinating that and pumping everyone up?

BUBBA WATSON: For Americans, we played high school golf as a team and college golf as a team and we love it. College golf takes over right now as we're watching football.

So we miss that. The biggest events, Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, right, team events. So for us, this is what golf needed. I think golf needed this around the world, and that's what we're doing.

To pump people up, you don't have to pump Harold up. You don't have to pump Talor up. We all get fired up. Once that bell goes off, shotgun goes off, fireworks go off, whichever one it is that week, we get excited and want to do our best.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: For me it's the same thing. Obviously yeah, our whole career we played individual, well other than high school, college, but for me, I really loved high school and college golf and it was a lot of fun, traveling with the team and playing with them and practicing with them.

Yeah, it's something different, and I've really enjoyed it the last two seasons. Looking forward to everything to come in the future.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Same for me. I grew up in Chile, we did a lot of team events, country events, where we play all around South America and around the world.

Since I was 12 years old, I was going outside the country with three other guys playing as a team, and yeah, all my junior golfing career was all with teammates. It was always super fun to have practice round with them and try to get better with them and practice with them.

Then, yeah, on the PGA TOUR, I played for three or four years and I kind of missed a little bit that, and to be able to do that with three other guys that are trying to be their best at golf is pretty cool.

So you can feel your energy with those guys and try to get better all together.

Q. As Talor's captain, what's it been like to kind of watch his success this year, and also, your thoughts about him not really having a path into majors next year.

BUBBA WATSON: Two parts there. First part, it's really -- I've been watching him. I've been learning from him. Watching how he goes about his business. It's a business.

And he's in the gym. Gosh, on the way so Saudi Arabia, tell an inside story, there's an airport that has a full gym in it, Doha maybe, I'm not sure. And while he had the layover, he went in there and was training while he was waiting on the plane to Saudi Arabia. So he was working. There was a lap pool in there as well.

So he was working on it in between flights. But that's who he is. He's trying to get better. We talk about that. He's trying to get better that way so gives him more energy and gives him more time to practice on the course.

So I've been inspired watching from him, learning from him, seeing how he goes about it, how he does it. When you have a player like that that keeps his head down and just grinds it out, you can learn from somebody like that.

The second part was the majors. I've been saying since the beginning of LIV is that we shouldn't go after World Ranking points. We should go after top 10, Top 15 on the Money List, our points list on LIV should get into majors. Makes it easy. These guys are so good. The top 10 this year could play against anybody. You could make a U.S. Team, you could make a European Team, they could play with anybody, our top 10.

So that's how you should get into majors and I've been saying that forever. Forget points. Just go straight off the Money List, try to get 10 people, or 15 get in; trying to get more people, so 15.

Q. For the three of you, if you set the rankings aside, you have to find another way to get in. Bubba and Bryson have offered an idea. What about Dustin or Joaquín?

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: For me, I think it's completely different. These guys have already won majors. They won the Masters. They have a chance to always go back to the majors.

For me, it's kind like right in between because I don't have the World Ranking right now, but I know I have the game to be competing on the majors and be winning majors.

So it's been kind of hard not having the option of being in the majors right now. I mean, trying to figure out what I could do to get into the majors knowing that I don't know what's going to happen next year, if they are going to give spots to LIV players.

Like Bubba said, they are ready to compete in those tournaments and try to win them. For me, I'm on that second page. I'm working hard every day to get better. I want to win majors and I want to have my chance to be playing on those.

Yeah, hopefully there is some way that we can get into those events.

Q. And a question about this week. Do you as captains have a sort of draft board, teams that you wouldn't mind facing out of this group of eight or teams that you definitely want to avoid out of this group of eight?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I think we probably all have our notes down on what teams we want to play and what teams we don't. You know, obviously it will be a lot easier Friday when we figure out which four teams win, and then we'll kind of go from there. But until then --

BUBBA WATSON: We did the first goal. We got the bye. That's our first goal. One less match that we have to worry about.

Q. I just wanted to follow up on the World Ranking thing. You and Talor are the guys that this impacts the most, not having won majors and being young, up-and-coming players. How much did you consider that when you made the decision to come to LIV? Did you think that your ranking wouldn't drop as fast as it has? Did you weigh all those issues?

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Yeah, obviously it was something I considered, but then I knew the vision that LIV had in helping the game grow. And I thought about it, like the majors, they should do something to let -- I mean, the majors is all about having the best players in the world competing against each other, and there's a few guys here that are on that bag that has to be competing with those guys all together playing for the majors with the best players in the world. I think there's a lot of those guys right here that are not able to play in the majors right now.

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's been a little bit frustrating the last couple months knowing that I'm going to be outside the Top-50 and not going to be able to get into the majors. I'm going to have to try to go play different tours to try to win World Ranking but I still think it won't be enough to make it because all the World Rankings now are on the PGA TOUR. I mean, it's hard to be going higher in the World Rankings.

Yeah, hopefully they find a way to have the best players in the world in majors. I mean, that's all it is.

THE MODERATOR: Bryson is coming up right now.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Tell him he can wait until we're done.

BUBBA WATSON: We're full.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: He can wait until we're done.

Q. There's been a lot of talk about potential investors in the franchises. Where are you in that process? Is that something you handle or let your manager handle? Is it an end of season type thing is this how is that process going?

BUBBA WATSON: I think every captain is going to be different.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: It's all of the above.

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, there's been a lot of people have to get on board. We have a board on each team. I sit on -- I'm one of the board members on my team.

So you have to meet and see what's good and bad. The evaluation, it's not a small number. We're pretty high up. You know, luckily, I've had a franchise, I've been part of a baseball team, so I know how things work and run and been part of those discussions about things.

But I think every team is going to be different. Some people want to know more. Some just people want to play golf. Just depends on which team you're talking about and who it is. I want to know everything. I want to be part of it and move it forward and make the RangeGoats well-known.

Q. What's the interest level of outside investors and potential buyers?

BUBBA WATSON: I've had a few people.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I would say along the same lines. There's quite a bit of interest. Obviously like he said each team is going to differ. We have some interest. We'll get more into that in the off-season once we are done after this week. I don't know. I'm in the same boat as Bubba, learning. Before it was kind of all just focused on golf. Now I'm focused on golf and trying to manage the team and sponsors and all this other stuff. It's called a learning curve of how to divide your time. That's why I just kind of pushed everything off till the off-season and then I'll kind of dig more into that side of things.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Right now, pretty focused on doing well on golf course. I think the better we do on the golf course, everything gets a little bit easier. But yeah, lucky to have a great team to support me in every aspect of how to run a business like Torque.

BUBBA WATSON: To answer your question, anywhere from 10 to 20 people have asked to buy the RangeGoats. There was three in Singapore, and then after Singapore the floodgates opened, there was even more. There's been talk this week. I met with people this week. Yeah, there's quite a few.

Q. So we're two seasons in, and I'm curious from a leadership perspective, what do you think are the one or two things that you guys have learned about yourselves as leaders of LIV, leaders of your teams, what have you learned about yourself the last couple years?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I'm pretty old. I know myself pretty well.

BUBBA WATSON: You know your mistakes already. He's so young.

When I was going through my issues, my mental issues a few years ago, 2017 was my worst, I learned about chasing points, right. Chasing FedEx points, chasing World Ranking points, chasing trying to make it to the Olympics, the Money List. Whatever -- that's what I was letting dictate my life.

So after '17 when I finally came out of my lowest point of my life, I realized that World Rankings and FedEx points and all these things, it was my job. It wasn't something that should be dictating how I felt or how I felt inside. So I learned that, so going back to all these World Ranking points, that's where I think it should be just Money List. If you play great that year, you get in.

I think every tour should be that way. Obviously the PGA TOUR has more people so they will have a bigger chunk of their Money List in the majors. We are a smaller group, so we have a smaller chunk. And that's how it should be instead of putting rankings on people. You can't rank somebody that plays in a different event.

So anyway, that was my tangent off that. That's what I've learned about myself is I have got to focus on important things and golf is just something that I love to do and challenge myself with.

Q. You guys were talking about the interest of outside parties wanting to invest in your team. Do you guys have a timeline, like if a Wal-Mart, McDonald's Coca-Cola came and offered an insane amount of money, are you guys in a position to make a deal, or is it, hey, we're not going to sign anything until this date? Can you let us in on a little of that?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: You can buy us right now.

BUBBA WATSON: Yeah, you can buy us right now.

For me, though, I try to align myself with -- I've been ambassadors of different companies throughout my career. Something that fits me. Why want to change who I am as a person so it has to be something that fits me. I don't want just some random company, I don't care how much money it is. I want something that fits the mold, what I want the team model to be. What I want.

This is my baby, starting from scratch, color schemes and everything and the name. So that's why, Goat, golfers on a team, right, and also the other one is grow on a team. So that's where Goat is, not greatest of all time. I changed it to the mold that I want.

So I want a company or a group of people to be in the same lines I'm in, but also have a lot of money.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Same. Obviously any time you're bringing in a partner or investor, you've got to meet with them and hopefully you fit or you get along, and like Bubba said, it fits your kind of vision of where your team is going and hopefully they have the same vision or it would be tough to kind of work together if you don't have the same kind of vision.

So yeah, I think it's really important, you sit down and meet and go through a long process of vetting just so you can get the right partnerships.

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Yeah, like to have something that fits our team and something that fits our four players, what are our goals, and yeah, I mean, there's all brands that we like to work with, something that is with our personality.

But yeah, there's also a number, right.

BUBBA WATSON: All that's out the window for the right number (laughing).

Q. Win quick follow-up. We all know Talor Gooch is the man. He had an unbelievable season.

BUBBA WATSON: He has a beautiful ring, too. It's a beautiful ring he got.

Q. I know Bubba you have zero buyer's remorse, but DJ, any seller's remorse at all?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: I really wasn't involved in it. So I don't know, to answer your question. No.

I love my team and happy with it. I mean, even though they got a ringer, they still struggled to keep up.

BUBBA WATSON: That is true. This old man needs to get better.

Q. You mentioned trying to find starts maybe on other tours to help your position. Anything can happen in six months, I think we realize that, but are you even thinking now about, I've got to sign up for the U.S. Open Open Qualifying or Open Championship Open Qualifying?

JOAQUÍN NIEMANN: Yeah, I'm going to try to do everything I can to do to get into the majors. I'm not just going to sit down and wait for an invite. I think I've got to get closer to that goal, and yeah, I think whatever it takes to get into the majors, I will try to.

Q. You're both Masters champions. Do you have any pull with the chairman?

DUSTIN JOHNSON: No.

BUBBA WATSON: I'm just glad I got an invite. Sorry, man.

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Yeah, I want to keep that invite coming in the mail.

You know, I would imagine that all the majors are talking and I mean, I don't know this, this is just what I assume; that there's some thing that they are trying to work out to figure out how it is to get the best players playing in their tournament.

BUBBA WATSON: But if any --

DUSTIN JOHNSON: Go ahead.

BUBBA WATSON: If anybody asks, me and d jury, everybody else on LIV, we are fighting for everybody. We are fighting for everybody to have a chance. If they came and asked us, we would tell them we need guys in the majors. They deserve it. DJ deserves it.

Q. You talked about improvement coming more, I guess, new players. Phil yesterday said he knows the next wave it coming. What do you envision this looking like this off-season in terms of that aspect?

BUBBA WATSON: Truthfully at some point, down the road, I want to keep playing. But at some point, I'm going to back away. I'm going to be that owner shows up to the tournaments, cheers the guys on, get the younger crowd in, better golfers. I've told myself since the start, if you don't think I'm good enough, then let's get somebody better. Put them in there and I'll just sit out. I'll cheer you on from the other side of the ropes. I'll sit in the air conditioned box and watch y'all play golf in the heat.

It's one of those things, that I want to play golf and I want to compete but at some point age is going to win. Age always wins. At that point, I'm hoping that my team comes to me with arms open and we hug it out and we find somebody younger and better, stronger, faster, all those things.

Right now in the short term. There's open spots. There's interest. There's people calling, texting, even me, and I don't have any pull. So they are asking for help to try to get in the League.

Phil knows it. We all know it. The high-ups know it, and we are just working through the details right now behind the scenes to see what fits and what makes sense for the league getting better and improving.

Q. So no concern in terms of player possibilities, a case like Joaquín and OWGR points and not having a resolution for now, at least, any concern of that quelling any interest?

BUBBA WATSON: No, I think it will be coming soon. Again, I have no idea. Nobody has called me and asked me. But it's common sense. Writing is on the wall that something is going to change in the near future. And if it doesn't, LIV is going to be pretty good for a long time.

Q. In regards to?

BUBBA WATSON: Everything.