LIV GOLF HONG KONG

March 6, 2024

Jon Rahm

Bryson DeChambeau

Hong Kong Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Jon Rahm, captain of Legion XIII GC and Bryson DeChambeau, captain of Crushers GC. Welcome, guys. You're both making your debuts in Hong Kong this week. Share some of your initial thoughts on Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Golf Club.

JON RAHM: Yeah, it's not a city I knew really anything about. I had to ask some people that have had some experience here and spent some time here. A friend of mine worked here for quite a bit.

All I can say is anybody I asked, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the city, how fun it is, how much closer to the western world it is, and how good the food and the atmosphere is, and so far it's been true. It's been nothing but great. People have been fantastic and the experience is great.

The golf course backs that up. I love coming to places I haven't been before, and seeing a golf course that has been here for quite a while. This golf club is a few years old already, and to get to see a traditional golf course in this good a shape is fantastic. I cannot wait to get started because this week is shaping up to be a really fun one.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, the same sort of thing. Initially I had never been here and heard a lot of great things about it but didn't know what to expect, and when I got here, pretty impressed with the just quality of everything. You get told so many things over in the States of how great it is, and Hong Kong is a great place, too. It's very clean. Culture is amazing. Food is amazing and the people are amazing. A lot of positive sentiment in that direction.

The golf course played pretty much just nine holes now, and it's a really good test of golf. I grew up sort of at a golf club like this that's pretty tight and you have to sort of shape your ball and hit your irons really well. It reminds me of home, which is kind of nice on the golf course side of things, and excited to be here.

Q. Crushers are coming in in dominant form, just coming off your win last week in Jeddah. Can you highlight anything in particular that's contributed to your team's success this year, and what's your game plan going into Hong Kong?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Well, I think it was built off of last year's resolve. We were focused on winning the team championship. We worked hard. Every one of us wanted to win that team championship as well as win individually. We always want to do that every week. That was a cool thing, last night we were sitting around the table, and we all said, the coolest part about this is, yeah, we've won a team championship and numerous team events, but we all want to win the individual title, as well.

I think that's what makes us so good in a lot of situations is that we're all gunning for that individual position because if we all individually do well, especially with four scores counting the last day, I think counting for pretty much 40 percent, more than 40 percent of the total week, it's tough to beat when you've got all four guys in it.

We're just continuing the form from last week.

Q. Jon, Legion XIII, new team on the block this year, off to a solid start this season, currently third in the standings, and you're also third individually. What strengths do you see in your team this week that might give you a bit of an advantage?

JON RAHM: Well, I think if it's a way to categorize my team golf-wise, it would be a team of four solid ball strikers. A golf course that's narrow, that's obviously going to prevail. Greens are in really good shape, so making putts shouldn't be an issue.

I think it suits our strengths in that regard.

I think that can be applied to any golf course really on the planet when you're good tee to green.

Like I've said many times we're a young team. We have two extremely experienced players and two that are still learning, and without having anywhere near our best in the last two weekends, we've managed to stay close to the podium and finish no worse than fifth so far. That's what I keep telling them should be the most positive out of all, not only that we won our first event but the fact that when we're not playing at our level, we're still in contention. It's only a matter of time until every single one of us starts firing on all cylinders like they did on Sunday.

I'm just waiting for the day for that to happen. I can't wait to see Caleb and Kieran to show everybody what they're truly capable of.

Q. When is the last time you played a 6,700-yard course?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Realistically like in competition? Probably never. Harbour Town is longer than that, I think, right? In tournament competition -- it's definitely a unique test. There's a lot of shot shaping you've got to have out here, and your iron play has to be on point. What's funny is I can use a driver a couple times out here, actually. No. 9, 3, 1 if it's into the wind. There's a few places where I can actually use it, surprisingly.

Q. Jon, the same question. How does a shorter course impact strategy?

JON RAHM: I was going to ask if Valderrama is longer or shorter.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I think it's just a little longer.

JON RAHM: Par-3s I think are longer. I can't tell you the last time I went to a golf course and never looked at the total distance, to be honest. I have no conclude. None whatsoever. The things is it plays longer than this just because on a lot of tee shots you're simply not allowed to be sitting drivers, so you're playing it to a spot. It plays a little bit longer.

You have the option of hitting driver if you want, but you're going to have to be extremely accurate.

But I'm in the belief that as a player, you have to adjust to the golf course and adjust to the conditions and shoot low, and whoever does that obviously the best is going to succeed.

If anything, this type of golf is some of my favorite. When you go to Spain you're going to find very few golf courses that are wide and open, especially where I grew up. Tree lined is everything I saw up until I was on 17. In northern Spain with the hills, the humidity, being close to the water, it's a lot warmer than it usually is this time of year, but not seeing the sun and walking up and down hills between trees is pretty much about as close to home as you can get. It's a familiar feel to it.

Q. You both have played with Joaco this year; what do you see right now from his game? Bryson, can you notice a difference in what you saw previous years?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, he's more repeatable, and he's not making mistakes. He's not making dumb mistakes. As simple as it can be. He's in a great place and I'm very happy for him and all the accolades that's come with that has been great, and I hope that more continues to come because he deserves every bit of it, and he's one of the best players in the world.

JON RAHM: Yeah, I agree with what he said. He's obviously playing fantastic golf. Obviously his confidence is extremely high, and he's playing like it. Can't really -- I couldn't tell you what he did last year because I didn't get to play with him, but he's just doing what we all need to do, which is basically hit it where we want to more often and make the putts.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's pretty simple.

JON RAHM: Yeah. If anything what I would notice, it seems like when he wants to, he's got a couple extra miles on the swing whenever he needs to.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: And shot shaping, too. He can hit it right to left and left to right and be comfortable with both of those, and that's crucial, too.

JON RAHM: Yeah, boiling down to good driving, good irons, good wedging, good putting --

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: And you're one of the best in the world.

Q. Jon, what did you say to Phil to have him help Caleb? What's his going rate?

JON RAHM: No, so as a captain, I'm truly still settling in this position, but Phil played with Caleb one day last week. He had a hard day, and I asked him, hey, anything you saw out there that I could help with, and he's like, yeah, bunker shot on 11. He's like, have Caleb talk to me, and I can help him out. I was like, well, I wanted to help, but if he wants to help, I think he's a pretty good teacher.

I told Caleb that, and Caleb approached him because I think it needs to come from him. I think it shows a lot, and that's when they agreed to do this. I'm glad we had media at this time and I could be there, just because Phil -- not Phil, all of us. We all make the mistake of telling people what we feel we're doing, and a lot of times it doesn't translate to what we're actually doing.

I've spent a lot of time with Phil, and a lot of times I know what he means when he's saying certain things so I can explain it to Caleb a little bit differently. The best example I can even say myself, if I gave you a driving lesson, I would tell you, oh, I feel like I'm releasing the club, and if you see my swing, there's no releasing whatsoever going on through impact.

That's a lesson to everybody out there. What we feel like we're doing and what we're doing a lot of times can be different things, so you need to really have a base knowledge of what's happening to be able to filter a lot of those things out.

Again, a lot of what Phil says, obviously 95 percent of it is pure gold. It's just the little things that we don't realize that we're doing that you've got to explain.

Q. Everybody is going to want to ask, the letter that went out yesterday from Greg and the response that's been out there from some of the other players in the U.S., just your thoughts really?

JON RAHM: I haven't talked to anybody about this or seen any responses, but I'm going to be honest, I didn't know they were still trying to get World Ranking points. But the one thing I can say is I'm going to back to what I said two years ago in the DP World Tour Championship.

I didn't think it was a good system back then, and if anything, the more time that goes on, the more it proves to be wrong. If anybody in this world, for example, doesn't think Joaco deserves to be in the top 10 or doesn't know that he's a top player in the world, I don't know what game you're watching.

We can tell. I think anybody who watches golf can tell who the best players in the world are, and obviously I don't think the ranking is reflective of that right now to its entirety.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of ways you can think about it. Certainly from certain people's perspectives, though, we came over here, and we don't deserve to have ranking points, for whatever their reasons are. Is it right? I don't know. I just think what's right is in the best interest of the game, and we should focus on having the best players at the majors, and continuing to have that around the game of golf is only important to growing the game of golf and to make the game of golf continue to be as relevant as it is now and even more in the future.

What I think about it is we need to find a collective way, all the governing bodies, everybody, come together, sit down and figure this out, because we need to do this for the fans.

Q. Do you think it's almost up to the players at this point to force the issue, seeing as nothing else seems to have worked at the moment?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: What do you mean by that?

Q. Well, I think --

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Which players?

Q. Well, you guys this side, some of the guys on the PGA TOUR. They were talking overnight saying that they didn't think that it was fit for purpose anymore. I didn't know whether you might bring more pressure to bear, whether that's something you would think about.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, but they should have done it a long time ago. If they wanted to make the system right, it should have been done a year and a half ago when we acquired the MENA Tour and we had that exemption category -- not exemption, but we had that category for them to get World Ranking points and we became part of that tour, and pretty much came into alignment there with being able to acquire OWGR points, and they didn't allow us to have that.

We've tried to fulfill every category, even going to 72 holes, too. The MENA Tour is already getting points, OWGR points for the MENA Tour, and they're 54 holes, so everybody's conversation on that can go right out the window.

The cut thing -- there's numerous things they brought up, and it's like, we can solve for all that, just tell us what to do, and nothing has gone -- anyway, it is what it is, and at this point we just need to figure out how to get all the governing bodies to come together and figure out what the best system is for the game of professional golf moving forward.

JON RAHM: Sorry, what was the question again?

Q. I was wondering whether it was a case of you --

JON RAHM: Oh, the players.

Q. Yes.

JON RAHM: I haven't given it that much thought, to be honest. But our job shouldn't be to make the rules or impose the rules or enforce the rules. We're here to entertain, and it's the governing bodies' job to be doing this and be adaptable to the changing environment. That's I think the best way I can explain it.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: That's well said.

Q. The majors to be recognizing good golf no matter where it's played and wanting to get the best players playing in those tournaments. Are you encouraged by that, and is that the way forward, all the best players playing in the majors at least?

JON RAHM: I mean, isn't that what we all want to see? Yeah, it's very encouraging. I'm very happy to see Joaco get invites. To be fair, he's shown the interest of wanting to qualify many different ways and has played the way you're supposed to play, so I think it's only right that he gets invites.

But if that's the way you're going to go, I think there's one player that played fantastic all last season that's been a little bit left out, and not saying that they all have to, but I think Talor Gooch should be under consideration to possibly get an invite into those majors, as well. He was the best player out here last year, and if that doesn't show good golf and being worthy of being in majors, I don't know what does.

While we don't have a clear path to majors through LIV yet, I think they should be taking everybody under consideration.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: I agree with everything he said. I don't know what else to say. I mean, yeah. There just needs to be a clear path through LIV in some capacity.

I understand the sentiment. I respect the sentiment that everybody has on the other side of the coin. What I can say, though, is that if we put everything aside, all the bantering back and forth, the most important thing is the fans, and engaging the fans in a way that only helps enhance the experience amongst the game of golf around the world and even in the States, and whatever that answer is, we need to come to it pretty quickly because we don't want to continue to go down the path that we are currently.

Q. Do you think this could be a kind of watershed moment because with players playing great golf having to rely on, if you like, handouts from majors to get places in majors, the majors are recognizing that the rankings aren't right?

JON RAHM: I think it's the beginning of a positive thing, that they're now giving one player a chance. Before you know it, there will be a solution to all this. It's just opening the door slightly to a larger conversation.

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: If you think about our points list and you just invite a certain amount on our points list based on how we finished the year before. That's what they do in the TOUR Championship, right? Very simple.

Q. Bryson, fantastic performance last week in Jeddah. It was probably the best advertisement for what LIV has tried to do over the years in terms of team championship. Can you go back to the Sunday and tell us what it meant and how impressive that round was?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: Yeah, I mean, look, coming back from I think it was 11 back and shooting 20-under at that golf course, I couldn't be more proud of the team. That's what we've been working towards all along is each individual playing the best we possibly can and making the team aspect elevated, where it means a lot more. I think LIV is working solution for that moving forward in the future, but currently what we did last week was a pretty cool showcase of what teams can do and what they can mean and what it can mean for individuals and the team and the caddie and people a part of a franchise.

I think that's what we want to continue to keep showing over the course of time is what value we can bring to the world of golf, whether it's through sponsors, whether it's through entertainment, whatever it is. That's the goal we're trying to accomplish and showcase that elite level play amongst four special individuals.

Q. Did you speak to your guys before the round?

BRYSON DeCHAMBEAU: It's funny, I let my guys do their thing. We give fist bumps and say, let's go play well, let's go do it, play the best we possibly can. We prepare before the week. We don't really do it during the week.

Maybe the Monday or Tuesday we start talking about things and what to do, like I'm out there playing with Charles right now, and we kind of prep and we help each other out, but besides that, we just focus on playing the best golf we individually possibly can.

That was one of the best things that I learned in college from Josh Gregory was you've just got to go play individually and play the best you possibly can and you'll aid for the team in college. College really helped me out being able to be a captain for these guys.

Q. Jon, what Phil did over here, I'm sure if you had asked Bryson to give a driving lesson to young Caleb, he would have done the same. What does this say about LIV Golf, that you have this kind of a camaraderie?

JON RAHM: To be fair to Phil, he's been willing to help anybody way before LIV Golf. Anybody that's gone up to him and asked for a lesson, for the most part, he's given it to them. I want to give credit to him in that sense. I've never seen him turn anybody down. If he has time, he'll do it.

Yeah, I don't know what else to say there.

Plus, if anything, we're such close friends that I was trying to take advantage of -- it's tough for it to pay a little bit more dividends in that sense for me.

I think when you're a good player like Phil and somebody is encouraged to learn from you, it's nice to be able to help somebody out.