MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2024

Jasper Stubbs

Santiago de la Fuente

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Please join me in welcoming two first-time competitors at the Masters, Jasper Stubbs and Santiago de la Fuente. Jasper earned his invitation with a victory at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship last fall. And Santiago's invitation is courtesy of his win at the Latin American Amateur Championship this past January.

I'll begin with Jasper. It took two holes in a three-way playoff at Royal Melbourne for you to emerge victorious. What were your nerves like during that playoff, and when did it sink in to you that you would be here this week at the Masters Tournament?

JASPER STUBBS: The nerves throughout the playoff, yeah, they were definitely elevated from even the start of the week. It was obviously a pretty nerve-wracking week, having the opportunity to win the Tournament and get a ticket to the Masters.

And then obviously when you're in a playoff, it elevates that because you're one of three left in the field. So that was a different experience, and I think I handled it pretty well, obviously. Then it sunk in, yeah, probably a month and a half later when I finally received my invitation, and that was a very special moment shared with my family.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, and welcome.

Santiago, two years after finishing runner-up, you won this year's Latin America Amateur Championship in dramatic fashion with birdies on the final two holes. How did your close finish two years earlier in 2022 motivate you in entering the 2024 championship?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Well, I think that in 2022 it was very painful, not just for me but for everyone around me. Probably hurt more than anything that I've ever experienced. But then it was a good motivation to just keep working hard and just do my own thing because I knew I was going to have more opportunities like that, obviously with a few more years to play.

When I won, I was obviously very happy but more proud of the work that I did, both me and my team did.

THE MODERATOR: For both of you, what's been your biggest impression since arriving to Augusta National this week? Jasper, why don't you go and Santiago follow, if you would, please.

JASPER STUBBS: I think, yeah, coming to Augusta, it's obviously always spoken highly about how perfect it is, and I think it definitely lives up to that expectation. Magnolia Lane with the flowers out is an amazing sight. I think the crowds is the thing that's going to be the biggest eye opener for me that's going to be different to any other week that I've ever experienced.

THE MODERATOR: Santiago?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: For me I would say how hilly it is out here. I don't think that I played a course that's this hilly. Well, at least walking. And how tight it is. I don't feel like people talk often how tight it is and how hard it is to hit some fairways. But it's very hard.

THE MODERATOR: Well, with that, we'll take some questions which we would welcome in either English or in Spanish.

Q. I want to ask you about the last two and a half months, if you can share how was your preparation into the Tournament, taking into account that you want to enjoy, obviously, a very special week, but you want to compete as well.

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Well, my preparation's been the same as any other tournament that I have been playing. I've been obviously very busy with college. I think I played four tournaments after the LAAC. So preparation is still the same. A lot of homework, for sure. Also just talking a lot to the people that's around me and my family, trying to stay in the present.

Q. Jasper, could you give us a bit more data about the scene when the invitation arrived in the mail, how much of a special moment was that and what were you doing, how did you celebrate it?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah. It was, yeah, a very special moment. I opened it -- I waited for my parents to get home from work, and we opened it all together as a family. There were five of us in the room at the time. We were FaceTiming my brother, who was out of the house at the time.

Yeah, we all shared that family moment together, and it was a lot of screaming and cheering that it was finally here. And that's when it sunk in. And, yeah, we didn't do too much of a celebration that night, but obviously the next couple of weeks was the holidays, so, yeah, we celebrated pretty heavily.

Q. How has the process been coming over? Did you get to come and play some practice rounds early, and what's been the experience like so far?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, the experience has been amazing. I got to come back over here in February, and I played, yeah, three days in a row here, around Valentine's Day. Yeah, it was an amazing, different experience to what it is this week. Obviously the course was empty, and I pretty much had it to myself. So it was something very special to have the difference between the two.

Then, yeah, just enjoying being back here again this week.

Q. You had an opportunity to play a practice round with José María Olazábal. Obviously not a typical practice round that you would experience at the University of Houston. Can you share just some of the information he shared with you, what your conversations tended to drift towards when you're out there?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Yeah, well José María was very kind of letting me play with him. I learned a lot from him. He gave me a few tips, more around the greens than on the greens. But it's just special to play with a past champ and getting that information from past years.

So, I'm very grateful to have that opportunity.

Q. Anything specific stand out, just a little more detail, if possible?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Yeah, he said that, well, obviously, I don't know if you seen it, but that it is way easier when you keep the ball lower to the ground around the greens because you don't know how it's going to land on the green. And most of the times, when you land it on the green, it's just landing on a down-slope. So be more aggressive but keeping it low.

Q. Jasper, a couple of questions from me. First of all, making the playoff, and then in sensational fashion winning it at Royal Melbourne, do you think that win and the fact that you were getting to play over here has made you a better player and given you extra motivation over the last -- since that day in October?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, it definitely has given me extra motivation, obviously, two of the biggest events in the world. After winning that event I get invited too. So there's more motivation to come to these events and try and compete as best I can against a world-class field.

So I wouldn't say it's made me a better player necessarily, it just gave me more opportunity to show the golf that I've been working towards playing for the last five six years.

Q. Royal Melbourne Golf Club is very, very different from this place, but designed by the same designer, Dr. Alister MacKenzie. Do you see any similarities in the two courses when you won over there and now when you have come over here?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, I think they're both pretty similar in the way that they're both very firm and fast greens. I think the course is a bit hillier here from the fairways. But definitely, once you're on the greens, Royal Melbourne and Augusta are pretty close in how fast you can get a downhill putt and how much they break.

So it's pretty good to have played a lot of golf there, and I've got a bit of knowledge, I guess, from playing there.

Q. Have you played a practice round or two this week? And, if so, with whom, and has he or they given you some advice?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, so I played with Cam Davis this morning. He was pretty cool. He's already given me a few tips before this week about what to look out for, which was great. We played a round back in December.

Yeah, just looking to play with a few of the Aussies as well. So Cam Smith, going to look to play with him on Wednesday. I think I'm confirmed to play with Hideki tomorrow, which is pretty awesome. Ryo just reached out and, yeah, it was pretty cool. So we're going to play together tomorrow morning.

Q. Was there anything in particular that Cam Davis told you?

JASPER STUBBS: He gave me a tip back in December to work on the second shot on 13. He said it was a shot that surprised him in that the ball's well above your feet, but it's also a down-slope as well. So not many people realize that. And he said it pushed him out to the right side of the hole the first few times he played it, so that's something I've been working on so far.

Q. Is there a particular aspect of your games that you think will best be suited here to play well this week? Is there something that you do well that you think will come to fruition and allow you to play well this week?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: I think for me the thing that's going to help me the most out here is my creativity. I feel that I'm very creative on any type of shot. If I keep using that to my advantage, obviously you have a lot of hills out here that you can take advantage of. So just being creative around the greens and off the fairways.

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, I think from my point of view, yeah, I think having the knowledge of putting on very fast greens, obviously growing up in Melbourne on the Sand Belt we've got fast greens everywhere you look. So I think, yeah, the fast, slopey greens, my putting is going to hold up on here. So I think it's just dialing in some reads that look a little different to me out here and, yeah, continuing that.

Q. Jasper, you mentioned the shot that Cam Davis said to work on, the second into 13, was there any way that you could replicate that in Melbourne?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, at the Australian Golf Center, we have -- which is the home of the Golf Australia High Performance Program down in Melbourne -- we have a driving range, and it's got lots of slopes that you can just hit range balls off, which was awesome for this week, obviously being one of the slopiest weeks of the year. I was practicing all kind of different slopes, as big as I could find them. Then, yeah, just trying to hit different shots off that, which was a pretty cool experience to be able to do that at home.

Q. Is there a particular moment in amateur golf that gives you inspiration that you could have success here this week, whether that be Nick Dunlap winning on the PGA TOUR or even Sam Bennett here last year contending through two rounds? Is there anything that gives you that belief?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, I think those two, yeah, amateur wins -- or I guess not Sam Bennett's win, but how he played here last year definitely proves that amateur golf is coming a long way and that a lot of these guys are ready to compete when they come out of college or at their respective programs in their country.

I think it's pretty cool to see amateurs doing well, and it's definitely, I guess, making it easier to sort of think that we can do it as well.

Q. Would it surprise you to see yourself high on the leaderboard through two or three rounds here? Or would it be something you expect?

JASPER STUBBS: I wouldn't say it's an expectation, but it's definitely something that I'm striving towards to do. I'm not here to make up the numbers. I think Dad's been telling me, everyone in the field this week's got a chance to win, so I'm keeping that in the back of my mind at all times.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and who inspired you into golf?

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Yeah, well, my dad's the one that taught me how to play, and probably my brother was one of my inspirations when I was growing up.

But if we go towards pro golf, I would say Tiger. I mean, watching Tiger do his own thing and win tournaments by a lot of shots, it was very incredible. Then when he won here in 2019, it was also very awesome to watch.

Q. Have either of you experienced the Crow's Nest, and what do you have to tell us about that, both of you?

JASPER STUBBS: I haven't experienced it yet. I've been up there for a quick look when I was back here in February, but I'm staying there tonight after the Amateur Dinner, so it's going to be pretty cool.

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Yeah, I haven't stayed there. I went up to take a quick look as well. But I don't know if I'm staying yet. That's something I haven't decided.

Q. Both of you, there is a sense of anticipation when you're close to a win at the APAC or the LAAC, and then there is an anticipation when you're about to come to Augusta. So can you describe any difference of those two feelings, the closing stages of your amateur event and then just before you come here?

JASPER STUBBS: I think, yeah, obviously there's a high anticipation to play in our respective amateur championships to book a ticket here because it's something that's always talked about, that the winner gets the invitation to the Masters. There is -- yeah, there's a lot of nerves heading into the week, and I think same here. It's the same feeling coming over and it's just on a bigger stage with more people watching. So that's the only difference.

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Yeah, I feel the same. I think that playing the LAAC is a great opportunity and all the players that are in that field feel the same nerves as I did, but probably coming to this week, I mean, I don't have any expectations. I'm here to just play golf and be in the present. And we'll see what happens at the end of the week. I think I feel better right now than what I did at the LAAC.

Q. You mentioned wanting to play a sort of golf that you have been trying to for the past few years. How have you been able to elevate that since your win at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, I mean, it's just, I guess, every time I come away from a big stretch of tournaments, my coach and I will look at what needs to improve. And it's just, yeah, every time we get the chance to improve on that stuff, that's what's been happening over the last five to six years, and that's what's keeping me going at the moment.

So, the last, yeah, five months since the Asia-Pacific, we've been pushing on what we need to work on for this week. And so it's been, I guess, yeah, a five-month journey from here to then. So there's been a lot of work done, and still always trying to play good golf. I never try to play bad golf. So, yeah, just coming here to play as good as I can as well.

Q. Can you share specifically what you've been working on?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, so a lot of the slope work, hitting shots off different slopes, getting out on our fast, firm greens as much as I can. Just, yeah, basically finding the biggest slope as you can find on any golf course you go to because it comes close, but it doesn't compare to here.

Q. Your amateur schedule's a little bit different than players that are playing in the United States with college events and then going to summer. You played three elite amateur golf series events last summer. Can you talk to maybe your preparation back home in Australia versus what you experienced last summer here in the States?

JASPER STUBBS: Yeah, I think Australian golf is very different to American golf. And when I come over last year, that was my first taste of American golf. So I think I was a little unprepared of what to expect. The golf courses over here are very long and challenging, some of the golf courses we played in the Elite Am Series were, anyway.

I mean, they were different tests golf in for what we get in Australia, so, yeah, I think I didn't play as well because I wasn't ready for that. But I think, having done that trip, it's given me the experience to go back and know what to work on coming into this week and my second sort of stretch of tournaments in America.

THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you for your time. Have a great week, good luck, and enjoy your first Masters Tournament. Thank you for participating. Thank you for today.

SANTIAGO de la FUENTE: Thank you.

JASPER STUBBS: Thank you.