LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 27, 2024

Brendan Steele

The Grange

High Flyers GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Brendan Steele from HyFlyers GC. He is currently the solo leader in the clubhouse. You shot an 8-under 64 today even with a bogey. Tell us about your round.

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, got off to a hot start. Birdied the first two, birdied I think six of the first eight, so was really cooking along, then made that bogey but bounced back with a birdie at the Watering Hole.

Just a great day. Obviously did everything really well. Drove it well. Hit good wedges. Short game was good. Holed a few putts. When you do everything well, it ends up being a round like that.

Q. You've got Danny Lee, Carlos Ortiz and Mito Pereira hot on your tail, then some others at 11-under. What do you need to do tomorrow to break away from the pack?

BRENDAN STEELE: It's going to be tough because there's a lot of birdies out there, obviously. It's kind of a race to 20-under par I think at this point. For me personally, I just want to go and play as freely as I can. I've been doing that well the last couple days, and if I can do it for one more day, then I think I can have a good chance.

Q. Stepping on to the tee box tomorrow as the leader at LIV's biggest event, will there be some nerves on that first tee?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I'm nervous every day when I play. That's just kind of how it is. But as long as you can accept that and use it, it just means that it's important to you. That's where I need to play freely. I need that to come in.

Q. Tell us about the fan experience out here in Adelaide.

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, the fans are incredible. Obviously there's a ton of them. They're very supportive. I played with Matt Jones today, so obviously a little bigger crowds with us, and they're just having such a great time, and they're so respectful and fun and supportive it's great.

Q. How was your experience on the Watering Hole?

BRENDAN STEELE: Watering Hole was good. I had just made a bogey on 11 and I was able to step in there and I hit it like three feet today, so that was fantastic. I loved it.

Q. You and Danny and Carlos the top 3, it's like a Tucson reunion.

BRENDAN STEELE: That's what I was thinking when she was saying that. How far back is Louis? Yeah, it's a little crazy, but I guess we must like the same style of courses.

Just like yardage-wise and turf-wise, we probably like the same kind of stuff, too, which is a little drier climate. I don't know, there's some sort of parallel there.

Q. Do you feel like you owe Danny one?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I give Danny a hard time about that putt all the time. That was ridiculous. Hopefully he doesn't do it again tomorrow.

Q. You've shot a couple of 63s out here, but this is your lowest related to par. Do you feel like this is the best round from you since when?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I had some really nice rounds last year. But yeah, this is definitely the best round of the year for sure. 6-under yesterday was really nice, as well. But I was even in a little more control of what I was doing today. Really happy with how I feel with every part of my game.

Q. Did you feel like this was coming? Did you sense it?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I have been feeling like that, and we're staying in a house together this week, the whole team, and Phil and I went out for coffee this morning, and he was just like, if you think about it, there's no reason that you can't go play amazing. There's no holes in your game right now. You need to trust that, and what do you think could hold you back, and I was like, well, if I don't play free enough. He's like, well, go out there and free it up because everything from my perspective looks amazing. I did that, and he was right.

Q. I know Phil has practiced off the Flight Deck. Have you?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I hit balls up there yesterday. It's a fun spot up there for sure.

Q. Does it give you a different perspective, though?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, it does. I didn't want to blade any into Charles Howell's head or anything. I was hitting right over him.

Q. Did you think 20-under was the score before you got here that you'd need to win?

BRENDAN STEELE: I think Talor was at 20-under before the final round. He was there after something like that as long as it wasn't super windy. There's good scores out there for sure, as long as you're in the fairway. If you're not in the fairway, then you struggle. If you're in the fairway, then you can take on a lot of the pins. As long as you're in the fairway you can really, really get it going. The guys are so good that you'll always have to shoot somewhere between 15- and 20-under par barring some crazy weather I feel like.

Q. You mentioned you played with Matt Jones. You've got Cam Smith looming just on your tail, as well. Do you feel like that crowd advantage is something that both Cam and Matt have in their favor tomorrow?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, for sure. The crowd is fantastic and they're pulling so hard for those guys, and they're performing really well. It's great to see.

But they've been awesome to me. I can't say enough about things about how they've treated me, and I've really enjoyed my time out there with them.

Q. Can you talk about your mindset being the leader going into the final round, what you've learned of your career? Do you keep an eye on the scoreboard on the final day? Is there anything you've learned over your time as a leader?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I've learned that there's a low way to go. 18 holes is a long time. It's a great position to be in, but there's a lot of work to do tomorrow.

I think what I've learned the most is that there's nothing to protect. You have to go and take it. You can go and try and take it and it doesn't work, but the best chance you're going to have is if you go out there, play freely, try to take it rather than trying to play it safe.

Q. ... do you guys talk about that? Is that something you're aware of?

BRENDAN STEELE: We're definitely aware of it. We know everything that's going on. Yeah, we've talked about it. We were talking about it flying over here. Phil was like, this is the time, guys. This is our trip. We've all been moving the right direction here, and this is our time to go out and take it and go do it. We've circled these two weeks as like it's time to really kick it into high gear.

Q. Was there one shot out there today especially early that you felt like, all right, this is going to be a good day?

BRENDAN STEELE: Well, I started on 3, and it's a 4-iron for my first shot into a pretty small area, and obviously I'm not thinking 2 there, but I hit a really good shot and made a 2. It kind of was like, wow, if you're going to make a 2 there, then you're going to have some good chances today.