LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 28, 2024

Brendan Steele

The Grange

HyFlyers GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're here with Brendan Steele. How good does it feel to be sitting up here right now?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, this is really surreal. I was telling you on the ride over, I'm pretty overwhelmed, but to win this event is really special. I can't say enough good things about the fans and the golf course and the whole experience this week.

Q. How important was it this week to have teammates around you, have the HyFlyers there? I know you said Phil gave you some advice yesterday. How important was that to this win?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I lean on Phil pretty hard with everything, with how to hit shots around the green, how to approach things. He's one of the best players ever, and he can give me advice. If he's going to give me advice, I'm going to take it. I definitely want to listen to him, and he's helped me a ton with everything from wedge play, short game, mental game. Just instilling confidence in myself, and he's a big reason I'm sitting up here.

Q. There was a lot of action on the golf course today. You were able to hold the lead, but there was a couple times Jon almost caught you, others almost caught you. Were you paying attention to the leaderboard?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I was paying attention. I always do. I had a bad experience not paying attention when I was younger thinking that I had a chance to win and I didn't and kind of made some mistakes with that. I definitely pay attention.

I want to know what kind of strategy we need to do. Like on 17, for instance, like I can hit driver off that tee if we need a birdie, but I don't want to. So I didn't.

But I definitely wanted to know where I was.

Q. The HyFlyers also were making a run at the podium, as well. Were you keeping an eye on that?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yes, definitely. I saw Andy got off to a hot start, so that was great. He had an awesome week and I'm so proud of him. We know how good he is, and it's nice for him to show it this week. That was really great.

Q. That moment when you're walking down 18 and the fans are behind you and it's like a scene from one of the world's biggest golf events, what did that feel like?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, that was pretty wild. I was terrified over that wedge shot, to be honest, because it's like -- it's a really tough shot. I need to get it over the tier but not go into the back bunker. I've got 10,000 fans in the fairway kind of right on top of me.

Fortunately all the work that I've put in over the off-season with Phil in his backyard and all the help that he's given me, it really paid off with that shot specifically.

Q. Your experience this week playing in Adelaide and with the Australian fans?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, I mean, I can't say enough good things about how the fans treated me this week. I've never had so much support, which is I think really cool, being in not my home country, not my home area. They just treated me so well. I can't say enough good things about them.

Q. What did Phil tell you before the round?

BRENDAN STEELE: He was talking to me about -- he was like, how are you feeling? What are you thinking? I said, well, if I can play freely like I did the last couple days, I feel like I'll have a good chance. He's like, that's great. Let's reframe it. Let's make it when I play freely, I can play freely, I will play freely. Let's reframe it into that. I was saying, and then I think it'll be good enough. He's like, no, it will be good enough, you will play freely. This is what you need to do. So that was what I was trying to do.

Q. What did he tell you afterwards? You guys had a nice hug.

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, he was just telling me how proud he is of me and how he knew this was coming and he thinks it's going to set off a lot of really good things for me. Just for him to have that belief in me is really great. He's the reason that I'm here and the reason that I'm improving. To be honest, I'm 41 years old and I'm getting better, and it's mostly because of him. It's really great.

Q. Obviously this is the first trophy of any kind that the HyFlyers have been able to celebrate. How nice is it to just get that first one for the team?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, we wanted to get one on the board. We always talk about getting all four guys to win individually, and getting one is a start, and getting on the podium this week is a start for us. It's a good result, and we're excited to have a little fun tonight and then to reset for next week because we definitely want to have a chance to win Singapore.

Q. You had the early bogey but then you had the streak of five straight birdies. Obviously that settled down, set the tone for the rest of the round?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, definitely did. Starting on 1, the first few holes are hard out here. No. 3, I think it was 253 today into the wind, so made bogey there, but that's not a disaster.

I knew that other guys were kind of starting on easier holes, whether they had played par-5s or whatever, so I knew they were going to sneak up on me, but I knew I had those holes coming. Just had to be a little patient right at the start and then was able to pop off five in a row, so that was helpful.

Q. You've won in Napa and you've won in Australia in wine country. What is the secret there?

BRENDAN STEELE: I think I just enjoy myself. I think probably this climate and the golf course and just how the feels are here are similar to California. I know my Australian friends always say that they're very comfortable in Southern California and I'm very comfortable here. That may have something to do with it.

Q. How much of your strategy today was to keep the ball below the hole on these very slippery fast greens?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, quite a bit. Relied on my caddie Christian quite a bit to tell me with the pins where we needed to be, where we can't be, so we obviously want to hit it as close as we can, but we need to do it within reason, and sometimes you have to be safe and smart. Even though the scores are low, you have to watch where you put the ball because you can get in big trouble out there.

Q. When your lead began to shrink a bit on the back nine, a couple birdie putts didn't drop, you looked very calm and collected. Were you calm and collected?

BRENDAN STEELE: I'm pretty nervous all the time. I think that's just my DNA. I really want to play well all the time, so it was about kind of overcoming that and trying to be as free as I could be, and I felt great with how I executed, even despite being very nervous.

Q. Two editions of LIV Golf Adelaide won by two Americans. It doesn't seem like a golf course that would suit American players. I wonder if you can provide any insight into what you and Talor last year found that the other players couldn't?

BRENDAN STEELE: Yeah, that's a good point. I'm not sure I know and generally think of Americans as the big-hitting -- like you want the big wide golf courses. Where I won in Napa twice is a little bit more like this. It's a little bit more point A to point B, have to be smart with your strategy. In general I would say as long as you're driving it really well here, you can get after some stuff. But as soon as you get off the fairways, you're in trouble, and the fairways aren't very big for the most part.

I can't really put my finger on it, but Talor and I maybe like similar things and play a similar game, and we're not the big bombers that you would normally think of, I guess, with Americans.

Q. Should we be giving you more credit at being able to adapt than perhaps we do?

BRENDAN STEELE: I don't know about that. I feel really good when I get here. I understand the shots that it requires. I like the strategy. I like not just getting on the tee and wailing driver on every hole. I like being -- like on 9 and 13 even, I'm hitting this like helicopter cut driver that I've been working on just for those two holes specifically. I like coming up with that kind of stuff. I'm hitting a lot of 4-irons off the tee to put myself in position and then controlling my numbers with 9-iron and wedge and things like that. I enjoy that side of it versus just getting up on the tee and wailing driver over and over again.

Q. Do you think you won this with a particular department of your game, or do you think it was your mental strength as you mentioned before?

BRENDAN STEELE: I think mostly just playing more freely than I normally do. The wedge play was fantastic this week, and that's all the work that I've done with Phil over the last six months really. I was able to hit my numbers all the time. I hit a ton of wedges really close. Even like the first day I played the par-5s even, but I made eight birdies. I was hitting really good shots and kind of knew that there was something special in it if I wasn't playing the par-5s well and still making that many birdies.

Q. You were watching the playoff in the teams events. You're a rather impassioned observer. I wanted to get your thoughts, what you made of the Bronx cheers towards the South Africans when things went a little haywire for them?

BRENDAN STEELE: I thought that was really cool. It was the first playoff in LIV history; is that correct? Team playoff? It was really fun to see. There's a lot of pressure there with the team. You want it really bad. It definitely turned into a true home game there. But I think it's all in good fun. I think it was great, and it's a great result to have Ripper win in the home country.