LIV GOLF ADELAIDE

April 28, 2024

Cam Smith

Marc Leishman

Lucas Herbert

Matt Jones

The Grange

Ripper GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome the champions of LIV Golf Adelaide 2024, the hometown heroes, Ripper GC. What can only be described as a storybook ending with the playoff and everything that went into it. Cam, how are you feeling right now?

MATT JONES: He's flabbergasted.

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I am flabbergasted actually. I think we're all flabbergasted. I think we're all exhausted. It's been a very long week, and for it to end the way it did was, like you said, a storybook ending. It was so cool.

All the boys played really well. I think we all finished in the top 12 or 13 or something, which is something we probably haven't done as a team before, so that's pretty cool, as well, for everyone to show up at our home event and play really solid golf.

Yeah, I think we're all ready for a beer and a long sleep.

Q. Marc, tell us what it was like on 18, playing that hole twice, just that whole experience out there with the first hole going a little bit sideways and the Stingers weren't putting great, and the whole experience was wild.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, that was a tricky hole location, actually. I don't think there would have been too many putts made around that hole. It was as good as I've played in front of -- it takes a fair bit to get me nervous, and that tee shot on the first playoff hole, I was pretty nervous.

To make that putt that you're probably talking about on the 18th hole, I was saying before to someone else that if I hadn't have made that putt, I feel like I would have been charged and trampled. Yeah, that was a pretty important putt to make, and obviously a great one to see go in.

Yeah, it was just a great day all in all really. To play with Lucas for the day, I've never really fist pumped to go from 20th to 18th or 17th before, and I think that team aspect really does that to us. You don't have a chance to win the individual tournament, but you've got a chance to help your team, so I think that's really a massive draw card of this event.

Q. Lucas, you were on fire today. Every time I looked at the TV you were sinking another putt. Obviously that was a big contribution to the team taking home the win today. Tell us about your day. Did you feel a lot of pressure out there like you needed to perform well for the team?

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't know that I felt too much pressure. I sort of chatted with Pughie, my caddie, before the round. We were starting on 7, so I think in that first eight holes we were going to play all the par-5s, which I thought was where we were really going to take advantage of the golf course, so I was kind of prepping myself for a pretty hot start, and then I think we played that stretch of holes like 1-under maybe, and I was kind of like, oh, dammit, that was our advantage gone.

Then just went about sort of getting it out of trouble in all sorts of different spots for the last 10 holes and rolled in a few putts.

It just felt like there with six, seven holes to go, we look up at the board, we're maybe leading or one back, somewhere around that range, and everyone in the crowd could feel it. We could all feel it, that we were trying to get it done.

Obviously playing with Leish, I don't know that either of us would have played as well as we did had we not played with each other because it was like anytime he did anything remotely good, I was just straight into him, like, "great shot, Leish, well done there, that was taff, really well done." We fed off each other all day like that. I think that played a big part in why both of us shot 65 and ultimately got us into that playoff.

Q. Jonesy, you had an awesome week this week. You played really, really well. Can you sum up the experience both on course and what it's like to be sitting up here now?

MATT JONES: It's not that easy to sum up. For us to win in Australia as a team, it's something we wanted to do last year. We didn't get it done. To do it this year, yeah, it's hard to explain. To do it with these guys who are all good friends, we have such a good time together, and I think that's one of the aspects that makes our team so good. We're such good friends. We have a good time hanging out, drinking, which we'll do plenty of tonight and on the plane tomorrow I'm sure.

Q. Cam, that moment where you had to decide the two players that were going to play in the playoff, can you take us into the locker room and what that situation was like?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, it wasn't easy. Not an easy decision. I had just made bogey on 18, and we kind of all talked about it. We had a good chat. Obviously Leish and Herby shot a really good score today, so they were kind of on fire.

Yeah, I mean, in the end it was the right decision. Do I think it would have mattered? Probably not. I think any one of these guys could have stepped up there and got the job done.

I think today for myself it was about digging deep. I didn't really have my best stuff out there, but we did it in that first playoff hole. We both made pretty good pars and kept us in the golf tournament.

Yeah, I think it could have gone either way. I think either one of us could have done it.

Q. What was the best part of this week? Is there a certain moment, whether it was standing up in front of the crowd just now doing shoeys or sitting here --

MATT JONES: The fan support. Walking down every fairway, it's not even close to any event you'll ever experience, for myself personally. The amount of times you hear go Rippers, go Jonesy is unbelievable, and that doesn't happen very often. It's definitely that.

LUCAS HERBERT: I asked Pughie if we could play a fourth round this week just because I wanted to experience what we have experienced all this week for another day. It was just phenomenal. The amount of support we have had all week from the fans, I think I earned a few new nicknames out there. I heard "Wing Nut" a few times. I feel that might be semi-appropriate.

CAM SMITH: That one is going to stick.

MARC LEISHMAN: Obviously that putt I made on 18 in the first playoff hole was pretty good. How we got out of that, I don't really know. We were done and dusted by the looks of it. Then I can't remember if it was going to the second playoff hole or after we had won already, but walking from kind of the clubhouse around to the 10th tee to the golf carts and the fans all screaming at you, screaming your name, that's something that I'll remember forever.

I think all of the experiences that we had this week that are memorable will be pretty much due to the fans because they were so good.

CAM SMITH: I'd probably have to say Leish's putt, as well, although I was absolutely shitting myself on my putt that had to come. But that's as loud of a roar as I've ever heard, and then probably again after I made mine was pretty special.

Yeah, to get out of that, especially with Louis and Dean are hitting two perfect shots, really how you have to play the hole, and then Leish and I kind of -- yeah, not playing it the way it should be played, but yeah, getting out of that hearing the crowd was pretty cool.

Q. What are you guys going to do to celebrate?

CAM SMITH: Probably just a quiet night, just go to sleep.

MARC LEISHMAN: A couple Diet Cokes and be off to bed.

LUCAS HERBERT: A bit of packing for the plane tomorrow.

MARC LEISHMAN: No, there will be some beers involved.

Q. Some Leishman Lagers?

MARC LEISHMAN: If we can get a hold of it somewhere, definitely. But no, the plane ride tomorrow could be pretty rough I would think. There will be some banging heads on it. It's going to be a good night.

The good thing about this is it's not just us four that won. We've got obviously our caddies that helped us with it and everyone else that supports us, and then everyone that was here at the golf course today. I'm sure there will be people in the city in Adelaide that will see where we are and I'm sure we'll have some beers with people that we've never seen before and they will feel like we're mates, and we will feel like we're mates, too, which is great.

Q. Just a quick one did the teams component. When you have a day like this, you guys want LIV to be such a successful concept. Does it go to show how important the teams component is to the success of this long-term?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I think so. I think it's been -- that's been from the get-go. Ever since Leish and I come into this team with Jonesy and Wade it was, that's all we talked about. It's such a different way to think about golf. Especially for us, I think, because we're all such good mates, I think the Stingers are really good mates, as well. There's a couple of teams that don't quite get along as well as what we do. But doing something for your mates is special.

Usually in golf if we were playing on the Tour and Leishy was up on the leaderboard, I'd be barracking for him or for Jonesy or whatever, but for it to actually mean something and do something for the guy you're leaning on is a cool feeling and something that we haven't experienced probably since we were 17, 18 years old playing in the interstate series.

It's a feeling that's good. It's just how this is going to go, I think, for a very long time.

MARC LEISHMAN: I think it shows that LIV Golf is just a different product. It's something that can embrace four blokes, eight blokes, including our caddies, and then today it's something that a whole country embraced one team, and that's something that I don't think happens very often, and I think that goes to show that it's certainly going somewhere and a force to be reckoned with.

Q. Just on that point about embracing a team, I think we saw on the playoff, on those extra holes, the crowd was so rowdy and almost Bronx cheered the South Africans when they were playing their shot. Do you want that to be part of golf etiquette going forward? It's all fair game, obviously.

MARC LEISHMAN: I think the only time we'll embrace that is the first time we go to South Africa and if we're in a playoff with the Stingers, I think we'll embrace that they can do whatever the hell they want to us.

But yeah, I mean, I think it was cool. The first team playoff is going to be remembered, and I'm going to remember it for all positive things.

Q. Marc, I think you birdied the Watering Hole on all three days. It almost seemed like it was just too easy for you -- did you as well, Leish? Apologies. It seemed too easy for you this week.

MATT JONES: I enjoyed the tee being moved up just a little bit every time. I could hit wedge -- I think I hit wedge three times, maybe hit 9-iron one time. I can't really remember. But I made a nice 15-footer today for birdie. There was actually a bit of stress going into that hole because I spoke to Cam before the round started and he said the pin was a doozy. I was a bit worried when I was hitting that tee shot, to be honest.

Q. Cam, was there a time during the round where you looked at the scoreboard and you saw how the other three guys were playing and you felt like, man, I've got to get another gear here?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, for sure. I definitely didn't have my best stuff today. I told Sam on the 7th green, I said, Mate, I'm absolutely shitting myself here. I had just made a birdie, but it seemed like I was just tight and tense. Yeah, just had a lot of pressure, and then the way that the boys were playing, it almost added another element of pressure, like I really have to pull my finger out here because everyone else is going good.

There was that, but had that little stretch of holes there, birdie alley, from 7 until 13. We're going to call that birdie alley. There's four par-5s in there, all reachable. So you'd like to think you could get a couple if not a few, and managed to do that, and then really just get on the front foot from there and made a nice putt on 14.

Yeah, by the time we went to the 17th tee, actually looked back over to 13 green at the scoreboard and we had like a six-shot lead or something. I'm like, we're cruising here.

Yeah, the Stingers just come out of nowhere basically. It was such a cool day. There was such a mix of emotions. Then when you throw the team stuff in there, as well, you really want to dig deep and really do it for everyone else.

Q. When you made the jump to LIV, is this what you envisioned, like this week? Not just winning today but just how you guys were accepted by an entire city and country?

CAM SMITH: This week has far exceeded my vision for what was ahead. I think I always knew internally that Australia would really embrace LIV with the culture, with the music, with the entertainment, everything that goes on around it. I always felt like this was the place where it was going to make it big, and how it's been the last couple of years has been just insane.

Last year I said, I'm biased, this is the best tournament I've ever played. I think this year it's done it again.

It's so cool. We just don't get to experience this. And being the home team makes it so much more special.

What these guys have done this week even makes it better again. Yeah, it's really cool.

Q. Leish, when you were walking to the 18th green on that first playoff hole, what percentage of chance would you have given you guys to win?

MARC LEISHMAN: Well, I've been in some pretty low-percentage places with bigger consequences. I would say -- it wasn't looking good. I would say 25 percent chance that we could go on. I thought there was a very low percent -- I think 25 percent is being -- yeah, I'm an optimist. Yeah, I don't know. I knew those putts weren't easy because I had that same putt that they had in regulation, and I hit a really good putt and it didn't hit the hole -- actually it did hit the hole. It lipped out.

It was a really tricky pin. It was pretty much every pin within six or even five feet of the hole from behind that pin is a double breaker. I don't know, yeah, it was a low percentage, but there was an even lower percentage that we were going to come out on top after that hole.

But you've got to just embrace that stuff, I think. Embrace the challenge and hope that you can come out of it and give yourself another chance, which we did, and it turned out pretty good for us.