LIV GOLF ANDALUCíA

July 11, 2024

José María Arrabal

Javier Reviriego

Real Club Valderrama

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by José María Arrabal, general secretary of sport for the government of Andalucía, and then we also have Javier Reviriego, CEO of the Real Golf Club of Valderrama. Thank you for joining us.

This is the second year in a row that we have LIV Golf Andalucía here in Valderrama. How do you feel about it? What's the sensation, the atmosphere? How are you preparing for it?

JAVIER REVIRIEGO: Well, very excited, very happy. Last year everything was new. Everything -- it was a new era for us after many, many events.

I have to say we're very, very excited. We're very happy with the setup that LIV has provided. I think it's absolutely outstanding, world class. The field of players as we all know is world class and outstanding. The weather is going to be great.

I think the combination of these three factors is going to make for a very special event, and I think it's even more special with our top Spanish players here, with Jon being here for the event. It's really going to be a special year, and I hope that we'll get some leverage to carry on for the future.

JOSÉ MARÍA ARRABAL: I would like to, first of all, welcome our visitors. Welcome to Andalucía. Welcome to Spain. Andalucía is golf country. We are very happy and tremendously blessed to be hosting this amazing competition once again.

I would like to particularly thank the attendance of the international media. Thank you so much for spreading the word of our love for golf.

Last but not least, expressing our respect for Valderrama, particularly for Javier. Tremendous asset for our community, for our country. Valderrama, a great example of being able to respect tradition. We respect tradition big time, but at the same time, we're not afraid of evolution.

My hats off for Javier and for Valderrama in this sense.

Tremendous opportunity to have a chance to host LIV once again. We feel we've been part of something very special, and we look forward to going hand in hand in the future.

There will be challenges, of course, ups, downs, but that's family, right? Some days are better than others. But we're blessed and happy and excited to be part of this family.

THE MODERATOR: We know that Andalucía is investing a lot in sports. Can you tell us more about that and how do you expect for this to be a real driver for good in your community?

JOSÉ MARÍA ARRABAL: Certainly. Andalucía was able to host last year 286 events. I remember I had the chance to visit, together with some of my colleagues, tennis US Open last year at Flushing Meadows, and I remember this very prestigious journalist, American journalist asking, let me get this straight: Last week you guys hosted USA Basketball team in Málaga, this week you're here presenting Davis Cup Finals, Billie Jean Cup Finals, next week Solheim Cup. All of that in the same territory.

Well, Andalucía is in love with sport, and not only from a practice standpoint but also from an industrial standpoint. Sports nowadays, in our society, in our world, has got a driving strength, difficult to measure by any other activity in our society, and this determines positioning in sports.

It's something we would like to maintain in the future because it's providing tremendous value to our community, to our people, and it's creating a lot of jobs. It's adding value in terms of health, values, visitors, infrastructures and so on. Yeah, absolutely, Andalucía loves sports. Definitely golf is family. We look forward to keep the ball rolling.