LIV GOLF HONG KONG

March 7, 2025

Paul Casey

Hong Kong Golf Club

Crushers GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Paul Casey from Crushers GC. You are the solo clubhouse leader. You fired off a 7-under today. Tell us a little bit about your round.

PAUL CASEY: Good round of golf, bogey-free. Good round of golf, one that I was really happy with. The highlights would be the eagle on 13, long putt on 13, and then really the par save on 18 were -- the par save on 18 was huge. It's such a difficult hole. I made bogey down there in the playoff last year against Abe, and it's got our full respect every time we play it, so to find the water, take a drop and chip in for par was huge and kept the round going.

Q. What is it about this course? Obviously you played so well here last year. Obviously off to an incredible start this year. What is it about this course that you love so much?

PAUL CASEY: There's a lot of elements. Sometimes when you play well at golf courses is what goes into it, it's just the feeling that you get. Playing with the captain, Andy, yesterday, we spoke at length about it; it's obviously great architecture and it's got history, but it's also a vibe, and sometimes when an event has a vibe -- we've got a great hotel this week, the people. The only thing that's not amazing so far is maybe the weather. A bit too cold for my liking.

But it's a place that -- Hong Kong is one of those cities where I would come back here in a heartbeat just to visit and travel to and experience. That's part of it. Sometimes you need the whole package to kind of give you that vibe for the week.

Q. Obviously the last two days have been really cold, really wet. It's supposed to dry up tomorrow. I think the weather is supposed to be about 10 degrees warmer. How is that going to impact your game?

PAUL CASEY: I like that. That's perfect. But everybody else will like that, too.

No, it shortens things up a little bit, but the golf course, if anything, will probably have more teeth because as things dry out, the greens will get bit firmer, get a bit faster. That makes the pin positions just play a little bit harder. If the wind retains and swirls around this property, it's just a difficult thing to judge. So who knows which way the scores go.

Q. The Crushers are sitting at 12-under. They are in first place, as well. Obviously your whole team loves this golf course. How exciting is it that the Crushers are on top of the leaderboard, too?

PAUL CASEY: It is, and having played with Charles and Baan today, Baan didn't necessarily have his best. We fully respect every team out here, and to be sitting atop the leaderboard, obviously it helps with my round of golf today, but with Baan not having his best and yet we're still at the top, I think lifts us because you know Baan will come out firing on all cylinders tomorrow. Charles, too. Charles didn't play his best and I think shot 3-under, and Bryson is Bryson; we know what he's capable of. We respect everybody, and we don't take it for granted, but we're going to knuckle down and keep pushing ahead.

Q. With all four scores counting this year for all three years, you guys are defending champs. Can you guys do it again?

PAUL CASEY: Yes.

Q. We asked Bryson when he was in here, how proud are you of Paul. He's like, I'm super proud of him but I'm going to go out there and kick his ass. What are your thoughts?

PAUL CASEY: Awesome. That's great. What can I say? Look, I'm a lot older than he is, and his accomplishments on the golf course speak for themselves. But I always enjoy playing with him. His ability with the golf ball is second to none. He can drive the golf ball like nobody else really on the planet playing tour golf. But every time I want to go out there, I try and beat him.

So the final round last year playing with him, paired with him and holing that bunker shot on 16, yeah, there's a -- I'll not lie, there's an element where you're like, I want to beat him. So I think he feels that, too.

Wherever we finished in the rankings last year, maybe 10th and 12th or something like that respectively, I'm like, no, I want to beat him this year.

Q. You started on the 8th today, so generally on this course the kind of back nine is known as the scoring nine. You got on that little roll with a birdie at 12 and then the eagle at 13. Knowing that there's a few scoring holes coming up, does that really get you going --

PAUL CASEY: It's such a strange one. I know what you mean because starting on 8 and then 9 is such a difficult hole. When we started the shotgun starts, it's amazing how a lot of discussion in the locker room or the lounge on is it better to start on easy holes, harder holes.

It's weird how I've kind of enjoyed starting on the trickier section of a golf course. So I felt today if I can get -- 8 is not an easy par-3. In fact, there's not an easy starting hole out here in fairness because they're all difficult tee shots in their own right. But get through 9, I thought, there's an opportunity there. I didn't birdie 10 and didn't birdie 11. Had to wait until 12.

It plays a role, yeah, for sure. I wouldn't really want to start on 18 every day. It's not the easiest. But if you can get through it or you make a birdie, you feel like you're ahead of everybody.

Q. You say you missed an opportunity on 10, but 10 was a very tough pin today.

PAUL CASEY: Tough pin, yeah. But isn't that this golf course in a nutshell because this golf course dangles -- it's such a pretty golf course. It's great architecture and it looks like you can get after every single hole. Technically you can. But if you get it wrong, you can look very foolish. I think that's the beauty of it.

Q. During your career, which is quite long now, I remember you winning the Volvo China Open back in the day --

PAUL CASEY: Just over there.

Q. That's got to be more than a decade --

PAUL CASEY: 15 or so, yeah.

Q. You've always liked playing in this part of the world. You played here a lot on the European Tour, as well. What do you like about it here in general?

PAUL CASEY: I pride myself, I think I've won in 13 different countries. I mean, I've always been a global traveler and enjoyed the challenge of trying to tick another country off on the win list. It's something that's always kind of excited me, to win around golf courses with history that are iconic, so you can be assured that I'm trying very hard this week because I'd love to add this one to the list.