THE MODERATOR: How does it feel being back?
ABRAHAM ANCER: I'm excited. It's been a long time since the change of date, but extremely excited, really excited to see the golf course. Played nine holes yesterday, and I'll play 18 today in the Pro-Am. It seems like it's a very fun golf course.
I talked to some of my buddies that played here in April. They said they made some changes, made it longer. It's going to be tougher. So definitely looking forward to the challenge.
Q. How is your game right now?
ABRAHAM ANCER: I think it's good. I'm excited to compete. I feel like I haven't played in a little bit. Been practicing quite a bit back home. Excited to compete and get the juices flowing again.
Q. I know it's been a while since you won the event, but how has your almost two years been since you had that victory?
ABRAHAM ANCER: Right after the victory, I think I was extremely excited for the year. I guess the victory gave me a lot of confidence, but maybe I raised my expectations quite a bit. Obviously competition is extremely fierce, and I didn't really quite have the season I would have hoped after the win.
After that, this year ended up being a really solid year, won in Hong Kong and played a lot better than what I did the previous year. It definitely trended the right direction. I feel like my expectations were -- I wasn't thinking about these results. I was just playing a little bit more free golf, a little bit more like a kid, which is definitely nice.
Q. When you won that, what was the key that week?
ABRAHAM ANCER: I don't know. It's tough to pinpoint what it was. Obviously I hit the ball really good. It's a golf course that I liked a lot. I never played there before. It definitely suited my game, rolled the ball nicely.
Sunday wasn't the easiest. I had a five-shot lead and conditions were a little bit tough, didn't play my best. I had to definitely grind it out there at the end. Awesome playoff with Paul Casey and Cam Smith. Hit the right shot at the right time and made the putt to win. That was really cool.
Q. I just wondered, do you consider yourself to be in better form now than you did when you were ranked 11th in the world before? If so, how has LIV Golf improved your game?
ABRAHAM ANCER: The game feels very good. I think it's not the game. I think mentally when I first came to LIV, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. The game was there, but mentally I did struggle quite a bit, to be honest. I was really trying too hard. This season I just let that go and started playing golf. I started playing how I knew how to play golf, and the wins started showing up.
With that win in Hong Kong, it definitely gave me a lot of confidence, and it starts to feel that way. I feel like it's definitely trending in the right direction, and I feel I can improve a lot more than I did before.
Q. I just wanted to know what you feel of the international city setup as well? These ten events on the Asian Tour, what's your thoughts on that?
ABRAHAM ANCER: I love what the Asian Tour and LIV are doing. This Tour has grown so much. The strength of the fields are incredible. A lot of the LIV guys are going out and playing in some of these events that are run properly, and they're great.
I'm excited to play in some more of these events. I played in Oman last year. I guess it was this year, just earlier this year. I've never been there before. The golf course was phenomenal, it was in great shape, and it was a lot of fun. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Q. Obviously there's another story, which is about the rankings, the end of season rankings, and that plays to get you onto the LIV Golf league. Peter Uihlein is currently top, just overtook John Catlin, Ben Campbell's third. You've probably seen all of them playing on LIV this season. I wonder your thoughts on all three of them as players, and who you fancy to win that ranking spot, if I could ask?
ABRAHAM ANCER: That's a tough question. They're all great competitors and good buddies. I've played a lot with Catlin since college. I know he's been all over the world. He's played everywhere, and he's had a lot of years that he struggled, and then he just rose and played good at the right time. He's a gamer. I feel like he figures out a way to just get it done.
Same with Peter Uihlein. He just won last week. He's one of those players that he can win any week at any given time.
Ben, that's probably the guy I know the least, but I feel he's a good buddy, and we have a lot of things in common we like to do outside of golf. I haven't ever played with him actually, so I don't know exactly what his game looks like, but obviously he's extremely good at what he does.
I think it's going to be really cool to see who ends up winning that. Obviously for Ben and for John, it's extremely important to lock up a spot. It's huge. It's life changing. It's really cool to have that much excitement, but I'm not going to pick a player.
Q. Just your thoughts on the golf course. How is that playing? What's the key to playing the golf course?
ABRAHAM ANCER: Like I said, I've just played nine. I haven't seen the back nine today. I feel like it's a fun golf course. Yesterday I played it with no wind. I feel like there might be a lot of birdies if that's the case. I know it's a lot softer now. I know in April it was firmer and faster, probably played a little bit tougher.
If the wind blows and we get the greens rolling a little bit quicker and it's a little firmer, it's definitely going to be a great challenge. I can't wait to see the back nine and see what it looks like.
Q. You just spoke about how good you're enjoying sort of being a LIV golfer, playing on the Asian Tour. If you could sit back and picture how you would like to see all tours play together, and more importantly, seeing the PGA TOUR and the European Tour on the same page as LIV Golf. Can you sit back and think of that, think of how good the Asian Tour is with LIV and how you'd like to see all men's pro golf on the same page?
ABRAHAM ANCER: Yeah, I think that's what we all think about quite a bit. That's what we -- I guess I used to think. I feel like now I'm just more focused on playing. There's a lot of stuff that I have no idea what's going to transpire. I just stopped worrying about it.
Obviously we all want to be able to play with the best players in the world and have this kind of like synergy and play where everybody wants to play, but it's so tough to figure that out and to make everybody happy. It's impossible. I'm just really worried about where I'm at right now and trying to play my best golf and see where that takes me.
I'm happy. I'm happy where I'm at. I enjoy what I'm doing. I think I'm in the right spot, and playing in these events is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I'm really enjoying it.
It's a tough question to really just pinpoint and answer just directly like that.
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