Q. Michael, incredible day for you, youngest ever LIV Golf winner. What are the emotions right now?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Speechless. I can't say enough to everybody that came out and supported. The golf course was great. I really started to play well in the afternoon. To everybody that came along and everybody that was here, I'm completely speechless.
Q. Take us through the day. You've got Jon Rahm chasing you, tying you. Bryson is obviously in the mix. What was it like? You seemed unflappable out there today.
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, I definitely saw the names starting to rise up on the leaderboard, especially early. I know we teed off a little bit later, so I knew I had some holes coming in to kind of shake them off a little bit, and I knew as soon as I saw this last hole, I was like, this is my time to strike. It all worked out.
Q. Can you take us through that last chip there?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, I mean, I just wanted to hit it as soon as I could. I saw exactly where I wanted to land it and kind of just drew it up perfectly, and it just kind of rolled out to be perfect. It was just a good shot.
Q. Is it bittersweet not to have Phil here to celebrate this moment?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: No, he sent us a text last night. I know he was watching, said it was the most fun he's had. I'm sure he was looking at it us, and I'm thankful for everything he's done.
Q. How important was he in your recruitment to come to the HyFlyers?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, he's an absolute legend of the game. He was absolutely unbelievable to me the entire year. I really can't thank him enough for everything he did for me.
Q. When you joined LIV Golf, what was something you dreamed of when you joined the league?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: I think this is it right here. It doesn't really get much better than this, especially the last event of the year to kind of cap it off with a bang. This is what you dream of right here. Fortunate enough, it came true today.
Q. You mentioned you had some holes to play because they were finished before you. Talk me through that last putt, the feelings.
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, I hit some unbelievable shots through the middle of the round and couldn't really capitalize. Was just kind of like a roll short. I thought, my time will come, just have some patience, as hard as it seems in the moment. I knew I had a couple scoring holes to come in at the end and was able to cap it off and kind of just knew this was the hole to do it on.
Q. Everything probably narrowed on you as soon as you approached 18 knowing that was it?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: No, it was great. Kind of just being able to see the tee shot was a little tricky with the sun setting right in our eyes. Kind of stepped up, hit it and kept my fingers crossed, and it all worked out.
Q. Being with Bland this round, what was that like? Did you guys have any conversations while you were playing?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: It was kind of a full-circle moment. The first round I ever had on LIV also with him. Kind of knowing I got paired up with him final round of this, it was kind of just funny, it definitely made me laugh last night when I saw it.
Q. Did you get some wise advice from him as you played?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, he's definitely got that, that's for sure.
Q. This was your 13th pro start, and you win. Are you on track to where you thought you would be?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: It's definitely been a rocky year. I had a lot of good guys in my circle that kept pushing me to do the best I can. I knew coming into this week that something special might happen, and kind of shooting 1-over the first round and looking back at the leaderboard, I didn't really think I'd be standing here right now, but I was able to pull it off, and it's pretty unbelievable.
Q. What would you say the key today was for you? I think you hit every green.
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, I just got off to a good start, and then from there it just felt pretty easy. It was just kind of one of those days. I few last night I definitely wasn't nervous coming into today. It was just another normal day. At least that's what I tried to make it seem. I think I tricked myself into kind of believing that throughout the day. Even when I saw them start to chase me down a little bit, I wanted to stay in my own lane and do my best.
Q. When are you going to tee it up next?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: That's a great question. I'm honestly not sure. I'm ready to go back home and spend some time around my family and the people I love.
Q. Nothing on your schedule?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: I'm just taking it week by week.
Q. When you joined LIV, is this the kind of day you were thinking of in terms of Jon Rahm chasing you, trying to chase you down, fending him off?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: Yeah, seeing those names on the leaderboard, those are guys I grew up watching and admiring, so knowing I was able to hold him off, that's even more special, to be honest. I think kind of just set the scene for it. It was a perfect day.
Q. Yesterday in the press conference you mentioned a couple of your ex-teammates had won this past year. Was that something you were thinking about? Did you think about that during the day? How do you feel about that now that you're on that list?
MICHAEL LA SASSO: You know, there's a good buddy of mine that I play a lot of golf with at home. He just moved to Jupiter. He won early this year. He won the 3M, Jackson Koivun, and I kind of stood up on this tee shot knowing it was pretty similar to the one he had there and I knew I wasn't going 20 toe-chunk it like he did. Kind of hit a better ball there. But I'm sure I'll give him something for that back home.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports