Los Angeles Golf Club 12, Jupiter Links GC 1
THE MODERATOR: Welcome, Los Angeles Golf Club, to the press center, TGL presented by SoFi. Each of you one by one, starting with Sahith, just overall impressions and feedback overall on the night?
SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, it was super fun. I watched every second of the first match. I was lucky enough to play a practice match so I kind of got the rhythm of how the match went before we played this one officially, so I felt pretty comfortable.
There was still a lot of new aspects that I think we got a lot better sense of as the match went on, but yeah, I was really happy with how the ball was reacting into the screen. The turf feels great.
Honestly, chipping and putting are some of the toughest parts just because it's so hard to read the greens. Luckily I had two of the best green readers in the world here. I don't think I even read a putt by myself.
It was a great match. To get up how much we did early, I think we had five points through four holes or something like that. The hammer is huge, and we were in control of the hammer. It did get out of hand a little bit, but we didn't want to give up any points. We wanted every point that we could get out there.
But overall super fun. Yeah, maybe the hammer stuff, there could be some more nuances with that. Especially with the singles, it's so fun to throw the hammer back and forth, and by that time the match was over.
But other than that, I had a blast out there. The adrenaline was pumping. I'm still drenched in sweat by just how excited and nervous I was. It was just such a good time.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Yeah, we're probably the newest team in LA, but to get back-to-back wins with the Rams and then us -- you laugh at that, I know, but look, we don't take this lightly.
At some point when we were up pretty good, even through the triples, I told these guys, let's -- I don't need to tell them, but let's keep winning points. We don't take this lightly. We're trying to win. We're having fun at the same time, but we want to win.
But going back to LA, what has happened, I know I was just trying to hit great shots but I was trying to play a little bit harder for them and what's going on back home. It's nice to get another win for LA and the city of LA, and we're there for them as much as we can and doing our part hopefully just a little bit to keep the spirits high.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, so from my point of view I was obviously in a far-off place last week and was unable to get with the times. I didn't really follow what was going on other than how excited everyone was and how well it was received.
We were kind of in here at 8:00 this morning really working through the rhythm of the match and kind of playing some triples out there and I think that really kind of helped me feel what to expect.
These guys were just phenomenal to play against. They're guys on TOUR that I have a ton of respect for, and to be on their team was something that I really enjoyed today.
I think from 8:00 this morning until right now we've pulled together, and I think it was a really professional, kind of, like, great teamwork day where we really had each other's backs. It was a cool result.
Obviously a huge honor to be out here playing my first one. It was awesome to play against Jupiter Links and obviously have Tiger walk out to "Eye of the Tiger." That was a cool moment. You're sitting there as a competitor and you appreciate everything that Tiger has done and how this has all come about, and it was fun to play against him and his team in our first match.
But the gun goes off, they throw the hammer, and it's game on.
Q. Collin, you alluded to it in your remarks, but just what did wearing "LA strong" mean? We all know sports can take people's minds off things for a couple hours, like the Rams did, like you guys might have tonight. Whether Genesis happens or not, how important is it to remember the power of mental relief for people in LA that need a little bit of an escape right now?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: It's huge, and I get to that point sometimes where you think it's over but it's not. The winds are picking up, fire is still going, people are still out there fighting the fires, protecting their houses, helping their neighbors, helping communities. That's why LA is to me such a great city, because you never want something to happen like that, but you see all the people come together, you see all the people helping each other out, having their backs.
You just kind of use that, and like Justin said today, we relied a lot on just the teamwork. You have to rely on your teammates just kind of going through shots and going through the course. Going back to LA, it's very, very special for us to be able to represent that and wear it on our chest.
Q. Sahith, you're from that area, very close to what's happening. Talk about what the last week has been for you and what it meant to get out here maybe as an escape.
SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, it was pretty surreal, to be honest. I wanted to be home. I was in Honolulu last week, and to be honest, I was pretty distracted all week waiting on updates. A lot of my friends and family evacuated, and I hope Carl doesn't mind me sharing this, but his sister's house burned down, and he stuck it through on my bag last week, and he was here this week. I know his family is having a hard time.
It's just crazy. It's crazy to have it hit so close to home. It just feels like it's happened too much in recent times. I was on Pepperdine's campus during the '18 Woolsey fire, and it just feels like an ongoing thing the last six, seven years. There's no slowing down.
Before that first fire happened, it didn't feel real at all. You see fires happening, houses being burned down, people's lives being destroyed, and when you see it right in front of your eyes, it's as real as it gets and it's scarier than any media portrayal. It's scarier than anything that's being described.
Like Collin said, LA is super resilient, one of the best cities in the world for a reason, and a lot of that is the people. A lot of resilient people. A huge shout out to the first responders. They're putting their lives in the lines to save not only people's lives but people's livelihoods.
My heart breaks for them so bad. I'm going to be back there tomorrow, and it's just going to be nice to be back with some friends and family, and like I said, hopefully take joy in some of these wins that are happening in sports. It's a good distraction.
But I saw another fire broke out in Inland Empire in Jurupa Valley, so it just seems like an ongoing thing, and hopefully by some miracle of God or something we get some rain and all these fires get put out.
But yeah, it's going to be tough to see what comes on the other side. But I know we're going to bounce back as a city, as we always do, and we're going to be better than ever.
Q. All the preparation that went in obviously since 8:00 in the morning and all that, what would any of you guys say was the most unexpected part once you stepped out there and this whole thing was up and rolling? Was there anything that caught you off guard or you didn't expect once you got out there?
COLLIN MORIKAWA: Everything.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I mean, we're out of our comfort zone, totally out of our comfort zone. Thank goodness there's some skill sets that can back us up and get us through the moment. But yeah, I think just really eyes wide open.
I'm kind of very much a guy on the golf course, it's "quiet please," "stand still please," "what are you doing moving over there," "you rustling your crisp packet, chill out man; I'm trying to hit a golf shot." For me this was very, very different. I think for me it's actually going to be good for me to deal with this. From that point of view I kind of enjoyed the challenge.
Q. What about the shot clock? I saw it was catching up to you a little bit, the shot clock.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I'm deliberate, I'd say. Again, I think that was a good thing. You start to feel -- yeah, you're aware of it counting down, but you need to be aware of your intention on the golf shot and not get distracted just by, I've got to hit it. Your awareness is definitely keyed into the energy out there and what people are saying. You're hearing it all, but there's like one -- then there's this little thing that you've got to just dial in and execute. So that's the switch that I think is -- we have it in contention because the rowdier, the later you play in tournaments, the crazier it gets out there and the more dialed in you have to be.
As crazy as it may sound, having these experiences early in the season I think can simulate playing under pressure in other tournaments down the stretch. For me, I really enjoyed it.
Q. We've all seen Tiger lose, but y'all beat them so bad he was brought to tears. Did that make it any sweeter, this sizable gap, and then also having that added note?
SAHITH THEEGALA: I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I started playing the sport because of Tiger, and just getting to know him a little bit more as a peer and not as a hero has been awesome. It was still surreal to me to see just him hitting shots out here and just interacting with the fans, and that walk-out song that he walked out to gave me chills. I didn't think it would, but it really gave me chills. But we know he's a competitor. He's still clearing the ball so, so well. Swing looks really good still.
I think once he's able to get back into a true competitive tournament mode, you can never doubt him. People have doubted him over and over again, and he just comes back stronger and stronger.
He's not going to be happy about this. I know he's not going to be happy about this. He's going to be grinding his ass off to make sure this doesn't happen again. I can pretty much assure that this won't happen again. They're going to bring it.
But it's nice to have one, one little thing over Tiger. It's really nice.
Q. Looked like you guys were having a lot of fun out there interacting with the fans. Did that get easier as time went on? Did you go for it right away? What was your thought process there? How did you like it?
SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, I loved it. Honestly at the start -- I use this a lot. I'm a very high heart rate person. I get anxious. I get nervous, very excited. At the start it was kind of easy. I was just kind of blacked out and was waving at the fans, pumping everyone up. It showed in my golf shots. I was literally hitting it a club further. I hit 184 ball speed on a drive, and I've never hit that in tournament, so it was super cool to see.
It's super fun. The fans are here for entertainment and I hope we can give some entertainment. This was so much fun. Even though it wasn't a close match, there were still a lot of great moments that happened later in the match.
I think it actually got easier as the match went on as we kind of knew the cadence of the match and when you have free time, when you can go interact with the crowd, when you can stand on one corner just to smile and wave to a few of the fans.
I think we're going to get better and better at that. It's a tough thing because on a weekly tournament basis out on TOUR, you don't get a lot of fan interaction unless you're signing a ball or a glove when you hit somebody in a crowd, which I do quite a lot. But yeah, it was super fun. I think it's going to get more nuanced and better as the season goes with the fan interactions.
Q. Did you guys choose your own walk-out music, and are you choosing your music any other time than that?
JUSTIN ROSE: I cobbled mine together pretty late today, to be honest with you. But yeah, I was kind of trying to figure out some quick songs and stuff that has meant stuff to me in the past. Someone made a motivational video for me 15 years ago and they put it to "8-Mile" M&M, so for me that resonated. Then the Spandau Ballet "Gold" song kind of referenced the gold medal, but then at the Ryder Cup they used that song to make a song for me with my name in it, so that was another one. And then I threw Guns N' Roses -- the name Rose, it's a good song. That was my thought process. Yeah, five minutes of thought, but yeah.
SAHITH THEEGALA: Yeah, yeah, I had a couple Rihanna songs in there. I love Rihanna. She's probably my favorite artist. What was it, "Pour It Up." I forget what other one I put in there. But I love EDM and dance, so I had a Tiesto song in there, and then shout-out to a couple of LA legends, ScHoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar. "Collard Greens" was probably my favorite song in high school, so that one got me pumped up when I heard it up there a few times.
COLLIN MORIKAWA: I had a buddy put mine together. I'm very non-musically inclined anyway. I had him put something together and we're going to roll with it. Whatever it played today we might have to run it back because we did all right as a team.
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