THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Sam Horsfield from Majesticks GC. He is tied for first with Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz. You shot a 3-under today. Tell us a little bit about your round.
SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, I didn't feel like I played quite as well as yesterday. Obviously yesterday I played really, really good. Got off to a Little rocky start today, but I was really proud of myself for the fight back. It was really nice to finish birdie-birdie and see a couple really nice putts go in. Yeah, put me in a good position for tomorrow.
Q. It was a battle out there today it seemed like. Do you think your score of 3-under is reflective of how you played today?
SAM HORSFIELD: That's a tough question. I mean, it was playing brutal out there, right. The flags with certain wind directions, a lot of front pins downwind and a lot of right pins on right-to-left wind. It was a real tough test, and like I said, I was really proud of the way that I hung in there and fought.
I just heard you saying there was a few guys shooting 7-, 8-over, so yeah, just kept my head in it, and one shot at a time.
Q. We just talked to Carlos Ortiz and Abe Ancer who both had their maiden victories at LIV last year. You've yet to secure yours. Is there added pressure for you standing on that first tee knowing what's on the line?
SAM HORSFIELD: I mean, I would love to win. That would be amazing, especially down here would be unbelievable. But for me, I'm just going to try to keep doing the same things I've been doing the last couple weeks and see where that puts me after 18. You can never try to win or force it. It's just sort of one of those things that happens. So yeah, just put myself in good positions, give myself a lot of looks, and see where it takes me at the end of the day.
Q. We talk a lot about the technical aspects of the game out here, how hard the course is playing and taking it one shot at a time. But that mental game, knowing that there's a potential victory on the line, does that change anything? Talk about your mental game.
SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, no, it doesn't. I feel like I'm in a great spot mentally at the moment. Like I spoke to you about yesterday, I've spent a lot of time practicing in the off-season, building confidence within myself on certain areas, and made a few changes throughout my bag. I think they're performing really well.
I would love to win tomorrow, but if it doesn't happen, then we go again in two weeks' time in Hong Kong, and I'll be -- same confidence, feeling like my game is in a good spot, and sort of see what happens.
Q. What does the rest of this evening look like for you? Do you go out and grind on the range, go home, get dinner and relax?
SAM HORSFIELD: I'm going to go have a meat pie after this. They're amazing in the clubhouse. I had two last night, so I will be having one of those.
Then I work with the physio guy who's here, I see him every day after the round. Just make sure my back is nice and loose and my body doesn't sort of lock up. Injury prevention like we talked about yesterday. Just doing the little things.
I might hit a few putts. I felt I could have made a couple more putts today. But feel like I'm swinging the club well, and I think you can over-practice in this game.
I think there's a lot to playing and feeling it out. Yeah, just going to have a chilled one. We're staying in a house down by the beach. Yeah, it will be a nice evening again.
Q. As exciting as this potential individual win is, I would be remiss if we did not talk about the Majesticks currently sitting in first place. You guys are sitting at 10-under so your team is playing great despite these really challenging conditions. All four scores counting, course is playing really tough. Do you think you guys can get it done tomorrow?
SAM HORSFIELD: 100 percent I do, yeah.
I played yesterday with Westy and Henrik, and Westy didn't have a great day. Obviously was able to turn it around. I think he shot 3-under today. Henrik yesterday looked like he played really, really solid, putted really, really well. Obviously the guys have been working extremely hard in the off-season. We haven't had a great couple years. I'll openly admit that. We definitely feel like we could have played better.
But I think this is a good golf course for us, and in these conditions, it being a lot of thinking going on out there and not so much target golf, bomber's paradise, that's not here. You're hitting a lot of irons off of tees, placing it, putting the ball on the left side of the fairway for a right pin or trying to lay it back or you can put spin on a ball.
I think that fits right into us. The four scores counting, I think that also really helps us. We've spoken about it as a team. Last year on Sundays, that was the only day the four scores counted, we had a tendency to go up the leaderboard instead of backwards.
Those three guys, they're, as I call them, crafty veterans. They've been around the block a few times, and they know how to get it done. I think they're really, really excited. I can feel my phone vibrating in my back pocket, so I'm sure it's them in a group chat. Yeah, looking forward to it.
Q. Tomorrow individual win versus team win, what means more to you?
SAM HORSFIELD: Both. Is that an answer?
Q. Of course.
SAM HORSFIELD: Obviously I would love to get it done myself, but I think seeing all the hard work that goes into making the Majesticks run, Ollie and Angus and everyone within our team that's here this week, it's not just a one-man band. There's so many people behind the scenes, and they've done such an amazing job. Jordan with Little Sticks. It would be really awesome and really nice to be able to get a trophy for them, and to do it on Australian soil would be pretty cool.
Q. Sam, can you even remember the last time you guys were on the podium?
SAM HORSFIELD: We haven't.
Q. 2022, Boston?
SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, my memory doesn't go back that far.
Q. How much have you guys actually talked about it in the team room, just trying to end that drought? Has it been a big point of conversation, or is it just one of those things you know about it, you don't need to bring it up?
SAM HORSFIELD: I think it's more focusing on doing the right things day in and day out. I think, again, you can't force it to happen. You can't control what the other guys do. You can't control how Fireballs play tomorrow or these other teams. So you can control the controllables, and those guys are really, really good at that.
Obviously we have had a few conversations about our performances and them not being up to par. But we've never spoken about a podium here would be great or whatnot. We obviously all know it and think it in the back of our minds, and it's just a great opportunity tomorrow.
Obviously the guys played really solid today, and they can build off of that and build some confidence for tomorrow. Ian is probably one of the most clutch putters I've ever seen, so I'm glad he's on my side. If there's a putt tomorrow for the team, I would be pretty confident in him holing it.
Q. Was there a moment today during your round that you felt like there was a shot that kind of got you back on track to a certain degree? You talked about the early stuff, but especially in these windy conditions, it seems like it could easily get away from people, and you prevented that.
SAM HORSFIELD: I wouldn't say -- I made a nice probably 12-, 15-footer for birdie on 10. It was a double breaker, tricky putt. But I think the front nine is tougher here in general. 9, the par-5, I couldn't get there today. I hit driver and had to lay up. 10, for example, switching to the back nine, I hit driver, 3-iron over the green.
I definitely think with the wind direction, the front nine is a lot trickier. There are some gettable holes on the back nine. For example, normally 17 I hit 3-wood, pitching wedge or 9-iron, and today I hit 3-wood and flicked a lob wedge in. It works both ways.
The front nine is challenging. 5, for example, hard dogleg left, wind pumping off the left, it's very uncomfortable for probably all 54 players in the field. Yeah, I just felt like I just stayed in it. That's one thing that I feel like I'm really good at is mentally staying in a round and grinding it out, whether it be for a 75 or a 65, just grinding that round out.
Yeah, I just felt like I had to put my head down today, which I did.
Q. Obviously it's been a while since you transitioned to LIV Golf. Is there a difference in which you might approach the golf course for a three-day tournament in comparison to a four-day tournament?
SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, I speak about that a lot. The mentality on this tour, the guys are very aggressive, and when you get some of the best players in the world being aggressive, it's going to pay off for them. Not all the weeks but a lot of the weeks.
Yeah, definitely a lot more -- not necessarily around this golf course because you can't overpower it with the wind and how firm it is, but you go to some of the golf courses in the States and Singapore, for example, you probably hit more drivers at a LIV event just because it's three rounds, and not that there's no consequence because you always want to play well, but if you finish 40th, then you've got next week sort of thing.
I think a lot of guys take that approach. There's just a lot more aggression, I would say.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports