LIV GOLF SINGAPORE

April 28, 2023

Talor Gooch

Cam Smith

Sentosa Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome Cam Smith, the captain of Ripper GC, and Talor Gooch from RangeGoats GC. Talor, you had that incredible eagle. Tell us a little bit about your round, your bogey-free round and that eagle that you had to get in the lead.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, the group had a really good day. We were 5-, 6-, 7-under, so I really did want to make the last one to get ahead of the other two for the day. No, it was a good day, and we did a good job after the little delay. We came back and they made a few birdies, and then I was able to cap off with an eagle at the last. It was a good one.

Q. Cam, tell us a little bit about your bogey-free round.

CAM SMITH: Yeah, it was really solid today. I think Sam mentioned to me on the 18th green there that he can't remember and I definitely can't remember the last time I hit 14 fairways. Yeah, it was really solid today. Look, tail or said everyone played well in the group, and I felt like we kept ourselves going there after the rain delay. Everyone was getting a little bit tired, I think. Yeah, it was a good day all in all.

Q. You guys both seemed to be finding your form in the last couple weeks and playing lights-out golf. Has something clicked for either one of you? What do you think it is?

CAM SMITH: No, I don't think so. I think just playing more golf, to be honest. We've played a lot of golf recently, and I think it's a good thing for the golf game but probably a bad thing for the body and the mind sometimes, as well.

Yeah, I think just playing a little bit more competitive golf, hitting some proper golf shots, and yeah, just being back out here and trying to win.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I've been playing pretty good golf for a while, and the results haven't really shown it. The first few tournaments of the year, it felt like I'd have two good rounds, and in the third round I'd have one or two bad swings, and it would kind of derail the tournament. Just continue to do the same things and just happen to get a couple more putts to drop, and that's always helpful.

Q. I'm sure you guys are exhausted. We have an early tee time tomorrow to beat the storms. Do you have any plans tonight, or just rest, recover and hydrate?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, just drink as much water as I can. There's a fair bit of moisture coming out of the old body today, so yeah, just trying to rehydrate, probably early into bed and cool the body temp down.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, same thing. I'm going to go get some dinner and go watch some Netflix or something and just relax.

Q. Cam, obviously last week there was a lot going on and you had talked about how kind of draining it was because there was so much going on in Australia. When you come here, do you feel like you're able to kind of just focus on golf and you don't have all the other stuff going on?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I think there's definitely been a few less media requirements this week, so that was kind of nice.

Yeah, we obviously traveled on Monday and had a really easy day on Tuesday, and I think not only myself but the rest of the boys on the team, as well, were pretty tired. We needed those couple of days, I think, just to kind of chill out and make up on some sleep. Seems like all the other boys played really well again today.

Yeah, it's nice this week for sure.

Q. Talor, can you take us through the whole PGA thing that happened, the whole process that came about and obviously you tweeting about it this morning?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, so last season on the PGA TOUR, obviously I couldn't complete the season, but I played well enough to qualify for the TOUR Championship. It was really cool when the Masters came out and announced their field and recognized that I had qualified for the TOUR Championship and that they said, hey, you're top 50 in the world and you qualify for the TOUR Championship, those are both how you got into the field. Then the R&A came out and same thing, you qualified for the TOUR Championship; same thing, we're going to recognize that and give you a spot in the field.

I was hopeful that the USGA would fall in line and do the same thing, but they decided to go a different route, and they kind of tweaked their criteria for that, so I wasn't able to get a spot in the field via qualifying for the TOUR Championship. It was cool today, though, this morning waking up and seeing an invite from the PGA of America for the PGA Championship. It's going to be a fun week, and yeah, it's cool that they recognize the body of work and gave me a spot in the field.

Q. Was it an email? Was it a text? How did it come about?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, it was an email.

Q. Obviously you're in great form right now; are you feeling so confident now that you can have 62s last week, 64 today?

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, I mean, hey, I have a buddy of mine that has been like a mentor to me since I was 10, and he always said, "In golf, the penthouse and the outhouse are always right around the corner from each other." You try not to get too high or too low when things are too good or aren't good. You've got to earn it. 62s and 64s don't just happen, and just because you're confident doesn't mean it's going to happen again. Hopefully we can keep it rolling and go play some good golf and finish out a good week here.

Q. Can you just go through the three shots you hit on the last hole for the eagle and just describe them? Number two, what have you been doing right these last four rounds? You're playing out-of-the-world golf.

TALOR GOOCH: Yeah, after seeing Cam one-hand the tee ball at 18 right into the fairway, I was like, all right, let's just try to hit a fairway like he did here.

No, I hit a good tee ball. I had a perfect number for my hybrid to come in and hit it to about 25 feet, and my caddie has been reading the greens great all day long. We kind of had the same read, and I just happened to knock it in, so that's always a good way to finish off the round.

Kind of like I was saying earlier, there's no pixie dust I've thrown on the clubs the last couple weeks. It's just the game comes and goes in waves, and hopefully we can continue to ride this wave for as long as we can and play a bunch of good golf.

Q. Can you just give me the distance on the second shot on 18 and the putt, how long was that?

TALOR GOOCH: I think it was 253 to the hole, 253 yards, and I was probably 25, 30 feet for the eagle putt.

Q. My question is about the PGA Championship coming up. Does this course, and Talor, you know Cedar Ridge pretty well, what we're playing in Tulsa. I don't know if you do or not, Cam, but do you think these two courses set you up really nicely to make a run at Oak Hill in Rochester?

TALOR GOOCH: So I have not played Oak Hill, so I don't know what to expect going there, but I do know this week and next tournament in Tulsa, they're challenging courses. You've got to hit shots. There's a bunch of tee balls out here that are uncomfortable to me, so it will be a good week to continue to try to hone in my drivers and my tee balls, and same with Cedar Ridge. I expect there might be a little bit of a wind and there could be some challenging holes out there. Yeah, it's not just going to be two weeks of pitch-and-putt and then you go to a major championship. It'll be two good weeks of two different styles of golf course that will test different parts of your game to get you ready for a major championship.

CAM SMITH: I don't know much about Oak Hill either, to be honest, but this place here is pretty demanding. Lots of awkward tee shots where you hit almost from back in the water, over the water, and just different holes that go different ways, doglegs that go the opposite way to slopes. You have to be pretty spot on around here, and yeah, I'm looking forward to getting out to Cedar Ridge in a couple weeks, as well.