LIV GOLF UNITED KINGDOM

July 23, 2025

Scott O'Neil

Graeme Macdonald

Lee Westwood

Ian Poulter

Henrik Stenson

Sam Horsfield

JCB Golf and Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us here at JCB Golf and Country Club for LIV Golf UK by JCB. We're delighted to kick off another exciting week of world-class golf and entertainment here in Staffordshire.

Please welcome Scott O'Neil, CEO of LIV Golf; Graeme Macdonald, CEO of JCB; and the full Majesticks GC team, co-captains Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and their teammate Sam Horsfield.

Today's press conference is going to run in two parts, so first we're going to hear from Scott and Graeme who will speak on the continued success of this event and the venue and share an exciting announcement about LIV Golf's future here in the UK. Then we'll hand over to Majesticks GC to discuss their preparations for the tournament this week and some of the broader activities taking place as a team.

Then there will be opportunities for media questions at the end of each segment. Without further ado, Scott, over to you. Thank you for joining us today. I know you've got some exciting news to share.

SCOTT O'NEIL: Thank you all for coming today. At risk of burying the lead, I just wanted to say first off how gracious and enjoyable it's been, Graeme and his staff here have been absolutely spectacular and wonderful partners.

I got a chance to get out and play a little bit a couple days ago. Didn't go as well as I would have hoped. But it's a beautiful course. It certainly represents all the best in golf. It's certainly a challenging course, and it's been just wonderful to be partners with Graeme and his team.

They truly understand what world-class looks like and feels like, and it kind of represents everything we're trying to build at LIV. So thank you for that.

We would like to announce that July 24 through 26 of next year, we will be returning to JCB. We are thrilled to be back with a wonderful partner on an incredible course in a country that I absolutely love.

It's good to be back, and thank you very much for that.

[Applause.]

A couple just small notes. We're putting tickets on sale -- this event sold out last year. We have some tickets left, but we're anticipating it to sell out this year, so if you want to get in the front of the line, tickets are on sale now for the first time. So it's great.

Just one more second on LIV, for those who are new to us, this is team golf, so we have the Majesticks up here, and you'll hear from them. But four amazing people, good friends, amazing golfers and wonderful examples and ambassadors to the game of golf. For those of us, I see plenty of my colleagues in the back, and on behalf of them, I can tell you how amazing this experience is to be part of revolutionizing and changing the world of golf.

It starts with partners like Graeme at JCB, but really starts and continues around the world. The chance to get amazing players like we have up here and throughout the 54-person field and be able to take them around the world to grow the game of golf is quite a treat.

GRAEME MACDONALD: On behalf of everybody at JCB, I'd like to welcome you to our golf club. When we set out on this journey back in 2013, our ambition was to build a tournament venue and host world-class players, the best players in the world here in Staffordshire, little old Staffordshire. Last year when we had our inaugural LIV Golf by JCB event we certainly fulfilled that ambition.

We did listen to feedback from both the LIV team and the players and we've made a big investment over the last 12 months. We've made a lot of modifications, improvements to the golf course, and we really do value the relationship we have with LIV.

I do believe that we share a lot of the same core principles: Innovation, disruption. Both of us love to disrupt very traditional industries, us with the construction equipment industry and you with the golf industry, and I think that brings lots of new people into this wonderful sport.

We're delighted that we've agreed on a one-year extension for next year, so fingers crossed the weather is going to be good this week. We're going to have a bigger and better event than we did last year, and we're really excited about not just this week but also into 2026. Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Sam, you're a member here at JCB Golf and Country Club. From a player's perspective, what does this announcement mean, and what does it say to the quality of this venue?

SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, it's amazing. There's not any other week of the year that you don't get to live out of a suitcase in a hotel room. To be able to stay in my own bed and be able to drive my own car up here is really nice. I've been fortunate enough that Graeme has let me come up here the last couple years and practice and play.

Like Graeme was just saying, they made some amazing changes to the golf course over the last 12 months. They added some new tee boxes for us to make it a little bit longer and a little bit more challenging. Yeah, they made some great changes.

They took all the feedback that us as players told them and obviously did something with it, which is awesome to see from a player's side.

The staff here is amazing. Callum has done an amazing job setting up the golf course and getting it ready for us. Obviously the weather hasn't been great the last few weeks, but it's still playing amazing out there.

I'm just really fortunate to be able to call this place my home course, and looking forward to the next year or so.

Q. Scott, can you just give us a sense of the momentum that LIV Golf is building and the role the UK plays in that journey as we head into the tail end of this year into next year?

SCOTT O'NEIL: Sure. About three-quarters into my first year as CEO of LIV Golf and coming in, one thing I noticed really quickly was the incredible players. That's the one thing. What I think separates us a bit is we have a bit of personality and a bit of flair, and we bring some fun to golf. That's the first thing.

The second thing I noticed was it's global. You have some of the best golf over the last -- I guess since Tiger, 20 years, it's been played inside the continental U.S. The growth of the game and the love of this game is around the world. So for us to be able to take it around the world gives us a lot of opportunity.

In terms of momentum, it's almost where can you possibly begin. From a television distribution end, we added FOX and ITV here in the UK. We're now in 125 countries around the world. Having players from 18 different countries, it's nice to be able to travel and go home and be home.

To show up in a market -- we were in Spain two weeks ago, and our press conferences were held in Spanish. We were in Korea and our press conferences were held in Korean. It's pretty special to see this all materialize.

So we're now in almost 900 million homes around the world for each of our broadcasts. From a sponsorship end, you probably saw -- hopefully you've seen the HSBC announcement. It's one of several new partners. We have exponentially grown our sponsorship base which has been great. I'm building on Salesforce and Aramco before that. Callaway and Ping have come on.

In terms of the impact we're having, we continue to drive impact and put more clubs in kids' hands, drive sustainability efforts around the world. That's been at least a passion point for a lot of us.

And from a marketing position, you've seen us move from "golf but louder" to "long LIV Golf," which is more than just a tag line; it's actually how we see ourselves as part of this golf ecosystem.

To that end, you've seen pretty good strides. We've had open pathways to two of the majors this year, between the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, which is really gracious of those two leaders, Mark Darbon and Mike Whan, and I think you'll continue to see progress there.

I will tell you, the future is really bright, and I can't be any more excited for what's coming.

Q. On the sponsorship front, you mentioned HSBC, Salesforce. Can you help us understand, is it like a 3X growth, a 5X growth? Is that too simple of a way of talking about things? What does that growth boil down to?

SCOTT O'NEIL: If you look at total contract value year over year, it's 10X growth.

Q. On the world ranking front, last week Bryson said that he's not in the room but he shares his opinion with you --

SCOTT O'NEIL: All of these guys share their opinions. Feedback. We have feedback sessions.

Q. I was just curious, he's not in the room so he can't speak to the changes that have been made to the application, but you are, I'm assuming. Can you help us understand the changes that have been made for this second application, maybe third application, and kind of the changes that you think might take hold --

SCOTT O'NEIL: It's still a bit premature. We have filed an application, and I'm in pretty good contact with Trevor Immelman. We have a call later this week. He's been a good source of encouragement, push-back, debate, and we've both agreed to keep those conversations between the two of us until we take another step forward.

I know that's not the answer you want to hear, but that's what we agreed to.

THE MODERATOR: Henrik, Ian, Lee, Sam, thank you very much for being here. Lee, I'll start with you. Can you just explain what it means to return to LIV Golf UK and to compete in front of home crowds this week as part of the Majesticks?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yes. I guess people know I was born and brought up about an hour from here, so anytime I get to play in the UK, in England but especially in the Midlands, is very special. For all those people that ask me for tickets, can you do it earlier next time and send your email address because last minute is a bit awkward.

But it's great to be here at JCB. I think you can see looking out the window what a special place it is and a great venue. It's a fantastic facility. The practice facilities are incredible. The golf course is improving every year. It's in spectacular condition this year. They have made changes, and as Graeme said, listened to the players and listened to LIV where they can make small improvements.

I think new courses always get judged a little bit too early in their lifetime, and to say that 20 years ago this was farmland and now to look what you've got is a testament to JCB and the effort and the hard work that they put into the tournament and the facility here.

I'm looking forward to a great week. It'll be fantastic. The crowds will be great. It'll be nice place in front of UK fans, being kind of the home team. We'll have a lot of support, especially come off the back of an Open Championship where everybody is kind of in that golfing summertime -- I know you don't look out the window and necessarily see summertime, but that summertime sort of great British sporting calendar. This is a great add-on to the Open Championship which came last week.

It should be a fantastic week.

THE MODERATOR: Ian, you've spoken lots in the past about mentoring the next generation, growing the game. How does that vision take shape this week with the Majesticks, particularly with initiatives like the Little Sticks program?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, it's amazing. We're kind of two years into Little Sticks, and Jordan and his team with the help of my fellow co-captains and Sam, we've built what is, we feel, an incredible curriculum that's gone into the PE school system. We've got 200 schools now which are taking this up. I think that's 40,000 plus kids that are going to be reached over by the end of 2025.

We've got it here this week. We'll be getting as many kids coming into our Little Sticks program this week just getting a club in their hands for the first time and just really seeing what good we can do within the community and within the UK school system.

It's been pretty rewarding, I think, for us to see the growth in that. I think when we sat down and spoke about it and kind of had a vision of how many kids we can touch, I think it's pretty remarkable today with the help of LIV and everyone involved that we can hit that many kids in such a short space of time.

Big thanks to everyone involved that's been able to help us implement that properly, and it's pretty special to see.

THE MODERATOR: Henrik, the Majesticks and the league recently announced a major partnership with HSBC. Can you speak to the momentum that the team is building this season and how partnerships like this reflect the broader growth of the Majesticks and LIV Golf?

HENRIK STENSON: Yeah, we've got some great momentum going off course. We just need to get it on the course as well. We've been lacking on that end a little bit.

Yeah, great to have HSBC come in as a league partner and also as a team partner for us and the Crushers. They've been involved with the game of golf for a long, long time over the years. We've played plenty of tournaments around the world, sponsored and put on by HSBC.

Yeah, we know the people. They're great people to work with. We're really excited about the partnership and what we can do to get it going forward.

Q. Sam, given that you live five minutes away, how many team functions are you hosting this week, if any?

SAM HORSFIELD: Six.

No, I haven't had any, actually, this week. I've been going -- my life is a little crazy at the moment. We were supposed to have a barbecue on Monday night, but that never came to fruition. Bad weather; it was raining.

But yeah, I would love to have the guys over at some point. Obviously this is quite a busy week for us with everything going on. Tomorrow it'll be into tournament mode for the guys, and they're fortunate enough to be staying right here.

I hope they can come over and see the house at some point.

Q. You talked about the course changes; what's the most significant one or two changes out there?

SAM HORSFIELD: Yeah, so the 3rd hole last year was a bit controversial. There was a bunker about 30, 40 yards short, and it would sort of kick down into the water. So they've taken that out, flattened that area, which I think is great. When guys are drilling a 4-iron, 5-wood in 10 short of the green, you don't really want it bouncing in the water when you've hit a good shot.

Obviously added new tee boxes on 12, 13. 13 I think is great, the par-5. They've cleared out all the trees on the left side, and it's a lot more open now, and I think visually it looks great. Adding a new tee box back, you can hit driver and not worry about running through into the water, whereas last year I hit 3-wood to keep it short of the water and it was -- you never really want to hit a 3-wood off a par-5 tee.

You're hitting your driver sort of into the same area, but now it demands a good drive so that you can get there in two. It's a great risk-reward tee shot hole.

Q. For everybody, we've got the caddie tournament this afternoon. How much chatter has there been amongst the caddies, especially your guys? Lee, is Helen even playing?

LEE WESTWOOD: Apparently she's just going to putt because she's got a sore arm. Must have been from making all the tuna sandwiches last week.

IAN POULTER: Or carrying your waterproofs.

LEE WESTWOOD: All the players love watching the caddies play in the caddie tournament because they give us advice all year-round. Now we get to see how they do it.

HENRIK STENSON: Or don't.

LEE WESTWOOD: Or don't do it. It gives us plenty of ammunition for the rest of the season.

HENRIK STENSON: I'm excited, though. We've got some new additions. Marcus that caddies for me, he's a good player, so I think we're in good shape this year.

IAN POULTER: I'm looking forward to it as well because apparently Marcus has snapped more clubs than Henrik, so I want to know if he's using your clubs or if he's brought his own.

HENRIK STENSON: I think he's going to be using mine, but he's a strong guy and he's going to hit every club that I have in the bag further than I do.

SAM HORSFIELD: Does he send it?

IAN POULTER: Have you seen the size of them biceps?

SAM HORSFIELD: Clarky has.

HENRIK STENSON: Definitely a big addition compared to Gareth Lord.

Q. Ian, with this being a home event for you guys, Ripper GC have seen a lot of success over in Adelaide. Do you hope to create a similar atmosphere and a similar following here this week and in the future?

IAN POULTER: Yeah, I think hope is the right word. As Henrik said earlier, we need to perform better as a team. This I think would be an incredible week for us to be able to do that at JCB. We have this as our home venue. I think we're proud. I think we put a lot of time and effort and the whole team have worked tirelessly hard with JCB to make this a really big home event for us.

The guys are pretty excited. We're pretty excited to go out there in front of 50,000 plus fans, have a much younger demographic and audience and more kids for us to play golf in front of, and hopefully our golf will prove us right at the end of the week and hopefully we can have a successful week like the Rippers did in Australia.

Q. As someone who's got such a strong connection to the Ryder Cup, I just wanted your thoughts on the announcement this week that they'll be heading to Spain in 2031.

IAN POULTER: Okay, I didn't know that. Fantastic. I think that'll be absolutely amazing. Great venue, obviously. The last time it was there, Seve was captain and obviously was victorious. Hopefully Luke and the team have a great time out in Bethpage Black. I know it's going to be hard. It's going to be loud. It's going to be intense for them. But any away Ryder Cup is super hard.

Hopefully the lads can do a good job and bring that trophy back.

Q. Scott is talking about an application for world ranking points. I was curious the last few years when you guys aren't receiving them, has there been other means for trying to understand where you rank? Are there other rankings you've paid attention to or statistics that you have tried to understand, like am I making progress, am I ranking highly? What have you used to understand that?

IAN POULTER: I think you were comparing yourself to Sam. I think you just went back in front of Sam, your son.

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, with my result last week in the Open Championship, I moved back above my son in the world rankings, which is nice. I think that just proves that without world ranking points it makes a bit of a mockery of the system. It's good that an application has gone back in.

I think mainly it relates back to wanting the best players in the major championships, not wanting this conversation where there's a few people missing out because we don't get world ranking points on LIV.

We either start to get world ranking points on LIV or the major championships have to revise their qualification system, which they seem -- some of them seem to want to do but some seem reluctant to do, and they'd have to have a separate qualification system for LIV players, which I don't think anybody particularly wants. You want it all to be based off the same system.

It has to be looked at carefully, and somebody has to come up with a -- I don't know if they're going to back-date it or what, but we're all starting from a low position. I've only got one tournament counting on the world rankings I think and finishing mid 30s last week moved me up like 3,000 spots, which shows that there's something wrong with the system as it stands.

Q. Am I overstating trying to understand where you rank?

LEE WESTWOOD: There's no point in even trying at this moment in time.

Q. I guess as someone who is religiously looking at Data Golf, that explains a little bit better than the world rankings, sometimes a lot better. I was just curious if that ever dawned on you to check that stuff out?

LEE WESTWOOD: I'm sure there's other people running their own ranking systems trying to jump in that niche where the world rankings are currently lacking, right?

Q. Lee, just on last week, how would you reflect back on your performance there? How proud were you of what you delivered?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, you know what, a couple of weeks before the Open Championship qualifying, I was thinking of not even playing. In everything you weigh things up, and I decided that there were more positives to try and qualify than negatives.

I love Portrush. It's my favorite links golf course to play. I love the Open Championship. I didn't qualify the previous two years for various reasons, and I thought I'd give it a crack this year and came through the qualifying and won the qualifying.

Really I was on to a winner before I even teed up a ball up in anger at Portrush, just enjoying the atmosphere and going out there and -- at the age of 52, you don't know how many Open Championships you've got left. Just trying to enjoy playing in front of what I think is the best fans in the world at The Open championship and enjoying that walk coming up the 18th green and maybe making a few birdies. Hopefully making more birdies than bogeys.

Yeah, it was nice to finish under par and be in there for a little while. I made a few mistakes on the last day, made a triple on 8, which really sort of put me out of -- I was trying to have small goals as the week went on, and when I got into a decent position on Saturday trying to have goal of maybe getting in the top 10 and being back for next year, but at the end of the day, I had a fantastic week, really enjoyed it, and I might try and qualify next year for Birkdale because I love Birkdale as well.

It was a really positive week, and I hit a lot of good shots, and hopefully I'll carry some of that form into this week.

Q. Lee, to carry on the qualifying, from afar watching you through social media, it seemed like a good group of people were out following you during qualifying. Does that warm your heart or does it make you feel some sort of respect of, like, the local town came out to really kind of root you on more than anyone else in qualifying?

LEE WESTWOOD: Yeah, I guess I had like 200, 250 people walking around and five dogs. That's the great thing about it. Like the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, they have a qualification process, so literally anybody can go out and try and qualify and play in those tournaments. The other two majors don't. They're the ones that may really benefit from LIV being included back into the world golf rankings.

But I've played for 33 years in front of the people that walked around in the Open qualifying, and they've seen me grow up and they've seen my career move forward and they've seen the highs and seen the lows and they like to come out and watch the golf firsthand, and they get that opportunity at The Open championship qualifying to walk behind and get close to the action.

It's nice to -- it's the first time in 30 years I've had to qualify and tried to qualify for an Open Championship. I think 1995 was the last time. And in a perverse kind of way, I really enjoyed the qualification process and playing with the younger kids. I was playing with a young amateur from Scotland, Connor Graham, who's a great young prospect. He's got a lot of game and he's at college in the States, and it's nice to kind of watch those people come on.

That was another great thing for me about playing in the Open Championship, in the practice rounds I played with some good young amateurs as well who have got a lot of game and clearly because they qualified for the Open they're going to sometime down the road be tour players or something like that.

At my age, it's nice to go out and watch the young crop come through but also have that little bit of needle where you're trying to beat them and just put them in their place. It was good fun actually. I really enjoyed the Open Championship and the qualification process this year.