LIV GOLF PROMOTIONS

January 10, 2026

Oliver Bekker

Black Diamond Ranch

Quick Quotes

Q. Another nice round today. You've played well all week, put yourself in a position to make a run tomorrow. Can you just talk about today?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, thank you. I've been playing nicely this week. I've got a good game plan. Came early, played a few good practice rounds, did some good work.

Playing kind of conservative golf to what I'm normally playing, but giving myself a lot of opportunities, hitting a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. Yeah, got off to a good start today especially. Had a lot of really good chances early on. Didn't quite go in, but then I capitalized on the back nine, made a few good saves and a good putt on the last for birdie, so it was nice.

Q. Considering how Richard has been playing this week, it almost seems like perhaps the rest of the field is playing for the other two spots. Do you kind of look at it like that from your standpoint?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, it's tough; there's always going to be one person, one or two guys -- this week hopefully there's only two guys that play really well. It gives you a chance at the third spot.

Yeah, there's still a lot of golf to be played. He's obviously been playing really well. First round, played well. Second round, played well. Good going, good today again. He's going to be tough to catch. But luckily there's three spots, and you don't need to win the thing; you just need to try and place top 3.

Q. You were in the inaugural LIV Golf event in 2022. What do you remember about that event, and what would it feel like to return to LIV Golf?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, it was a cool event. Thinking back on that week, it was actually crazy because nobody knew what was going to happen. We were all sitting there having breakfast and all the teams were staying in the same hotel. All the players were in the same hotel. Everybody is sitting together and talking about what could happen, what's going to happen, with the PGA TOUR, with the European Tour, would we be able to play again.

It was quite an interesting time to hear everybody's thoughts on how it was going to go. Thinking back on it now, I had the opportunity to play a few more events, and now I'm like, well, maybe I should have played them.

The water was a bit rough at that stage and didn't know what was going to happen, so I played it a bit safe, and luckily I've been given another opportunity this week, and hopefully I can take it.

Q. Obviously LIV Golf is going to your country, in JoBurg. How much of that is kind of a pull to get into the league, too?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, it's huge. It's such a big event. I think that purse is bigger than our whole tour back at home, so it's really huge.

But yeah, we're actually moving to Australia next week, so then I've got the best of -- I can play the Australian one and the South African one so I've got two that I can play possibly.

That's still a long way away. I'm not really focusing on that at the moment. It is a big motivator to get out there, but just got to get the job done tomorrow first.

Q. You talked about playing a little bit conservative this week. Will that continue, do you think, tomorrow, or do you feel like you might have to be a little bit more aggressive?

OLIVER BEKKER: I think if you can not make mistakes, you're going to have a few birdie opportunities anyway, and that's kind of how I approached it. Like today I made one bogey and it was a three-putt.

If I can keep on doing that, I know I'm going to hit good shots, as long as I have a second shot. Goal one is to just give myself an opportunity to hit the green. In the past I've not really been the best, like very aggressive, missing some fairways and stuff, and this week I've been kind of very focused to make sure that I try and play off the short grass first. It's paid dividends, so I don't think I'm going to change anything.

Q. The LIV Golf league has the South African team, the Stingers GC. Have you been following them throughout the season, and any players that you particularly look out for?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, we're all friends. I've known them growing up, playing golf together. Dean lives in George, where I'm from, as well. When everybody is home we've gone tore a few coffees and talked about things.

Yeah, we stay in touch. I just got a message from Louis, as well. It's nice to get a bit of good vibes from them, as well. Yeah, looking forward to hopefully playing with them again next year.

Q. Aside from the three LIV Golf cards on offer, the top 10 finishers will also get to play on the International Series next year on the Asian Tour. What do you think of that opportunity, of playing in a new region?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, that's also a big opportunity. Especially now that we're moving to Australia, we're going to be in the same time zone, so it's a lot closer to travel. Actually I thought about it before we came, and I was like, that would also be a win for me. At the moment I'm playing in Australia and in South Africa, but playing the International Series events would definitely be top of my schedule, yeah.

Q. Last year the series also offered the majors qualifications. What do you think of that?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, I didn't even know that. Obviously whenever you've got the opportunity to play and you play well, there's other opportunities that come your way. Yeah, for me, it's just play solid golf and see what happens.

Q. How much do you pay attention to the board tomorrow, knowing that you've got to make that top 3?

OLIVER BEKKER: I haven't really paid much attention. I've got a goal in my head of what I'd like to do. I kind of said a 67 every day is pretty good, and then going into the weekend I thought, you probably need to get to about 8- to 10-under par to have a good shot.

I'm 4-under par at the moment, so I've got that mini-goal. But obviously going down 16, 17 and 18, if you're in the top 3, that could change a little bit. Just make sure that you don't be too aggressive. But yeah, 17 is such a hard hole that you're just trying to grind out par however you can.

Q. You mentioned as a whole that you've been conservative here. Is it just because it's a tighter course, or what's the philosophy?

OLIVER BEKKER: Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of holes where I've got to hit it, it's kind of an uncomfortable shot, so I'd rather leave myself a fuller, like a 7-iron in and try and thread the needle and still have a wedge in.

Luckily I've been hitting my irons quite nicely, so I don't feel like there's such a big disadvantage coming in with a bit longer club than trying to force it down there and take a chance, and to only have a wedge -- if you can get it to the green, it's a different story. If you're still having a full shot in, it's not such a big advantage.