LIV GOLF RIYADH

February 4, 2026

Peter Uihlein

Riyadh Golf Club

RangeGoats GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome Peter Uihlein of RangeGoats GC. Well played today. You're tied for the lead after the first round here at ROSHN Group LIV Golf Riyadh after a bogey-free 7-under 65. Take us through your round tonight.

PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, I made five birdies and an eagle. Yeah, just made a bunch of pars at the start and then made kind of a crazy birdie on -- I guess it's not 4 now, it would be 12 -- I think it's 12. I made a crazy birdie there to kind of get the round going, and then I made a nice eagle the next hole. From there, just played pretty solid, pretty steady, made a lot of putts.

I made a pretty big amount of footage of putts tonight. It was nice to see the ball go in. I felt good about it.

Q. Any adjustments to playing under the lights here in Riyadh?

PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, I enjoy it. There's a lot of variables, a lot of shadows, a lot of different -- just kind of different lights. I hit it in the bunker on I think it's the 9th hole, and you're kind of just standing over it and your shadow is coming down and it's just pitch black, so it's really difficult. There's just kind of little things like that that make it very challenging.

But I enjoy it. There's nothing like this, so I have a great time.

Q. What is a crazy birdie by your definition, because I've seen you have a lot of crazy holes.

PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah. I slipped, almost fell, snipe-hooked it, hit a tree, somehow came back into the rough. I had like 190. Hit this 8-iron, hit a really nice shot to about 20 feet or so and then made it. But really didn't hit any good shots up to that point. I started on 7, and that was 12. It just kind of settled me in a little bit.

Then the next hole hit a great tee ball and a great 6-iron to a foot. After that I felt like it settled me down and got me going for the round.

Q. This is our first event with 72 holes. Can you feel a different mindset after the first round right now?

PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, yeah. It's like a regular tournament, right? You don't feel like you need to blitz it or just kind of keep the pedal on -- I don't want to say you can have a bad day, but you can get away with a slower start, if that makes sense.

I wasn't hitting it good the first six holes or five holes or whatever, but it was like, man, I still have 60-some odd holes. You're going to have bad stretches. That's what I just kept telling myself.

But the same goes for another 54 holes. I'm sure there will be moments where it doesn't feel great, but then there will be moments where it just feels dialed in. It's just kind of the product of 72 holes.

Q. Do you think it'll benefit you because the wins you've had the last few years obviously have been 72 holes?

PETER UIHLEIN: Yeah, I do. I do. I'm not scared of a blowup every now and then on a hole in particular, so now I have more holes to make it up.

I personally -- whether I agree with it or not doesn't matter. It's just part of it now where you have to deal with it. But for me personally, I think it's going to benefit me long-term, which is nice.

Q. Just wanted to get your opinion on the world ranking situation.

PETER UIHLEIN: I might be one of the few that like it. We have more world ranking points today than we did yesterday. I saw the winner gets 23 points this week. In Qatar he gets 20. In my mind we're the second best tour in the world right now. Obviously there are things that probably need to get worked out with the top 10 or whatever, but the reality is we have more points today than we did yesterday. I'm all for it.

Q. You've played in Jeddah and you're playing here now in Riyadh. Can you tell us the main differences between both in terms of the course and in terms of the weather?

PETER UIHLEIN: It's warmer in Jeddah when we've been there. I think one time it was actually for -- I think it might have been a Saudi International. We almost put a sweater on. Every time we've been down there it's been very hot, but it's beautiful. A beautiful part of the world.

I know the Saudi Open was supposed to be there, I think, in December time but it ended up coming back here. I was going to go play just because I enjoy Jeddah and I enjoy the golf course so much. But I enjoy Riyadh, as well. It's very western, so you feel pretty comfortable here. Other than the traffic, it's great. The people are great, and I enjoy playing here.

Q. Usually in the first day, there's always a point or a moment of play where you know that things are going your way and things are going well. In your opinion, when was that?

PETER UIHLEIN: I birdied 12, eagled 13, felt pretty good, and then hit a really good tee shot on 15. But when I was here in November, I laid up on that hole twice. Both times ended up in the mulch directly behind the tree in the fairway, and then the other two times I tried to drive the green because I was tired of it.

Tonight I couldn't carry the water so I had to lay up again and hit it into the same tree mulch for the third straight time. But I aimed super far left and just kind of chopped, cut, hit on the green, kicked dead right, spun right, so I kind of at that moment was like, okay, maybe I can muster something out of today so that was kind of the moment because that could have been obviously not -- it wasn't a great situation to be in. To kind of have a chance at birdie or almost make birdie was kind of a nice round settler and felt like everything was still kind of going my way.