LIV GOLF HONG KONG

March 3, 2026

Cam Smith

Marc Leishman

Lucas Herbert

Elvis Smylie

Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling

Ripper GC

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, and welcome to HSBC LIV Golf Hong Kong. Welcome to the media center, Ripper GC, captain Cam Smith, Lucas Herbert, Elvis Smylie and Marc Leishman.

Cam, Ripper has taken the first two team wins of the season. Please reflect on what that early momentum has meant. What's clicked with the group, and how important is it to set the tone early on in the season?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I mean, it's nice to have some hard work made off this early. That usually doesn't happen. It's nice for that to happen. Something that we're not taking for granted, though. We still want to keep winning. We still want to keep doing what we're doing. Like you said, we've got a ton of momentum.

Seems like everything is on our side at the moment. Just got to keep doing what we're doing. It's pretty simple, really, and hopefully it works out.

Q. Elvis, you've had a pretty incredible start to your LIV Golf career, individual and team win in Riyadh, followed by the opportunity to celebrate a team win in Adelaide in front of the home crowd there. How have the past couple of weeks shaped your confidence, and what have you taken away from your start to the season?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Yeah, it's obviously been a dream start for both me personally and the Ripper guys. I feel like I'm really in an environment where I'm getting the best out of myself, and I've been able to rely on all these guys for little bits of advice with trying to help me with particular parts of my game.

The celebration after Adelaide was a lot of fun, getting to spend it with these guys, and then having two weeks at home on the Gold Coast was nice just to be able to hit the reset button a bit, and looking forward to these next three weeks.

Q. Marc, turning to Hong Kong this week, Hong Kong Golf Club, it's a historic course. What are your thoughts on this venue and the layout? What type of player or game do you think this course suits?

MARC LEISHMAN: Well, certainly speaking for myself, I love the golf course. I think it's a unique golf course. Certainly not a bomber's paradise. You have to really position it off the tee. I feel like most people hit it to the same spots, and then it's really a second-shot golf course.

Crowds here are amazing. Obviously we've got a great partner with HSBC here, which means a lot to players in the league. We all love being here.

Hopefully it's going to suit my game and these three blokes sitting next to me. It would be nice if we could make it three in a row for Rippers and get another individual win for one of us on the team.

It's an exciting week. Everything that Hong Kong offers, I personally love the food, love the crowds that we play in front of, and the golf course is amazing, too, so it's a memorable week.

Q. Lucas, you've started the season with two top 10s with LIV, in Riyadh and Adelaide, and then last week solo second finish in New Zealand which earned an exemption to the Open Championship. How are you feeling about the current state of your game? What is this experience like playing in so many different international markets for you?

LUCAS HERBERT: Yeah, firstly, thank you. Amazing experience. Being able to play all around the world in so many different conditions, climates, styles of golf courses, it's really special, and it's something that's a real treat being out here on LIV, getting this tour taken to all parts of the globe, to everyone to test their games against the different golf courses in the world.

I think it's a massive strength of ours, of the league. Yeah, it's just something that I really enjoy, and it feels like you get your game tested properly across the world.

Q. Lucas, I just wanted to talk to you about last week. Obviously that gets you into the Open. Does that free you up a little bit more now, like mentally thinking about what's coming up, or not?

LUCAS HERBERT: Frees me up a bit physically not having to do the 36-hole qualifier. I know that.

But no, I think it was good to build on the back of the two top 10 starts I had in the first two events of the year, as well. Feels like I've gotten off to a really nice start.

I sort of did some hard work in the off-season but also tweaked it a little bit from what I'd previously done, and it's good to kind of get, as Cam said, good to get that result being a positive and have it come so quickly.

To be honest, I think it's probably put me in more of a position now that I want to keep going and I want to keep producing some really good consistent results because I was able to do that last year for the first half of the season and then it dropped off. I want to feel like I played as good a golf or maybe better than that, how I played last year, and then continue that on throughout the year and get us close to that Team Championship we all want to win in Detroit in August.

Q. Just being in different environments, does that keep you fresher than sometimes the same thing happening every week?

LUCAS HERBERT: I think so, in a way. Yeah, it's definitely cool to go to a new golf course, a new city, try different food, different hotel rooms, different culture. It gives you something to look forward to each week. It gives you a nice reflection on the plane when you leave Sunday night or Monday morning, as well.

It's one of the great things about LIV, I think. It can get -- in the States it can get a little bit monotonous when it's week to week in similar kind of environments all the time. It is really nice out here to get some different culture and see some different parts of the world through this stretch. Obviously Saudi, Adelaide, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa are very different cultures, and it's really cool to experience.

Q. Smylie, since you are the new one, it's your first time coming to Hong Kong -- you never came to Hong Kong?

ELVIS SMYLIE: First time.

Q. What about China mainland?

ELVIS SMYLIE: I've been to China before, yes.

Q. What did you play there?

ELVIS SMYLIE: I played the Volvo China Open at Mission Hills.

Q. How do you like the course here and the people here?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Yeah, I really enjoy the course. I played about 12 holes yesterday, and as Leish was saying before, the course is quite strategic. You really do have to think off the tee with your club selection. It is very much a second-shot golf course. All the greens kind of slope back to front, so it's important to make sure you're always leaving yourself on the low part of the hole.

The culture, I'm really embracing that. The love the food and the people are so nice. I'm loving staying at the Ritz-Carlton, staying on the 108th floor this week. It's pretty cool being above the clouds.

Q. What's your favorite food here?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Dim sum.

Q. Cam, obviously there was a massive high being in front of the Adelaide crowds and this is more mundane and more respectful, if I can put it that way. How do you go from that high to keeping that momentum and kind of still sticking to what you guys did in Adelaide?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I think it was nice for us to have a couple of weeks off after a couple really big weeks. I can speak for myself, on Sunday night I was pretty wrecked. I was ready to go to sleep and have a couple of weeks off. It was nice to reset.

But again, just the hard work in the last couple of weeks, got straight back on to it towards the end of the first week and prepared for these three weeks coming up. I think it was important to kind of rest. A really big three weeks, particularly Singapore in the middle, it's very hot. It takes a lot out of you. So resting up and being fresh is important.

But nonetheless, we want to come here and win and compete. I think, as I said before, we've got a lot of really good momentum behind us. We all feel really confident, and we're ready for this week. It's a golf course that we all love, and we've all played well on before. There's no reason why we can't make it three in a row.

Q. Smylie, obviously there's now this pressure on you to perform and back it up from what you did. How do you keep that kind of drive and say, I can back it up and I do belong?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Yeah, well, I think what Riyadh showed me was that, like, I was able to actually do it. You always have the belief that you can do it, but until you actually do it, then it's just like taking that next step forward. I feel like it's definitely given me the confidence knowing that I can compete out here.

I think it's more so just about making sure you're going through your routines on a daily basis and not getting complacent with the start to the season that we've had. Obviously it's great, but there's things that we still want to achieve.

As I've reiterated before in previous press conferences, just trying to look for the next mountain to climb and keep building towards that.

Q. Elvis, before you got to LIV, have you ever had a champagne celebration?

ELVIS SMYLIE: No, that was the first time in Adelaide, which was pretty cool.

LUCAS HERBERT: I don't think he's had a champagne before he came to LIV.

Q. Did the guys teach you any lessons, or did they take advantage and just spray in your face?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Yeah, pretty much just took advantage and sprayed in my face.

Q. Marc, you guys two years ago when you won Adelaide and then you ended up winning the Team Championship, when you achieve a goal so early in the season, you guys place so much emphasis on winning in Adelaide, how do you reset mentally to -- you've still got 12 more tournaments left, and obviously trying to repeat what you did two years ago.

MARC LEISHMAN: Yeah, golf is a funny game like that. You feel amazing for a couple hours after you finish, and it kind of diminishes fairly quickly and then you get back to work.

I feel like golf is always out in front of you. On the golf course, the next shot is in front of you or the next hole, the next round. It's not really any different with celebrations. You're looking for that next celebration and the next wall to climb, I guess.

We're all very competitive, determined, and we all know how good it feels to win tournaments, and we want that feeling again. It's actually quite easy to get motivated.

Obviously winning Adelaide was probably a highlight for the year, and it will be a highlight for the year, but they, Herby and Cam know what it feels like to win that Team Championship, and that's pretty special. We're certainly looking to do that again.

Obviously there's a lot of great players out here, a lot of great teams, but we're all pretty determined to try and do that again.

Q. Cam, I wanted to ask you about the course. Obviously you've had some really good performances here. When you kind of rank courses that you really enjoy or fit your game, would this be among those kind of courses?

CAM SMITH: Yes.

Q. Why is that?

CAM SMITH: Yeah, I think I just feel comfortable around here. There's a few tee shots that I don't like around here, but I think if I get the ball in a position where I can make birdie, I feel like I can make birdie on almost every hole out here. It just suits my eye for whatever reason. I couldn't tell you why. It just feels nice around here.

I think it's obviously the second shot, but then you've got to get on the green and hole the putt. You've got a lot of putts that you don't really get anywhere else. Some of the 10-footers around here are going to break two or three feet, which doesn't happen every week. I feel like when I'm creative and see the ball dripping in on the sides of the holes, it's a feeling that I like and almost gets me more kind of focused and more set before I hit the putts. Yeah, it just feels good around here.

Q. To Lucas, can you take us through what it's been like since finishing up in New Zealand? Obviously you had to make some flights and all that stuff. What's it been like since earning that spot in the Open?

LUCAS HERBERT: Pretty hectic. Obviously finish Sunday, get packed up, pretty early flight Monday, to then get here. I'd have loved to have celebrated a little bit, but honestly, with the next three weeks coming up, I haven't had a drop of alcohol since --

CAM SMITH: Good.

LUCAS HERBERT: Trying to continue that the next three weeks, as well. Obviously like Cam said, Singapore is going to be brutal, so I want all the energy I can for that week.

I wrote some notes on the plane yesterday and just reflected a little bit. It's pretty nice to know that we're in the Open already, can start making plans for that week now and know that -- I guess come up with a bit of a plan. Like last year, it was great getting through the 36-hole qualifier, but it gave me maybe 10 days to get a plan together, and in amongst that we had to play Valderrama, as well.

This year there's a bit of time before the Open, wide open, to get some preparation done, try and get over and play some links golf, so already looking into what that might look like. I feel like I'm getting into that stage of life and my career now where I need to start finishing a little bit higher than what I have been in these major championships. So for me, this is a really good opportunity to do that. I want to give everything I've got to this one.

Q. Cam, obviously you have back-to-back team wins for this season, and then you choose Elvis as your new member and he finished in style in Riyadh. Why choosing Elvis? What was your consideration before you choose Elvis as part of your team?

CAM SMITH: Because he's really good. He's really, really good.

Q. Elvis, did Cam and the rest of the team share anything about the team method, team experience with you before you played in LIV?

ELVIS SMYLIE: Well, I've known Cam for quite some time. I got awarded his scholarship in 2019 where he invites two Queenslanders over to -- Australians, sorry. But he likes Queenslanders a little bit more. To his place over in America, and got to spend a week with him practicing and playing with him and just seeing what life is like being world class. We've obviously kept that relationship, and one thing has led to another, and here we are.