WINNER INTERVIEW: Ancer’s Win “More Stressful Than I Envisioned” | LIV Golf Hong Kong

Abraham Ancer meets with the media after his first LIV Golf League individual title, a playoff win at LIV Golf Hong Kong. The Fireballs GC star talks through his round and how he ended up in the winner’s circle.

Stay Connected:
Don’t miss out on any future updates! Subscribe, like, and share. Join us in celebrating the beauty of golf with #LIVGolf

LIV Golf https://www.livgolf.com
LIVGolf+ https://www.livgolfplus.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/livgolf_league/
X https://twitter.com/livgolf_league
TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@livgolf_league
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LIVGolfInv/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/liv-golf/

All right let’s welcome our live golf Hong Kong Champion Abe aner from five balls GC Abe congrats it’s your first live golf individual Title Here in Hong Kong a bit of a grind out there today but got the job done on the first playoff hole

Can you just sum up your round today and the week the whole I mean I think you said it perfectly it was definitely a grind I made it uh a lot more stressful that I envisioned it um I didn’t have my best ball striking it was uh very very

Polar opposite of the first two rounds um of the te and and my my Fairway in in second shots um wasn’t quite there uh but I was really happy mentally I I dug deep I had to that that round could have definitely been going south very very

Quickly so uh I’m really proud of that I’m really proud of how I felt mentally and how I I fought the whole round not having my my best stuff I knew it was going to be tough there’s some big time names right behind me and I know there

Was I knew there was going to be a couple of really low rounds out there that like PC um just like that so I knew I had to make some birdies coming in or have some of some good stuff coming in and uh unfortunately I didn’t have any

Birdies coming in but uh it was it was good enough to get in a playoff and then I hit some two good quality golf shots there to to finish it off and and it felt nice it felt really good because that was a very stressful round uh the

Fans in Hong Kong have been awesome this week can you just describe the atmosphere out there and what’s the sport being like for you it was incredible um even in the when we were getting the trophy was pouring rain outside and there was it was everybody

Was out there which is uh has been really nice everybody was extremely supportive um in every hole I felt like there was great energy uh today was uh was pretty packed out there and it was uh it was exciting so it’s a it’s a privilege have feeling those nerves

Throughout the round um that’s kind of the way I I looked at it try to channel that into a something positive and um it’s really I’m really happy that I’m here talking to you right now awesome over to you Mike Abe it’s it’s never easy to win even with a five shot lead

Is it it’s not um and I knew it was not going to be easy um I had to obviously hit the ball the way I I hit the ball the the ball the first two days to to maybe say easy but it was never going to be like that um it

Was tough I mean the rain was on and off it was a little chilly the golf course played I thought I played it played a lot tougher than he did in the first two rounds uh the pin placements were were really tough as well so um yeah I mean

Definitely it was not it was not easy that was a very stressful round maybe take us through like the the bunker shot at nine seemed to maybe settle you down a little bit would that be correct yeah yeah I mean I just kept I just kept putting my my my ball in

Just the wrong the wrong spots throughout the front nine I felt like uh I had some chances in the part five there and uh I guess hold three hit a bad chip didn’t then I had a nasty horseshoe lip out there but I mean that’s all you can do hit a good Putt

And then it’s off your hands um so yeah I was it was a pretty Rocky front nine and then that bunker shot was not easy I had to I had to go for it it’s one of the sh say you have to commit completely to making an aggressive swing and I came

Out perfectly and I it was probably about 2 three feet from the hole and so that that settled me in then making Birdie on 10 so I was like all right here we go that’s kind of where in the previous two days is where I kind of cut

Fire and and made a lot of birdies coming in and then on 11 I hit a horrible shot uh on the second shot hit it in the bunker I’m like what like what are you doing you know it’s just I mean I’m I’m telling myself I here we go

Let’s let’s let’s make some good swings coming in make some birdies and then I hit that shot I’m like man then thankfully I got that open down which was nice hit a nice swing on the next and didn’t make the putt so it was just uh yeah I just I just kept telling

Myself hey you were pretty pretty much Flawless the first two days there was some stuff that was going to come up in the third round you know it just happens to be kind of piling up just battle through uh so that’s why I’m saying mentally I was uh I’m really happy the

Way I kind of manage it I think it was 15 you found the burn uh what what was your decision off the te what how did how did I know my caddy was was also pretty uh pretty mad about it to like to himself um but I I’ve hit I hit a

Three-wood every day and I’m going to the middle of the Fairway to the right side and uh it was the ball wasn’t really going you know because it was a little cold and rainy so I was like it was it was mainly me I I felt like maybe my caddy wanted to

Kind of throw me back but he didn’t really say it but I was like no it’s three-wood I saw where the pin placement was I didn’t want to have a long iron in to that pin it was it was a really tough pin um and I felt like I needed to make

Some birdies so that was that was more on me just didn’t hit didn’t hit a good shot I pulled it obviously I was trying to go 15 yards right of that line maybe even more 20 yards um so I just I pull P it and went in there made the right

Decision to not play it from there because I could have made I could have made par but I could have made triple so um I think Benji did a good job there just to to really not even like hey let’s go back here have a put at par if

Not bogie is not that bad so yeah that was uh I’m not proud of that hole but uh it’s just how it goes I mean and one last question for me just what does this win mean in the scheme of things for you obviously against a a very high caliber

Field and uh you know your first your first taste of success here at live individually me me it feels incredible because I’ve I’ve worked so hard this previous two years um and I haven’t been able to I feel like I haven’t played to my potential in this past two

Years so I I maybe I put too much too much pressure on myself myself I I I can’t really it was tough to pinpoint what it was because I was I was practicing harder than I’ve ever have and I was not seeing the results so it

Was uh mentally it was tough that’s why today was uh was really big for me I feel like mentally to to be able to get it done with uh with a tough tough round not hitting in my best and uh feeling the pressure of all these great players

Be right behind me so it means a lot it just G me a lot of con a lot of confidence but uh it also kind of eases me that all the hard work that I’ve that I put in this last two years is it paid off today

So um I’m I’m extremely happy go on Josh Abe I’m proclaiming myself as your lucky Cham you’re right uh AE uh you spoke for the last two days about how you try to play games with your mind uh try to think of scenarios that are not actually real and

You put yourself as as far behind as possible have you done that all through your career or is that something new that you have started doing um there were there’s some instances where I have um I felt like in this situation where I go to the golf

Course where stats say that I should be good at it I haven’t done a good job before so that’s why I feel like this week it was important to just not not think about it that way and just play golf go about my routine and not not

Think that I should be a really good golfer in this golf course so I just wanted to play some golf and uh and have fun with it and it did I felt I felt a lot better I mean obviously not today but the the first two days is showed

That I wasn’t thinking about being perfect and just just playing some golf and then just let the stats you know just show uh what they’re supposed to in this kind of golf course so uh and before I I played mind games like playing mind games with myself like um

Growing up um I remember a lot of people are is like when they tell you it’s like hey don’t think about where not to hit it you know we’re like oh there’s water there so growing up as a as a little kid I would always be over the ball and look

At trouble and be like don’t hit it in the water like on purpose and actually execute the shot and and try to hit a good shot so I did that over and over that way if that that thought comes into my mind i w like freak out be like oh

God I’m going to hit in the water though so maybe that helped this week I don’t know but I remember as a kid doing that a lot and throughout high school and and college and one last question from me when we were talking on Thursday you

Said that the one thing that you’ve been really disappointed with is that you have not done really well on live golf uh so far how proud are you of yourself now yeah like I said like I said previously I’m really proud I mean this victory it it feels amazing just because I feel

Like these last two years and I I worked really hard and I was not seeing the results um and it was tough I feel like like I I don’t know what’s going on I feel like I’m putting in the work and I’m not seeing the results and then I go

Play uh like the Pan-American games and then I played really well and I won there and I was like why can I not do that what I’m playing on live um and I did the same in the Asian Tour event as well in uh in jeda and played really

Good so I guess I was just putting too much pressure on myself without even really thinking about it and um it feels like I said it feels really nice uh to to live the trophy this week in a really cool city that is Hong Kong go ahead

Josh hey I was just wondering now that you’ve got that monkey off your back does that um does that make you a more dangerous player do you think I wouldn’t say more more dangerous I feel like uh I’m just getting to still know myself out here um it was today was

Really important I think to to really know where I’m at mentally where my game doesn’t feel my best I feel like years prior even if I didn’t have my best stuff I figure out a way to post a good number these past two years I wasn’t

Doing that if I wasn’t hitting it good I was not posting a good number so yeah today definitely helped uh gives confidence but uh I got a long ways to go and I got to keep uh I got to keep grinding uh just sorry just one more is

Um when you stood on the 18th tier in the playoff how hard is it to talk yourself out of chasing a shot yeah well I just kept telling myself that I hit I’ve hit all good shots on that t-ball which is a really tough t-ball so I kept uh just picturing

That same shot I hit the previous days and thankfully it came out perfect um and then that second shot I think that second shot was even more important than the than the t-ball just because I haven’t hit one good iron shot all day and uh and I knew I wanted to pull it

Off uh my caddy kind of pped me up it’s like all right this time to hit at the sh of the day and came out perfect so I uh I couldn’t be happier with how I played that Pro uh that playoff Abe thank you so much congratulations on a

Great week thank you guys appreciate you thank you we uh