Jon Rahm & Greg Norman LIV Adelaide Presser Highlights

Jon Rahm & Greg Norman spoke to the media ahead of the LIV Adelaide event in Australia

yeah it’s uh it’s definitely one of
those dates that when when the season
started it was highlighted because of
how highly everybody spoke of the
tournament right there was no no
negatives great City Great Golf Course
great fans emphasize on great fans and
obviously I think uh everybody who
watches Golf and some people that don’t
watch golf have seen the images of of
the watering hole which I thought he was
a lot
shorter I don’t know it’s a lot harder
of a hold than that I ever pictured to
be be honest to have that many people
right as you’re going to do a stadium
maybe give us a bit shorter of a hole so
the chances of making it a little bit
higher but it’s still it’s still a sight
to see that’s absolutely incredible so
uh I’m really excited to be here I’ve
seen the golf course a little bit and
and you know I can see why everybody was
raving about it if if we don’t get a lot
of wind or any rain which doesn’t look
like it it can get really firm and fast
and and make it a really entertaining
event not only for us but for everybody
watching well that was one of my
initiatives when I was asked to come on
board as CEO and Commissioner of live um
I knew the value of Australia uh what
Australia can represent to the game of
golf and what Australia it lacked and
the premier hit the nail on the head uh
basically the fans spoke uh in droves
last year they continued to speak this
year so to be able to bring the quality
of John Ram plus 53 other guys down here
for the a strs to experience was
meaningful for me because I came down
here was my mission every year as as a
player to bring back my skills to show
Australia to grow austral Australian
golf the best way I possibly could but
that was with 14 clubs in the bag and
what I did on the golf course to be able
to do it here with the impact that we’ve
had not only on the golf course with the
players commercially as well uh
economically the economic impact that
we’ve bought to Adelaide and the premier
touched on that again those are the
things that people don’t really speak
about very much but we as a team working
with SA TC see the value of what we’ve
delivered here um is just incredible and
as we look into the future you know we
last year was one this is number two and
then we keep building on top of that
making it better and better better so
very very proud of it um proud of my
country proud of what we delivered proud
of what the boys like John was just
saying now about you know the excitement
about coming down here because of what
they’ve heard about what happened in
live Adelaide last year and and be
honest with you uh this event here from
last year to this year is The Benchmark
full live um we get all the other uh
events 13 events around the world to
take a look at what we’ve delivered here
and what adela’s delivered and what the
state government’s delivered and what
the local community and the regions
deliver and you go it can be done here
it is let’s work together look every
Market’s different because we got to
look at the different cultures that we
work with but when you look at the three
specific things you have entertainment
and you have Golf and you have culture
right so if you take those three
ingredients everywhere you go in the
world you’ll be able to figure out the
right way to to inject a live event
somewhere uh we as a team look at that
all the time culture is very very
important for us we we use this as The
Benchmark saying look how we’ve dealt
with the local culture within Adela
within South Australia and then it
morphs out into the country so um
everywhere we go we study that um
little different in the United States
because the United States obviously has
a tour there that’s existing but I can
tell you in the one year that we’ve gone
through even the United States now
there’s different markets there that go
oh we haven’t had a PGA Tour event we
would love to have one there because of
what you can deliver and like I said in
the beginning we we bring everything to
the table from the players to the
production to the event so we can move
it to a place and just make the
adjustments we need to make from a
marketing perspective to suit the
culture to suit what the state
government might be doing some other
place and and it works and you know it’s
hard to imagine we are basically less
than one and a half years into it this
thing and the impact that we’ve had on a
global basis um you can talk about Adela
you can talk about the United States you
can talk about valderama in Spain you
can talk about the the impact that we’ve
had on in such a short period of time
has been extreme extremely powerful and
one of the things that I’m most proud of
and is the fact that what we’ve done to
the game of golf and how golf is looked
on as an asset class and if it wasn’t
for live this additional investment
dollars going to the game into the sport
would never have happened so very very
proud of that these guys are very much
part of all that uh because they have
seen the value of what we can deliver
and they see the long value of what they
will have um in ownership ship in their
teams as well that’s yeah I mean that’s
extremely subjective to the player right
I think
um there’s a few things that make a
tournament special for somebody uh could
be Golf Course the design the the
history of the tournament and just
simply you hav performed properly there
um in my case I usually go based on
atmosphere right that’s why Phoenix Open
has been something that’s really
interesting for me right that’s why San
Diego on the for people I mean it’s an
atmosphere that’s incredible coming down
the stretch uh why I keep going back to
Spain as often as I can just simply
because the atmosphere I experienced
there is incredible right uh and uh the
reason why this event is as popular as
it’s been right uh no matter what the
golf course on the golf is or the
weather conditions are when the people
show up and they they’re more excited
than you are to be here is what makes it
tournament so great is what happens in
Majors is what happens in rup right it’s
not really us it’s not really the golf
is the spectators who come and support
the game and want to be there so badly
that’s that’s what makes it something
that’s really enticement for me to go
and perform because at the end of the
day we’re entertainers that was
phenomenal be honest with you I went
there specifically to support the boys
um I wanted them to know that I was
there for that reason so I tried to get
around to shake hands with each and
every one of them to wish him the best
um to walk with the patrons I’ve never
done that before in my life anywhere in
the world I I think I walked one playoff
uh here in Australia when a my friend of
mine was in the Australian Masters I
walked with his family uh in the playoff
Hall but um it was incredible um the
support the recognition the comments
were made it was almost unanimous for
three straight days um walking around
with people I had people with me um so I
have do have witnesses to the fact that
that’s what it was and uh it was just to
see it to hear it and to hear what
comments they made about you know what’s
happening to the game of golf and the
good that Liv is brought to the game of
golf you know was very very strong for
me it was a very powerful three days and
I must admit um Wednesday when I was
going out there I did leave the house
with trepidation because I didn’t know
what to expect um because I have a lot
of great friends at Augusta National
I’ve got a lot of history at Augusta
National uh um I just didn’t know what
to expect so uh my first hour walking
around I went I just relaxed and had a
great time I I’d love to give you
Insight but I don’t have any um we at
live are totally separate to that U part
of the negotiation we at Live or a
standalone company being in invested by
the same investor interested in the game
of golf now this goes back 10 minutes
ago what I said
to excuse me what I said to Evan was um
investment are flowing into the game of
golf for the right reasons not for the
wrong reasons our investor came to want
to invest in to live because he loved
the opportunity of the franchise model
what he could do with it and how we
could build it out on a global flat
platform so me specifically I don’t know
what’s going on over there I really
don’t want to know what’s going on over
there because we are so fixated on
growing and developing and building out
what live is today and looking doing our
schedule for 2025 and going into 26 our
responsibility is to look after our
people our
players excuse me and the and where we
want to go so I don’t have an answer I I
I really don’t know
um there’s a lot of unknowns I think on
everybody’s side right and uh the people
that are very smart and are behind this
are trying to figure out what’s the best
for golf but I uh
I haven’t spoken to enough players on
the PJ tour to know what their what
their position is to be honest so I
don’t know if it’s impatience or just
lack of knowledge in general uh but I
think we all want to see this resulted
right we all want to see this resulted
and and like I’ve said many times we
have the opportunity to take golf to the
next level in the global market and I
think done properly we can end up with a
better product for everybody and put in
golf and as a bigger product in general
as a worldwide sport there’s a level of
comfort when I say that because it’s a
little bit more of what we’re used to
seeing in golf right and I came to this
realization and I think it it could
help a lot of
fans trust and live a little bit more
because that’s a lot of the complaint
that I see from a lot of people but I
made the analogy a little bit ago of why
I think we can end up with a great
product how in in football European
football right you have the Premier
League you have the Spanish league you
have the the German league you have Ser
right you have U the the Champions
League the Europe Cup you have many
other things the one thing I realized is
they all play Under the same set of
rules right while we play Under most set
of rules the one key difference is 72
holes right uh the only sport that I see
that’s it a little bit different to
where they play pretty much the same and
then the Grand Slams are different
there’s tennis but even with within then
every tournament or every Championship
is the same set of rules right so that’s
one of the main reasons why I believe he
could help us but at the end of the
day live is a business if he doesn’t fit
the product it doesn’t fit the product
I’m just a player right there’s a lot of
people that are a lot smarter than me
that can figure it out and explain why
they believe 504 holes may be better for
them um I can tell you from player
experience and I tell the people that
that give me that argument if you come
watch an event
You Forget by Sunday that you’ve only
played three rounds it makes no
difference you’re competing to win you
win or you don’t win and by the end of
the day if I told you oh it was 50 or
four holes you really don’t think about
it because you inversed you just
immersed in the competition right and uh
the competition is the same you want
going down the stretch with a one or two
shot lead or one two shot deficit the
feelings are all the same right so uh I
that would be also my counterargument to
that if you have an experience and
having given it a chance is not fair to
judge without
knowing Greg what’s your response to
that I think from Liz perspective we’re
very open-minded about it you got to
understand there economic impact about
um putting television on for 72 holes uh
right now John’s John hits a nail on the
head uh there’s no when you te up on
Friday it’s a Sprint to the end it’s
there’s no warm-up time period to get
you if you have Thursday if I’m talking
about about from a players’s perspective
now sometimes you can a have an average
first round and then you come back and
shoot a 64 and get yourself back into it
now you’re into into into the weekend if
you really don’t play well on Friday
here you have a hard time because the
quality of play here is so high you know
when you tear it off and you’ll speak to
most of the guys out there it’s a
question you should ask them it is the
intense pressure on it straight away
because you have to perform immediately
right off the bat um so it’s a great
conversation to have uh we will continue
to have that conversation going forward
but we sit back and say what value do we
get on putting on television on Thursday
now go to Evans how do we build out in
the future how do we get more people as
the premier says um to the golf course
maybe it is Thursday and you allow
another 30,000 people coming in on a
Thursday there are things that we sit
back and look at to see what is the most
optimal solution to make this a better
and better and better event and uh 72
holes is discussed look I’ll make the
comment if you look back over that time
period of that dialogue that was going
place there wasn’t one comment about
live so Liv never put an offer to him uh
we didn’t need to make a comment about
this this is just typical white noise
that gets out there in the industry if
Rory was willing to sit down and have a
conversation with us would we be happy
to sit down with him 100% no different
than any other player who’d be
interested in coming on playing with us
it’s understanding the
facts about what live represents and
what live can deliver on a global basis
that’s up to you to determine it I mean
I’ve sat down with one top top PGA Tour
player in his house with another member
of my team and walked me through the
whole process and he was so impressed he
said well that’s not what we’re told him
the locker
room right and this is really impressive
and but he made the decision he called
me up two days later he said I’ve
decided to stay where I’m at I said
Happy Days you made a decision on fact
and if you’re happier over here fine
stay there your door is always open if
you want to come back and have a
conversation with us happy to do that