INTERVIEW: Home Win On Radar For Ripper GC | LIV Golf Adelaide

Captain Cameron Smith and his all-Australian Ripper GC squad meet with the media about this week’s LIV Golf Adelaide, how they’re handling the spotlight, the party atmosphere and their chances to win as the favorites in LIV Golf’s second trip Down Under.

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okay everybody let’s welcome Ripper GC to live golf Adela 2024 we are joined today by Matt Jones we are joined by our captain cam Smith we’re joined by Mark leechman and the newest member of Ripper GC Lucas Herbert welcome guys so it’s been exactly a year since we were here last year A lot has changed we’re expecting even more fans this year Matt tell me about how excited you are for this week uh yeah I mean last year exceeded all expectations I think for all of us um this will be the first year her’s here and um it’s going to be amazing uh the atmosphere last year especially for walking up 18th the 18th hole for the first time when we walked on the green people started cheering before we’d even hit a shot got on the tea they started cheering and um to have even more people this year will make the experience that much better um looking forward to it and uh I think it’s going to be amazing okay you’re really the hometown hero and everywhere you go it’s like uh The Beatles how does it feel so good to have that really warm welcome being back here in Australia yeah I mean it’s just nice to be home really um yeah it’s a pretty cool experience I think for all of us this week um it’s uh we’re definitely the the the fan favorites around here and you can definitely tell and um you know like Jonesy said just the the amount of support we got last year I think will be Amplified this year here again uh with a few more people out so yeah can’t wait for the for the week to start and Mark this event was named the world best golf event by the world golf Awards last year what do you think went into went into that I mean it uh it says a lot for for the event um to not just be you know there’s obviously a lot of great golf tournaments around the whole world and um to be named the best one is a is a huge honor for the for live and um and for Adelaide because obviously without all the the support of the of the Adelaide people and the people of Australia uh it certainly wouldn’t have happened so um yeah pretty proud to be an Aussie on that one too easy and Lucas this is your first time participating in live golf Adelaide what are your expectations for the week um yeah I don’t know whether to be scared or excited for the for the week to be honest um like you said obviously uh live Adelaide won the the best golf event of the year um award last year which sounded like they got it out of the way too easy so um it’s it’s just it’s a there’s a lot of hype for the week um of I’m a big music guy so picking out my walk up songs for the uh for the party hall I’m I’ve been getting goosebumps every time I’ve been thinking about what that’s going to feel like walking out to each song so um yeah very very excited and we obviously have fiser returning this year will we see all of you on stage doing shoes again with fer this year well I just bought a new pair of Sho shoes yesterday in anticipation for any shoes that might come so I’m I’m coming in prepared c um yeah I think I’ll I’ll I’ll definitely go to the concert um it was it was pretty epic last year to be honest and we’ve got another couple good acts as well so um yeah big weekend ahead too easy so this really this event really puts um Adelaide South Australia and Australia on the global stage there’s so many eyes on a Australia and South Australia this week what does that what does that mean for the country for travel for tourism and being on This Global stage Mark yeah well I think um you know the Adelaide government um took a little bit of a risk you know taking on such a um a huge event and um I think that all of that has has paid off tenfold um to to be able to you know have such a massive event in Adelaide have people travel from all around the country to here and um they really get to Showcase their their city um and I think um yeah it’s I mean it’s only a good thing and last one for me CAM what are your hopes for Ripper this year I think you guys obviously had a extremely busy week last year I think you guys ended up finishing in eighth place what are you guys going to do to take the podium this year um I mean yeah we’ve been talking about it all year um it’d be it’d be cool to get our first win here I think it’d be pretty epic but um it’s definitely been on our mind we probably haven’t um ham and egged at the best um uh this year we’ve had a few good finishes individually um yeah but haven’t quite got across uh for the team so um yeah hopefully this is the week where it all comes together um we we learned a lot from last year I think um and and uh the preparation has definitely been better already so um yeah yeah awesome well I know you’ll have a lot of fans rooting for you guys I’m going to kick it over to the media you guys raise your hands if you have questions and we’ll bring over a mic Evan hey boys um question for all of you live adela’s obviously the blueprint the blue are you laughing at me for cuz there you can uh live ad is obviously the blueprint for for what leave golf wants to be how how do you recreate that kind of 13 other times around the world is is there a secret recipe that makes adelade sort of The Pick of the bunch um I I think the Australian fans um is pretty hard to recreate um around the world but um I mean you just pick a city that’s or or a country that’s been uh kind of I guess hadn’t seen good gol for a long time um you know it worked last year it’s going to work again this year here um yeah I I can see it definitely working internationally um a lot better than the us because there’s just so many tournaments in the US and um yeah I I I’m definitely putting my hand up for more of an international schedule and um getting fans out that haven’t seen quality golf for a while and um you know showing them what live is all about and the other boys if if you wouldn’t mind yeah I think um like Cam said there’s opportunities all around the world uh markets that haven’t been hit yet like Adelaide um hadn’t been you know got the the well the T you know that there’s opportunity for a tournament in Chile um the South African leads I’m sure they’d love to have one in South Africa you got you know all of Asia and India and um there’s just so many opportunities and I think yeah places like Cam said that haven’t seen worldclass golf for for a long time um I think that’s where there’s huge opportunity you know obviously the the tour plays a lot in in America and um and they’ve got that fan base there I think we can really create a huge worldwide fan base because there’s a lot of big financial markets around the whole world I guess that’s um that team aspect as well it’s uh it makes it very easy for a country for example Chile to follow the TK team or or those sort of markets um honestly I think but by all the reports that I’m hearing about this event last year and obviously what I’ve seen so far I think you’re going to struggle to recreate it um 13 times again around around the world um it’s just a special event obviously won best golf event of the year last year so it’s going to be hard to recreate that 30 more times but I do feel like with that team element um you know with it being quite a a country sort of um you know each country’s is Domin a country sort of dominating each team I feel like that is going to allow for maybe a market where our our international events can get hyped up really really well um and really get behind a home team kind of feeling um just to follow up could you guys see live golf evolving into a scenario where each of the events are a home event for one team and it kind of each team has a home ground Home Country advantage and therefore all those fans are incentivized to get out and support that particular team in that City yeah I think so I think it’ be I think that’ be a great um idea format sort of idea to do that in I don’t how it works logistically you obviously got a few teams in the states where I don’t know how that may work perfectly but I definitely know with you know with a stinger team with a t team with a with a ripper GC team um with the iron heads I think there is definitely a market there for feeling like there’s a home base somewhere and and yeah getting like a home event system mik right here just curious with all the support that you guys are getting this week does that also come with a certain weight of expectations uh cam yes um yeah it’s um it’s I think it can definitely be a good thing and a bad thing at the same time um obviously the the support from the fans is amazing but um you know internally I think uh sometimes you can get caught out just trying a little bit too hard um trying to make a putt go in um trying to hit a shot close and and you get caught out um um yeah so I think the prep like I mentioned before has been a little bit better this year we probably haven’t had as much stuff to do outside the golf course which is nice um so I’ve had a little bit more time on the course and um you know just got to treat it like another week although it’s it’s really not for us this is probably our biggest week of the year and I also wanted to ask you about uh the 12th hole the threeie mark Matt and cam just about your experiences last year is there a certain moment or memory that you recall like cam I think you were you uh had a Fisher encounter at one point if I recall yeah probably the first memory that that pops into my mind was uh that Friday afternoon um and yeah to be honest I was I was kind of myself um and I probably hit the worst shot of the week by far I think I was you know I I like fat flum pushed it it was so bad I had about 50 m left for my second shot so um um yeah I got better gradually over the weekend but um it was pretty uh it was pretty scary to be honest on that Friday afternoon Matt it’s a great hole um it’s a great length of a hole for that type of hole um it’s a it’s a you’ll be hitting a club where you expect to hit a good shot and hit a decent shot to get the crowd to go crazy and uh I’m the same as cam I missed the green short right on Friday because I was a little nervous and a little uh intimidated by everything that was going on there and uh it was a great EXP experience though and um I can’t wait to get back there Mark is there something that stands out yeah I was I was lucky like the boys were saying it was um pretty intimidating even though it wasn’t that hard a shot just with the crowd going crazy and um I actually hit three pretty good shots which was nice um but the one that stands out for me is Sunday afternoon it was my last hole um and I remember pour and a cold Lehman lier into a warm shoe and um it was pretty warm when I drank it so they uh the crowd went off and um it was a good way to finish off the tournament yeah right thanks over there thanks uh Lucas where were you last year did were you watching this or the tournament what that’s a perfect question he won I won the opposite week in Japan last year and none of you gave a what I did that week I was going to well that figs the follow-up question like how did you like I guess balance what you were doing this time last year to all the attention that Liv got here in Adelaide and and the second one what are these Lads telling you about what to expect this weekend how did I balance the two did you say was that was that you said yeah yeah um I think I was obviously thrilled myself to win but I was also very thrilled to see the Australian public embrace the live Adela event the way they did um Lo met Le mentioned the other like government took a big risk in um in bringing a live event here obviously with the whole political involment around around this tour um it would have been it was it was could have gone either way really with with our our public um embrace the event but to see it come out the way it did to see Australia embrace the golf embrace the golf tournament the way it did um I was just really proud that we had done that and that we created such a such a a golfing and you know realistically I think it was a it was a turning point in the whole um you know the whole live discussion really um legitimizing live as a tour and and you know basically saying that these guys you know the conversations around these guys don’t care anymore I I think it very much legitimized this tour that event um so I was just proud to see that on Australian soil I don’t think I was really um upset or annoyed that I was getting attention taken away from me on um up in Japan but uh from what the boys have told me about it like just unbelievable obviously everyone said that it’s it’s crazy and it’s and it’s fun and it’s you know it’s it’s massive but there’s never been a bad comment about it you know if you look at something like Waste Management Open go there’s there’s a few guys that think that goes too far there’s there’s some people that thinks it gets too crazy whereas for as insane as this event was last year no one said anything bad about it everyone said it was just a great time the fans were amazing but still respectful um everyone had an amazing time somewhat of a party and um yeah I’ve got a lot to look forward to this year basically was the General consensus of of what I’ve heard so far and just a quick one cam performance wise what Taylor G did last year he was pretty incredible you played solid but were never really in the hunt what what do you expect this year is is it going to be that low again do you think or yeah how how do you approach the the pure golf aspect of this weekend I think uh I think the golf course is very similar the the greens seem like they have a little bit more bounce in it um this year they were kind of um almost a little bit crumbly last year um was kind of hard to gauge how far the ball was going to run out on some holes and they definitely seem a lot more consistent um I think uh what Gucci did last year was was pretty insane I don’t think we’ll see that again um we were just looking at his stats actually uh yesterday and and what he did did um you know and trying to basically mimic that uh for this year but um yeah looking at what he did it was it was pretty insane golf so um I think we’ll get somewhere around where where he finished but those first couple of rounds um I I wouldn’t expect 20 under to be leading after two rounds this year that’s that’s pretty insane um yeah I was just going to say Boys you’ve all touched on biggest week Taylor obiously won it last year what would it mean to be a local individually team obviously hopefully one but to be the first Australian to win in Australia that would obviously be a huge achievement any one of you can can answer yeah I mean it’ be we’ll make our Monday flights if one of us wins yeah it’ be uh it’d be pretty crazy if um any one of us won um obviously we’re all individually hoping it’s it’s us um but but I mean it’s the biggest T look it’s the biggest tournament we play all year um and it’s in our backyard um to win it would be certainly a career highlight um and uh and a pretty big few days to follow I would think and just conditions I guess now that everyone’s had a look does it count for anything you know hopefully the winds get up maybe a little bit firmness of the greens does that count for for anything for you boys do you think or you don’t get much of an advantage over the rest of the field I think last year Friday Saturday was a lot softer than we were used to and expecting uh so we probably played a little more you would play like a typical Australian Golf Course where Sunday it was a lot firmer and faster and I think our team was one of the low rounds for the week on one of the low rounds for the day on Sunday so I think that has a lot to do with our preparation this year to if is going to be soft we’re going to have to play a little differently than maybe more like an American Golf golfer would play we’re just bomit and if the greens are softer like they were last year on Friday Satur day anyone else okay last one for me if you guys each have one piece of advice for Lucas for the watering hole what would it be I’ll start with you Matt hit a close cam bring bring your umbrella Mark just remember to breathe awesome well good luck this week guys I know everyone will be rooting for you we’re so excited to have you here and thanks for hosting us thank you thanks guys easy I forgot about it you were first