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GOLF CHANNEL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 28, 2019Judy RankinKaren StupplesJerry FoltzOrlando, Florida Q. What are your expectations going into next week's event? JUDY RANKIN: For me, and this is the first -- we're in San Diego. This is the first week I've worked this year, so I have basically been a viewer of golf, women's and men's since the beginning of the year. So anyway, there's a little excitement for me because I haven't been to a golf tournament this year. But when I look at what's going on with the LPGA and when I look at this week's big event, the preview for next week, it's pretty amazing that this young player, Nelly Korda, lead the Money List. I mean, she's already won almost a half a million dollars this year. She has played unbelievably good. She's been in the Top-10 in every start this year. Now, by any measure that, is some kind of golf, and she's been playing all over the world. So I am pretty taken with what Nelly Korda is doing in the 2019 season. And for how I would measure things going into next week, she is clearly a most serious player to watch. She's not playing this week and that has to do with next week. I'm fascinated by the young player with the beautiful golf swing. Q. What is the likelihood, do you think, of us having a Korda final group in a major championship this year? And are we on the cusp of seeing a Venus and Serena Williams type of situation in golf with these two sisters. KAREN STUPPLES: I honestly think that we have every possibility of seeing it happen with these two. I mean, we just look and see what Jessica did last week in Phoenix, when she almost came back in the final round and won after having taken some time off from being injured again. So she's a player to watch. I mean, technically, they are both so sound. Mentally, they are strong, as well, because they have such a good grounding from their father, Peter. He instilled that strength in them, and I can really see them jostling for position because their talent is so equal. It's not like looking at Ariya and Moriya, and this is nothing against Moriya, but Ariya being the younger sister, she just has more physical ability than Moriya does. But with the Kordas, they are so equally blessed both talent-wise and mental ability, that you can see them definitely kind of jockeying for position throughout the course of their careers. THE MODERATOR: Judy, do you agree with that? JUDY RANKIN: I absolutely do. I think the physical nature of their golf swings are very similar, but I don't know what it is I've always seen in Nelly, but there's something -- and gosh, I wouldn't -- I can't even think of a bad thing to say about Jessica, but I've always seen something, a shade more serious in Nelly than I have in Jessica. Jessica might be loving life a fraction more, where Nelly is just a little bit more directed, a little bit more on a path. I do believe they are there are a lot of things that plays into what makes you great. Another thing about these two players and these two sisters, you can't really make a judgment because I believe in the very best sort of way, they are driving each other. So you know, you really can't say who will be the better one in the end, but I do know that competition, that it's both competition and it's both -- it's also something that -- where one wishes for the other, too. So it's the best of the competitive world that I've seen in a long time, and I, too, see that in Moriya and Ariya. Ariya does seem to be the more talented player. She's longer, stronger, got a longer resumé now and all that, but they are equally good and equally competitive and equally on each other's side. So these sister acts on the LPGA Tour are spectacular, and I think they can't just be fascinating to me. Everybody has to like to watch this. Q. There's an argument to be made that the Kordas are the most athletic family in the world. JUDY RANKIN: I do think they are spectacular. JERRY FOLTZ: I can't think of any family that's in that argument with them, actually. Maybe just the Williams sisters. But I defer to Judy. She spotted the potential in Nelly basically the first time she ever saw her and she's been leading that bandwagon for a long, long time and it's proving true. And Judy's rarely wrong. Matter of fact, I'm still waiting for that first time. JUDY RANKIN: We weren't married, Jerry, or you wouldn't have said that. JERRY FOLTZ: I think all four of them and a treasure to watch. I could easily see a Korda and Jutanugarn in the final group next week, or it's a course that fits all four of their games beautifully well, so could see any combination of the four competing for the title next week, and three of the four are playing pretty well right now. This week isn't a harbinger of next week because it's totally different golf. Last week would be a much better harbinger, Phoenix, desert golf, of what's going to happen at the ANA Inspiration. This week is a totally different style of golf. Whenever I'm signed to any of the four, I look forward to it as much as anybody that I follow. They are great people to watch. They conduct themselves like role models and champions while they are on the course, and they are just a treasure to be able to cover. JUDY RANKIN: If I could interject, because Jerry, you're really sort of educating me on Jin Young Ko, and I know you think she's got some kind of golf game. So she's going to be in the mix next week, you can almost bet. JERRY FOLTZ: Oh, there is -- there are so many golf instructors who have jumped on that bandwagon. Anne van Dam swept the social media world after Karen's Tweet about her clubhead speed and how far she hits it past everyone else. But so many instructors take one look at her golf swing and say it's the best they have ever seen. It's aesthetically pleasing, perfect, technically perfect. I've seen so many comments from noted instructors, and it reminds you to the way people still to this day talk about Mickey Wright the way she swings a golf club. You combine that, a lot of people can have good swings, many tours are full of great golf swings that never make it. You combine it with the heart of a champion which she seems to possess in spades, and it's the making of someone who is going to be a very, very special player for a long time in my opinion. Now, we've said that before and been wrong, but I think she handles herself at a much more mature level than I see a lot of other international players who come over at a very young age, and I think if we could buy stock in her right now, I'd buy it at any price. Q. When Anne van Dam showed up on the range in Phoenix on Tuesday, every player on the range stopped to watch her? JERRY FOLTZ: We had that happen once before, Steve. JUDY RANKIN: I know where you're going with this. JERRY FOLTZ: I'm not going to bring your name into it but Marina Stuetz, I remember Kirk Byrum that year was assigned to an LPGA event for the very first time later in the year and he came out near his home to watch and learn a little more about it, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw this girl, Marina Stuetz hit the golf ball, very much like Anne van Dam. Now she was a little younger and a lot more raw and never really made it. Anne van Dam seems to be progressing on a very comfortable pace right now in the matter of, what, three or four years that we've known her. KAREN STUPPLES: She's a winner on the Ladies European Tour. She's tested. She knows how to win. Q. Speaking of people that turn heads on the range, I'd like to segue to Michelle Wie. We're not entirely sure, it looks like on social media that she plans to play next week. And I feel like, you know, we've had this conversation for, you know, 15 years, give or take, but at this point, I'm just curious what you all think it means to have Michelle Wie just show up and be in the field of the LPGA at this stage and the depth of the Tour and this stage in Michelle's career. KAREN STUPPLES: Wow, I think I speak for everybody, that the desire to see the very best of Michelle Wie, and I don't really think that we have ever seen it. I think that the potential, the potential that we saw when she was just an amateur playing at the ANA Inspirational all those years ago, and then it never really came to fruition. We had little snapshots of brilliance that she would display, and then they would disappear with another injury, and she has been so plagued by those. It's just been hard to watch. You know, to know that she's so close, and yet she's so far away. And I think at this stage, with the way the injuries keep coming and going, that I don't think we're ever going to truly see the Michelle Wie that we all wanted to see and we all hoped would burst out and be a dominant player on the LPGA Tour. I kind of just wish her all the best now for herself personally with whatever makes her happy and however many tournaments she can get through with her injuries the way they are. I think she still has a drive and desire to improve but I think she does it very differently to most people. She doesn't think about, I believe, golf in terms of winning. I think she see it is as almost a bit Bryson DeChambeau-ish in how she can fiddle things around and tinker with stuff to make sure -- to keep her mind quiet with regards to her golf swing. I think it's -- I think we'll see her at the ANA next week. I think she'll try and play. I don't know how well she will do. She can always pull on some good memories from how well she's played there in the past, and sometimes just being in a place like that can really inspire a player to perform well. It's a hard path to go now with the talent being so deep now on the LPGA Tour, up against players that really great in their own right that that are also going to be inspired by being there and I think almost -- it's kind of a bit of a sad thing to say, but I think that we see her moving out of the needle mover in women's golf and we see other players starting to move into that spot. JUDY RANKIN: I just would add, if you think about some of the especially good or really great players in the game, there's a nice list of players who did not have any physical problems, at least until later in life. In all of his early years, Jack Nicklaus didn't really have any physical problems. It was kind of later on. Arnold Palmer was pleased with good physical health for so many years. Annika was until she was until she was very near retiring. There's a lot of players who haven't dealt with anything that was semi-serious, let's say, and that's why they did so well for so long. It's really hard when everything in your body is leapfrogging each other and something is always going wrong. JERRY FOLTZ: I'd like to tag in on that. Great question. I remember talking to Jake years and years ago -- we were just talking about Internet traffic on our website. You guys in the digital world now -- probably track it is better than I did but at the time Michelle Wie wasn't very competitive, and he said she was No. 3 on unique business to our website. Any time an article mentioned Tiger's name, it obviously got the most hits. Phil Mickelson believe it or not was second and Michelle Wie was third and she wasn't anywhere close to being competitive on the LPGA Tour at the time we were having this conversation. The thing that brought it back to home was John Daly was still fourth. Is she a needle mover to this day? Probably so. Probably so. But does the game survive without her? Yes, with the emergence of Lexi Thompson, the American star, so to speak and the Korda sisters who are so very likable and talented, Brooke Henderson for our North American fans in the golf rabid country of Canada, Brooke Henderson is in the final group Sunday or better yet a Monday finish. We had a Monday finish at the Bob Hope one year and I had never seen crowds that big with all the Canadians visitors in town check. There are a lot of players collectively that pick up the gap in terms of notoriety amongst the casual fan that Michelle Wie kind of carried the torch for for so many years. Q. The impact of Augusta National, especially on the Amateur component, and do you see down the road the ANA having to move up a week to get away from that? KAREN STUPPLES: I'll jump in on this very quickly. When I look through the list of who the ANA Inspiration had playing as amateurs this year, I think it's a particularly strong, strong field of amateurs. I look at Frida Kinhult, Florida State freshman, she's from Sweden, and if you look at golf stats, she's ranked the No. 1 player in college golf. She has a scoring average of one better than Jennifer Kupcho. She's going pretty good. Patty Tavatanakit from UCLA, she's a sophomore from Thailand, she finished fifth at the U.S. Women's Open last year. We all know what she did at the ANA Inspiration last year. She had a poor Sunday round but she started up there on the leaderboard and then she was I think minus seven, so she knows how to play. Rachel Heck, rounding out just four of these, she's from Memphis, she's 17. She made the cut in her first two majors that she played last year, and she played with Ariya Jutanugarn at Evian last year, and when Ariya was asked about her, she said -- Ariya said, "Oh, I need to watch out for her in five years' time because I think she's going to have a really good career." So the ANA has attracted some really fantastic amateurs and I think that's all credit to the tournament. JUDY RANKIN: Well, I do, too. You have to say it's too bad that amateurs in any case would have to choose, because you know, what spectacular two events could you have that would be at the same time that would force you to choose? All in all, it's all going to turn out to be really great for women's golf. It's going to be exposure to women's golf to a lot of people. Because the amateurs will play at Augusta, people will see those very fine players on that iconic golf course for the first time. They might, they might tune in to women's golf, and Mike Tirico and so on, when they had not before, and that can only be a good thing. That can bring them to see the talent in women's golf and the appeal in women's golf. All in all, it's two great things. It's kind of too bad that they are, you know, at exactly the same time, but I think via the world of television and the world of golf, it will all work out to benefit each other. JERRY FOLTZ: My two cents are that I don't think the ANA needs to change dates at all. I think next week is going to be the most incredible celebration of women's golf in the history of television, and I think there will be a lot of parents sitting down on the couch with their daughters, and even their sons, to watch that might not have watched before because of women playing a tournament at Augusta National. I think with the newest message of "drive on," how inspiring the message is, the Founders Cup last week and everything we know they have done to get golf anywhere near where it is today, it wouldn't have happened without today. And now the inaugural Augusta Women's Amateur, it's a celebration of women's golf. The one thing I will say is that every single girl who is going to compete in Drive, Chip & Putt Championship, every single one of those amateurs is going to play at the Augusta National Women's Amateur, and every women competing at the ANA, they are all choreographing their leap into Poppy's Pond, and it's coincidental that they are happening at the exact same time. I understand why, but I think in time, as ANWA takes it's rightful place in the golf landscape and settles into a year-after-year event, I think the ANA is not going to suffer from the amateur exemptions at all, and again, remember, that is the ultimate destination for every one of them. They want to be there. They want to jump into Poppy's Pond. They want to make their mark in the professional game, but I think it's going to be a wonderful, inspirational week culminating in somebody taking that leap on Sunday evening, primetime East Coast on Golf Channel. KAREN STUPPLES: Adding to that, when you think about the week, you get to see women's golf at all stages of their development. You get to see them when they are just young girls playing in Drive, Chip & Putt Championship and then you get to see them when they are at the very top of their amateur games and from there you get to see the very best women golfers in the world competing at the ANA Inspiration. So you get to see the progression. I think as viewers watching, you can as a parent to a young girl golfer, you can see what each stage should look like and I think that's something that can be very reassuring as a parent to watch. Q. Have either of you played at Augusta and if you can talk about when you were young players, how would you have looked at an opportunity to play Augusta National in your era? KAREN STUPPLES: That's a very deep question, in many ways. First off, I had, you know, when I was growing up, playing at Augusta National wasn't even a consideration. It was so far out of the realm of what was possible for me that that wasn't even a potential dream. And so I think that I just blocked it out of my mind and refused to even think about it. So much so, so much so, that I had even refused to even go and watch the Masters. I've never been on the grounds. I've never been there. And I think it was because of the fact that I was never allowed myself that dream. It was something that I just wanted to protect myself from. So I have never been. I think the young girls now do have that opportunity, and they can allow that dream, and I think it's a very different perspective that you get when you're sitting here talking about it as a 45-year-old, as opposed to a young player at age 18. I mean, I've lived an awful lot of life in the meantime, so it's not something that I can go back on and think about what I would do if I was 18. Q. Before Judy answers, let me just be clear, too. Have you watched the Masters then over the years? KAREN STUPPLES: Oh, yes. Q. Been a keen viewer of it? So it's just a matter of not being on the grounds. KAREN STUPPLES: When I was a kid growing up in the U.K., it was the only excuse I ever got to stay up late past my bedtime was to watch the Masters, and every year my father and I would sit up to watch the Masters and I would always go to school on that Friday absolutely exhausted, and on the Monday following the Sunday finish, because my dad and I would sit up to watch. That was the only time I was allowed. JUDY RANKIN: I just come from such a different time in golf and women's golf, and there was not the same kind of interaction with men's golf and women's golf as there is today. I think, I can say personally for me, and maybe for a lot of the girls and women of that era, that you know, it was just a different social time, cultural time. Any interaction that we did have, it was always kind of trying to prove yourself to be good enough. It was never, I'll go play with you, sure, let's tee it up. As a result, no, I never even thought about playing at Augusta. But that would not have crossed my mind. I didn't know people could. I didn't know women could, which certainly they can. And I have been there on several occasions, and it is an awe-inspiring golf course and an awe-inspiring test. Do I watch the Masters? I change everything. All my plans change, just like a big part of America. Yes, I watch the Masters. I absolutely love it. They have found a way to create excitement on that back nine that, you know, you wish every tournament could be like that. But no, never crossed my mind to play there. I did take a stance, not that they need my defense, but defending Augusta in the sort of Martha Burk era, because I numerous women who had been invited to play Augusta had been treated poorly. I knew there were other places that were far more restrictive than Augusta. So I came to their defense a little bit in that case. No, you can't really compare my young era with today, because in many ways, as far as welcoming each tour to the other, each gender to the other gender, in that part, things are pretty equal. JERRY FOLTZ: One little side note you might like. I was invited to play Augusta twice. Both times I wasn't able to make it and I still at that point thought -- it was years ago, I thought I might earn my way there some day. That was quite durational. But both times I was invited it was by a woman, by a female daughter of one of the members that used to work with us. I think that's an interesting little side note, when so much was made during the Martha Burk era, and of course the announcement of the ANWA came as no surprise; maybe things don't happen that quickly at Augusta but they do happen, and they have never been -- even though they didn't allow women as members at the time, they have never discriminated against women playing golf there. Q. What were the occasions in which you went there? Did you go there just during the tournament or have you been there non-tournament weeks? JUDY RANKIN: No, no, I've only been there for the tournament. A couple of times it was for your golf writers dinner which was great, and I had a couple of occasions to be there for other things, and then just to be a fan. My family was watching Geoff Ogilvy on a couple of occasions, and yeah, so I wish everybody who played golf or likes golf would get to be at Augusta just one time. Q. What were you doing that you turned down an invitation to play Augusta National? JERRY FOLTZ: I don't know, it was nuts, absolutely nuts. Then I worked it for four years with CBS in their online coverage and magically never got chosen their lottery, either. I don't know what I was thinking. I say this all the time covering golf, golfers are like real estate agents, they are eternal optimists. Even though I was missing more cuts than making them, I still thought some day, delusionally I would earn my way there; that tomorrow, I was going to find that elixir, that panacea, and figure it all out, but it never happened. JUDY RANKIN: Just to go back a second to ANA and Mission Hills, in its way, Mission Hills is iconic for women's golf, and Mission Hills is the place where the championship has always been played. And Mission Hills is the place that people can tune in on the television and believe they know the holes and they know the next shot that's going to be really hard, or what's coming up. Of course, that's part of the beauty of Augusta, but it's also the beauty of Mission Hills, and the history that that golf course has for women's golf. JERRY FOLTZ: I encourage everybody to tune in and figure out at what point during the broadcast Terry began on brings up Judy's hook on 14 into the street. JUDY RANKIN: There's a statute of limitations on that. (Laughter). Q. There's so much that's been made and so much effort in recent years to get LPGA events on golf courses that everyone knows to elevate the women's game. I realize this isn't an LPGA major, but similar to when the women played at the Old Course for the first time, what will it feel like, do you think -- can you put yourself in the shoes of the young woman who wins this tournament for the first time, to be the first to win at Augusta National as a female, what that might feel like and what that might mean? JUDY RANKIN: I'm sure that in our golf world and in the amateur world, even if it were a professional world we were talking about, that's going to be an enormous thing. It's going to, for the person individually, it is going to be such an accomplishment to say, I played really well at Augusta, and not only did I win, but I played really well. I don't think anybody, whether in a competitive round of golf or a recreational round of golf, can just totally pat themselves on the back if they play that golf course really well. Q. Talking with your generation earlier today and about the golf course, they said there's nothing out there that they would change -- some of the trees have gotten big and that's changed much of the strategy and the sight lines from the old days from when they weren't quite so big. I'd like to know what your take is on that. JUDY RANKIN: That is a fact but another fact is that if some of those sight lines were what they used to be, Mission Hills wouldn't be very difficult for players that hit the ball the distance that they do today a good example is the ninth hole. When the trees were small at the corner on the par 5 ninth hole, today's players would rip it over that corner, and they would be playing irons into the ninth green. I think it, to me, it's almost fitting that you now have to fit these shots around these big trees to take it -- if you're going to try to take advantage of your length. I believe when the trees were much smaller, there were two or three players who hit the ball a really big distance, but the vast majority of players were hitting the ball, I'm going to say, in the neighborhood of 240, 245. You're now as an average a good 20 yards longer than that and some are 40 yards longer than that. The wind comes through the pass from L.A., and you can just look at the trees and see where the prevailing wind comes from when it blows, and that lean, that wind lean of the trees has become a part of how the golf course plays. And there have been a few trees that have been trimmed. The tree to the right at 15 that has been significant has been trimmed over time and so on, but you know, I don't think -- I don't think Mission Hills needs to be any more playable than it is and I think it's matured in a really good way and it totally fits the distance today's players hit the ball. JERRY FOLTZ: Same thing happened in Augusta National, Sam Snead playing with a young guy in the late 60s, early 70s, and they got to the 13th tee and Sam said, when I played when I was your age, I used to have to ride up over those trees and the kid tried it and fell down into the creek. Sam said, when I was your age, those trees weren't nearly as big. JUDY RANKIN: Exactly. Exactly. KAREN STUPPLES: Just adding to it, which I can't really add much more because Judy said it so perfectly, that as the women's game has grown; so have the improvements of the course grown. It's almost like they have grown together side-by-side and I think that's very fitting for what that golf course and what that tournament represents to the women's game. I think the two have grown up together. JUDY RANKIN: I would just remind everybody, in the case of this first major championship of the year, these LPGA Tour players, and now some rookies, that are starting out pretty well, people who haven't played there before and so on, I don't know how many of those rookies will actually be in that field next week, but it is a week that players really look forward to. I can't -- I can't express how important next week is to players, and how hard they work to be prepared for next week. In the world of the LPGA and women's golf, it is as important as anything that happens. THE MODERATOR: That was a great way to close the call. Everybody, thanks so much for being on the call. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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