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INTERNATIONAL CROWNJuly 22, 2014Mika MiyazatoYani TsengPhoebe YaoSakura YokomineOWINGS MILLS, MARYLAND THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, welcome back to the media center here at the International Crown at Caves Valley. It's a pleasure to have a couple of different teams in here now. One each from Pool A and also from Pool B. Representing Pool B is Team Japan, and down on the end Mika and Sakura. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Representing Chinese Taipei, we have Phoebe Yao, and to my immediate left, former No. 1 in the world, Yani Tseng. Thanks everybody for being here. Let's start with you, Yani, and we'll kind of go right on down the line. We'll talk Chinese Taipei first. And your specific impressions about this event now that it's here. You've spent a lot of time helping us to promote this event and now it's here. What are your thoughts? YANI TSENG: I am just so glad to be here. It's so exciting, even more exciting when I see this coming out. And I just feel so grateful and very honored to be representing my country, from Taiwan. And just, because we don't get to have it too much, golf is very lonely, but now we play as a team, and I'm just so glad. So thanks LPGA and thanks International Crown to give us this opportunity to play as a team and represent our country and just, it feels great. I just can't wait to go on Thursday and then try to kick some butt. (Laughter.) THE MODERATOR: All righty then. Phoebe, let's get some thoughts from you. Three professional victories on the Japanese Tour and then Taiwan as well. Your thoughts on the event? Having fun? PHOEBE YAO: I'm really excited, I look forward to playing this tournament for like three months ago. THE MODERATOR: The chance to play with Yani and the rest of these great stars, what kinds of thoughts have you had? What have you been thinking about getting ready for this? PHOEBE YAO: I think it's really fun and I hope I will enjoy this tournament, yeah. This golf course, it's really nice, too. I will my try my best. THE MODERATOR: I'm sure you'll do great. And we do have a translator if you have questions to help out with any questions or anything you need. Let's move down and talk to Team Japan and start with Mika. Your thoughts on this event and being here representing Japan, wearing the shirt with the flag and the hat with the flag. What's this been like for you? MIKA MIYAZATO: It's everything is special. So it's first time playing as a professional, so definitely fun this week. THE MODERATOR: What are your thoughts on playing for country and playing with Ai Miyazato and the rest your teammates. What's that been like? I know it's early in the week still. The best thing for you about this event with your teammates. SAKURA YOKOMINE: The team, we are together, from the amateur times, so it's very easy to get together and then play together. THE MODERATOR: Perfect. Sakura, let's get your thoughts on playing for Team Japan and you had a pretty good day, right? Did you make a hole‑in‑one today? SAKURA YOKOMINE: Yes. THE MODERATOR: What are your thoughts about being here at the International Crown? SAKURA YOKOMINE: It hasn't started yet and it's so new to me, so I'm not quite sure what's going on. But then I'll try to figure out what's going on and that's what I'm trying to do right now. THE MODERATOR: Just to give everybody some background and you can help me with this, Rolex ranking number 38 for Sakura just to let people know. 22 victories on the Japan LPGA, so clearly a player who has a lot of talent. What does it mean for you coming in this week having had that winning experience? How will that help you in this competition? SAKURA YOKOMINE: I don't know who is teaming with me, so I just want to do my best. THE MODERATOR: Obviously Ai Miyazato would get a whole lot of attention, Mika, is she clearly the leader of Team Japan thus far? MIKA MIYAZATO: Yes, of course. THE MODERATOR: Of course. You've all told her, you're it? MIKA MIYAZATO: Yes. THE MODERATOR: Very simple. Okay. Let's get some questions from the audience. Q. Talking to both the Americans and the Europeans, who have all played Solheim Cups and they all say that when you stand on that first tee and they announce you as representing your country, that you cannot imagine the nerves that you feel and the amount of pressure that is associated with that. And even if you think you do, until you're there, you don't. Are you guys prepared for that and does anybody really understand what's coming? YANI TSENG: Yeah, but we don't get that much, it's only when we were an amateur that they announce your country. But actually it feels like a little bit of back in the amateur events. It's just we're getting older and we have one more caddie on the bag. And for me to play on this stage to represent your country, I don't know how to describe it. I am just so happy to be with the best of the best, the top eight countries that were able to make it to this crown. We would love to come back and I just hope I don't cry on the first tee when I hear my country song or like representing Chinese Taipei or Taiwan. I just I really feel very excited and I'm pumped already, so I don't care how I play. Maybe my teammates care, but I think for the team event, I'm excited because I always am an aggressive player and I can just be aggressive all week because I know I have a teammate on my back and I don't need to worry about it. Q. Yani, if memory serves, you used to be in Mike ear kind of pushing him for an event like this. And why was it important for you to be involved in something like this? YANI TSENG: I'm not born American, I'm not born in Europe. For the Asians, I mean I always was hoping I could play in an event like this, to represent your country and play for your country. Because golf's very lonely, we're always traveling by ourselves. I mean, every time I see Solheim Cup, I'm so excited. I wish I was part of it. Doesn't matter which country I play for, I wish I was in a team event. Because in golf you don't get as much. Only you and your caddie will be very excited on the course. But like your teammates are cheering for you, I think that's priceless. You're happy to see your teammate playing well, you're happy to see other players playing well, because you are always facing to the same target, to the same goal as playing yourself. So I think this week, for me, I feel more important for my teammates except myself. So I want to play well for my country and for my teammates. So I just, I think it's even bigger this week. Q. How can you use your inexperience in match play to your advantage? You've always had such success in stroke play, but it's a different game. So wondering, does that give you an advantage or what are you going to overcome from that? THE MODERATOR: Good question. And I want to get some thoughts from the others as well. Yani, go ahead and then I'll ask Phoebe. So inexperience in match play. YANI TSENG: Like I say, because I'm always a very aggressive player, so I think this course is very good for me, because you almost hit driver on every hole and I have a big advantage on this golf course. Our teammates will mess around, we're thinking that the good strength is one longer hitter, one play smart like average like so. For me, I'm kind of one of the longer hitters, so I can be aggressive all the time, so I don't have to worry about being aggressive. I miss it the short side, I have my teammate that's got me covered. So I think that's, for me, it's already less pressure. So I feel great to work with your teammates on the course and to feel the little pressure, feel the nerves, and I think we're going to have lots of fun. THE MODERATOR: Phoebe, your thoughts on match play. Do you enjoy it? PHOEBE YAO: I'm pretty excited about it. I think in match play, I like match play more than I like stroke play, because you face your competitor directly. THE MODERATOR: Let me go down to Mika. Your thoughts on match play. MIKA MIYAZATO: The difference between the individual play and match play is more like I'm representative of a country, so I feel so responsible to play well. THE MODERATOR: A lot of responsibility. Let's get a question here. Q. Yani, your career took off in Baltimore when you won the LPGA Championship. What do you remember about that week and how did it change your life? YANI TSENG: Yeah, I mean I have lots of great memories out there. I love to come back to this place. Actually, I came here to practice one time when they played in Baltimore, because I wasn't a LPGA player yet. But I came here, that year Suzann Pettersen won and I was here. I seen her win and it kind of gave me motivation a little bit. So that's one of my best memories in my career, because I wasn't expecting anything out there at all. Now, I expect much more. But at that time when I was Rookie of the Year, I just enjoyed it so much. I feel like as a LPGA player it doesn't feel much pressure, because I feel we are like big family. I was rookie out here and so many people were taking care of any question you ask. People were always there to help you, the LPGA staff and all the players, not just for my country. So it's a lot of players and we're great competitors inside the ropes, but when we're outside the ropes, everybody hangs out a lot. And it feels very easy out there when you have the rookie year, it's not as hard as you think. I just feel very grateful to play on the golf course. Q. Phoebe, what do you remember when you heard about, did you watch on TV when Yani won? Was it televised back home? And how important was it for you to see someone from your country winning the LPGA Championship? PHOEBE YAO: I feel like when I'm on the course with me today, we're both from Taiwan and when she plays well I'm happy, when she doesn't play very well, I feel sad. And I think that we're going to play very well this time. Q. Do you remember watching Yani win? PHOEBE YAO: Yeah, I remember that. THE MODERATOR: Tell us about that. PHOEBE YAO: I feel super excited for that. Super happy. Finally, I saw Taiwan player win a tournament in the LPGA. Q. Yani, it seems like there's a really young player now every year, every couple of years who is breaking out on to the big steaks. Someone like Lexi Thompson or Lucy Li. I mean is that something you've noticed that these really young women are able to break through and play relatively well and why does that seem to happen in women's golf? YANI TSENG: I know I'm just getting older and older. I'm 25, I'm not the youngest for winning anything at all. So, I mean, it's happy to see that, for sure. I'm learning from them, too. Lexi, Lydia Ko, I mean, Minjee, everybody is so young. It feels like we're of a different generation, but I'm just so happy to see them coming out as such strong players. When Lydia, when she was an amateur and she won a LPGA tournament, and we looked at her like, we couldn't even beat a kid, because she was only 16 or 17 and she's winning a LPGA tournament. But I think it's great for junior golf, for ladies golf, for the LPGA. It's fun to watch. When you play with them, you feel like they're so enjoying everything they do out there. But, for me, I want to get back to that. I feel when I watch her play, I feel like the same as when I played on my rookie year when I was winning the tournament, when I was world No. 1. But now I don't feel like I'm enjoying it as much as back then. I want to do that, so I'm learning from them and then we kind of, everybody pushes each other to get better and better. You see now LPGA how much stronger our Tour is. You better get good to play on the LPGA. I mean, otherwise, like me, my ranking dropped very quickly. Q. Why do you think they are able to break through so young? That doesn't really happen as much in other sports. YANI TSENG: Golf, you can play any age. It's great. I think all the countries are really supportive, too. And then I think the LPGA or every country, they give us lots of stage to play on. As an amateur, you're able to play on the professional Tour. That's priceless. You don't get that experience when you play as an amateur. So we're able to come to play like Monday qualifying, play on the LPGA Tour. And then I think it's great for amateurs, because they can learn so much from us, and then I think it's just great experience for them. For those kids, they're not afraid of anything. They come out here, they don't care who is Yani or anything, they just want to come out here and then enjoy themselves. So I think that's great for them. That's very good to see that. Q. Yani, can you just update us on where your game is at and what you see as the biggest difference in your game now to when you were No. 1. YANI TSENG: I think I just keep putting too much pressure on myself and the result, the score, the ranking, I try to forget about that, but it's just really hard. I try to let it go, but it's just easy to say, but it's very hard to do. But now I play so good on the practice round and practice range, everything. But when I'm out on the course, it's kind of automatic, I got lots of attention on myself. I don't focus the right way, I just think too much. I kind of doubt myself a lot when I play in the tournament. But I just need to trust more, because I'm doing so good on the range, doing so good on the practice round, and I just need to really let it go and forget about everything else. Forget about who I am, just play like a kid, play like all the kids out there and enjoy every shot I do. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad, but always just be myself and just try to have fun. Now I feel like I need to be aware of what I'm doing. So like before, I just would go out there and have fun. But now I kind of need to tell myself what I have to do to really commit to the shot, see my target, and to be focused on what I should do out there and just be aware of that and try to work my way back. Q. For either of the players from Japan, I would take it that Yani's victory probably meant more than probably Se Ri Pak's victory quite a few years ago. But seeing an Asian player win a U.S. Major Championship, what kind of motivation was that for you to come out here to play to know you can be successful out here? MIKA MIYAZATO: That pushes us a lot because as Japanese, we like to do the best or as well as other Asian players. SAKURA YOKOMINE: I also feel like it's pushed me a lot, but I just want to play my best play and I just want to think about my play, so that will end up doing the best play for me.  So it depends on case by case, I will think about how it will motivate me. But then I just need to play my best here. THE MODERATOR: All right, thank you everyone. I want to thank you all for being here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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