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CANADIAN PACIFIC WOMEN'S OPEN

August 19, 2015

Inbee Park

Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

THE MODERATOR: Happy to be joined in the media center by Rolex Rankings No. 1, Inbee Park. Inbee, it's your first start since completing a career grand slam at the Ricoh Women's British Open. How does it feel to be back out here?

INBEE PARK: Yeah, it feels great to be back, back to the LPGA Tour. I haven't taken a couple weeks off since the season started, and I took a week off last week, and I played on the KLPGA tournament the week before. So really, it's been two weeks since I've played the LPGA tournament. So, yeah, I feel quite fresh and refreshed after staying at home for a couple of days. Yeah, it feels great to be back.

Q. What do you do during the week off? Are you one of the players that still goes out and plays a little bit, does some practice, or are you just kind of away from golf the whole time?
INBEE PARK: It really depends. Sometimes I want to go to practice, but I don't practice every day for sure. I try to go out a couple times during the week, but obviously last week was a very busy week in Korea. I had to visit a lot of people, and I had to do a lot of media stuff, so, yeah. I was pretty busy, but I was able to take at least a couple days off, so that was good.

Q. Back in Korea, I know I saw a video online of just kind of the mobs of people that greeted you at the airport. What was that experience like for you?
INBEE PARK: I got that experience a few times before when I arrived in Korea. I mean, they welcomed me so well. So many people came out and congratulated me, and so many TVs and the media was out. Yeah, it feels doubled. I mean, it feels a lot happier.

I felt the British Open win was great when I did it, and then usually a couple days later you kind of forget about the tournament, and it's just life goes on. But it felt like the win feeling was going for another two weeks. The week I was playing in Korea and the week after, everywhere I go I got congratulated, and everywhere I go everybody was just saying so many great stuff about the British Open. So I was reminded a lot the last couple weeks.

Q. Welcome back to Vancouver. I guess you have some good memories about 2012 here. You got the first place check but didn't get the trophy. I guess your goal this week would be to get both?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, that would be great. I got the check but I didn't get the trophy in the Canadian Open yet, so it will be quite big for me if I can win in Canada. I mean, I've won in Canada before, but not in the Canadian Open. I had a good experience here in 2012. I played really well, but Lydia just played really good. I really love the golf course here. The course is in great condition. I feel like I'm hitting the ball pretty good too, so, yeah, I'm going to try hard for the next four days and see if I can get close.

Q. The golf course, what in your mind are the keys to playing it well?
INBEE PARK: Well, the front nine greens are very slopy, so you've got to place your second shots right. You don't want to be short sided or going down the hill because then the greens get really quick, very slopy greens. So over on the other side, the back nine has a little flatter greens, but I think they're quite tough on the greens, so you've got to be careful on the greens a little bit. Obviously the fairways are not that wide, so you want to stay on the fairway.

Q. Having won the four majors of the grand slam, there is a fifth major, of course, the Evian, right which you have not yet won. There's been some debate about you call it a grand slam or is that a super grand slam? What is your take on that?
INBEE PARK: Whatever the LPGA says is what really matters to me. This is where I belong. Obviously, I have all my name on all the major tournaments that are existing for the moment, even the Evian Championship. I've won that in 2012. So some tournaments, some major tournaments, sometimes it wasn't a major and it became a major, like a British Open or a Masters, it wasn't always a major.

So Evian Championship is always in our mind it was a major tournament, and I've won Evian Championship before. So as the players side to me, it doesn't really matter. I have my name on all the trophies, that's all that matters.

Q. The Olympics are still a year away, but it's such a big event in your country. Can you give me some sense of the excitement, the sense of anticipation that's surrounding that event?
INBEE PARK: Well, obviously a lot of people are really excited about golf in the Olympics coming really close. It's less than a year to go now. I think everybody's straightening their games to get ready for the special event. For some people it's a lot more important than a major tournament. We get to represent our country in the game of golf. It's just a totally different format and the experience is just going to be amazing, so we're really looking forward to it.

Q. The potential exposure for the women's game is off the charts at the Olympic level. It could be something that is very important.
INBEE PARK: I think a lot of -- I mean, even for now there are so many countries and so many countries that really love women's golf and they know about women's golf. But after the Olympics, I think it's just going to be a lot bigger, and so many other countries that didn't really know about us will have an opportunity to see us and how good we can be. I think it's going to be fantastic for women's golf, and golf itself.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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