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THE EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 9, 2015Inbee ParkEvian-les-Bains, France THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome in Rolex Rankings No. 1 Inbee Park into the interview room. Past champion here at this event. Just open up with some remarks about this event in general, how happy you are to be back here in France and at this championship. INBEE PARK: You know, Evian has been a very special place to me. I won here in 2012, and this is the first time I've won since 2008. Since I started traveling with my husband, this was the first tournament I actually won, so it's still in my mind, and yeah, it was a very special moment. So I still remember like yesterday how I felt. You know, over the years I really didn't have that much of a success in Evian Championship until I won in 2012. 2012 gave me a lot of confidence going into the Evian Championship, and obviously they redid the course and changed quite a few holes, and it became so much tougher than before. It feels like a little bit of a different golf course now. Yeah, last year, kind of the first time I kind of got used to the new golf course, and it felt like I got the feel of the golf course. Yeah, this year I feel a lot more comfortable and feel like I am more used to looking at this new setup of this golf course. THE MODERATOR: Looking back to that win, you've been on such a tear, such a string of success. I looked it up and you've won six of the last 14 majors, major success specifically. No other player has won more than one during that span. Give us a little bit of explanation. Explain yourself; what's the recipe of success? You've done so well and it's so hard to win out here, regular events, but majors, give us a little bit of insight into what makes you so successful. INBEE PARK: I don't know. I really can't explain why I am good at major tournaments, really, because if I look at the number of wins, I won 16 events is it, and seven of them is majors, so it's a really big percentage compared to other players. I don't know, just maybe I am just comfortable when I play the major championships. I feel like I have 100 percent concentration when I play the major championships. It really feels like a real golf tournament. Yeah, I think just the success that I've had in the past, that gives me a lot of confidence going into the major championships. Nothing really to explain, just confidence level and concentration level. THE MODERATOR: You've continued to rewrite the record books. LPGA you've been continuing your legacy. You completed the career Grand Slam at the last major, at the Ricoh Women's British Open, a huge goal that you've accomplished for yourself. This week another shot at history for the Super Career Grand Slam to win five different majors. There's a little bit of a debate and I know you said you won this event but it wasn't a major. Would this be the icing on the cake to get the fifth different major? INBEE PARK: I mean, it'll be a new -- if it becomes my goal, it'll be a new goal and something nobody has really done before. I feel like I'm doing something really never anybody has done before. It feels pretty special to actually have a crack at it, and I will for the rest of my life if I come to Evian. It's good that I have an opportunity, but I mean, the main goal this year was just to win the British Open, which just I did, and I'm happy to play in Evian. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but if I can do something special this week, that'll be definitely very memorable. This is already a memorable place to me, so if I can do something like that again, it'll be great, perfect. Q. When you say your concentration is better you think for majors, explain how your concentration and where you would lose concentration in the other tournaments, and would you find yourself thinking about dinner or what's going on at home? What kind of things would go through your mind? INBEE PARK: You know, I felt different concentration levels when I played just the regular tournaments and when I played the major tournaments. I don't know, I think it has to be the same for everyone. Everybody says we try to play same every week, but I think the concentration has to be different, and how they prepared is different for the major championships. I think it's different to everybody. But to me, especially to me, I think I definitely feel concentration level is different, like I can -- I read the lines more carefully on the greens. I look at the putts more carefully. I concentrate on my swing a little bit more. I think it's just a matter of little things, but just, yeah, I mean, it's not like I think about dinner or think about something else when I play the regular tournaments. But it's just, yeah, how -- even if I try to concentrate like a major tournament every week, it just can't be done. I tried before, and I think this is like a major tournament, and I tried it that way, but it just doesn't get there. It's just hard. If it's not a major tournament, then it's just hard to get your level there. Q. The other thing is you were talking about you just started being coached by your husband in 2008 when you came here. Was that what you said? INBEE PARK: We started working together in 2011, and this is 2012 when I won, so we started working together in 2011, and this was the first time we actually won together. So before then he wasn't my coach. Q. I was checking out your profile, first in the Money List, first in Player of the Year points, CME Globe, touring average, rounds under par. Nice job. What grade would you give your performance so far this year? INBEE PARK: You know, so far I really want to give myself an A+, because it can change, obviously, depending on how I finish the season at the end of the year, but obviously right now I'm leading on everything that I really want to lead on, and I've achieved the biggest goal of my golfing career, which is winning the British Open. Because of that I would definitely give myself an A+, yeah. Q. A couple weeks off and you went back to Korea. What were you working on? Did you get a little rest? What's the past couple weeks been like for you? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I was able to play a little bit of golf and catch up with friends and spend some time with family. It was a good two weeks off and I was able to prepare for the Evian Championship, have a little bit of time to prepare for it, so I was happy. This golf course is built in the mountains. It's somewhat similar to Korean golf courses. I was able to play some Korean golf courses that's kind of similar to this week. Yeah, it was helpful. Q. If you win here, it's been called a Super Career Grand Slam. Have you thought of another name that you might be able to give it? INBEE PARK: I don't know, I never really thought of a new name. If the LPGA says that it's a Super Career Grand Slam, it's a Super Career Grand Slam. I don't really get the choice. They are the ones who write the record books, it's not me. But I'm still happy because I still have the five trophies that are sitting there and that's all in my home, so it felt very good after looking at those trophies. It's still not going to change that I'm an Evian champion. It wasn't just a major, but it always felt like a major, and Evian has been just a great sponsor of the LPGA, and we always love to play this event. Yeah, in our mind it was always a major championship. Q. Keys to success this week: You talked about this course a little bit. How does your game suit this course and this event? INBEE PARK: The greens are quite tricky here. Since they redid the greens, there are so many slopey greens that you really need to be careful. The greens, the ones that I really had the trouble the last few years, I really -- it was tough to read these greens, but they have the green books this year here, so that's going to help me a lot. All the majors that I played this year, it helped me huge. I was so happy to see that book here, especially on these greens. These greens are just too crazy to read. Yeah, I think I'll be relying on the books a little bit this week, and obviously I did a couple of days of practice. I was supposed to do four days of practice, but two days were just gone because my bag wasn't here. My golf bag wasn't here. It got stuck in Paris. I got here Saturday, but I didn't get golf clubs until Monday night. Two days of just nothing and just resting. Not that I wanted, but yeah, so just two days of hard practice yesterday and today, both 18 holes, and yeah, ready to go. Q. For the books with the greens, do you read them? Does Brad read them? How do you work that out? Do you read them yourself? INBEE PARK: Yes, I read them myself. Q. What did you do in your two days of rest? Did you go on Lake Geneva or climb the mountains? INBEE PARK: Well, yeah, if I was -- if I knew it was going to come Monday night, I would have just relaxed and did something else, but I didn't know when it was going to be coming, so I wanted to practice Sunday and Monday, but I was just waiting there on the phone, trying to see where it is. My mom and dad is panicking when it's going to come, is it even going to come this week because they couldn't even find where it was. We didn't even know it was going to be here this week, so we were trying to sort it out, send the clubs from Europe or send the clubs from Korea, Japan. We were just too busy all those two days working out how we're going to get the bag because they couldn't guarantee us that it was going to get here this week. And Frank and Jack from Evian, they called Air France and they were able to help me out. Special team went down and actually looked for the bag, literally looked for the bag to find it. I mean, I was lucky there because I don't think I would have got it until probably end of the week. Q. Has that ever happened to you before? INBEE PARK: It's the first time this year. Q. Where were they looking, the special team? INBEE PARK: I don't know, I heard there was like a big storage where all the bags were stuck and nobody really was -- I don't know, it was in somewhat of a storage and me asked me what the bag was looking like, so I told them it was a big golf bag, black with my name tag and stuff like that, and they took a few hours there and they found it. Q. It was on its way to the airline garage sale. INBEE PARK: Yeah, I don't know. Q. Inbee, we're used to seeing you go very calmly along, nothing ever seems to faze you, rain, wind, whatever. Do you ever get cross on the golf course? What really annoys you? Losing your bag? INBEE PARK: That really disappointed me because I don't really get too much emotional. A lot of things I don't get emotional. When I watched movies I get emotional, but on the golf course I don't really get emotional. I don't know why, but just -- I mean, I don't know, it's just because I've been playing this for a long time and playing for a living. I don't know, I think I just kind of found that you have to be calm to play well, I think. That's why I don't really get mad at all. Not never, but -- Q. What movie made you cry or makes you cry? INBEE PARK: Well, there's a lot of them, but if I can remember, "The Notebook." That was a good movie. Q. What's the expectations of your competitors in this Evian Championship? INBEE PARK: I don't think I can name like one player that I'm going to be competing with, but the first two days is definitely going to be Lydia, Stacy, and we're playing two days, so it's definitely the ones to definitely watch out. All the time it's definitely in my mind looking at Stacy and Lydia, and the rest of the Korean players. I mean, this golf course I think really suits Korean players. They are used to seeing hilly lies and they are used to seeing up-and-down greens and a lot of undulations. Yeah, I think a few Korean players and definitely Lydia and Stacy. Q. A lot of Korean players are playing well this year. Do you have any explanation of the rise of Korean golf? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I think it's good that we get another generation of Korean golfers coming alongside of us because it looks like on the LPGA Tour, kind of everybody stopped coming to the LPGA Tour, and I mean, no really new generations of Korean golfers came for probably four or five years, but they really started coming since this year, last year and this year, and it definitely feels like a lot of new generations of golfers coming. It's good to see those teenagers playing good golf, and it definitely motivates a lot of the players on the Tour, as well. It's good to have a lot of competitors, yeah. THE MODERATOR: Inbee, thank you for coming in. Best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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