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ANA INSPIRATIONMarch 30, 2016Inbee ParkRancho Mirage, California KRAIG KANN: Hello again everybody, welcome to the media center here at the ANA Inspiration at Rancho Mirage, California. It's a great pleasure to welcome in a past champion here. Current second ranked player in the Rolex Women's World Rankings. Say hello to Inbee Park. We brought this in here for you to make you feel comfortable. You've seen this before, right, this big trophy? INBEE PARK: Yes, it's at my house, actually. So it feels quite familiar. KRAIG KANN: What's it like to come back here? I know this isn't the only major championship that you've won, but special moments here? Special feelings come back when you make the little drive in? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I played this tournament since I was a young kid, since amateurs, so it feels quite special to come back every year. This is my 11th year playing this event. So it has all my growing up moments, and a lot of special moments, especially in 2013 when I won this event. Three majors in a row, it was a very historical year. Obviously this place has so much history and so many Legends of Golf won this event. So it's always special to play this tournament, and obviously just walking on the No. 18th hole by Poppie's Pond and looking at all the plaques for the champions and to see my name on that plaque was just a very special feeling. KRAIG KANN: You were here at the champions dinner the other night. Let's go back because you just brought it up, 2013 and the magnificent run that was started here with three in a row. You were on not only top of the game, top of women's golf, but really top of the world in the game of golf, and you became that household name for everybody at that time. How are you today based on what you went through in '13? Are you a better player? Are you a different person in any way? INBEE PARK: I really feel like I'm not a different person to 2013. You know, 2013 was probably the year I just started playing well and I just started feeling comfortable with my game. I started feeling comfortable with my ball striking. I just knew that back then I was going in the right direction. Now it's like three years past. Since 2013 I feel like I'm a lot more mature and I'm a lot more experienced. Yeah, and I feel pretty good about the game. I think it's just experiences that I had in the last three, four years being in the top gave me a lot of confidence and obviously I learned a lot from the experiences. KRAIG KANN: I don't think I've asked you this question in the number of press conferences that we've done. But you've spent quite a bit of time now in the United States. As a foreign-born player and globally recognized, how do you feel in the U.S. about acceptance and notoriety and all that? Do you feel comfortable? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I mean definitely in the U.S. it was a foreign country to me, but I moved here since I was very young. I'm somewhat a lot more comfortable than those girls that came out later. So I think it's just the language and the culture and the food and everything that's about this country that you have to kind of change to and get used to. Because I've done it so much earlier it was so much easier for me. But for recognizing-wise, like back in Korea, obviously, a lot of people recognize me just like going casually everywhere. But here in America, it's a big country. Obviously women's golf is going to get bigger and bigger for now. It's obviously a lot more -- I can walk the streets, I can go to the markets, I can go to the airports so much more casually than in Korea. So I'm somewhat enjoying that too. KRAIG KANN: Yeah, we've seen what happens when you go to Seoul. I've lived that and I've seen that. You were a runner up last week, so coming in this week, do you feel really good about your game? I know you've had some issues with the back and so forth like that. But how do you feel about your golf game? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I've gone through a couple months of struggling time in life and in golf just generally. It just happens with life and with golf, I guess. You always go through your tough times. Obviously last week was a huge help for me having to putt well and to hit the ball a little better. It gave me so much confidence coming into this week. It's just nice to have that kind of tournament before coming into a major. Q. I wanted to ask you, you've joked about how you get off to slow starts, but you've really thrived in the summers. How much are you looking forward to this next six-month stretch with five majors, the Olympics and the International Crown all in there? How important is that for women's golf? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I think this year's definitely going to be a very historical year and a very special year for women's golf. We have five major tournaments and we have Olympics and we have UL International Crown. There are a big seven tournaments that are kind of in my mind and in a lot of the girls' minds. So I think it's going to be a very interesting year. Actually, I'm very happy that my game is getting better and better every day. I feel like it's going in the right direction. So, yeah, I didn't know when was going to be the tournament where I kind of get the confidence from, but last week I definitely got some confidence for playing four rounds of golf under par and putting good and hitting the ball great. So I think it's going to be a great summer and just, yeah, really looking forward to it. Q. I want to follow up on the UL International Crown conversation and the Olympics as well. But we kind of joke at the LPGA about how tough it is just to make team Korea in any way. If you would have said a couple years ago a Na Yeon Choi or So-Yeon Ryu would be struggling to find their way into the top four? Do you want to talk about that? Just making the team is such an accomplishment. INBEE PARK: I think it's almost something we shouldn't be talking about. I think I'm a little bit, I should say, being careful talking about the Olympics to all the Korean girls and around with friends out here that are Korean girls because it is a very sensitive issue. Obviously I know everybody wants to play in the Olympics and there are only limited spots. So I mean, it is a sensitive issue, so I don't want to talk about the Olympics in front of a lot of the Korean girls. And I know because to me and to all the girls in Korea, they're putting so much pressure on themselves because of the Olympic issue, and they have to play well before the summer to get on the team. I mean, it looks like maybe number 10 was going to make the team last year and the year before it looked like number 15 was going to make the team. Now this year it looks like No. 8's going to make the team. So you just don't know what's going to happen. It's just getting stronger and stronger, and nobody wants to put pressure. So just trying to not talk about it. Q. When you played here as an amateur, just two years later you won a U.S. Open and everybody looked at how good this young player is. Do you see the young players today and kind of feel like you know what they're feeling or going through? INBEE PARK: Yes, I definitely do. Obviously the younger girls out here right now are much better than what I've played when I was back in amateur days. Obviously there are so many teenagers that are playing competitive out here where we have to be 18 or older to play in the professional golf back ten years ago. So it's just different because it's just getting younger and younger, and so many talents coming out so much sooner. So I think it's just different right now. Q. So many of those younger players are coming from Korea. You knew these players were getting ready to come out, didn't you? INBEE PARK: Sorry? Q. You knew these players were coming up from Korea. INBEE PARK: Yes, I know there is a number of talents in the KLPGA Tour. And some girls decided to go through Q-school and some girls just happened to come here very luckily just by winning the tournament as a non-member. So it just tells us how much talent there is back in Korea and they're still generating. So it just keeps coming and coming and getting younger and younger, and I'm not getting any younger, so I need to work hard. Q. Talking about the Olympic games. If you make the Olympic team, what does the Olympics mean to you? INBEE PARK: I think it would be a huge honor to represent the country. Because we never really got an opportunity in such big sporting events like the Olympics to get an opportunity. So being golf not in Olympics for over 100 years and being able to maybe compete in the Olympics will be something very special. We always watched the Olympics growing up and always dreamed of ourselves being an olympian. So it's a true dream come true. Q. Just curious your thoughts on the course set up and the conditions this week, are there any holes in particular that are going to be a real challenge do you think? INBEE PARK: Yeah, last year and the year before somehow the rough wasn't up. But this year I feel like they're in really good shape. Obviously the rough is not the thickest that it has been over the years, but it's definitely thicker than the last couple of years. And the fairways and the greens are in really good shape. So, yeah, looking forward to very prestigious conditions. Looks like the golf course is in good shape. So we're going to see some great major championship golf course. Q. Let me ask you about No. 1 and No. 2. You get compared a lot to Lydia, a few years ago it was you and Stacy, once upon a time it was Yani. We just had Stacy in a little while ago. Do we talk about that more than you think about that? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I definitely think so. Obviously we think about from time to time where we are ranked and what players we are competing against. But it's not on our mind every week. I'm more worried about major championship trophies than the rankings right now. So I think it's just what kind of week it is and especially major weeks that I'm not so much worried about the rankings. I'm just trying to think about how I can play this golf course. How I can shoot under par on this golf course. And at the end of the week, how I can hold the trophy. Q. Lydia got a lot of attention last year because of what she accomplished with trophies and awards and so forth. But at the same time with the Vare Trophy you qualified for the Hall of Fame, seventh major championship, grand slam, all those things. How did you feel about your career a year ago? INBEE PARK: Yeah, Lydia's done some very phenomenal things last year. I mean, she won a lot of awards and she won a lot of events last year and she won a major tournament as a teenager. I mean, she's done a great job and I'd really like to congratulate her. But I'm really happy with what I achieved last year just because those are the things that I planned on doing last year and dreamed on doing last year. So going into the Hall of Fame and completing the grand slam, that was just really my goal. So I've done what I've needed to do. So I was very satisfied with the result. Q. Yesterday she was joking, but we had missy Franklin the Olympic athlete that was up here, five gold medals. And Shanshan was up here saying I want to catch you. Well, it's only once every four years you can win one medal in golf and she won five in one Olympics and she said I'll probably just play until I'm 70. We know Lydia Ko said she might retire at age 30, and she announced that the same night she accepted Rookie of the Year Award. That was kind of funny. How long do you expect you'll play and chase major trophies like this and try to compete now that you've already qualified for the Hall of Fame? What are your goals in that regard? INBEE PARK: Well, there are so many legendary golfers to look up to and there are so many goals that I can set in later years. Because even though I think I've achieved what I wanted to achieve, there are so many things I can look up to. But retirement-wise, I really haven't set the date yet. Because if I say I'm going to retire after three years, after four years you just don't know what's going to happen, and you change every year. Sometimes I have a bad day and I have a bad week. I feel like maybe I should only do a couple more years. Then once you start winning tournaments again, I'm thinking oh, I can do this longer. So I think it's just very different. So I don't want to make time arrangements where I want to do it and I don't want to do it. I just want to go by every year. If I still think I'm competitive and I'm ready to play and if my physically I'm ready to play, I'll be playing. If I think I'm ready for a second life, if I'm ready to have a family or I want to live some kind of different life, I don't know when, but whenever that thought process comes, that's going to be when I'm going to retire. Q. Se Ri Pak announced she's slowing down and retiring from the game. We know what she's done. She's paved the way for so many Asian-born players, not just Korean-born players to come play here and play women's golf. Do you feel like you have that, not ability, but maybe that mantle or that responsibility to be somebody that everybody looks up to and continues that legacy that she started? INBEE PARK: Well obviously it will be a huge thing if I can be an inspiration for the younger girls that are now picking up golfing back in Korea and back in Asia and obviously here too. It's always a special feeling to be a hero of somebody's. So like I did looking up, Annika, Karrie, Se Ri when I was young, it's the same thing. If I can be one of them, it will be a special feeling. Obviously I have to be quite responsible for what I do from now on to be a looking-up person. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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