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OLYMPIC GAMES RIO 2016: GOLF

August 16, 2016

Inbee Park

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Q. How are you feeling?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, I feel much better now. Took a couple of months off and started practicing in three or four weeks and tried hard to prepare for this week. Yeah, it has been going very well, and I'm going to have to maybe do an MRI again after this week, because I have been practicing very hard last month or so. But as far as right now, I feel pretty good.

Q. When is the last time you played?
INBEE PARK: I played on the course maybe twice a week, and the rest of the times, just rehab and just hitting balls.

Q. When is your last tournament?
INBEE PARK: I played two weeks ago in Korea, KLPGA event, my sponsor's event.

Q. Feel okay?
INBEE PARK: Yeah.

Q. You must be excited to be here.
INBEE PARK: Yeah, I'm very excited to see all the friends again, and everybody has been really welcoming me. I really feel like I'm back to where I belong. It was nice, taking some time off, spending time with family and that. But I definitely missed being out here, as well. So yeah, very happy to be back.

Q. Just the Olympics, if you're still not feeling great, it must mean a lot to you that you would not want to miss this.
INBEE PARK: I didn't want to push myself to play in a bad body condition, because you're representing your country and you want to be in the best form as much as you can. So I really tried to bring my condition at my best. I really left it till the last minute to see if I can really play or not.
Three weeks ago when I made the decision, I felt pretty good about my physical and that's why I decided to play. Obviously there is a lot of pressure. There's a lot of responsibility and a different atmosphere. It's different to what we usually play for. When it's something that nobody wants to miss, it's a very special opportunity.

Q. You've talked about how hard it was to make the team, probably the hardest Olympic Team to make in all of sports probably. How much are you relieved to be here and to be alongside the three others, as well?
INBEE PARK: I think everybody feels pretty lucky that we are here representing South Korea. Obviously competing against all the best in the world, in the Olympic Games, what we've never done before, it's such a special feeling. I don't know when is going to be our next time to be able to do it.
So we are trying to enjoy the opportunity and enjoy while we're here. Yeah, I think this is so unique, because it's something we've never experienced before. It gives you a lot of good atmospheres.

Q. Can you say just how big the Olympics are in South Korea?
INBEE PARK: I think it will be similar to all the other countries. Obviously golf, being the first time in the Olympics for awhile, I think that brings a lot of attention to women's golf and the Olympics, which is a really good thing. It's really big in Korea. I've never missed the Olympics all my life since I remember. It's just all the sports together. It's really fun to see all the athletes trying to compete at their best.

Q. What was your favourite sport to watch over the years?
INBEE PARK: You know, Korea is really good at archery. So I'd love to see. They won all four Gold Medals possible this year.

Q. Have you ever shot a bow?
INBEE PARK: No, I've never done it. But looking at them playing, I was like, maybe. Because I heard archery is very similar to golf, because you have to fight with the weather conditions and the wind, and like the mind control. So that's why they say Korean women's golfers and archery is really good. And Korean men archery is good, as well.

Q. Do you have a future in archery after you're done with golf?
INBEE PARK: I don't know, maybe I try (laughing).

Q. Are you staying in the Olympic Village?
INBEE PARK: I'm not staying in the village. I'm staying with my husband and many I family.

Q. Are you going to other events?
INBEE PARK: Well, we tried to go but we couldn't exactly find which one to go because like when we got there, it was a little late and all the Korean teams, a lot of them were gone. Most of the teams now is athletics. I was really looking forward to soccer, because we went to the quarterfinals, but we just missed out like a couple days.

Q. How would a Gold Medal be back home in Korea compared with a Grand Slam?
INBEE PARK: Well, Grand Slam, it's so hard to compare, isn't it. I think it's not in the same line to compare, because Olympics is just Olympics. You know, Grand Slam, majors, are other lines.

Q. Columns is what Justin Rose called them.
INBEE PARK: Yeah, totally different.

Q. The good thing is like when you won the U.S. Open, and the next year you have to take the trophy and give it back. You win a medal‑‑
INBEE PARK: And you get to keep it. So that's good. It's such a special thing about Olympics is that you kind of build the teamwork, not just in golf, but you kind of build teamwork with all the athletes that come as team Korea.
We always see golfers all the time, but here we see a lot of different athletes and we all fight as one team. That's really a special thing. We'd like to do something for our country and that gives us a lot of energy. That's just a little bit of a different energy on the golf course than we usually play.

Q. In the lead-up to the Olympics, very competitive to see which four makes the team and now that you're here, it almost seems like everyone is very supportive.
INBEE PARK: Yeah, everybody, we really feel like we are competing as a team. Even if it's an individual sport, we don't have a team competition in golf, but we all kind of eat together. We all practice together. It almost feels like another International Crown where we actually play together as a team. We are competitors but we definitely support each other.

Q. Do you think you'll be at Evian? Do you feel strong enough?
INBEE PARK: I'm just going to have to wait and see. After this week, I'm going to have to see how I feel and if I feel good, definitely that's one that I'm really looking forward to playing.

Q. Are you close to the end of your career, do you think?
INBEE PARK: Well, I really don't know yet. I mean, I'd like to have a family soon and that's probably my priority maybe the next couple years. But I really don't know what's going to happen I have a baby or after I have a family, whether I'm going to come back or not comeback. I'm just in between how to plan the rest of my career.

Q. Juli Inkster is weird, isn't she. She plays until she's 50, has children‑‑
INBEE PARK: She's very different (Laughter) I don't think I can play till 50, that I can tell you.

Q. How cool has it been to have Se Ri around as your captain?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, it's cool. She knows what it's like. She's a player still and she knows what we need. It's good to have a support like that.

Q. The golf course, what do you think?
INBEE PARK: I think it's a really good golf course, especially such a short time, how they prepare for this event. I think it's great. I mean, it's going to be really depending on the wind how it's going to play. It can be a very easy golf course when it's so calm, but when it blows, it can be a really tough golf course.
Yeah, around the greens, you have to be very creative with a lot of bump‑and‑run shots and high shots, low shots. So it's going to take some pretty good golf.

Q. How is 16, the short one? Reachable?
INBEE PARK: It is reachable. But I'm going to have to sit down with the team and think about which strategy we need to go, because it's quite confusing which one to go.

Q. When did you get here?
INBEE PARK: I got here on Friday.

Q. Did you see the men?
INBEE PARK: I did. I didn't see golf because I was out on the golf course when the men was having the ceremony. But we heard the song, so it was cool. We saw it from a distance, and said, we want to be there.

Q. Does the South Korea National Anthem have words to it, and do you know them?
INBEE PARK: Yes.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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