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RICOH WOMENâ€™S BRITISH OPEN

August 1, 2017

Inbee Park

Fife, Scotland

COLIN CALLANDER: We have the 2015 champion, Inbee Park. You had some fairly horrible weather out there today. Course must have been very difficult.

INBEE PARK: Yeah, I played The Scottish Open last week and the weather was pretty bad there, as well. This is the kind of weather that we are expecting coming to Scotland, any ways. We are getting four seasons in one day. That's what we're prepared for coming out here. Obviously today it wasn't as windy so it was a little bit better than expected.

The wind on this golf course can make such a difference and it's such different strategies needed, for how to putt different and how to stroke with the wind. It's a very wind dependent golf course. The greens are huge and you have to be on the right here. Obviously getting to the green sometimes becomes a challenge when the wind blows hard. So you've got to know how to play knock-down shots and how to play low and how to hold it up in the wind and all sorts of shots.

COLIN CALLANDER: Are you comfortable doing that? You've played a lot of links golf now.

INBEE PARK: Yeah, I love playing the links golf course. Sometimes it fools me. Sometimes I get away well. You know, I get those years where I was kind of playing really well in the wind but some years that I just got caught up in the wind and just totally didn't get it.

That's the type of golf course that we are playing for the links golf, and you know, you get a lot of disappointments and you get a lot of good shots ending up in worse spots. You've just got to get through those moments.

It is very complicated and it is very challenging, but I think that is the point for the links golf, and I enjoy doing that. But playing last week and this week, but not sure about two weeks in a row because it's really hard playing two weeks in a row on the links golf course. But last week, I was able to go to Turnberry and I was able to look at the course changes and kind of come back for the memory.

It was great to see it with my family and play on that golf course. It was a special memory and a special moment for me I tried to enjoy.

Q. At Turnberry, you had very bad weather to deal with, wet and windy, and you had a bad back, didn't you?
INBEE PARK: Yes.

Q. What in your childhood helped you prepare to be as tough as you have to be?
INBEE PARK: In my childhood? Well, I think I am pretty used to cold weather, I should say. In Korea, we have four seasons and we play quite a lot of golf in the wintertime, and we are used to having a couple of tournaments in the wintertime. We've played in the snow and we've played in cold weather, windy conditions.

The experiences really help when I was very young back in Korea, the Korean National Team, when I was on the national team, we trained about a couple months in Jeju Island in the wintertime, which is like minus ten degrees Celsius. In the wintertime it get really cold and very windy conditions. That's where we spent a couple months all the time when we were young. So I guess that kind of trains us pretty well.

Q. You said that two weeks playing links golf may be too much. Was last week was very good preparation for this week?
INBEE PARK: I got really used to the wind and this changing weather in one day, it's just getting it in your system and getting used to it. I definitely feel like I've prepared well for myself. I kind of try to, I was trying to figure out what I needed to do for this week. I saw my mistakes last week and trying to get that fixed this week. So in that point of view, I think it was good to see instead of just coming here and then try to figure out the problems.

Q. How many drivers do you see yourself hitting out here this week?
INBEE PARK: I'm hitting a lot of drivers on this golf course. Yeah, I saw all the holes, and I think there was only a couple of the holes I was laying up and that was it.

Q. What do you have to do to prepare for this course that's so different?
INBEE PARK: I think it's just the mind-set. I think you just have to be prepared; prepared to be frustrated and prepared that you get the sunny conditions for the first nine and you get the wind, rain and everything, cold weather, on the back nine. You've just got to be prepared for all the things -- you've just got to be open to all the things, you just prepare for anything can happen out here, and never give up because you just don't know what's going to happen.

Q. When did you go to Turnberry exactly?
INBEE PARK: Monday last week.

Q. Are your parents here this year?
INBEE PARK: My whole family: My dad and mom and sister and my husband, yeah.

Q. So how would you assess your game right now?
INBEE PARK: My ball-striking is not where I want it to be at the moment. That's kind of the problem that I had last week. I missed some fairways and greens last week, so I have to get that fixed this week to hit many greens and keep the ball in the fairway.

Sometimes when you have go through the season, you have times where you hit the ball great but you're not putting great. But well, at the moment, I feel fine with the putter and the short game. Just my ball-striking is not where I want it to be but just grinding it out every day and trying to find the point.

Q. How would you compare the conditions last week to Turnberry two years ago?
INBEE PARK: Last week, I think it was definitely tougher in Turnberry but I played much better somehow. I was hitting the ball really good in Turnberry.

Yeah, just it's just my game wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be last week and that's kind of the problem that I figured out. Try to fix it this week.

But they were both beautiful golf courses. This week, Kingsbarns, it's my first time coming here but it is a beautiful golf course. The views are just spectacular, and thinking that it is quite a new golf course, they have done pretty well preparing for this week, as well. Yeah, you just have the big greens and slopey greens. So you've just got to watch out for that.

Q. Sorry to go back to your amateur days, but can you paint me a picture of your amateur teams going out in minus ten degrees? What were you all wearing?
INBEE PARK: What was I wearing?

Q. How many layers?
INBEE PARK: Usually I can't swing in very thick clothes but three layers. I wear something like this and a parka over, like a very thin parka.

Q. Presumably you were about 14, 15, were you?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, I think that's what we wore. Like a thin, very thin wind stopper. Like three or four layers. Sometimes four layers.

Q. Did they ever say, oh, it's too cold, just go in and sit by the fire, or did they keep you out there working?
INBEE PARK: Well, I think we didn't really have a choice because everybody, like 30, 40 girls and boys kind of train at the same time, and 29 girls are out there and I can't say I'm going back and this is too cold. We are on the same schedule, so yeah.

Q. Anyone on Tour right now that would have been with you at those training camps?
INBEE PARK: Well, at the same time, Mi Hyang was there at the same time. MJ Hur was there at the same time and So Yeon was I think just there maybe just a year after me, because she's like a couple years younger.

Yeah, I think a lot of the girls out here have gone through that camp, definitely, at least one time.

Q. And then where are you staying this week?
INBEE PARK: I'm staying in a house in Crail. It's beautiful there. It's a little town by the beach. We have a little house by the beach. It's great.

Q. When the tour is here in 2013, it was obviously a special time for you. Can you talk about how that run of majors shaped you into the player that you are today?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, as you know, in 2013 I experienced so many things: I won three majors in a row and then came to the British Open, playing at St. Andrews. I was able to test myself under the pressure. I was able to learn how to handle the pressure. I was able to learn how -- something I shouldn't be doing.

It's just over the years, you learn one thing at a time. Sometimes you make your mistakes and you've got to take your medicine, but I think that's kind of made me who I am today.

Q. I was wondering how big of an impact do you think golf in the Olympics has had in golf in Korea?
INBEE PARK: Well, definitely back in Korea, I definitely think so, because the golf hasn't been in the Olympics for such a long time, and so people who didn't know about golf kind of knew golf. A lot of random people just comes to me saying, "Oh, I didn't know the Rules of Golf before, but I know there is golf because of you because I watched you playing and I know what golf is now."

There's a lot of them, like the lady at the restaurant or the guy at the gas station when I was putting gas in, just random people just comes to me and say, "Oh, you're Inbee Park and I watched golf for the first time because of you."

I think it's just little things like that, it's changed definitely.

Q. Your Olympic experience, how does that rank among the other wins?
INBEE PARK: Oh, I definitely think it's one of the top. It's just nothing to compare with because it is such a different experience.

Q. How does it feel being back at this event having missed it last year? Any extra motivation not being able to defend, and what did you do last year? Did you watch this event at all?
INBEE PARK: Yeah, I definitely missed coming to the British Open. It's one of my favorite tournaments to come and play. Even though it is always the toughest week that we play all year, but I think because we are having such a tough time, it sticks in our mind for such a long time.

You know, that's why I still remember 2015 like yesterday, and you know, I know how special it was to have all the family here and being able to complete the Grand Slam here in the RICOH women's British Open. Yeah, it is a special place and a special spot for me. It is still in my mind. I still live with that memory.

Q. What did you do last year? Did you watch it at all?
INBEE PARK: I think this one was like right before the Olympics, or was it -- okay. No, I didn't watch but I was practising hard.

Q. Is there a hole on this course that you particularly like the challenge of this week so far?
INBEE PARK: I like those coastline holes, No. 13, 14, 15. They are pretty tough holes. You have to hit the shots that you need to. I think it was 14, the par 3, that that hole can play very tough when the wind is blowing sideways, left-to-right. You have to watch for that hole.

Q. Starting with the par 3, it's not normally the first hole.
INBEE PARK: Well, I think I've done it a couple times. Last time I've done that was 2015 KPMG, so I think I have pretty good memories starting with the par 3, so hopefully.

COLIN CALLANDER: Thank you.

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