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CME GROUP TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPNovember 15, 2017Karen StupplesJudy RankinJerry FoltzNaples, Florida Q. So we're all old enough to remember when Nancy Lopez was Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year and what a big deal that was. I don't get a sense that these players have a sense of the history that goes with it. I know Sung Hyun doesn't; she said so much yesterday. What do you think about her potential and how historic it is? KAREN STUPPLES: I think from a player's perspective, you know, talking to us, to media, you try and downplay it all you can. Ultimately you don't need the extra pressure of really understanding and realizing what that's all about. You don't want to think about an end outcome until it actually happens. It's almost like picking up the trophy before you've actually won it. It's kind of that whole Yani Tseng thing picking up the trophy at Mission Hills. You don't want to think about it too much. You just want to go out and play your golf, and then you can really enjoy the moment of what you've achieved then when it all sinks in you've actually done it. From a player's perspective, you don't want to tempt fate. That's probably what you're sensing with her certainly. But from other people, I think from us, it's quite amazing what she's been able to do. But we all saw it coming, knowing that you win seven times on the KLPGA before you even come to the LPGA. She showed us what she was capable of before she was even a member when she did come over and play on the LPGA. Everybody was impressed. It's something we knew was going to be here, but she hasn't done it yet. JUDY RANKIN: It's my sense that she doesn't have a great sense of history with the game in the U.S. I can certainly understand that, because you grow up in a completely different culture and you learn to play the game in a completely different culture, a different world. There is an Asian world of golf that maybe we're not so wise about either. So I think just in all fairness, you have to say to have her have a sense of what went before her, long, long before she was born, is very understandable. I don't think anybody should take that wrong. It's a little bit different with someone like Karrie Webb today who has a great sense of history. I don't know if she had that when she was 22. I don't know. I think that has grown with her as she's been such a big part of the LPGA Tour. So that's not the same for everybody. I think that's part of just how it is, because we've taken in the world. I can't tell you very much about Korean golf history. I really can't, other than very recent. KAREN STUPPLES: To Judy's point, coming from the U.K. as a kid growing up, I didn't really understand anything about LPGA golf or even that there was a tour over here until I came to university in America. Then it was open to me then, but lack of TV coverage back when Nancy was doing it overseas and that wasn't a global tour then like this is now. JUDY RANKIN: And like she said, you couldn't turn it on in the middle of the night and see it. KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah, like you can now. JUDY RANKIN: Yeah. JERRY FOLTZ: I don't think she realizes the historical significance of what she's about to do at all. And I don't blame her, like Judy said. I don't think we (indiscernible) they realize that Walter Hagen is the reason they're not parking in the service entrance. They have no idea. In fact, in respect for the history of the game and be there as they mature and realize their place in the game. Right now she's just a kid playing great golf. The only issue I have, is that and this is not a slam against the LPGA is that she's technically a rookie. I don't like the fact that you can have a winner from a major last year be a rookie the follow being year. JUDY RANKIN: We've lived with that a few times. JERRY FOLTZ: I know. So that, to me, you know, that's just semantics based on their regulations. I don't think she has any idea what she's about to accomplish, or certainly doesn't have it in the perspective that she will in years to come. Q. Judy, Park's swing is really good and powerful. I mean really special. Does it recall anybody to your mind? JUDY RANKIN: You know, I don't know. I'm always fascinated with the body types now that I study such things once in a while. Take for instance these two players playing so well. The body types, and I can't always be real specific on television because it would seem rude, but body types Sung Hyun Park and Shanshan Feng. But the big thing I would say about the two is the one is very long armed, long limbed player, and the other is short armed. I think it makes for a different kind of golf swing. When you think of people built like Sung Hyun, I go back to maybe a Beth Daniel, but they really don't swing alike. She's a lot new school and some old school. She's that one player today who still has that kind of reverse C finish. We see that in a few players, just a few, but a few players in men's golf. I don't know who she would remind me of. JERRY FOLTZ: A lot of speed though. JUDY RANKIN: A lot of the speed, a lot of strength, a lot of (indiscernible) involved in her golf swing. Q. Would you put the finish position close to Mickey Wright by chance? JUDY RANKIN: Wasn't a big reverse C person I don't think. Don't you think that Sung Hyun Park is? JERRY FOLTZ: Yeah, well, not a big reverse C, but for the modern day, yes. JUDY RANKIN: But for this day and age. Q. (No microphone.) JUDY RANKIN: Maybe, but, you know, to my recollection, picturing her swing, she swings the club very full. Really all the way to parallel for sure. Players like Mickey, Beth Daniel, those tall players, I think they were all just slightly short of parallel. I think a part of this is I think this gigantic ability to coil. KAREN STUPPLES: It's the hips. Hip are crazy. When she hits impact, her hips are almost fully open. You see that with a lot of the you think of Rory McIlroy. Everybody talks about how his hips are fast and open, too. JERRY FOLTZ: Tiger too at his peak. Same thing. JUDY RANKIN: But they're young and they'll keep up. KAREN STUPPLES: Yep. JUDY RANKIN: A lot of people were that way and they could keep up, and now they can no longer. (Laughter.) So that's the beauty of being young in that way, because the arms and the club stay with it. I guess in modern terms, that's connected. Yeah. Q. She's most fearless driver of the golf ball out here. I would put Lexi as a close second and everybody else a distant third. She hits driver on holes where you shouldn't and she hits it long and she just throws it right down there between a (indiscernible) and a hazard stake that are ten yards apart like it's nothing. Now that's a little hyperbole, but she'll hit driver almost anywhere. >>>>>>>: The anti Ariya. >>>>>>>: Exactly. Q. She the longest out here? JERRY FOLTZ: Oh, I don't know. KAREN STUPPLES: I think Angel Yin is probably the longest. Q. Really? >>>>>>: Yeah. I think Ariya, if she were to hit driver would have the highest club head speed. JUDY RANKIN: From things I've seen, I think Angel Yin be the longest. >>>>>>: She does it by maximizing modern technology. She hits a high trajectory, low spin shot, which with less club head speed can still go further. Ariya hits down with probably three or four more miles per hour club head speed but doesn't hit driver anyway. I don't think if Ariya did hit driver it would go further, because the angle of attack is not maximizing the flight characteristics. Yeah, I don't think her club head speed is the fastest. Her irons are just normal. He is hitting 7 iron 160 yards, whereas Lexi a lot of times hits 9 iron. JUDY RANKIN: Angel Yin just knocked my socks off with the driving at the Solheim Cup. I mean, that's the first I I mean, I've see the stats and I knew she was long, but that is the first time. I saw her like the tough par 4 13 I think. >>>>>>>: 341. JUDY RANKIN: Take it over the right hand bunker and just I mean, gigantic tee shot. It's so right there in front of you that nobody thinks you're hyping it. You saw it. Q. What do you guys make of this year? It's strange in that we've had five different No. 1s. Opened the year with 15 different winners. That hasn't happened in 26 years. Sung Hyun Park can end the year with a possible sweep that would make her look like the most dominant player ever to be the first player to win everything. But what do you guys just make of where we're at in the women's game as far as Ariya didn't continue what she did. There is no dominant player. Is this a good thing for golf? Is this better for somebody to step up among this group? JUDY RANKIN: I don't know. KAREN STUPPLES: I kind of like it the way it is. I like the changing around. I like the fact that you can have different people win at different timings. I mean, otherwise you can roll up at a tournament and basically know that an Annika Sorenstam had a 50/50 chance of winning, or Lorena Ochoa had a 50/50 chance of winning even Yani Tseng when she was No. 1, she would have a 50/50 chance of winning. They were that dominant. I kind of like rolling up to a golf tournament knowing that it's pretty open and that anybody could have that chance. You can see who really is prepared to go that extra mile to get there and if they're prepared to go the extra mile to stay there, that's the next thing. Once you get there it's a whole different ballgame staying there. Whole different pressure. Whole different things. Nobody really knows what is it to be No. 1 until you do get there. You might think that it's what you want and you might think that's where you should be. Then you get there and realize the media attention, the pressure of staying there, and then knowing that everybody is chasing you as opposed to chasing, it's a completely different mindset. I think only a few people are mentally equipped to deal with that. But I like the uncertainty of what's going to happen. JERRY FOLTZ: I think for my two cents, the more people you can develop to the audience in terms of letting them know who they are, and not just watching them on a golf course, the better. Right now we have a dozen or so we see each and every week in contention each and every week. I think that's good for the overall health of the LPGA Tour. Now, when you talk about a dominant star being good for it, it can be. Depends who the dominant star is. If it's someone that sells well in middle America, yes. If we had Lexi and Michelle head to head every single weekend our ratings would be through the roof, no question about it, because they're the two biggest stars in America. You don't get that luxury. I think it's very healthy for the game to get a few great players all seemingly in contention through this revolving door throughout the year. This year we've seen a couple breakthrough stars as well. Angel Yin being one who hasn't won yet, but someone who our fans attach to immediately because of the long ball, because of the bubbly personality. KAREN STUPPLES: Speaking of which. (Laughter.) JUDY RANKIN: We're talking about you. KAREN STUPPLES: Hi, Angel. How you doing? Her poor ears are burning. JUDY RANKIN: She's a fun kid and a good kid really. You're going out on a limb with somebody that young and in a way inexperienced to pick her for the Solheim Cup, but everybody on that team wanted her. So I think she's a pretty special addition to the LPGA Tour. Q. What will it take for Gerina Pillar to win? JUDY RANKIN: Lord if I knew. Q. Do you think she tries too hard or presses? Is that even possible? JUDY RANKIN: Yeah, it's very possible. Everybody who gets in that area to try to win and struggles with it for a long time, it just builds, just builds. I think the quality of player she is and the fact that she hasn't won just confirms how much talent there is out here. The depth of the LPGA Tour has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. KAREN STUPPLES: It really has. Q. Karen, do you think having been there yourself that as a parent it might free her if golf isn't the be all, end all? Might that somehow help her get over that? KAREN STUPPLES: Yes and no. Being a mother and playing professional golf is not easy. It's very difficult indeed, especially as Martin's got his own career and he's traveling and playing his own golf as well. You're dealing with lack of sleep, lack of time, lack of preparation. The amount of work that she's putting into her game now is going to be drastically reduced to what she'll be doing after she's had the baby. Does it give you a different perspective? Yes. But it can also add pressure, too, because you're trying to provide for your children growing up as well. There is a level guilt involved in it too, in that you're guilty certainly from my perspective I felt guilt when I was practicing my golf and not with Logan, my baby; then I felt guilty when I was with him and not out practicing my golf. So there is a whole different dynamic that happens when you have a baby. You have no real way of knowing if your body is ever going to be the same again once you've had the baby. It's a bit of a leap of faith really when you decide that's what you want to do. You don't know if you're ever going to be the same person again. I certainly didn't. After having Logan I had moments of playing well, but certainly not the same. I was constantly tired, and the well being of your child always comes first. We were very luck on the tour. We had a great day care facility, so Logan would go into that. But he can only go in if he's healthy. If ever he's sick then he can't go in. So then you have to figure out another way of looking after him and things like that. So that's a whole new set of challenges that she'll be faced it, but it's a very rewarding one, and players have been able to do it. Look at Cristie Kerr, a mother and a winner. But she's already a proven winner. Cristie Kerr has great self belief. I think Gerina doesn't really have that belief in her own abilities. I'm not sure it will free her up. I think it'll give a different purpose to her and I think she won't really care if she wins or not. That may be the only reason for it to work. But it'll be new challenges. Really hard work. You did it too, Judy. It's not easy. JUDY RANKIN: It worked for me because I didn't win. I mean, I had a hard time winning. I had my chances. My son was about, I don't know, eight months old or something like that when I won the first time. I think in a case like Gerina's it may very well help. As much as she's a golfer she's so family minded. I would think that this was hopefully just seems like with them it would've been planned that this is a good time. I think it'll help her. You know, the thing about professional golf these days is it's very different than it used to be. It used to be really you had to win to make any money. That's not the case anymore. I mean, people make great livings and never win. So, you know, I think that's a difference, too. The one thing I have learned, and I'm sure of this and it works for most people, is the happiest golfers seem to be really good golfers. I think this will make her relaxed and happy. We'll see where it goes. Q. Listening to you guys it reminds me Martin is going to experience this in a totally different way than Gerina will. Jerry, you probably did not face the same what Karen a talking about when you were golfing and your kids were born. JERRY FOLTZ: I was still trying to play for three years after my son was born. I think from the time he was born, and I'm not sure this won't happen with Gerina either, is it was just a matter of what's important in life, practicing or hanging out with him, and taking him to preschool and stuff always took a priority. He became my No. 1 priority in life, and rightfully so. Every kid should. Gerina and Martin have a very strong Christian perspective. I just don't know. It's a wildcard to me how much she's going to want to even return. This is just a game. I know it's her living and it's a great sport, but I think their convictions, the covenants by which they live have nothing to do with what we're talking about around professional golf. Q. You guys talk about how much more competitive the tour has gotten in the last ten years. You look at someone like Morgan Pressel. She hasn't won since 2008. How much of a sense do you get that that (wind interference) on her and is her legacy. KAREN STUPPLES: I think legacy is her foundation and what her charity work is and that more so than anything she's ever achieved on the golf course. I think she's driven for that purpose. I do think she's one of those competitive spirits by nature. She loves to get in the heat of battle, and that probably is a tougher thing for her, to not to be in the heat of battle, than anything else. Not playing in the Solheim Cup and things like that has probably been quite tough for her. You got to find a way to make it work if that's what she wants. She could be coming to that time in life, too, you know, where you know, you can only do it for so long. You only get a certain shelf like I think with competitive golf. It takes its toll on you mentally as much as anything. The pressures of trying to get it done eventually wear you out. JUDY RANKIN: Failing. Failing wears you out. KAREN STUPPLES: That's the right way of putting it. JUDY RANKIN: But I guess that speaks to Cristie Kerr. Q. That's what I was going to say. She's the anomaly. JUDY RANKIN: And, you know, I mean, even if you go all the way to Inkster, the fact that the desire to work and the desire to publically perform never goes away is amazing to me. >>>>>>>: Along those lines, Lydia Ko is still so very, very young, yet she hasn't won in 16 months. Who would've thought? What do you guys think of her situation right now? JUDY RANKIN: I don't know what to think of it. I think she has handled it extremely well, but I can't imagine that she doesn't lay her head on the pillow at night and think, What happened? You know, Where did I go? Was that not real? I think part of it is just growing up; part of it is it's sad to say, but in golf, and maybe all the way through life, I'm not sure you come to that point where you've grown up just enough to know things can go wrong, and then they begin to. KAREN STUPPLES: Yes. I was just saying to Karen earlier that everything that Lydia has done has come very easy to her. You know, the playing on the LPGA Tour, winning on the LPGA, doing everything you can as an amateur came very easy to her, and there was no reason for her to assume the original swing change she made with Leadbetter all came very easy to her. All of a sudden she's winning tournaments with the A swing and all the rest of it. Nothing really changed. Then all of a sudden she change everything in one big hit. I mean, it wasn't like a gradual process of change. It was just one big hit: swing change, swing coach, clubs, equipment, everything, caddie, the whole thing changed. From somebody that's had everything come very easy, there was no reason for her to assume that this would just be an easy thing either. Then when it didn't come easily, I think it can affect a person's confidence as much as anything. I think her confidence has taken a slight little hit. JUDY RANKIN: I want to ask you a question now that you said that. I don't want anybody to take this wrong, but they don't have any qualms about talking about it in men's golf. Do you think the club change was chasing money? KAREN STUPPLES: Yeah. I think it absolutely was. I think the deal was there and I think as a player, it's nice to have that kind of security without having to perform related to the money figure that you're doing. That being said, I think that the club change at that critical time when she's making swing changes was probably the hardest thing to do. I know she's had to change her shafts at least a couple timings during this process to compensate for different swing changes as well. It's a completely different thing when you're standing there testing drivers trying to get a different driver to work or 3 wood. You're standing there and not spending time working on your pitching and your chipping and your putting. You're spending so much time on swing changes and getting to know the new clubs. You know, all the rest of that can take a back seat. I think she's known for her short game skills, not for her hitting. JUDY RANKIN: But I think we also think we think she wasn't unhappy with her clubs. KAREN STUPPLES: No. Q. From a historical standpoint, I remember hearing this, that when Lorena got to No. 1 she did not have a club deal. KAREN STUPPLES: She always played with Ping. She never carried their bag, I don't think. Always had the I remember her with the AeroMexico bag. So I think she had, but always played with Ping clubs. JUDY RANKIN: Back to her college days. KAREN STUPPLES: I think they have like a bonus system in place. I think that she just stuck with that. She was probably well compensated from other people that may or may not have been a need or desire for it. Q. Is this a sign of progress for women's golf that Lydia could chase money and change clubs? KAREN STUPPLES: It's kind of nice that there are club manufacturers that want to sponsor players. JUDY RANKIN: That make it lucrative enough that you would even think about it. KAREN STUPPLES: Yep. Because that certainly was the case. Q. How much of it is the fact that the LPGA Tour, very much like the PGA TOUR, has become a distance game? When you look down the Money List and you look at the driving distance... KAREN STUPPLES: LPGA isn't a distance game. Q. You don't think it's become a distance game? KAREN STUPPLES: No, not yet. It might go down that way, but just not yet. JUDY RANKIN: I think it is to a degree. To a degree I think it is. I tell you where it's difficult out here and less so on the men's tour. I think it's very difficult for the field staff to set up a golf course fairly. KAREN STUPPLES: Yep. JUDY RANKIN: Very difficult. >>>>>>>: Ladies can carry 220 yards, 230 yards and then others who are hitting 300. KAREN STUPPLES: And there are some that can't carry it 200 out here. >>>>>>>: Yeah. Can't have a forced carryover (interference) if there is any chance of wind. JUDY RANKIN: Really? JERRY FOLTZ: 220 maybe? I mean, Mo doesn't carry a 220. KAREN STUPPLES: She might. JERRY FOLTZ: She might not carry it that far. JUDY RANKIN: When the players who aren't long really play well, we really celebrate it because that is a (indiscernible) game. KAREN STUPPLES: I will also go as far as to say that I believe some of it is down to golf course design in how the rules officials are pretty handcuffed in how they set up some of the courses, in that typically you'll have water hazards or things all coming into play at certain distances away from the green. So no matter how long you might make the hole. You'll see it. This will be a good example here, because you'll see the women play and then the guys play at the Shark Shootout. The guys, no matter where you tee off, the men and the women, they'll all end up hitting to the same spot because of where the hazards and bunkers all come into play. Except the women will have to go in with a 7 iron and the guys will be going in with a wedge or a 9 iron or whatever the difference is. So they're faced with a different set of challenges, but some of it is just how the design is to not allow for that full range of shots into the green, I think. Some courses are, some course aren't. I think that's another challenge that the rules officials have to take into consideration when I they do. But a lot of the time you'll see the longer drivers on the LPGA Tour having to hit hybrids off the tee, 3 woods, just to put it in the same spot everybody else is hitting drivers to. They have an advantage because they're going in with a shorter shot, but they're still handcuffed a little bit off the tee. JUDY RANKIN: Excuse me. Talking about Sung Hyun Park and the fact that she will drive it almost anywhere. I would go all the way back to Nancy Lopez's day. She was pretty long off the tee. I don't think she was a great driver when she first came out when she was so phenomenal. I think she became a better driver ten years later. One thing I noticed right away was she never thought about not taking her driver out of the bag. She hit it. Maybe that's part maybe it's changed a little bit because of this precision of golf now, but you kind of like that idea with these people who have it if they'd go ahead and use it, you know. Picking your way around the golf course like Ariya does is great, but it's not as exciting as those people who have that great ability and who really try to use it all the time. I will never forget Jason Day, watching him on Television at Whistling Straits. That was the greatest driving performance I've ever seen. I just love it when players who have that do it. >>>>>>>: I think you can win tournaments out here now with your driver, like you see quite often on the PGA TOUR. I know when Lexi won ANA she won it with her driver. Going up against Michelle the last day she couldn't pull driver out of her bag to save her life. JUDY RANKIN: Yeah. >>>>>>: There are very few holes out there that (wind interference.) Very, very few. I think Sung Hyun has won tournaments with her driver. You have to be a polished game, but yeah, they can make it a lot easier on themselves. That's, to me, what was so remarkable about what Lydia had done for so long. Is that she's not the short. She's not I mean, she's maybe bottom half, but not far below half. But to see how she could dominate without that was pretty damn amazing. JUDY RANKIN: So you celebrate the long drivers, but then you also have to celebrate the really good drivers. Lydia was one, and maybe that's not quite as good as it had been. Q. You think if Lydia could get back to No. 1 in the world that will be a better achievement than her having gotten there and stayed there so long to begin with? >>>>>: Never happens, does it? JUDY RANKIN: Always harder the second time. Been a few players that were really good and fell she didn't fall, she is just not a dominant player anymore. The couple I think of are Pat Bradley who was really good and just fell off the planet and came back. Hers was probably health related. Q. Thyroid. JUDY RANKIN: Then I always think of Lee Westwood, who fell to 250 something in the world after being really good and came back from it. So I think that's harder than getting there the first time, and particularly when you're Lydia's age. She didn't know where she was getting to the first time. She was just playing golf. KAREN STUPPLES: Yep. And every year new talent comes out. Every year new talent wants that No. 1 spot or somebody that's been working towards it makes improvements in their game. A person that springs to mind is Lexi. Lexi, she wants that No. 1. She's worked on it, where she's weak, and works on her weaknesses, which is really impressive. JERRY FOLTZ: She does. That's right. Q. Seem like what happened here a year ago might have shaken Ko a little bit given that she was in such good shape going into the weekend and played so flat. Ariya beat her. KAREN STUPPLES: I think she was already starting the process of changes by then. I think she was actually quite torn because Leadbetter, her coach at the time, was here. I think she knew in her heart of hearts that she was going to get rid of him start this whole new swing change. In fact, she had already started making the change over in Asia. She changed her swing to do something different. Q. With her dad, yeah. JUDY RANKIN: With her dad. Then Leadbetter comes in, and he must look at her and say, What the heck just happened here? This isn't the swing that we have been working on. So I think that there was a little bit of turmoil going on there mentally for Lydia last year when that was happening. Q. So the fact that women can make a better living without winning and all these young people continually feeding the pipeline, do you see more people compartmentalizing their lives where they play golf until a certain age and then start a family and don't try to meld the two? KAREN STUPPLES: I do, and I think it starts from a young age. You look at the age of the players coming to the LPGA and it's very young. They can't possibly be thinking about having a family for a number of years. You think about an 18 year old coming out. They're not going to be thinking about having a family any time soon. I honestly didn't think I was ever going to want to have children until I turned 30, and all of a sudden you think, Well maybe I do. The biological clock starts ticking and you're like, Oh, I think I do. You only get a certain shelf life like I said with the mental stresses ans strains. It takes a very rare person to want to put yourself through that kind of torture for any longer than 15 years or so. It can feel very personal, and at times it's a very, very lonely place, the golf course. As a woman, you're faced with a number of choices and options in terms of family and if you want to play or if you want to become a mother and stay home. It's complicated. It's not as simple as a PGA TOUR player's wife has a baby, they can travel, and it's no big deal. But for women, there is a whole different kettle of fish. Carrying the baby, giving birth, the process of it all. I found it hard. Even though I played some good golf after having Logan, it was very tough. As soon as he went to school is when my golf game went pear shaped. JUDY RANKIN: I think before your children are in school there is a little period there where you can make it all work, particularly today with all the help you get out here. But school is a game changer. Q. I feel like something will be lost when you have just this tour of young unencumbered, when you don't have a Catriona Matthew and Juli Inkster... JERRY FOLTZ: They'll always come. Q. They add a richness. JERRY FOLTZ: I agree. And that's the blessing of the modern day girl/woman. You can do more than one thing and you get choices. KAREN STUPPLES: You will find people that come to golf a little bit later in life, too. Not everybody is going to be a world beater at 18 or 13 or 15 or whatever it is. Some people might take a little while to get into it. They might play other sports and realize golf is the way to go and take it up a little later, and they don't join the tour until they're 24, 25. Those are the players that probably more than likely are going to say, You know what? I might have a family, and then continue to do it. The ones who coming out at 18 are probably going to play 12 years or so, have a baby, and then they may or may not, depending on if they're like a Cristie Kerr or Juli Inkster, just can't let the competitiveness go. JUDY RANKIN: Starting to look like a player who doesn't come out until they're 23 years old is behind the eight ball. Q. That's what I was thinking. It's almost an insurmountable task. Q. And you played college Karen. What's that do to college golf? Judy just said by the time you're 23 you're behind the eight ball? KAREN STUPPLES: I think that is just depends on what the players want. It's becoming really international anyway. I think the college coaches are recruiting more internationally now than they ever have done. That's primarily because the players from overseas, the ones that aren't as experienced in American golf, want to play in America. Therefore, they see the college system as a way to get used to potentially playing. So you might get two or three years out of them and then they'll turn pro early, or one year early or whatever. It's a good thing for them to do. Some people just aren't mentally ready for professional golf at 18. But I think if you're determined enough, though, bear in mind you've got have that mindset that you want to achieve and you want to do it and no matter what anybody is going to tell you you're going to make it happen anyway. Then you're going to come over and do it. Even at 25 you will make it happen. Q. Leona Maguire has become such an anomaly now. Used to be that was just standard thing. JERRY FOLTZ: What else is interesting is not many of the Asian players come play college golf. We have a lot of Asian players playing college golf, but they're American girls. Not so many actually who their home is Asia come play college golf. They do go to college. I know in South Korea they do, but less here. KAREN STUPPLES: I think that in Korea they have such a good tier system of professional golf, like a lot of them will turn pro at 16, play some of the lesser tours over there, and then... JUDY RANKIN: Then they have got their national teams. I think that's going to become a big conversation in the United States about some sort of national support for golf teams, much like we have in Olympic support. Q. I think the NCAA has taken this decision (indiscernible) because they can enter Q school now as an amateur and decide after. JUDY RANKIN: That's a good thing. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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