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ANA INSPIRATION

March 28, 2018

Jessica Korda

Rancho Mirage, California

THE MODERATOR: Welcome back to the media center at the 2018 ANA Inspiration. Happy to be joined by World No. 12, Jessica Korda, winner of the 2018 Honda LPGA Thailand for one of her five LPGA wins. Welcome back, Jessica. It's good to have you here in Rancho Mirage. How are you feeling coming into the week?

JESSICA KORDA: That's a lot of questions (laughing).

THE MODERATOR: I get going.

JESSICA KORDA: No, I feel great. I'm really happy to be back here. I love this tournament. The golf course is in fantastic shape, and I'm just excited to get the week started.

Q. Playing in your seventh ANA, you tied for 11 in 2017 for a best finish. How do you feel your game sets up to this golf course, or maybe the other way around, as you head into this week's tournament?
JESSICA KORDA: I really like this course. It suits the long ball hitter, I feel like. Like I said, it's in fantastic shape. Like I said, the last couple of years it's been getting better and better. You can see there's way more grass on the greens and everything's super consistent and very green.

So, no, I'm very excited to start this week off. I love this golf course. I love the atmosphere of this place. Yeah, just ready to go.

Q. Tell us about that atmosphere. You've played here seven times, so you know the feeling of coming here and seeing the Dinah Shore statue, and the welcoming you get from the fans. Talk to me about the tradition of playing here and what it means to the LPGA players?
JESSICA KORDA: My favorite walk is definitely 18. From when you hit your shot in, to high-fiving everyone, walking down past all the past champions, and the Dinah Shore statue is obviously so iconic, and seeing the clear, blue water that you so desperately want to jump into at the end of the week. Everything about it, even when you walk through the tunnel into the first tee, I feel like that's something new too in the last couple of years.

It's really cool. You feel like you're really getting into it, and being surrounded by all these people, it's just really, really cool.

Q. Well, you come in on a tremendous high with your game. Your last five starts dating back to 2017. A win, second, third, 10th, and then 26th, your game is playing so well. What has gotten into that game for you lately?
JESSICA KORDA: I honestly don't know. I think the difference is some putts are dropping. I've been hitting it very solid, and even last year before I got injured I was playing well. Then obviously that break there and trying to figure out how to get back into playing again, trying to figure out practice and how much I can push myself.

Then, yeah, just this year I've honestly been feeding off of what I was doing last year.

Q. I know you're sick of talking about your surgery. But one of the things, anyone that's had a chronic condition, you don't realize how bad you felt until you feel better. Can you walk us through the transition there and how much better you feel now?
JESSICA KORDA: I feel normal now. I didn't realize how much pain I was in before or how annoying it was, but just waking up with no headache and being able to go through day-to-day stuff and not constantly massaging my jaw or popping an Advil or being like, oh, I need to drink more. Maybe I'm dehydrated. I don't have to think about it at all. I can just be me again.

Q. Did you have TMJ? Is that what this was?
JESSICA KORDA: I mean, yeah, I had TMJ too. I was bone on bone on one side. Just, yeah. I just had a lot going on. It was not just one thing.

Q. Your scoring average this year is off the charts. I mean, talk a little bit about the way you're playing and why you think you're playing so well?
JESSICA KORDA: Again, I think it's just a couple putts dropping here and there. Obviously I think the 62 really helped that scoring average. Again, even last year, I was hitting the ball really well. Putting myself in really good positions. I just needed a couple more putts to drop. That's the thing out here. These girls are so good, and you look at the scores and one shot here, one shot there isn't going to make a huge difference. It's really who gets the putter going that is on top of the leaderboards. It is lower and lower.

The week I finished 26th in Arizona, I think I was still 10-under par or 8-under par, and that's not good enough anymore. You have to be 15 to 20 if you want to win.

Q. You have a nice career going with five victories already, but how would you assess your major championship performances?
JESSICA KORDA: Last couple years it's been poor. Definitely been a lot better outside of the major championships. Last year except for Evian, I'm not sure, I can't really remember that. I don't think I made the cut there. But it was a lot better. It was feeling a lot better. Even the year before that I was feeling a lot better.

It's just you want to play so well, and you put this extra pressure on yourself. Instead of coming into it like a normal event, obviously seeing everything around you and the atmosphere, the people, the interest, and obviously what it would be like to be a major champion, I think you just sometimes get so caught up in that that you forget to play your own game and concentrate on what you need to do.

I think the more times I'll play in them, the more I'll just feel comfortable with myself, and being mature enough to put that to the side and just play golf.

Q. Jessica, does it take a little bit of time to get to know this course and the nuances of the greens? Do you feel like you're more comfortable now than you've been in the past?
JESSICA KORDA: I think so. Also with a little bit of a better short game out here, I feel like I can go for more of the par 5s, and not be so strategic about where I place the ball. Also, it really helps that these last couple years it's been the same golf course. Like the rough level has been the same, the green speed, you kind of know what you're expecting.

I mean, the poles here that are always out here I think that throws you for a loop and makes you think twice about it. But obviously playing a golf course more than once or twice definitely helps with your confidence.

Q. I wondered if your dad has ever talked to you about learning how to peak for the majors and these times? Do you guys have conversations about that?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, we've always had conversations about peaking for certain emergency room tournaments, but sometimes it's hard to time that up. Again, it's being mature enough to kind of put all the distractions to the side and just playing golf.

Q. Was your jaw a genetic condition? Did you get any sense from your doctors that your chosen profession and the stresses and strains there of exacerbated it? Would you have had to have had this surgery no matter what if you were a sedentary person at some point?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, my dad kind of has the same jaw like I do. I also grind my teeth at the same time. But they told me when I was 15 years old that there's nothing that they can do after eight years of braces. This is it. My teeth are straight, but the bite's not perfect. Then once my growth plates close, I'm probably going to have to have jaw corrective surgery. I didn't think I would have to, but I did.

Q. How has your dad avoided it?
JESSICA KORDA: I have no idea. He's very lucky (laughing).

Q. Michelle Wie mentioned the other day that she's on a new fitness training regimen, and I think she mentioned you're also doing that. Can you talk about that and what that's done for you?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, we're part of the #stable with Kolby Wayne. Kolby's just built this program for me to hopefully stay injury-free. He really makes it just -- Michelle and I call each other giraffes. We're very tall and have long limbs, so we're not going to be out there trying to lift weights or anything like that.

So he's kind of built this program to where it's very little weights and more bands and the repetitions of it. Honestly, I love his positivity, and he's just been a great addition to the team.

Q. How do you and Nelly help each other? How do you make each other better?
JESSICA KORDA: I'm going to say that Nelly has revived my LPGA Tour career. Yeah, definitely. Having her out here and just seeing how motivated she is. She's new, she's everything is amazing to her, everything is awesome to her. The more you hear the youngsters talk about it and look at it, you just see the hunger in their eyes. And the longer you're out here you get into a groove of things, and just having her out here has shook things up for me, in a very good way.

Also the sibling rivalry, there's no like seriousness in that, but we always want to beat each other, whether it's her trying to kick me out of the Top 10 by making a birdie on the last hole, or whether it's me trying to make a couple more birdies inside so I can win that purse at the end of the year. Whatever it is we bet on, it's always just fun to have someone like her out on Tour.

Also having family with you, it's a lonely, lonely, lonely life, and having your sister here just makes it so much better.

Q. Speaking of family, with you and Nelly and Sebi and your parents, there is a pretty good argument to be made that you're the most athletic family in the world. Is that something you ever think about, talk about? What do you think about that?
JESSICA KORDA: Honestly, we don't really think about it. We're just -- we just think of us as normal people. I think the most athletic person in our family would be my brother though. He's definitely an all-around athlete. Nelly and I just stick to our sport. He loves hockey. He loves golf and obviously amazing at tennis. We definitely do have a pretty special family, that's for sure.

Q. You ever tweet to the Mannings or anything?
JESSICA KORDA: No (laughing). Hey, what's up? No.

Q. Through your tennis connections have you ever had a chance to talk to Venus or Serena or Mike and Bob Bryan about this unique sibling situation, which can't always be all good. There must be some awkward moments and what question would you like to ask those pairs of siblings?
JESSICA KORDA: Honestly, I've never, never spoken to them about anything. We've been removed from that life for a very long time. I think we're just now starting to come back into it with my brother. I love the dynamic of brother-sister, sister-sister, just the whole family aspect of it.

Again, getting to travel the world with your younger sibling, we all have such a special relationship. A lot of people I've heard that they're not that close with their brother or sister. We're very close. We talk almost every day. Obviously, Nelly and I do. But we just like hanging out.

There are obvious arguments, but the older we're getting there's less and less. There is no really awkward moments. I want my sister to play well, I want my brother to play well, and vice versa, and I'll always be their biggest cheerleader once I'm done. But, yeah, there's no awkwardness at all.

Q. The last time I talked to you, you were under the weather in Phoenix. How big is having a week off? I assume you went home? No?
JESSICA KORDA: I stayed here. Yeah, I was in San Diego, and then I drove over here.

Q. So how do you feel now? Do you feel better than you have? Do you get better and better every week?
JESSICA KORDA: Yeah, obviously having a cold, that takes about two weeks. So it's nice to be healthy and have that off to the side. I usually always struggle with allergies this time of year with the pollen and the dryness. Being from Florida I'm not really used to that. But, no, I'm good. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get this week started.

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