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HUGEL-JTBC LA OPENApril 17, 2018Danielle KangLos Angeles, California THE MODERATOR: Welcome, Danielle, into the media center here in L.A. You just pulled up. I know you just got here. But how does it feel to be in Los Angeles and see the LPGA playing here? How are you feeling heading into this week? DANIELLE KANG: I just woke up. (Laughter.) I feel really awesome being here. I love being home. I landed in L.A. and I was like, Ah, L.A. area. You know, it's just different, different vibe. I see my friends every day and I'm really excited for tomorrow. The Gretskys are coming out to play the pro-am with me, and my best friend lives like 20 minutes from here. I don't know, it's L.A. so everyone is here. THE MODERATOR: Yeah. DANIELLE KANG: I feel like I'm back at home. THE MODERATOR: Any friendly wagers on the pro-am tomorrow going on? DANIELLE KANG: Definitely probably. I'm just excited to see Jen and Wayne. I just haven't seen them. Like I see them here and there, but haven't got to play golf with them in a while, since I moved. Yeah, just really happy to be here and see my friends from home and who I grew up with. It's kind of cool because we're right next to Glendale and my dad is actually ten minutes from here. It's kind of nice. I fly out here for one day a lot, just like a day trip to see my dad. Now I can just drive over after golf, which is great. THE MODERATOR: When is the last time you were here before this week? DANIELLE KANG: Before Hawaii. THE MODERATOR: Okay. DANIELLE KANG: I come here like literally on a 5:30 am flight, rent a car, go there, get on like an 11:00 am flight. Q. How often? DANIELLE KANG: I do it as often as (indiscernible) people just don't know because I'm not up on social media like, OMG, L.A. I can't do that. Q. Yeah. No, I think that's really cool. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. I wake up, jump on a plane. It's really easy so come out here, so... But I don't miss L.A. traffic. Trust me. Man, I just sit there. Q. Are you staying with friends? DANIELLE KANG: I have friends all around, but we can't really rely on the traffic just because this is pretty deep Hollywood, Wilshire is. Everyone is like, L.A. Are you from here? I'm like, No. No, no, no, we don't come out here. This is like way inland for us. Even if it's 30 minutes, it's a big deal, Ventura versus Hollywood. Q. Yeah, absolutely. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, so instead of staying with friends I'm staying at the host hotel just because Beverly Hills or Brentwood -- I mean, Brentwood is hard and especially Bel-Air are like -- you never know. If i have an 8:00 am tee time, I got to leave by 6: 30. Knock on wood there is no traffic and I get stuck... Q. Forget 6:30; 5:30. DANIELLE KANG: So it's kind of funny, because I was staying at my friends' house up until (indiscernible), and then I just drive home; 9:30 at night there is no traffic. Just get in the car, drive home, and go to the bed. So I haven't been at the hotel except for sleeping time. Q. Danielle, not that you're the spokesperson for the tour, but the feeling amongst the other players about being in such a historic venue like Wilshire Country Club where Ben Hogan played and Sam Snead played? DANIELLE KANG: What would a spokesperson for the tour say? I don't know what to say. Q. I mean just as a member of the tour and just the tour coming here. Your thoughts. I mean, you are somewhat of a spokesperson because you're a member of the tour. DANIELLE KANG: I just don't know if I'm not the spokesperson how to respond. If you're asking me as like a player... Q. Yeah. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. Q. Spokesperson or not doesn't matter. Just the feeling about the LPGA being in this kind of historic venue for the first time in 17 years. You know, things like that. DANIELLE KANG: Personally I just like being here because I've been on tour for seven years and we haven't had a single tournament in L.A. I appreciate JTBC, whoever put this together, all the sponsors to make this happen for me, because to me this is special. I don't know about anybody else. Q. Your other friends and female competitors, is there a buzz? Wow, it's cool we're going to be in L.A. DANIELLE KANG: You should ask them that. It's not that I haven't heard it or not; I can't speak for anybody else since I'm just the spokesperson for myself. Q. Right. Okay. How is life since the PGA? Change much? DANIELLE KANG: I've known Bob, by the way, since I started. Since like the brat days. I mean... Q. I wouldn't say brat, but I would say very young. DANIELLE KANG: Oh, man. He knows my whole family. Oh, gosh. You know, nothing -- okay, a lot has changed. Actually, we were all talking about this, like me, Ty, like Hillary Packard, all the little junior kids. We were talking, and we never realized how good we had it. You know, like growing up in Westlake, waking up going to the country club every day, and going to eat down the road. That's what's changed. This is real life. We all have real jobs. I don't have a real job, but they can't eat lunch when I want to eat lunch. Or I'm like, Hey, can you go lunch? They're like, I have work. I'm like, Just come out. Get out early. No, you can can't just leave. I'm like, Just call in sick. She's like, You're ridiculous. But nothing has changed. Like everyone is the same. I just -- only thing that has changed is I don't get to see people as much and I don't get to come home as much. At the end of the day, I went to Las Vegas, and that's what different. I miss my friends. Q. But confidence level and all that stuff, do you feel different or have you felt different? DANIELLE KANG: I've gotten soft. Q. Really? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I talked about this two days ago with my friends. Q. How? DANIELLE KANG: I just -- you know, getting into a routine and you just forget a little bit of who you are. That's what happened to me. I know I'm understanding and I've dealt with a lot of different things; people ask for favors and I do it really easy here and there. Honestly, looking at how my career is at right now, I can't be there for everybody as all times and trying to make everyone happy. That's what actually going to change like two days ago. I need to be aware of what I can do and kind of focus on what I want and what I need. I think that's most important. Like I kind of need to get a little bit more selfish than I have been. At the end of the day, I have my routine and I need to follow it. If I don't, the game goes down and I'm losing on both sides. Q. How did you come to that realization? Was it just a process of thinking it through or was there a moment? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I don't know. I'm just -- you know, it's just little things here and there. Not getting enough sleep because of this reason or trying to find justification of like, oh, like I have to do this. No, I have to do this for -- I got to go to dinner with somebody just because I have -- I don't know. It's little things, but at the end of the day, like if I need to putt I want to putt instead of somebody coming up and chitchatting. I want to chitchat, but at the end of the day, I'm like, Hey I'll talk to you later. Q. This is your time, so... DANIELLE KANG: That's what changed. It's not -- yeah. The realization was during practice. My caddie said something. I have new caddie and he said something. He's like, Hey... Q. Yeah, I know -- I see that. What brought that -- which one? DANIELLE KANG: I actually have a new caddie, like... Q. Oh, since -- well, you have been working with -- I'm drawing a blank. DANIELLE KANG: The other guy I was working with for three weeks. I have a new one after him. Q. But your long-time caddie was one of the local kids from -- DANIELLE KANG: Yes. Q. -- that you knew from junior golf. DANIELLE KANG: Uh-huh. Q. So what happened? DANIELLE KANG: I mean, like no. I mean, he's one of my best friends. Q. Right. DANIELLE KANG: At the end of the day, we want to be better for ourselves and we want to learn more. That's what it was. It was mutual. It was pretty good. Everyone is like, Oh, are you guys still friends? He's my best friend. He calls me every day. I see him way too much. Q. Bones and Phil broke up, so it's the caddie/player relations -- DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. I actually have -- my new caddie is Bobby Brown, Dustin's old caddie's son. Q. Oh, wow. DANIELLE KANG: So he actually knows a lot of older caddies out here. He was a little kid riding a skateboard. So Shanshan's caddie, Mercer, comes up and goes, I know you. He goes, Oh, I'm Bobby's son. He goes, Oh, my God. You were this big. What happened? He goes, yep. Q. Did you play this course a lot growing up or in college, as a junior golfer? DANIELLE KANG: I played it for the first time yesterday. Q. So you haven't played. Really? DANIELLE KANG: Yes. Q. What is your feeling? DANIELLE KANG: I absolutely love it. It's a very difficult golf course in my opinion. Q. I've heard that. DANIELLE KANG: You have to put in proper quadrants. It's a very ball-strikers, shot-shaping golf course. It looks straightforward, but it's very sneaky. I love the fact that -- I don't know. I've never played it, and all my friends are like, Huh? You never played Wilshire? You grew up here. I don't know. I don't really venture out of Ventura much, so... Q. You said specific quadrants of the greens you were talking about? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. This is a golf course where your caddie can really help you. Like obviously you think you know it, but at the end of the day you really need to focus and map out every part of the golf course, placing it at certain yardages, certain clubs, shape it in. Q. Shot makers, yeah. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I love that. Q. Does the history of it -- I don't mean history of tournaments -- but the fact that it's an old course and an old-style course, something you come across out on tour? DANIELLE KANG: I feel like every golf course out here is super old. Q. But I mean on your tour. The ones you stop at, they're all old? DANIELLE KANG: I don't really know the history about the golf courses very much. I'm not sure. Q. Uh-huh. DANIELLE KANG: Pretty sure the Dinah Shore is old. Q. Yeah. Not as old as this. This is 100 years old? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I mean like Chicago... Q. Yeah. I'm sure there are some old ones, but... DANIELLE KANG: I'm not quite sure about that one. Yeah. Q. Like Ben Hogan played here. That's pretty cool, right? DANIELLE KANG: He's played a lot of places. I don't know. I was staying at the Roosevelt and I heard it's haunted yesterday, so I'm kind of freaked out. I guess I'm the only person in the world that didn't know it was haunted. THE MODERATOR: I didn't know that. DANIELLE KANG: It's famous for being haunted. THE MODERATOR: Do you believe in ghosts? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I believe in ghosts, man. I don't want them to just be chilling in my room. Q. Maybe Ben Hogan was there. DANIELLE KANG: I don't think so. I don't think those are the ghost stories that (indiscernible). Q. He's as good a ghost as anybody. DANIELLE KANG: I don't know. My friend is like, Did you see the little girl with a blue dress? I'm like, Why would you -- don't do this. I'm like, You made that up, right? He goes, Yeah, I made that up. THE MODERATOR: Yeah, of course. DANIELLE KANG: What's wrong with you? Don't tell me that. I got to stay there for a week. Q. (Regarding another haunted hotel.) DANIELLE KANG: I didn't even know about it. I'm like a super energy person. Like on vibes, if you're giving me a bad vibe I'll walk away. That's how I am. So some people were like, Oh, what (indiscernible) do today? They just give me a bad vibe. That's what I would say. I walked into the hotel, and my first -- I walked out and I go, Whoa. I was like, Yeah, what's going on here? I walked into my room and went, Yeah, I can't stay here. So I sat there and looked at airbnb because I was like, I can't stay here. I don't know what it was. I was getting so much anxiety. I called the front desk and I was like, Hey guys, can you guys move me? They go, What's wrong with the room? I go, have no reason. I just can't -- I really don't like the room. They were like, Okay. They moved me a couple floors up and I was fine. But then yesterday Michelle is like, Oh, did you know that's haunted? THE MODERATOR: Weird. DANIELLE KANG: I was like, What? Why is it haunted? She's like, Well, your brother is sending me articles on being haunted. I'm like, Well, that's you and my brother's issue; that's not my -- don't bring me into the haunted convo. There is a reason why no one tells me, you know. Just creepy. But it's okay. Q. I read you were doing some work with David on a swing change. What was that? Was that true? What are you trying to accomplish? DANIELLE KANG: How did you read that? I didn't tell anybody that. Oh, that was early last year. Q. So it was an old story? DANIELLE KANG: No, no. That was December, I think. Yeah, it was December/January. Q. Because he was talking about he thought you had a chance for a good year this year. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, so we're -- yeah, yeah. So, yeah, we're going through -- everyone is like, Why are you changing something? I'm like, I'm not changing something dramatically, but I just want to optimize what I have. So I told him, I'm 25. I have energy. I have strength. It's not the time where I start going downhill. This is when need to peak. Not even peak, but like on my way to peak. It's not like I have injuries. Let's get going. I was speed. I want more power and I want distance. Yeah, so Kia, ANA, those are were really -- because when you have little weeks here and there, that's when we try to like grab it. So he asks, Like what's your most important tournaments? Like obviously we have like the whole year and there are parts of the year you do have to give and up to gamble to figure out swing or feel. If you have the swing you have to practice on the golf course. So little things we've been doing. So starting Kia, ANA, all that, I mean, I felt where really good in Hawaii many. I know the score wasn't good, but I was hitting it so far. Q. Good. DANIELLE KANG: Super happy. All I cared about was hitting far for some reason. It's here and there and it's coming together. I don't know. I trust David. Even if it's a bad result, it's a bad result for a good result down the road. He's always got a plan. Q. The patience thing, right? DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. So it's okay. THE MODERATOR: We'll wrap it up. Q. Solheim experience, tell me about that. DANIELLE KANG: Honestly, what I got from playing the Solheim is that one day, you know, maybe everything that I can do with golf, like everything that -- sorry. There is so much noise I can't -- hold on. I have like the worst ADD right now. What was I saying? THE MODERATOR: Solheim. DANIELLE KANG: Solheim. Got it. So what I was -- he's talking, he's moving. I'm like, what's going on? Q. I'm sitting down now. If there were 100 people here you wouldn't have noticed it. DANIELLE KANG: Yeah. But it's one or two and I'm like, Hey, what's up, buddy? Like, yeah. So Solheim, I just like wish that -- you know, I wanted to be the best that I can to work hard and play good as I can to show people what we can do and that one day, the crowds we had at Solheim would be the crowds at tournaments. So I wish that one day I can bring those kind of crowds. That's what I got out of that, to be honest. You know, I know the men's have a lot of crowds. Like if you see the Masters, it's like you can't even see the grass. At Solheim, I don't even know if it was a tenth of what men's have, or I don't know what it was, but Solheim was incredible. I mean, you could hear a pin drop, yet the whole ground was shaking and they're screaming. I've never experienced anything like that playing in any type of events for like -- I played U.S. Open when I was 14 and didn't experience that. It's not to be disrespectful to any other majors or events, but I have never experienced that. That's something that I would like to experience at every event, or at least -- Q. The majors. DANIELLE KANG: -- the majors or some big event. Doesn't even have to be a major. Maybe there will be really crowd this week. Maybe this will be the week that the crowds are overrun. Who knows? We don't know. But I wish there would be more tournaments that I would see and could describe that this was indescribable. Q. Was there a different level of nervousness? DANIELLE KANG: No, I love it. I love the tension. Q. There has been a lot of talk in the last few months about the golf ball and the distance it goes. Like Jack Nicklaus has been looking to scale back the ball. But there is never any discussion in terms of the ball in the women's game, even though women play the same ball really. Do you ever think that there is an issue? You know, why wouldn't the women's game be included in this discussion? If the ball goes so far for the men's game and some people think it's not a good thing, seems like it helps the women's game. DANIELLE KANG: Not to be rude, but obviously I'm thinking that discussion is not that important because I haven't heard this discussion. Q. Uh-huh. DANIELLE KANG: Like I have never heard -- Q. Oh, really? Okay. DANIELLE KANG: -- so I'm guessing it's not that important. If it is in the golf world and I'm living in it, but I haven't heard about it getting back. Q. Yeah, because the women are never included in the discussion. That's sort of my point. That's why you haven't heard about it. DANIELLE KANG: Or it just didn't make news. Q. Oh, it's a lot of news. Do you agree, Bob? Recently for some reason it's picked up. I don't know exactly why this year it has. DANIELLE KANG: I don't know. I can't really comment on it because I haven't heard the news. Q. Okay. I have another question. That's fine. No, no. DANIELLE KANG: Maybe the -- Q. No, that's cool. No issue at all. I wonder about the proposed or the planned amateur event they're scheduling at Augusta National the week before the Masters. Have you heard about that? DANIELLE KANG: Uh-huh. Q. And it's scheduled, as of now, the same week as the ANA, which seems to be unfortunate or not too -- so thoughtful. I don't know. Al, do you know whether there are plans to change the date of the ANA or how that's going to be handled? THE MODERATOR: Not at all. Q. Amateurs playing in the ANA is a big part of playing in the ANA also, and it's sort of forcing them to choose. DANIELLE KANG: Sometimes everyone does what they can to make everyone happy. I guess dates just fall in the wrong place at times. Wrong place or right place, we won't know until it happens. Maybe it will be a great thing that they're playing at the same time. Q. All of the attention -- DANIELLE KANG: Maybe. Meaning eyes will be on the women's amateur. Whether it's on us on or them, at the end of the day, I think it might be positives down the road. I mean, we can't look at, Why can't we do this? Why can't we do that? If we look at that, I mean, you could criticize everything in the world. But the fact that it's -- the fact that something is changing to have women playing in the Masters, like even an amateur tournament, is incredible. So whatever dates it may fall on, whether it's Christmas, whether it's ANA, during the U.S. Open... Q. So if you were an amateur instead of a pro and had to chose, which one would you chose? DANIELLE KANG: But I'm not an amateur. Q. If. DANIELLE KANG: There is no if. Q. There is. DANIELLE KANG: There isn't, because even if I give up my credential I still wouldn't be able to be qualified to play in an amateur event. Q. Not yet. It would take a few years. DANIELLE KANG: Exactly. So, yeah, that's not my -- that's not something I would be in. There is no way. It's just not -- there is nothing that would happen where I would be not a pro by next year in April. (Knocking on wood.) Even if something does happen, I still would be a pro technically. THE MODERATOR: Shouldn't be saying that. Q. Can you talk to that now? Is there discussion about moving the date? THE MODERATOR: No. I can't speak to any of that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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