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CANADIAN PACIFIC WOMEN'S OPENAugust 21, 2018Anna YoungRegina, Saskatchewan, Canada THE MODERATOR: I'm happy to be here with Anna Young from Saskatoon. Two and a half hour drive away, so nice and close to home here for Anna. Anna is a five-time Saskatchewan Women's Amateur champion, making her LPGA debut. Anna, welcome to the LPGA Tour. We're glad to have you, and so close to home. What does it feel like? ANNA YOUNG: It's pretty awesome. I'm so excited to be here. My first LPGA event in my home province is just a dream come true. THE MODERATOR: You're here as a sponsor's exemption. ANNA YOUNG: Yeah. Q. How did you find out and what was your reaction when you got the news? ANNA YOUNG: Well, I knew I was going to apply for a sponsor's exemption. My parents were pretty on me. They were like, We want to make sure it's in early enough, and it was like so early. They were waiting to hear so much earlier than I was. I'm like, Mom, we're not going to hear until like July. It was pretty cool. I got the call and I was like, All right, this is happening. First one ever. THE MODERATOR: What has the experience been like so far? I know we're only two days in, but practice rounds and seeing the crowds starting to build and being home, what has it been like so far? What do you think is to come? ANNA YOUNG: Well, it's been really awesome so far. I played nine holes this morning as a practice round, which was good. Played the back nine, so I had to wait to join a group which was fun. Got to play with Anna Nordqvist, which was super cool. She' really nice. Yesterday I played the pro-am, which was fun. I had a good group. Just really fun experience. I'm so excited to be here. It's really cool to see all the stands and everything. I'd come up a couple times earlier this year to play the course and just kind of familiarize myself. Obviously I'm from Saskatoon; I'm not here all the time. It was really cool to see it from stands and anything, like normal, and then just everything everywhere. It's really cool. THE MODERATOR: We're been hearing good thing about the golf course. What are your thoughts on Wascana as you get ready to play? ANNA YOUNG: They did a really good job of putting it together. I saw the course earlier this year, as I said. It was really tough for them to bring it back, bring it back up to what they need to do because the winterkill was just so bad this year. It was it's funny, because I was actually in town last year and I played a couple times. I was like, Man, this course it was in such good shape. It was just the luck of the draw the winter we got this year unfortunately, but they did a really good job of getting the greens together and resodding what they needed to. The greens are super smooth. Really happy what they did with them. Q. The superintendent was here earlier being honored by the superintendents association. It was great to see all the hard work. You're right. It is luck of the draw. You can't control Mother Nature. ANNA YOUNG: No, and the greens are in awesome shape; they're rolling very well. THE MODERATOR: Happy to hear that. Open it up for questions. Q. For starters, great story with your caddie, Danny Klughart. You guys had this planned since you were 12 years old. Tell everyone here that neat little story. ANNA YOUNG: Well, one of my best friends Danny Klughart is caddying for me this week. We played a lot junior golf together and we would travel the same tournaments and our parents were friends. We would always go to tournaments together and became pretty good friends. I always joked, I was like, My first LPGA event you're going to come caddie for me. Pretty cool, because now he is. Q. I guess what does it mean to you to be playing along with the world's best out there this week? ANNA YOUNG: It is really exciting. I feel like when I was a junior I always played in the women's events. When I was an amateur and not a junior anymore, I would play in the professional events. Kind of jump one step ahead just to like be ready. It's nice that I am finally getting a chance to compare my game to best in the world. I think it will be really good for me to see it and see how close I am or how far I am and what aspects of my game need to be better. Going forward I know that everything I'm doing right now is to better my golf game in general, but it will be really cool to see and compare my game to the best in the world. Q. Is there something unique about playing in Saskatchewan that might give you an edge? Weather is always a big thing around here. ANNA YOUNG: Yeah, if we get a Saskatchewan windy day it's going to be tough. It's very windy here. I lived in Oklahoma for a year, and Oklahoma is windy, but they got nothing on our windy days. Q. Spell your caddie's last name. ANNA YOUNG: Yes, K-l-u-g-h-a-r-t. Q. What's it like to be a young golfer and be on the same course with Brooke Henderson and see the crows she has and the attention she draws out here? ANNA YOUNG: It's pretty cool. I actually played more golf with Brittany Henderson, her older sister, when I was younger. And then Brooke -- or my last junior year I played an event with her; she was 14 or 13. I was like, All right, this girl is going to be good, and she won the tournament. She played awesome. And then it's super cool to see her out and just playing so well on tour. And plus, her and her sister are like the nicest people ever. They totally deserve it. Q. Do you dream of having crowds like that following you? ANNA YOUNG: It would be very cool. I am really motivated by just playing really well and I'm more motivated to inspire younger kids to play golf or go for their dreams in other sports. That's more my motivator. It would be amazing and super cool if I had giant crowds and one day as many as Brooke, but I'm more interested in growing the game and just really showing how fun it is and how much you can learn and how much it brings out your personality on the course. I've just learned so much from it that I just love this game. (Laughter.) Q. I see you wearing the Humboldt Broncos ribbon. Does that have some significance for you? ANNA YOUNG: Yeah, so my mom is actually from Humboldt and my uncle played on the Humboldt Broncos. I know so many people who have. It was pretty sad when I heard about it. I was playing at my course in Orlando and I saw the Humboldt Strong on social media. I was like, Okay, I can't look at what this is until I get home because I know I'm going to be super rattled. It was pretty sad. I was really proud to be from Saskatchewan because everyone pulled together so much. It was amazing how much money they raised for the families and the funerals and hospital costs and everything. Q. Alena Sharp encouraged people on the LPGA Tour to wear that. Did you see that she did that? ANNA YOUNG: Yeah, I did see that she did that. I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen her bag this week. I'm so honored that she would do that. Her bag looks awesome. I'm so pumped she'll be playing with that this week. Q. Does it keep things in perspective? I know you've probably traveled on busses and road trips. ANNA YOUNG: Yeah, you know, I didn't play hockey but I danced, and we would always go to dance competitions. I played volleyball and we would do the same for that. When you're an a sports team you do that every weekend. You just think, Wow, that could have easily happened to any of us. So, yeah. THE MODERATOR: Anything further for Anna? Q. When is the last time you played this course? What memories do you have of it? ANNA YOUNG: Well, before I knew that it was going to be, the Open was going to be played here, I was here visiting a friend last year so I got to play. The course was in amazing shape. Before that I hadn't played it since I was 14. Maybe 13, maybe younger, I don't know. One of my best friends, her dad and brother were members here when I was younger. We were visiting them when I was like 14 and we went out and played. It's a much different course now than when I was 13 or 14. It's pretty cool to come back as a professional and just physically see how different my game is now compared to then. Q. You've been this to course before. Now that you're back, is there a specific part of your game you focus on on this course? ANNA YOUNG: Yeah. Well, I mean, putting and short game is always super important. I think if the wind gets up, hitting it in the fairways is going to be very beneficial. Even today me and my caddie were talking about if you land it in the rough on your drive it really takes off some of your yardage. So landing it in the fairway and keeping it in the fairway is definitely going to be a focus, but short game is always number one. I was putting before this and just working on short putts. Making sure that where I'm aimed is where I'm hitting it is my main goal. If I can do that, I will, you know, learn from my reads if I misread it and I'll know how it fix it. Q. Dreaming of this event years ago, did you ever expect it to be in Saskatchewan? ANNA YOUNG: No. It had never been here. I was like, Oh, it's never coming here. I was like, Nancy Harvey was here, played on tour for 20 years, and it never came to Saskatchewan. I was like, Why would it come now? But I'm so excited that it did. Q. Do you think the province should keep hosting events like this? ANNA YOUNG: For sure. I think that Saskatchewan is a very supportive province. Even this week and leading up to this event I've had a lot of people come and congratulate me and tell me how they're rooting for me. It's really nice. I hope they come back. Q. You're on the Symetra Tour now? ANNA YOUNG: Yeah. Q. What is sort of your I guess the agenda? When are you sort of hoping to become a full-fledged LPGA Tour member? What's the game plan? ANNA YOUNG: Well, I mean, ideally I would win this week and get my LPGA Tour card. I actually had to choose between Q-School and this event this year. I haven't really gotten into a lot of Symetra events this year. The tournaments are flush with players because the European Tour doesn't have as many events so everyone is coming over to play on the Symetra Tour. There are a lot more players than normal. So I haven't made enough money to get into second stage, so I'm hoping that -- well, so I had to choose to come to play this. I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to play my first LPGA event in my home province. It's just going to be too cool. And Q-School is going to be there next year. I'll still have a chance at Symetra status next year if I'm able to get into the rest of the events and make enough money to keep my card. As of now I would like it to be next year, but I know that's a pretty high goal. I'm hoping for the year after that. Q. Saskatchewan has a young 12-year-old, Ella Kozak. ANNA YOUNG: Uh-huh, yeah. She just got a hole in one recently. Q. Yes, did, yeah. She's unbelievable. What advice would you give to her and other young female junior golfers as they ideally take the path you've taken? ANNA YOUNG: I would say work on your short game. I didn't realize how terrible my short game was until I moved down to the States. Everyone in the States, they have such a longer playing time during the year. We in Saskatchewan only get five months, if we're lucky; probably closer to four, and that doesn't mean it's good weather. So I would say just work on your short game and try and be the best at that. We hit the ball pretty well since we get the entire winter to go to the Golf Dome and work on our swings. Then when we get out here, it's just a lot harder to keep the feel the whole year around. When you start playing in bigger tournaments you realize that -- you know, when I was younger I actually didn't even realize how good people's putting or chipping could be. Like I didn't think I was terrible and I was. (Laughter.) I got a lot better when I moved down and kind of realized how good it could be and how good of a feel you could find. My putting actually got really -- I worked on it very hard after I had wrist surgery. That was kind of where I realized how good my putting could be. I had never really had that feel before, but because it was the only thing I could work on for so long I just had a much better feel for it. Now that feel is going to be there forever, knowing what it feels like and how good it could be. So short game. Go for it. (Laughter.) THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Happy to have you. Good luck this week. ANNA YOUNG: Thank you so much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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