ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS LADIES SCOTTISH OPEN

August 12, 2020

Danielle Kang

The Renaissance Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everyone, inside the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open Virtual Media Centre. Here with Danielle Kang. How are you doing today.

DANIELLE KANG: Good. How are you.

THE MODERATOR: Good. Good. It's okay. You can look right at the camera. So take me through the last two weeks. Have you been able to reflect on how well you've been playing lately?

DANIELLE KANG: A little bit, I think all the work I've done over the last few months has paid off. If anything, it's motivated me more to work on the things I want to get better at, and just I'm really glad to be out here and I know that it's been very difficult to get us back out to compete. I thank all the sponsors and the LPGA in order to make that happen. It's a good couple weeks and I'm excited for the next few-week stretch.

THE MODERATOR: You said you owe a lot to your coach, Butch Harmon, and your team and family. What have you heard from anyone that's reached out to you over the past couple weeks.

DANIELLE KANG: Some have said that hard work does pay off; that they are proud of me, and excited, and that they are very excited for me. It's always really good support. The support I have around me is really important, and without them, I won't be where I am, so really excited.

THE MODERATOR: It must have been a whirlwind to go from how you've been playing over in Toledo, Ohio to getting on the charter flight and coming over here to Scotland. What has that been like.

DANIELLE KANG: I'm still feeling a little bit of jet-lag. We are in a little bubble, which is great, safety protocols, and Scotland has been super welcoming. The golf course is great. Definitely different than American golf. Excited to play this links golf. Never been here to the Renaissance Club, but just excited for these next two weeks. They have done the best they can to be able to host us in the safest way possible for Scotland and for us, as well, so it has definitely been different.

Just the fact that we are traveling international during this is really interesting, but LPGA has done an incredible job, like I said, in order to create the charter for us to come directly over here from Ohio, which was super easy. The hotel, everyone is staying in the same place, which is also really easy. The food just gets delivered and we all get it to our rooms. We do what we can to compete, and I'm thankful for that.

THE MODERATOR: We have quite a few weeks of golf here in Scotland ahead of us, but have you been out at the Renaissance Club and what do you like most about this course?

DANIELLE KANG: I'm actually having a lot of thoughts on the golf course. It's not something that I'm used to, at all. So it's bringing a lot of difficult parts of my games into play, so I'm a little bit uncomfortable to be quite honest, but always got to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

So yeah, the golf course, it's tough for me, so it's going to be definitely a test in every aspect of my game and I think that will be interesting.

THE MODERATOR: What do you think you'll have to work on as you continue through this week? I know links is definitely different than what we saw in Toledo, Ohio. What do you think are some of the stronger points of your game you'll have to work and adapt to with this new course.

DANIELLE KANG: This might sound very generic, but acceptance, to be honest, is going to be toughest for me. The shots I hit expect to end up in a certain way and I expect it to not end up in a certain place on the golf course, but I don't really have control over that here, and I think that's going to be the toughest for me, where if I hit a great shot and I end up in a place that I don't want to be, I just have to let it go and work it out from the shot that has been given, and that is something that's going to be a challenge, definitely, that I'm going to face.

The firmness of the fairways and the undulations of the greens and around the greens surrounding up to the greens are what makes links golf its own beauty, and you can hit a great shot, it could bounce left or right. Sometimes you're going to have to control it. Whatever the golf course hands to you, I'll have to be patient and play along with it.

THE MODERATOR: How confident are you in your own game as you gear up for these next two weeks in Scotland after coming off back-to-back wins like you did?

DANIELLE KANG: Pretty confident in my game. I've worked on a lot of different types of golf during this time, this off-time and I worked quite a bit playing in cold weather, trying to figure out how to play with layers on and I've been testing different things and trying to play different shots for links golf and all. But I think this golf course is a bit different from links golf, as well. It's a bit American-style links golf, a little exaggerated here and there. So that's the difficult part.

But like I said, I think I've just got to trust my game. I'm playing well and it's going to bring me a lot of challenges and I'm going to have to make a lot of up-and-downs for pars out here, it just seems like it, no matter how great of an iron player you are, you're going to have some up-and-downs you're going to have to make. So I'm excited to see what this golf course hands me.

THE MODERATOR: You talk about the weather there and having to gear up for wearing multiple layers. Do you think the little bit of weather we got at Inverness Club gave you some sort of prep for this?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I actually said that in Ohio; that I thought I was in -- I feel like I'm in Scotland. It was blowing sideways, rain and wind and I was so cold, but I played well that day. I know I shot 1-over but it was a really good 1-over par I thought I played, and I made mistakes here and there but that's part of playing tough golf.

Yeah, today was a beautiful day. Barely any wind. Sun's out, but supposedly we're supposed to get rain for the next few days. So we're in Scotland. I'm sure the weather is going to change drastically. Last night is rained and thunder stormed. Just got to go with what the golf course gives you and what the weather gives you and play your shots.

Q. Speaking of acceptance, if there was a criticism of you in the past, it's that you were hard on yourself and you might have beaten yourself up. How have you gotten over that how have you become more accepting of where you are with your game?

DANIELLE KANG: I think I am more productive in how I criticise my own game. I am still really hard on myself. I am very intense during practise rounds. People may think that I'm upset or something, but actually I am just a very intense person, especially during practise rounds. I need to figure out every aspect of the golf course, what I can do, can't do, and even if I do something wrong in practise rounds, I'm still, quote, disappointed and in that I can do something better, and Thursday comes tomorrow, and I'll be better tomorrow.

So I think the best way I can put on how I've achieved that was I -- after I realise what has been an issue, I acknowledge it and try and make it better, instead of getting down on myself and being hard on myself and saying that I could have done better; I find ways to make it better. Approaching it in a positive way and giving yourself positive reinforcements has been good but at the same time I'm just a realist and there are things that I have to always work on and get better at, and looking at statistics, analyzing your game, being very introspective about how you are on and off the golf course. Things like that has definitely elevated my golf game I think.

Q. Wondering who of your golfing friends back in Korea have you been in contact with, first of all, and if you heard from any of them in the past two weeks? Have they reached out to let you know they are very aware of what you've been doing?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I've actually been in contact with quite a few of the players in Korea, KLPGA players and LPGA players.

Yeah, they are definitely all keeping updated and they send me congratulations, messages and I'm excited to see them as soon as possible. Some are coming over for the British. Some are coming for the ANA, and I know it's been really difficult traveling for them back and forth, but I'm excited to get all -- see them when I get to see them.

Q. Do they ask you questions about life in the bubble, and maybe they are seeking some kind of assurance that, yeah, we can do this travel thing and it will be okay once we get over there?

DANIELLE KANG: I think just in general, I've been speaking very highly of the LPGA and now the LET, as well, in order to put up any events, it has been very, very safe. The protocols that they followed, even in Toledo for two weeks and the way we flew over here and the protocols that we're in this week -- but yeah, the protocols that everybody has been through from -- yeah, so everyone's just been super efficient and great about how safe to keep the players and sponsors and where we are being hosted, golf course versus not.

I hope that people can see, whether it's fans, sponsors, tours, players in general around the world, could see what they have done in order to be able to host a world-class tournament. I think they are doing an awesome job.

Q. With everything going on with the protocols, does that take away from your focus at all on golf when it's time to focus on golf in a practise round or in competition?

DANIELLE KANG: No, not for me, at least. I thought that may be the case when I came out with the testing and all that, but seriously, from the bottom of my heart, LPGA has done an incredible job to make everything so efficient, where it might just be five minutes out of the way or ten minutes out of the way, but everything just kind of in order. It's as efficient as it could be, and I would go to great lengths to be able to compete and this is just as easy as it can be and as safe as it can. No, it doesn't affect my focus in any way.

Q. Why has golf been so effective with their protocols compared to, say, baseball? It seems everything has fit together very well, both on your tour and on the PGA TOUR as far as making the protocols work.

DANIELLE KANG: Maybe golf may seem a bit more effective than other sports. I don't know. It could be, my opinion, maybe golf is a bit more of a separated sport. Everyone kind of does their own thing, travels in their own way. They have their own schedules and they stay in their own rooms. It's not a team sport where they move together from Point A to Point B, whether it's training and work out rooms and things like that.

I think -- and then plus we have a huge golf course to work with. Everyone's kind of spread out a lot. Even on the range, everyone has their own spots to hit, putting greens, no one is stacked on each other. Maybe it's the space that the golf course provides. Not really exactly sure on that one.

Q. First of all, very well done the last couple of week, brilliant performance. You talk about the acceptance you're learning. And I'm just wondering, and of course you've coped well with all these different measures you've had to join in with coming over here. Now, have you been an intense person in areas other than golf, or other areas of your life where you have sort of more of an, I-don't-give-a-damn approach?

DANIELLE KANG: No, I think I'm normally intense. I normally am very intensed, focused, very single-minded on the task that I'm doing. So I think it's the way I approach things. I just want to give it all I've got and kind of the best effort that I can give is kind of the mind-set that I always have in whatever I do.

Q. Can you give an example, at school or at university?

DANIELLE KANG: I mean, it could go from, I guess, anything. Like if I really cared about it and I want to putt my effort into it, I would make sure to ace the test or make sure that I know it front and back just so that I could accomplish what I needed to accomplish, kind of type of deal.

Sometimes I'll achieve and sometimes I won't, but as long as I've given it the 110 percent effort, I don't have any regrets to it. That's kind of my attitude in anything that I do.

Q. Coming over on a plane from anywhere in the moment, there's a nervousness about that. Can you talk about how you felt and coming over here, the setup, has that exceeded expectations in terms of safety?

DANIELLE KANG: Yes, it's definitely exceeded my expectation. We are really strict in how we are moving about. No one has any intent on breaking any rules, but it's more so the safety for us and safety for people in the country is but I don't think, I don't believe -- I wasn't really that nervous coming over here. I just thought it was interesting, you know, being able to fly international because there has been so many talks about not being able to fly from countries to country. I felt excited more than anything to come here.

Only thing I can do is look outside the window of a car and see Edinburgh. I can't go anywhere, although the fact that I get to play golf is just -- that's what I'm the most happy about and the safety protocols on the way we walk from the car park to the golf course to how spread out everything is and dining and you have to wear masks has to, we have to have the temperature checks at the hotel, leaving the hotel, at the golf course, sanitising everything before and after players, like that has been exceeded my entire expectation and even with dining with the take out food and spaced seatings, outside and inside, it's pretty great actually.

Q. Was it important for players like yourself to send out a mental that travel is possible and comma broad to play in an event like this?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, so long as it was possible, I was coming.