CME GROUP TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

December 20, 2020

Danielle Kang

Tiburón Golf Club

Flash Interview

Q. What's it feel like to be the Vare Trophy winner?

DANIELLE LANG: Feels like a pretty solid accomplishment in 2020, to be honest, to be the low scoring average of the entire tour. Yeah.

Q. At what point did you know, Hey, this is a reality and something that all I got to do is have a pretty good week and I can close it out?

DANIELLE LANG: Well, beginning of the week we had a lot of interviews about, you know, just media questions about having the opportunity to be Player of the Year with the Vare Trophy as well. With all that in mind, people said that if you do this, you will lock in the Vare Trophy.

But I wasn't really thinking about all that. I just wanted to play well here and be able to contend and compete. Yeah, and I had the birdie fundraising going, so that was pretty fun for the week.

At the end of the round obviously I wasn't thrilled about how I finished, but to be honest, I shot 3-under today. It was a solid round. It was tough. I looked at my caddies and I said, We won the Vare. So that's an accomplishment in all cases.

Q. You win an event and there is a lot of emotions that goes with that, and usually a lot of being hyped up. This is a season-long thing. How are the emotions different in a season-long award as opposed to winning an individual tournament?

DANIELLE LANG: It's a good question. I think it's a bit different definitely. It's not a sudden excitement or something that's been building for a couple days and then you finally did it type of deal.

I would say everything is temporary, right? But even the win, that feeling goes away eventually because you want to do well the next week and the following week.

But this one feels like a really good mark in my career that I was able to do it and I accomplished it. I'm able to look back at the 2020 season and just look at the Vare Trophy, to be honest, and that's part of it.

Q. A lot of this is there are a lot of pretty impressive names on the Vare Trophy.

DANIELLE LANG: Oh, yeah.

Q. So it's got to feel pretty honorable to be one of those now.

DANIELLE LANG: Yeah, and I was saying that, you know, to be part of that legends, and I just want to be able to make them proud moving forward as well, because they left this game for us and they left this stage for us, and I wish that I can do that for the future.

Q. Four more birdies today for your pledge to help out St. Jude. You mentioned you took at look at some people that you had pushed to help with the fundraiser.

DANIELLE LANG: Yeah.

Q. You're up right near $30,000. Just how special is it in the season of giving to be able to give back in the way that you have?

DANIELLE LANG: How does it feel?

Q. Yeah.

DANIELLE LANG: I don't think there would be like just like season of giving. I always say like give when you can. I was really inspired by how Mary Browder spoke about St. Jude and I was very appreciative of -- even with all the controversies going on, I'm really appreciative of the CEO Terry, of CME to host the event and having Natalie Gulbis do what she does and be who she is to be able to bring a sponsor in for us and to be able host this tournament, like everything is a stage.

So we have to appreciate that. With all that said, being able to play for something and knowing that we can make a difference and that people -- social media can be very negative, but there were a lot of people that wanted to be involved and wanted to do that fun stuff with us.

No matter how I finished, I personally am donating $16,000. Made 16 birdies. That's not so bad. Made a lot of bogeys. Plus all the people that were involved in the pledge account that's going to end I think tomorrow or tonight. Really thankful that we're trying to grow the tour and move forward with it.

Q. Bring that awareness to it.

DANIELLE LANG: Yeah, awareness is everything. It doesn't need to be Christmas, doesn't need to be Thanksgiving for people to give back. I just want people to know they can always make a change and there is always someone in need of help. You can make a difference.

Together you can do much more. By myself I probably raised 16,000, but with the other 12,000 coming in we've raised almost 30. So I want people to understand that they can make a change and they can help others even sitting at home, whether it's $1. Some people donated 25 cents a birdie. All that comes together and it makes a big pile, so I wanted to thank Terry and everybody that puts the stage on for us.

Q. Well that's a great perspective. Last one I have for you. In a year that's as crazy as it was, the breaks that we had, the unknowing factors from week to week, what did you learn maybe about yourself that you'll implement moving forward that might be different from the past?

DANIELLE LANG: Different this year than from before?

Q. Yeah. Maybe your schedule, what you learned about your schedule, travel.

DANIELLE LANG: I think what I learned is that there is a lot of randomness to life. There will be things that I don't like that's going to happen. I'm not going to be able to play events that I wanted to play, but you're going to have to just go with the flow and make the best of it and know that that's also is an opportunity.

If you have five and you lose four, that one is the positive. So in 2020 I think that's something that I really treasure and learn is any positive that is kind of given, you have to take advantage and be grateful for it.

None of us knew this was going to happen. With the protocol, six feet a par, we had a lot of different rules, taking tests, coming in early. We just have to work through it together.

I think that's something that I really had to be aware of, that it's not just about my schedule, not about what I what I want. Even in golf. No matter how much of an individual sport it is, I need the tour, we need Heather and Vicky and Mike Whan to help us set up this COVID and volunteers to be able to be there to get us signed in and all these things.

It's a teamwork, you know.