HSBC WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

April 29, 2021

Inbee Park

Sentosa Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: On a scale of one to ten, how do you think Gi did on this first day?

INBEE PARK: I think I'm going to give him ten and probably ten for the rest of the week because I'm really thankful that he's doing this for me and in this heat. It's very tough conditions. I'm just really thankful that he's carrying the bank. I don't need an exact number. I don't need anything. I just need him next to me, that's all, just carrying the bag..

THE MODERATOR: I remember you saying that during the AIG Women's Open that it's like, hey, he might not give me the numbers but he's on the bag and I love every minute of it. How much were you enjoying yourself out there with him again?

INBEE PARK: We're both really enjoying ourselves out there. I mean, I didn't even know what score I was shooting today. I was going hole-by-hole like it's 14 to go, 13 to go, three to go.

I just had fun out there with him. I hit a lot of fairways and greens. It was really a stress-free round and I was able to read the putts really well with him and that helped.

THE MODERATOR: You hit every single fairway and 16 of 18 greens today. When did you start to feel comfortable?

INBEE PARK: Yeah, just started at the beginning. I think we started the day pretty solid and I was giving myself less warm up time this week. I usually allow myself like an hour. I was only doing like 40 minutes this morning just trying to get my energy level not so down. So I think that worked out good.

THE MODERATOR: I was going to say because of this heat you really have to prepare for it. We were just talking about how you're not much of a heat person as you said but you're thriving under these conditions here.

INBEE PARK: Yeah, I don't like the heat but that doesn't mean that I'm going to play bad in the heat. So that's a different story. I still really trying to concentrate on golf. It's quite a distraction obviously with very hot weather. My husband always jokes because he likes the heat but not this heat. He likes the heat but I always like the cold and my dog, Rio, he has big hair, a lot of hair, so he really likes the cold as well. So we are both in like a cold zone and he's always in like a hot zone. But I mean, I asked him today, like so do you really like the heat or you like the cold. He said, like yeah, definitely cold.

THE MODERATOR: It's very different from the last time he was on the bag as we talked about.

INBEE PARK: Yeah, it's totally different weather. He caddied for me in the AIG Women's Open, and I mean it was probably about ten degrees -- probably like, yeah, ten degrees Celsius. It's probably 20 degrees difference. So he's going to have to work hard this week.

THE MODERATOR: You had a couple of great birdie opportunities birdie opportunities and you were able to capitalize on all of them. Hitting the fairways and greens helped but talked in the past couple of events how putting is what you've been trying to improve upon and that's what we saw today.

INBEE PARK: Yeah, definitely. I hit a lot of great shots but probably left myself a lot of ten to 15-footers, and I was able to make most of them, which has been the difference this year. You know, holing putts when you need to hole, especially ten to 15-footers, so those percentage the last few years wasn't that great but this year has been a little better. So I think that really paid off this week today.

THE MODERATOR: You're a two-time champion of this event. When you are on your role here even during a first round, do you think about those memories of how well you did at Sentosa?

INBEE PARK: Yeah, it definitely reminded me of some good memories when I was playing good out there today, just if I can raise this trophy again this time, I definitely thought about it. The good memories definitely make me concentrate even harder.

Q. I know you gave your husband a ten score for. What will you give yourself today, and do you think you can do better over the next few days?

INBEE PARK: Well, I think probably about nine for me today. I just misread the last putt. That was minus one there.

Q. And are you surprised how well you're playing, given the fact that you started off the season with a win and you've been playing pretty consistently over the last few tournaments, as well, and to open this tournament with a 64, what do you think has been the reason for such a strong start to the season?

INBEE PARK: I think putting definitely has improved a lot this year, starting the first event, I putted quite well and since then, I got some good confidence after the first week in Kia. Putting is the first score and that has been quite good this year.

Q. You mentioned the last putt that you misread, is that -- are you such a perfectionist that that's going to bug you for the rest of the day, or have you just erased that from your memory?

INBEE PARK: I'm really not a perfectionist, and even though I missed the last putt, I mean, my husband said, oh, you know, you could have read that a little more correctly. But I just told him, that's okay, that's the only one we missed pretty much. Let it go and new day tomorrow.

THE MODERATOR: As we start to wrap up here, Inbee, this is definitely a gettable course. We have seen it in the past with some of these numbers and also you showed it today. How were you planning on taking even more advantage of this course tomorrow? Is.

INBEE PARK: Well, I mean, this course, there are a lot of holes that we can hit a lot of -- shorter holes, but definitely No. 11, 12, is definitely a very long hole for me. What I'm trying to concentrate is not to lose shots on those holes and try to make as many birdies as I can on the short holes. Yeah, I'm just -- my concentration this week is No. 11 and 12 because I probably hit about -- hybrid or 5-wood or 3-wood into the hole. That's going to, I'm trying not to lose shots on those two holes, which I did today. So yeah, that's my key focus.