U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

May 31, 2021

Jin Young Ko

The Olympic Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome to the 2021 U.S. Women's Open interview area, Jin Young Ko. Last December Ko shared runner-up honors with Amy Olson at the 75th U.S. Women's Open, finishing one shot behind A Lim Kim at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas. This will be her fifth U.S. Women's Open appearance.

Ko has 18 victories worldwide, including two major championships and seven LPGA titles. She is currently at No. 1 in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings.

Jin-Young, what are your first impressions of being here at the Olympic Club, a place with so much history?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yeah, I saw this golf course in 2012 or 2013, Webb Simpson won this course in the U.S. Open, and I checked the golf course a few months ago, and I saw the course -- the course will be really tough to me and tough to all the players, and I'm happy to be back here. I finished really well last year, so I can't wait to play this week.

Q. What's the state of your game would you say coming into a major championship?

JIN YOUNG KO: Well, always major tournaments is tough to everybody, and of course it's tough, and especially this course is like more hilly. The wind is going to be more tough as the other golf course, so it's going to be fun.

I'm playing good, and I played last week in Vegas, and my swing or putting or short game, everything is not bad.

I think I will be preparing for on Thursday.

Q. The last time I talked to you, you were battling an injury still. Are you over that or is it still lingering?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yeah, it's done. I had a great time before Vegas in Texas, so I had a lot of treatment, and right now it feels good, and I'm ready to play.

Q. Did you say that you came and practiced here early or you just checked the course out online?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yeah, I played yesterday nine holes, just YouTube.

Q. Watched video?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yes.

Q. What about your game do you think suits this venue?

JIN YOUNG KO: Hopefully yes, but putting or like chipping in the rough, I had a lot of chipping last week in Vegas, so it's going to be a little bit harder this week.

Q. What did you learn on those YouTube videos when you watched them? What stood out to you?

JIN YOUNG KO: I wanted to see to shape this course and how they're doing the chipping in the rough or bunker shots. I checked this, and yeah, well, I'm a little nervous when I see the YouTube.

Q. What kind of skills do you think -- what kind of players have an advantage here? What does this course favor?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yeah, I think fairways are so narrow on this course, so first the important thing is keep the fairway, and greens are small, too, so if you hit drivers well and irons well, I think playing good. But if not, it's going to be tough.

Q. How important or how much attention do you pay to the rankings? How important is it to you to stay No. 1? Obviously there's a lot of good players near the top. How much do you care about that?

JIN YOUNG KO: Just a little bit. Not much. Just a little bit.

Q. The margin for error between a great shot and a bad shot on the Lake Course is extremely thin. There's a clear advantage to being able to move your ball left to right and right to left here with the sloping fairways and small greens. You really have to think about what happens to your ball when it lands. When you know a course is notoriously difficult like this one, do you prepare differently mentally in terms of expectations or even execution?

JIN YOUNG KO: I would say yes, it's tough. When you're teeing off, when you go to the tee box and then you can see lots of trees to the fairway, so your eyes feel like locked to every target, so it's going to be tough. But I will focus on just keep the fairway, even hit driver -- if I hit the drivers, maybe ball goes maybe over 260 yards in the rough, rather than 230 yards fairway is better, I guess.

I think, yeah, keep the fairway is important thing, and yeah -- fairway, slopey is like right to left and left to right and the breeze goes right to left, left to right, so it's not a straight breeze. I think we don't have straight breeze in this course. So mentally it's more important things, I think.

Q. What kind of clubs are you able to hit out of the rough?

JIN YOUNG KO: Depends on the lie. Like into the grain, the rough may be 58 wedges or if the lie is good, I can hit a hybrid, as well.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Jin Young. Good luck this week.