KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22, 2021

Inbee Park

Atlanta Athletic Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're here with Inbee Park, 21-time LPGA Tour winner, most importantly this week, a three-time winner of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship 2013, '14, '15, No 2 in the Rolex rankings, as well as the 2021 Kia Classic winner.

Inbee, this is always an exciting week, a week of a hard championship golf course. You've been out there, you've seen this course. What are your take-aways of Atlanta Athletic Club?

INBEE PARK: The course is in really, really good shape. It's Bermuda greens, and greens are big. So it's a little bit slopey on big greens. The course is pretty wet right now with all the rain that we have. I only played the back nine. Back nine was probably a little long because it was wet. I'm sure they're going to move the tees around and make it pretty fair.

Just a lot of water hazards. You've just got to shape your shots around the pin, and you've just got to avoid the water. A lot of bunkers. Just the greens are Bermuda greens. So it's just a little different. I've played well on the Bermuda greens before as well. It's good speed of Bermuda greens. Greens have some characters with slopes and big greens. Bunkers are -- a lot of bunkers, but they're in really, really good shape, a good amount of sand.

Like I said, I'm enjoying the golf course. I really hope that it dries out so it plays where it's supposed to play. I think that's probably wishing. You know, we're in Georgia, it's thunderstorming a lot here. Hopefully, I get to see the course a bit more and study it a little bit more. Yeah, do all my homework before I start.

Q. What is that mental challenge? I think there's got to be a lot of homework for a place like this, where the weather could change, it's a course that we don't go to a lot. What is that homework that you do?

INBEE PARK: I think just getting used to the golf course and getting really used to your eyes. The shots that you have to shape around, you've really got to know the golf course, which side of the green we need to attack and which side of the pin do we need to be for this pin or that pin.

The par-3s are really strong on this golf course, long and most of them have hazards on the par-3s. You have to play well on the par-3s. I think par-3 is definitely going to be a big key for this week.

Q. They're letting you use range finders this week. They were just talking about that. Do you like that?

INBEE PARK: Range finders, I'm really neutral on that. I'm not really the type of person that gets my own yardage. My caddie gets the yardage, and I just asked my caddie what do you think of it? He said, it's their job to figure out the yardage, right? He thinks that when somebody just goes there and just shoots the yardages, it's obviously accurate, but nothing really becomes like their job of doing good or bad. Everybody's just going to be having an average. Nobody's going to be making mistakes. Nobody's going to be that good at getting yardage.

It's just literally taking their job away, I think. So I think it's just -- like I said, neutral. We're going to get exact yardage to the pin, that's for sure. Sometimes with the caddies, when you do the add-ups wrong or step it slightly wrong, you get a yard or two wrong, but we're not going to get that with the yardage guns.

I think it's more accurate for the players, but as a caddie perspective, I think they might be against it, I don't know.

Q. What's your schedule? Did you play 18 yesterday? 18 today?

INBEE PARK: 9 yesterday. Obviously with the Pro-Am today, 18, and then 9 tomorrow.

Q. You talked about it's wet out there, it's about 6,800 yards, pretty long. Last fall, you told us how long Aronimink was and walked off with the trophy. For you at a long golf course, do you get into the challenge of that?

INBEE PARK: Last year at Aronimink, it was long when we played the practice because it was a little bit cold and it was wet. By the time they played the tournament, they moved a lot of tees up. The course dried out quite a bit over the weekend, so it was playing quite different to how it played on the practice round. You never know how this course is going to play, but I think overall the length is very wet. I don't see it drying out dramatically here.

It's probably going to play a little long, and I'm going to be -- at least I'm going to be hitting a lot of long clubs in that I have to concentrate on. Obviously, nobody says it's easy to hit long clubs, but you've got to work with what you have.

Q. It's been a little while since you won a major, and here you are No. 2 in the world. You obviously have all the game to do it. Do you draw any inspiration after you see a Phil Mickelson win after a long gap or other players win after they haven't won a major in a while?

INBEE PARK: Yeah, definitely it's a good inspiration. When Phil Mickelson wins at his age, and I think when you play someone -- you see someone play like that, it's always a great thing to watch, it's like magic. It definitely gives you a lot more courage to go out and play well. So, yeah, I'm really excited for the week.

Q. Inbee, Jess just talked about this before and Nelly talked about this on Sunday, how much more difficult it is to win on the LPGA Tour today. How different is it to win now than when you started out on the Tour?

INBEE PARK: I think these days we have a lot of variety of winners instead of one person winning five or six for the year. Definitely, I think it's a little less percentage to win a golf tournament than it is 10 or 12 years ago, so it is tougher. The competition is very strong.

Some golf courses we play almost every year for ten years, and scores are getting better and better, and it's getting lower and lower, which means that the competition is getting stronger. So I definitely think it's -- I don't know by how far it is harder, but I feel like I'm playing better than last year, better than before. Obviously, not the results are showing just like that.

I just think the variety of the players and the competition is getting stronger and stronger.

Q. Inbee, what's the best part of your game right now?

INBEE PARK: I can say nothing's that great but nothing's that bad. Driving the ball to the putting, I wouldn't say I'm putting great, I'm driving the ball great. I wouldn't say that. I'm hitting it okay and putting it okay, but the good part is nothing's that bad. When one thing's really bad, you're not scoring. Golf is just about scrambling. Everything -- you don't have any bad part of your game, I think you're fine. You'll be fine with the experience. I think with the scoring skills, I think, as long as you don't do anything so bad, you're fine.

Q. When you look back on major championships that you've won, do you recall that feeling when you walked on property for the first time, like this is a place that really suits me at any of them? Do they all kind of grow on you?

INBEE PARK: When I usually look at the golf course, and for the first time or second time, I kind of think that this golf course really suits me. Definitely in Westchester, when I saw it, I thought I really liked Westchester, and a couple golf courses in Rochester, I really like those two weeks I won. Usually the golf courses I like is narrow fairways and long rough and fast greens.

When I go to the course, then I see long roughs, I'm like, yes, I like this golf course. And fast and slopey greens, that's what I like. When I come to the golf course, it's really wide, and there's no rough, and it's really long, it's usually tougher for me. I think that's kind of my golf course perspective.

This golf course is really half and half. The fairways is wide, and we don't have any rough here, but greens definitely have the characteristics, and this golf course has the potential to be playing very, very tough because, even though it is wide fairways, going into the second shot, it's very tough. And around the greens, they have a lot of character.

I just got to wait and see because, like I said, half and half. I don't know how it's going to play.

Q. When we visited with you to start 2020 when you came to Orlando, none of us knew how the year would unfold obviously, but you were on the outside at the time of the Olympic team, and you've worked your way into that team. As a competitor, how much pride do you take in that accomplishment of pulling that off?

INBEE PARK: I think I've played quite good, consistent golf in the last couple of years, and to be able to achieve what I wanted to achieve, being on the Olympic team for the second time of my career, it has been a very big goal of my career. Finally being able to achieve that is, yeah, a big bonus for me because it just means I've played very consistently for the last six, eight years.

Being on the Korean Olympic golf team, literally you have to be top ten in the world. That just means how consistent you have to be for the long time of your career, so I'm proud of myself.

Q. In a good way, being that that team is so tough to make, do you think it pushes all of you?

INBEE PARK: I think it definitely does. I'm sure not everyone's goal is the Olympics. It really depends on the player, but I think most of the players think that it's a very special opportunity, and I think I know a lot of Korean girls, I think it's one of their most wanted goal to be on the team.

For me as well, I've achieved a lot in golf, won a lot of majors, won a lot of tournaments, but winning the gold medal was something really different. I wish a lot of the players think the same and treat Olympics the same. I think it's definitely something that you should experience. It's something different.

Q. There have been several top male players that have pulled out of the Olympics, but that hasn't happened on the women's side. Why do you think that is?

INBEE PARK: I just think men golfers, they just have so many big events. They definitely play a different level of golf with a lot of different perspective. They have so many opportunities and so many different weeks with so many big tournaments. For us, I think it's a little different. We're not as big as men's golf.

So I think girls just treat it a little differently. Men trying to work it in their schedule with a lot more tournaments going on and a lot more going on is different.

Q. How often have you come to a major venue like months ahead to scout it?

INBEE PARK: I haven't been doing that for a while, I think ten years.

Q. Ten years?

INBEE PARK: Yeah.

Q. And why not?

INBEE PARK: I just think looking at the golf course twice before the tournament is enough for me. The more you look or the shorter you look, I don't think makes a difference as long as you look at it twice and put it in your memory.

Q. Obviously it works for you.

INBEE PARK: Thank you.

Q. The tee times just came out. Are you okay if I tell you who you play with? Making sure there's no superstition there. You're going to be playing with Lexi Thompson and Yuka Saso. I wanted to ask you about Yuka. When she won her U.S. Open, it was to the day the exact same age as you, 19. A, that's an amazing coincidence, but that was a life-changing moment for you. Can you tell us about that moment and what your advice to Yuka is about celebrating that win and moving on from it.

INBEE PARK: I think setting a history in golf is a big thing, and she's definitely done it a few weeks ago in the U.S. Open. I'm sure she's really enjoying the opportunity that she has, and she has a bright, bright future ahead of her. Enjoy every step of it. Yeah, she's going to enjoy it out here. Her swing is amazing. I saw it, and I thought, oh, she really swings like Rory McIlroy. So I thought it was really cool.