KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22, 2021

Danielle Kang

Atlanta Athletic Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We're here with 2017 KPMG Women's PGA Championship winner, Danielle Kang. Danielle, you said you've got a lot of people here, it's busy, it's buzzing, we're back to Pro-Ams, we're back to fans. Overall, what are you feeling this week heading into the major?

DANIELLE KANG: I'm really excited to play. I had a week off, so I feel really refreshed. I've heard a lot of great things about this golf course and what kind of championships it's held. So I'm really happy to be here. I just really actually like Atlanta.

Q. What is it that you've heard about Atlanta Athletic Club? It's primarily played a lot of men's events, and it's great to have the LPGA Tour coming to one of these great tracks.

DANIELLE KANG: Interestingly enough, no one's actually told me about the golf course. They all said I'd really like it, and I do. With that said, I can see how different it would play if it was a little bit firmer. I know we've gotten a lot of rain in the last few days. It's playing a little bit different, but it's definitely playing long because of how soft it is. I think it's going to be really interesting, and it's going to be a fun week.

Q. How does it fit your game, do you think?

DANIELLE KANG: Probably accuracy from tee to green right now. I think it fits my game because the long irons, I'm pretty accurate with my long irons. Those are some things that I could attack the pins with when people would hit it to 30, 40 feet. We'll see. There's a lot of 180-yard shots out here. That's four rescue and four irons for me. I'm contemplating between putting a hybrid into the bag. I carry them, but I don't normally play it unless I can't cover certain numbers. There's a lot of false fronts, and I just have to stay focused.

Q. We're hearing for a lot of people it's very challenging, a thinker's golf course. You seem to be someone who thrives on those difficult thinking kind of weeks. Do you think maybe this is a good setup for you?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I believe it's going to be a good week. I really like thinking golf courses, really tough places because it's hard to get me to focus. So if I have to focus, it's good and positive for me. KPMG has definitely elevated this championship. It's not a letdown at all. I come here, and from tee to green to the golf course, everything is just a major championship. It's bleeding that vibe.

Q. It does have that vibe. Is it safe to say your win in 2017 was a pretty life-changing week for you? Or a key moment in your career certainly?

DANIELLE KANG: It's definitely a moment in my life. I don't think it changed everything for me. I think it definitely lifted a big weight off my shoulders more than anything, but that win definitely gave me a title of major champion, and that's something that people strive for all their lives to become.

Coming here and seeing my face on the walls and have my own champion parking spot, that is the best perk of all. I just have the front parking spot, but with that said, though, I'm happy to be back and be able to compete at this golf course.

Q. You were talking about a lot of 180 shots, hitting some long irons. I would imagine there's a lot of weeks you wouldn't have to hit a lot of long irons. Do you kind of relish the challenge of that?

DANIELLE KANG: Definitely. I really enjoy hitting 4-irons, 5-irons, the hybrids, the 5-woods. They are a challenge to hit it well and straight. If that's what we have to play, that's what it is. The dispersion of those clubs are definitely wider than the 9s, 8s, and 7s.

With that said, even if you miss the green, you have to have a good short game around the greens. It's Bermuda around the greens and zoysia on the fairways, I believe. So it's pretty grainy, and you have to dig your wedges and things like that. You have to be very imaginative around the greens as well.

Q. No. 15 has been a big hole in championships over here, par-3 over the water. I was curious where you hit there. It probably played 205, 206 there maybe or something.

DANIELLE KANG: I hit a 5-wood.

Q. What did you think of that hole?

DANIELLE KANG: It was 204 to the pin, to the 20 on pin. So it's 83 to the front. Yeah, I hit a 5-wood today. That hole is going to be just accuracy, right? You're still hitting a wood off the tee. I hope they keep it that way instead of moving it forward. Since the greens are receptive, I believe the girls can hit longer clubs in and the ball will hit. You just have to hit it well. If you thin it or hit it right, it will be in the water, positioning yourself well. The bunkers are protecting the greens out here. So it will be interesting shots.

Q. I'm just curious if you could share anything that you worked on with Butch on your week off.

DANIELLE KANG: I was actually hitting it really bad in San Francisco. My putting and short game saved me. So we worked on a lot to get my swing back to the way it was. I created a lot of bad habits being all left-to-right golf course. It just created really -- that's my weak point. It's a lot of left to rights but on a right-to-left slope, and it's a lot of cross-shots, which I didn't like, and we just had to get my swing back to its original -- (horn blows).

Was that a shotgun, or was that a storm?

Q. It's the shotgun.

DANIELLE KANG: I'm like no, not again.

So, yeah, we worked on my swing, getting it back to the neutral zone. It's really hard actually. I know everyone saw the video of him chucking a club on the range. Everyone saw that. It's because I threw a club while I was getting a lesson, and he said it's pitiful. He's like let me show you how to do it.

Q. Your throw was pitiful?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, my throw is pitiful. I throw it overhand. I got kind of mad and just chucked it like this, and he goes, oh, that's pitiful, and he just showed off. He's really good at throwing the club.

It was a frustrating week, but we got it back to where we needed to. So I'm really excited, and I hit the ball really well today.

Q. Are your swing notes on your hand?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, it is. I forget.

Q. Seriously?

DANIELLE KANG: Seriously, it is.

Q. What are the notes?

DANIELLE KANG: I'm not going to tell you.

Q. It might sweat off.

DANIELLE KANG: It's on here. It's on here. I've got to remember. I have to keep calling, or I just have to write it down.

Q. I know you don't like to talk about what you and Butch work on. You give him a lot of credit. I'm wondering what it is about the relationship with him that makes you so comfortable and has elevated your game.

DANIELLE KANG: I think having a coach that gives you 150 percent really helps. Even my caddies, I've always said that I will work 110 percent. I will give it 110 percent, and I just want my teammates to give 100 percent back. Having a caddie that gives me over 110 percent, having a coach that's there for 150 percent makes me work harder, makes me want to be better, and it drives me to be a better golfer, better role model, better player.

With all of that said, I do give him a lot of credit because there are people that you meet in your life, there's those key moments, KPMG 2017, when I met him, things shifted. I missed eight out of nine cuts in a row before I went to him. Then I finished third, first, sixth, 12th. I wasn't finishing -- whatever it is that he's doing has helped me become or magnify what I'm good at, and he just focuses on a lot of positives. As a golfer, it's really hard to do.

So I do give him a lot of credit for where I am now, and I think he expedited my journey, which I'm happy about. So I can put in that -- what is that word I'm looking for? If I can just keep my end of the bargain up, I think we can do really great things. I always want to be better.

Q. Do you think that has been the key to his success throughout his career? You've got Tiger doesn't swing like Dustin, Dustin doesn't swing like you.

DANIELLE KANG: No. I say that Butch is a polyglot because he speaks so many languages in golf. That's why I say, when you ask me what I work on, it's very hard to explain. You could ask him. It is really hard to explain. I ask so many weird things. He also did say there are no stupid questions until he told me I ask the stupidest questions.

He says one thing, and then I say I don't like it, but there's ten different ways of saying the same thing. It's just what language speaks to you and clicks in your head. He doesn't really -- I mean, I can't speak for him on how he teaches other people, but I believe he makes whatever you have better. He doesn't try and fix me and what's bad, he just tries to make me better.

I do have a tendency of taking it really far in and dropping it underneath, but I still take it in and drop it underneath, but I know how to control it from there. That's teaching you control and accuracy from your natural habits, I think is what he's really good at.

Q. Seeing your wrist is taped up, is everything all right with it? What led you to tape it up?

DANIELLE KANG: I had a huge wi-fi on at Olympic Club, like it was left and right all over the place. I call it wi-fi because it's strong right there. It was a lot of hacking out of the rough. I think I hit three greens one day, and it was just a lot of punch shots, and it led to -- like Merced, which was very firm and it was cold, so my wrist started to hurt. Old injury started to ache. But it's fine. I just tape it up just so I don't feel that sharpness or just in case it comes on because one shot matters.

So it's taped up out of precaution and things like that. It will get better. It's not that I can't hit or anything, which is good.

Q. You just explained how much Butch has done for you. What's the number one lesson, or the lesson that comes to mind the most that he's imparted on you?

DANIELLE KANG: I really have to think about that one. One lesson? I don't know. There's so many. The first thing that comes into my mind is that it's okay. That's the one lesson that he put in my head is that everything's fine. You've just got to keep working hard and be positive. Just believing in yourself and doing what you need to do and just trusting yourself.

It's a lot of simple things. It's hard to pick just one.

Q. There was a question asked earlier that I wanted to run by you about the Olympics. We're seeing a lot of men drop out today in particular, and there seems to be a pretty different perspective between the men and women about the eagerness to go play in Tokyo. I wanted to ask you a two-part question. First, how do you feel in general about playing in the Olympics? B, to take a broader perspective, why do you think there is such a difference in the way men and women seem to be approaching this?

DANIELLE KANG: I can answer question number two first. I do not know why some men don't want to play. Maybe they are preparing for other tournaments. Maybe they want to be prepared for whatever their goals are, but I can't really -- I don't know. Part one to that question, answering like the same thing as number two, I can't speak for what Olympics mean for a lot of people, but for me it's everything.

Ever since I trained Tae Kwon Do to be an Olympian, Olympics have been my dream, it's my goal to be an Olympic athlete. I know that LPGA have set the stage for us to compete week in and week out with all the sponsors, but with that said, Olympics has been available to us since 2016, and that's something I've wanted to achieve all my life.

Weirdly, as of May, when the Olympics qualification got extended extra 15 months, I cried and panicked because I qualified back then, and I felt that, if I didn't qualify again for some reason, for whatever happened, I technically didn't qualify yet I did, but I couldn't call it an accomplishment. For me to have to re-accomplish something that has been my life goal and dream was really tough on me. I couldn't stop looking at the Rolex rankings. I couldn't stop worrying about what other people did up until this week, secured.

I finally feel like myself because the one thing that was the pinnacle was to just hit that mark that I qualified for the Olympics as a USA athlete. All I can tell you is that I'm just so happy to be a part of that and can't wait to compete in the Olympics. How other people perceive the Olympics, I can't speak for them.

Q. How long does it take to you write out your notes on your hand? And do you actually on the course kind of look at them, or is it just kind of to help you remember them at the start?

DANIELLE KANG: It's actually periodic. It's scattered sometimes. I write it down as soon as I need to remember it, but then sometimes I have an epiphany, and I go, oh, yeah, I remember he said that, and I write it down. Or I call when something is going wrong and he fixes it, and I write it down. It's not just here. It's on the glove. It's on the books. I don't read it every hole, but I think writing things down for me gives me a reminder on what to do.

Q. Have you done it for a while?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I wear long sleeves a lot. There's a lot of notes randomly in there.

Q. Range finders are in play this week. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on range finders.

DANIELLE KANG: Being honest, there's a lot of things that I don't agree with that the rules are changing because I'm kind of old school golfer. So I don't even believe in greens books. I don't even carry one. I believe that green reading is a skill.

Range finders, I don't think it's going to speed up play, just like I don't think putting with the pin in is speeding up play. It hasn't. I believe that the caddies, they work hard. I mean, some caddies are veteran caddies, they know how to get cover numbers, like being able to adjust, doing math is part of golf, adding and subtracting, sometimes making a mistake that you added instead of subtracted, that's just part of the game. It's part of life.

If you take that out of play, I don't know, I guess there might be less mistakes, I don't know, but I see it as a little bit of a downside for just taking a classic game away.

Q. Would you like to see the LPGA follow suit with the PGA TOUR banning green reading books going forward?

DANIELLE KANG: Are PGA TOUR banning them? Yeah, I would like to see that. It's a skill. You should be able to read them. Whether it's aim pointing, you should be able to feel. Golf is feel. But it's yardage books as well.

I'm really extreme. I'm okay with having a tournament with no yardage books and no range finders and no yardages, so I don't know. Just eyeball the entire way maybe, I don't know. I just like keeping it as traditional as possible with progression forward and being modern and all that, but -- and I know I wear joggers and hoodies, but sometimes there's just skills that you just need, and I believe that caddying skill, it's important who you hire. It's important who's able to walk the golf course. It's important how they look at it and being able to do the math as quickly as they do.

Yeah, it just minimizes mistakes.

Q. So Olly won't use one?

DANIELLE KANG: Olly actually came up and spoke to me and said he will not use one because he already does the things normally anyways. He will give me the yardage gun if I need it, but it's not going to speed up play for us because I can't gun the yardage and it says 154 and he got 152 and it's down three. Okay. Like I don't know. I do all the numbers with him. He'll just panic. Olly's got a lot going on. He'll panic.

He doesn't want to use it, but he said he'll have it on him just in case. You'll see me use it on certain cover numbers. It's just faster for me, I guess, instead of talking to him, but he'll still tell me. I don't know.

Q. Work in progress.

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, it's throwing us off a little bit, but that's okay.