BANK OF HOPE LPGA MATCH-PLAY

May 24, 2022

Danielle Kang

Shadow Creek

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, we're here at Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play presented by MGM Rewards. Here with our defacto hostess for the weekend, Danielle Kang, out here giving out restaurant recommendations. Good to be home this week. How are you feeling heading into the week?

DANIELLE KANG: I been home for quite sometime now, and it's been really tough, to be honest. It's been very hard. It's been a tough road. I have a tough road ahead of me.

But I'm really -- I just have to take a moment to say thank you to the specialists and the doctors and all my team that got me to this point to try and tee it up tomorrow.

Yeah, it hasn't been easy.

Q. I know you've been struggling. Is it a back issue? I don't want to get too deep into what you're working on. How are you feeling? What have you been working on?

DANIELLE KANG: I've had -- I've been seeing a lot of specialists. Been some issues in my back that the details -- I've never really been very honest about my injuries necessarily. Talked openly about mental health and things like that.

At the end of the day I'm an athlete and I still want to portray the fact that I'm here and ready to go, and sometimes in the last few times -- I WDed a few times in the last couple months. I always want people to know I'm trying the best I can and I'm a competitor. I want to compete.

Learning that taking some time to you yourself is also being a good competitor. It's hard for me to do that, but that's what I'm trying.

I even saw a specialist yesterday. I was not in any shape or form to come out the golf course yesterday, but today was much better. I played with my sponsors and they were very gracious enough for me to play with the people that I normally play with out in Vegas, so it was like another Wednesday.

So that was fun. Yeah, I think everyone is just trying to do the best they can to keep me in the game. It's not just about this week. I'm just trying to somehow get ready for the U.S. Open as well. The preparation hasn't been the way I wanted it to be, but doing the best that I can off the golf course, and see how the rest of the year goes.

Q. That is a big part of the challenge of being out here. We have these amazing opportunities to play 24 events, big purses, but making sure you're right physically and mentally. You're a baller, a gamer. We know that. You want to be out there. How has this been maybe a learning opportunity for you to figure out how to balance it all?

DANIELLE KANG: Not sure yet. I've learned that a lot of times when -- there were times I used to take even 12 Advils during the round just to play. I ended up winning; that was Shanghai. I had a lot of upper back issues then.

But learning that health is really important and it does affect your game, where I am physically and mentally, it really affects me mentally sometimes.

But I'm actually mentally in a really good place because I've taken time, got my team, especially in Vegas. Whether I play well or not, I just want to try. That was my goal four weeks ago when I WDed out of everything, is to have the opportunity to play, instead of feeling like I did at Wilshire and PV and Hawaii, just pushing through to accomplish what really?

I thought I could figure it out while I was competing and that wasn't case, and that's what I learned I guess. Having the best people around me has helped a lot. The UFC facility has gone -- the PI has gone above and beyond to help me with specialists and seeing my back and treatments and rehabs.

That's been my main focus mostly for the last four weeks. Wake up and do rehab. I've had a lot of time on my hands, so it's been interesting.

Q. You read any books? Watched anything? How do you spend that time?

DANIELLE KANG: So -- well, yeah, just been hard. Yeah, we had to figure out how I'm going to spend the time as well because there is activities that I can't do that I normally can.

I saw a lot of my friends. I had brunch quite a bit. Never brunched. That was interesting. I know.

Q. You don't strike me as a bruncher.

DANIELLE KANG: I am not a brunch person, but I definitely brunched. I did not know people just hung out at 10:30 in the morning just to eat for like two hours. I experienced that. It was fun.

Hung out by the pool. I never tan; tanned enough. Things like that. Just trying to find the good things and taking the time to hang out with my friends.

But being there, what I need to do, seeing the doctors, doing the stretches every chance that I can, working with Butch and Drew Steckel.

I just hit a few, lay down, do all my stretches, and redoing. All those process takes a lot of time, so...

Q. You're here this week standing in front of us hoping to tee it up tomorrow.

DANIELLE KANG: Yep.

Q. How does Shadow Creek look out there? To me, the nongolfer, is looks fabulous.

DANIELLE KANG: It's my home course. I come out here almost every single day. It's actually gone through quite a little bit of changes. I swear it was rolling about 14 about week and a half ago and I couldn't even touch the ball. It would just roll 20 feet.

Then they started need pointing-- they aerated it so it could be prepared, and it started slowing them down, and they started watering it, then it got really slow middle of last week, and then today my golf ball is rolling out 25 yards.

So I guess it's firm, and I expect it to be fast tomorrow. I played at 8:00 am today and I knew there was one layer of water so the first layer was a bit soft. I think it's going to get quick throughout the week. It's really hot out here, so going to be good.

Yeah.

Q. Just wanted to follow up on your medical. If this wasn't a Vegas event would you be praying this week?

DANIELLE KANG: Probably not, no, if I'm being honest about that, because I'm a really proud ambassador of MGM. I love MGM and I love Las Vegas. Shadow Creek is my home. Everybody here, I know how many people are rooting for me.

It's about just about trying for other people or not. I've never really come out to play to have fun and maybe I can. Quite frankly, because it's match play you never know what's going to happen.

I might not have my game fully where I want it, but the seedings, the round robin, it will help me out a bit.

You make a mistake and it gets washed. If I'm making a lot of bogeys it's okay. It's not like we're at U.S. Open yet where it's going to be costly. So I have a better idea why with I'm playing this week than -- and sometimes we don't even have to play all 18 holes. You have to look at a lot of positive things.

I do want to make a note, because I've heard -- because this has been such a -- it's home for me here and everyone that has been involved, Bank of Hope, Octagon, IMG to LPGA, MGM, everyone is here to make the best event possible, and they really treat us well. It's one of the best ever.

I been hearing a lot about how people want golf carts out here, and I do want to make a note that I was strongly and will forever be against having a golf cart at a golf tournament. They asked me a lot. I've got a lot of enquiries, Hey, Danielle, do you think we should have golf carts? It kept getting brought up.

I guess there was a lot of communications that we wanted golf carts or not wanted golf carts. But, I don't know, I just kind of wanted to make a note in the media that with yardage guns, greens books, now with golf carts. Like I don't think that's okay.

Hopefully me saying that we'll just never ever have golf carts on the golf course, especially at tournament. Plus it's match play. You want people to watch, get excited. We're not going to have golf carts at Solheim Cup.

I understand it's hot, but it's not 105 Alabama when we played at Shoal Creek. So we're okay.

I want people to stop complaining. We're at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas; weather is perfect. Let's just enjoy it. Those really are things I did want to make a point, because we want to be thankful for sponsors like them to step up and host an event like this here.

People like me, I'm not even 100% and I want to be here, so...

Q. So I always refer to you as the unofficial host out here.

DANIELLE KANG: Oh, thank you.

Q. Last year a lot of players were coming to you because they had never seen Shadow Creek. Is that the case again this year?

DANIELLE KANG: Players do ask me for advice on Shadow Creek. To be honest, you have to play it a lot.

Q. Right.

DANIELLE KANG: I'm going to rely a lot on member's this week. Hopefully that's going to be nice to me. I know that I have the golf course on my side because I know where to miss it and where to play, and the green reading is really difficult here, and I've played here so many times, and that's the one -- it might give me 2% advantage, but that's advantage that I need.

When girls ask me how to play No. 17, the par-3, I just say, you got to figure it out. (Laughter.)

Just have to figure it out, right?

Q. So going to throw a curve ball at you a little bit. Been talking to some of the younger American players who haven't won yet and what's it is like to try and finally break through. Do you remember back your first few years when you hadn't won yet what kept you going and thinking you had what it took to win?

DANIELLE KANG: What's kind of the -- what's the question?

Q. Do you remember the frustrations of having not won yet in your early years?

DANIELLE KANG: Yeah, I think -- I don't mean to get dark here, but a lot of times people get caught up in winning and wanting to win, so obsessed with getting trophy. For me, I wanted to win because I was on a time limit and my dad wasn't going to live very long, so I wanted to win before he passed away, and that was my chase. I didn't really care when I won other than that. I failed.

So I think my frustration is a bit different case for a lot other people, but do I tell people that winning isn't everything. It doesn't change anything. It doesn't do anything for you. It gives you confidence, but you should already have the confidence that you're going to win and you should win out here.

Yeah, I won three four years down the road, but it was more of just, okay, I finally won one, then I have to win another one, right? For me it was more of the timing.

Q. What kind of advice would you give someone who hasn't won yet?

DANIELLE KANG: Just keep working hard. No matter how hard you work golf doesn't owe you anything. If you really truly have done everything you can, you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, I have worked so hard, blood, sweat, tears, and I've given everything. If you can say that, you be frustrated. If you haven't done that, there isn't a darkest time, there isn't a why is golf doing this to me. You have to it give more than what you think, because there is hundreds of other girls out there that are working harder.

That's how I kind of see it.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for joining us so much. We'll let you go.

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