AMAZINGCRE PORTLAND CLASSIC

September 14, 2022

Lucy Li

Columbia Edgewater Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello, everyone. Here with Lucy Li. Lucy, is this your first time at this event?

LUCY LI: Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: All right, you've been out there. I know you had a pro-am, had a practice round yesterday. Tell me what you've seen out there on the course and how excited are you to be here in Portland.

LUCY LI: Yeah, I'm super excited to be out here. The course is in really great shapes. The greens are running really fast. It's firming up, so it's playing a little bit differently from last week.

But yeah, I'm really excited. The course is beautiful. The course is tree-lined, and that style of course kind of reminds me of home, so just really excited to get started.

THE MODERATOR: Obviously you've clinched your LPGA card and you've been having a really successful run on the LPGA. How does that feel for you knowing you're not even an official member yet but you're still having so much success out here on the Tour?

LUCY LI: Yeah, it's really exciting. After locking up my card, just wanted to get out here and get myself ready for next year and not have too many expectations.

But being able to have played well, definitely a huge confidence boost for next year, and definitely getting to see some of the courses that we're going to play next year is also really good preparation.

THE MODERATOR: How do you manage those expectations for yourself? I know you want to win and play well every week, but not even being a member, being a rookie next year, how do you manage the stuff like this, all the things you have to do well and the expectations?

LUCY LI: Yeah, I think the way I see it is there's a difference between goals and expectations. I try to have goals, not expectations. When you have expectations, that means you expect to do something. I don't go out there expecting to do something, I try to do something, which is to play the best I can.

If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. That's just how I -- just what I've learned from being a professional, and just the importance of having fun when you're playing.

THE MODERATOR: I want to talk about AmazingCre a little bit. How did this sponsor invitation come about? Did you have any contacts with them or any pre-tournament conversations? How did you get the sponsor invite?

LUCY LI: Yeah, just like looking at the schedule, I knew that I just really liked Portland and there's good food here, so looking at some of the LPGA tournaments I wanted to get starts in, definitely Portland was high up on my list of tournaments I wanted to play in.

I think my agent, Jonathan, he knows the sponsors of the event, and so he hooked me up there. It was nice to be able to get an invite, and yeah, I'm really excited.

Q. (No microphone.)

LUCY LI: Well, right now it's just every week to play as well as I can, obviously. The goal is to win, but the goal is to every shot be able to do my -- execute my plan.

It's more about the thinking process more than the result, and that's every shot I hit.

Then more long-term goals is win, get my World Ranking up higher, and kind of out of reach, but maybe if I play well enough to kind of sneak on to that Solheim Cup team next year.

But again, it's just a goal, and if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.

Being able to be out here on the LPGA definitely gives me a little bit of a head start on that.

Q. (No microphone.)

LUCY LI: I guess it's not that different, honestly. I'm not a member, so I can't rank on the points list, so it's the same as in the past two years, and I've always had a pretty good experience. Even last year I had a couple of really good finishes starting the year at a lot of LPGA events.

It's just really about going out there and not treating it differently as a regular tournament. Just trying to do the best that I can.

Q. (No microphone.)

LUCY LI: Oh, definitely, for sure that is. But just knowing that I have my card -- like that's the reason why I'm playing out here, is I don't need to really be on the Epson anymore, so I just really want to get myself prepared for next year.

Because there's a transition from amateur golf to professional golf, and there's still a little bit of a transition from Epson to LPGA, so being able to be out here a little bit earlier, not having too many expectations, being able to play a little more freely.

I know a lot of the girls are still looking at next year and status, so I'm very fortunate to have had that locked up pretty early in the year, and so I'm very lucky to be able to play freely and kind of get that experience under my belt.

Q. What are you most looking forward to about being a rookie? Is there anything different than already what you're thinking now and experiencing now that you're looking forward to?

LUCY LI: Yeah, I'm just super excited to be able to play more of the majors. That's obviously number one. Seeing some of my friends out here, that's also very exciting. It's great to see a lot of my friends doing very well, actually, so I'm very excited to be on Tour full time with them and being able to compete with the best every week and seeing what I need to improve on, what I need to work on, and just super excited really for the whole year.

Q. (No microphone.)

LUCY LI: I feel like -- first of all, I think golf is one of those -- well, golf, like life, is a never-ending process of improving. You can always be better. The greens out here are a little bit faster than they are out on the Epson Tour, so that's definitely something I've got to adjust to a little bit, playing on faster greens.

But I kind of want to improve a little bit of each part of my game.