WOMEN'S AMATEUR ASIA-PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIP

March 8, 2023

Justice Bosio

Minsol Kim

Vanessa Richani

Press Conference

OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. We're delighted to welcome everyone to Singapore Island Country Club for the 2023 Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship. I am delighted to be joined by some of the stars of this week. We have Justice Bosio from Australia, Vanessa Richani from Lebanon, and Minsol Kim of Korea.

Girls, you've now played two practice rounds here this week. Are you feeling fully prepared for the championship? And what were your general thoughts of the course?

Justice, we'll start with you.

JUSTICE BOSIO: Yeah, I think I'm pretty prepared. The course is in spectacular condition and I'm really excited to play the week ahead. I'm a little bit scared of the monkeys, and we'll see if I get anything stolen this week. I have had my tees stolen out of my bag, but luckily I think it was a local who came and got them back for me. So I still have my tees.

But, yeah, the course is in great condition and I'm really excited to play.

VANESSA RICHANI: I could not agree more with the monkey situation. I was a little scared at first. But they're super friendly and like nice.

The course is playing really, really good. The greens are rolling pure. And I'm just excited to get out there tomorrow.

MINSOL KIM: This is my first time in Singapore and the first impression was the course looks really beautiful. And of course, I agree with the other players regarding the monkey situation, of course.

But for the two practice rounds I feel like I'm really on holiday. So the course condition is really awesome. The course is perfect. The greens are beautiful. But since the green is really undulated, so I have to be more focused on my iron game.

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take some questions.

Q. Justice, can you tell us a little bit more about that monkey episode, what hole it happened on? And when you say they took the keys, where were they, in a bag or just on the --

JUSTICE BOSIO: Yes, they took my tees, my golf tees. Sorry, I might not have said that well enough. It was on the 8th hole today, actually. We hadn't seen a monkey. We teed off first group, so we hadn't seen one yet, and then there was a heap of 'em on the 8th hole. It jumped into my other playing partner's golf cart and it didn't find anything good in there and then it came over to mine and didn't find anything good in the front and then went, and I think it clearly thought it was food because it was in like a packet, tried to rip it open but couldn't rip it open, and then went to grab the other one. Also couldn't rip that open, so I got 'em back. That's all that matters. I only had two packets, so I was like, please, don't take them. (Laughing.)

Q. My first question is to Justice. You played with Karrie Webb during the Australian Open, the first two rounds. Can you just tell me what kind of inspiration she has been for your career so far and how good was playing with her, what kind of motivation it has given you for the tournaments now and in the future.

JUSTICE BOSIO: Yeah, Karrie is an incredible role model for all Australian golfers and all golfers throughout the world. She has done incredibly for herself. And yeah, getting to play with her for those first two rounds of the tournament was really good. I just kind of picked her brain about a few things about Augusta and just anything that I could ask about, even just like if she knew a caddie for me to use for any tournaments and stuff like that.

But, yeah, she is an incredible role model and it was really, really good to play with her.

Q. Vanessa, I just wanted to know a little bit about golf in your country (Lebanon). We don't know too much about that. So can you just share a few things about golf in your country?

VANESSA RICHANI: Yeah. So golf is not really a big thing in Lebanon. It's growing. We've had three courses open, and then Covid happened and a lot of them got closed, so now it's just one course, in Beirut. We're trying to grow the game right now with having the Lebanese Golf Federation really push young women to start playing because it's more of like a male-dominated sport.

And I think it's going to keep growing. I think this is really good for them to see like someone that is Lebanese can go to these tournaments and they see that it's possible for them. So I'm just taking it all in and hopefully we can make it bigger in Lebanon after this.

Q. How did you get into the game?

VANESSA RICHANI: I actually got introduced by my dad and my brother. They first started playing, and then I think I was taking like dance class or something, and then I was just like, no, I don't want to do this. I want to play golf. So that's how I started.

Q. Minsol, there's many players that have entry to the LPGA Tour via the WAAP. You were in the top 10 at the BMW Ladies Championship last year. How close did WAAP bring you to your dream?

MINSOL KIM: This tournament, the WAAP, it's the tournament where all the best players from the Asia-Pacific region participate in and of course winner gets a lot of benefits, as you all know, but I just believe by playing and competing with those best players I can learn so many things and for my dreams and also I can follow their footsteps.

This is my second appearance this year, so I guess for, to my dream I can get two steps closer, maybe.

Q. Minsol, I was going to ask something on the similar lines, but the other question that I wanted to ask you was: In an interview I read you said about sharing a room with Jin-young Ko and asking her a lot of questions and getting a lot of advice from her. You know that she won last week here Singapore. Does that give you extra motivation for this week, that somebody was who you spent so much time with learning things has done so well over here in the last two years, actually?

MINSOL KIM: Not only I'm personally close to Jin-young Ko, but also she's the one I really respect and admire because not only she is one of the top players in the world, but also her effort and her attitude toward the golf that inspire me a lot during the winter training camp in Vietnam.

So that makes me practice harder and more focus on this game, especially while I prepare like iron game and, yeah, those things. So by watching her winning the last week I know how much she was struggling and things, so I almost cried.

Q. I read in your bio that you were at Long Beach, which is where Annika also started. Do you know Annika? Did you meet her here?

VANESSA RICHANI: No, I didn't know that.

Q. You didn't know that she was here or you didn't know that she was studying in Long Beach?

VANESSA RICHANI: I didn't know she was studying in Long Beach.

Q. Minsol, you played on the winning Queen Sirikit Cup team two weeks ago. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience, what you've been doing between then and now, and also your thoughts about you'll be going to Augusta at the end of this month.

MINSOL KIM: The first question about the Queen Sirikit Cup was, it was an exceptional experience because I played golf as a team back in Korea, but representing my country, it feels something different from what I expected.

So not only play by myself, play with my teammates, and we cheer each other. Even if I made a mistake, I strongly believe my teammates recover it. So that makes the team Korea won the Queen Sirikit Cup.

The Augusta National, the woman's amateur it's my first experience, so just can't express the feeling, but I'm very excited, and I'm so looking forward to visiting the Augusta National at the end of this month.

Q. Minsol, I read here that, mention that you talk with your parents a lot about your game and everything after a round. So I would like to ask, since like your relationship's actually quite close with your parents, how big of a role their support has been to your journey so far.

MINSOL KIM: My parents, of course, the biggest supporter to me to keep playing golf. Sometimes they try to make me not as parents, but as friends, so I don't usually talk much with my parents during the golf game. But today we were just a small talking regarding the monkey situation on the course. But the parents been with me, it feels and it gives me a lot of comfort.

Q. Justice, can you give us an idea, as a team, when you guys get together for a tournament like this where such incredible prizes are offered, a winner gets to get into three of the major championships, how much of part of discussion is that as a dream of all of you? How much do you talk about these kind of opportunities?

JUSTICE BOSIO: I don't know, we kind of go about it as we're all pretty calm, cool, and collected people, so I would say that we pretty much go about it pretty normally as much as everyone else would.

Obviously everyone would love to win and receive the opportunities that the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific is providing to all of us -- oh, well, to the winner. But I would just say that we just about it, do all the things that we do in every tournament, stick to the processes, and then hopefully that you come out on the top at the end of the week.

Q. This is the first time that Lebanon has competed here in the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific. Can you just describe to us the moment that you received your invite and how that felt for you?

VANESSA RICHANI: I was like, Wow, no words. I was just shocked. I got an e-mail, and my dad also, he got the e-mail from the Golf Federation in Lebanon, and, yeah, I almost, like I was crying. I was just calling my family, saying, Oh, my God, I made it into the tournament. This is just a dream come true.

And, yeah, I'm just taking it one day at a time and enjoying Singapore and the experience. It's just a dream come true.

Q. Is it what you expected so far to be here this week and obviously having the opportunity to play with and meet some of the best players from the Asia-Pacific region?

VANESSA RICHANI: Yeah, it's been everything and more. So I am very happy with the experience so far.

Q. Justice, this is your second time competing in the Women's Amateur Asia-Pacific. What did you learn from Thailand last year that you can bring into the championship this week?

JUSTICE BOSIO: I would probably say that I learned how to deal with heat a little bit better. It was obviously hot in Thailand and it's obviously hot here. And it never gets that hot in Australia. So I would say Thailand prepped me a little bit in the weather situation for this year.

But then also last year just I think I finished top-20, so for me that was just a bit of a personal gain, being able to know that against all these players I can still finish pretty well. Hopefully this year I can top that again.

OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Well ladies, thank you very much for joining us and we wish you the best of luck this week.