HANWHA LIFEPLUS INTERNATIONAL CROWN

May 4, 2023

Minjee Lee

Hannah Green

Steph Kyriacou

Sarah Kemp

Harding Park

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by a victorious Team Australia. Great playing out there today. Kempy, I want to start with you. You said this event was on your bucket list, and after a big win today, I'm sure it just solidified that. Tell me about your day and how excited you are to get this first win in this team event for the first time.

SARAH KEMP: Very excited, yeah. I was just saying to Hannah before, I don't want to say -- I'm not surprised that this happened. We had a great time last night. We've had a great week. We're just all having a good time and it's just -- it doesn't surprise me that we did what we did today.

But yeah, for my first day of my first International Crown to start like this is pretty awesome.

Q. Hannah, what was it like playing with Kempy out there? You balked at being called underdogs and rightfully so.

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, no, it was super fun. Holed a putt on the first hole, and we had so many birdies out there. Obviously Korea played really well, too, so they made a comeback on the back nine.

But Kempy and I both played really solid when we needed to and helped each other out on the holes, so it was a really fun day today.

Q. Steph, another person making her first appearance in this team event. You came out swinging, man. That was a really solid start to your day. Just tell me about those first three holes and what was going through your mind, if the adrenaline was flowing or how you manage to open that strong.

STEPH KYRIACOU: Yeah, I was pretty nervous. I like hooked my tee shot basically in the trees left. Yeah, I think I was just kind of aggressive. I find I can play more aggressive like in match play when you have a teammate, so I kind of just rammed some of those putts at the start and they went in, which was good.

So, yeah, I kind of made the birdies the front nine and Minjee came in clutch on the back nine, which was very good.

Q. Minjee, that ham and egging out there was stuffed today. What did you all see out of each other's games that really gave you some confidence, or I guess how were you able to ham and egg it so well?

MINJEE LEE: Yeah, Steph came out pretty hot, three birdies in the first three holes, I guess. So yeah, I was just kind of making pars and she was making the birdies, and I just occasionally made some birdies when I had to.

Yeah, we came out victorious, so yeah, it was nice.

Q. I know the conditions were a little bit different than what we saw maybe in practice. How did you all adjust out there?

HANNAH GREEN: It was really soft. It was really gettable today. I thought it was good variety of like clubs in the hole. We had a lot of wedges in, but then once we switched around and got to the back nine we has a couple longer irons in and it was quite difficult.

Don't be surprised if it'll be lots of birdies the next few days.

Q. Both you and Thailand swept today. How important is a sweep of another team in pool play like this?

MINJEE LEE: I think because all the teams in our pool are really strong, just to come out on the first day and have a really good day, it really sets the pace for the next few days.

Yeah, I think it was really an important win for us today.

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I guess we can't really let our foot off the gas. We've got to prepare for tomorrow against Japan. They're probably not happy with the result so they're probably looking hard to win tomorrow, so I think we know what we've got to do, and hopefully we can do that.

Q. Does it take some pressure off going forward?

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I think so. Having two points on for today definitely helps, but I think we're all very comfortable on this golf course, so that obviously helps with the confidence.

Q. What in particular about the course are you comfortable with or makes a good fit for you?

STEPH KYRIACOU: I think it's kind of like Australian courses. Most American courses that we play, it's kind of wider off the tee, whereas this is quite narrow, so you have to be good off the tee and place yourself in the right spots. Back at home, that's pretty much like most courses.

Q. Steph, I wanted to ask about that shot there on 18 to stick it in there to close out the match. Talk about that shot, how far you had, and how good was it to see it land inside 10 feet?

STEPH KYRIACOU: Yeah, pretty good. I had 209 meters. I didn't watch In Gee's or Hye-Jin's shot because I didn't want it to get in my head, I guess.

But yeah, it was a pretty open shot, I guess. The pin was very gettable, so I just tried to whack the crap out of a 3-wood and --

SARAH KEMP: And it went to 10 feet.

STEPH KYRIACOU: No, less than that. (Laughter.)

Q. Was there any strategy to who was paired with who today, and will you carry any of that strategy into tomorrow?

SARAH KEMP: Yeah, on Tuesday's practice round we played a couple of games against each other and we figured that Steph and Hannah have more erratic scorecards, lots of birdies, a few doubles --

HANNAH GREEN: I'll take it. I had some doubles.

SARAH KEMP: You said that to me. It was determined that Minjee and I were more -- a little more -- I make a lot of pars. I definitely don't have a colorful scorecard. So we split those two. One of us was going to play with one of them.

MINJEE LEE: We kind of trialed it first for a few holes.

SARAH KEMP: And it worked because we're actually still undefeated, so you're still the only loser. We had to play the game each three holes on Tuesday. Actually I want to get this on record, so Steph lost and she's supposed to clean our shoes and she still hasn't.

STEPH KYRIACOU: This is actually Kempy saying this but me not agreeing to it.

SARAH KEMP: Did you not say that on Tuesday, that you would basically clean our shoes?

Q. When we look at these four-ball matches, I know some teams keep everybody together as they stood on the first day, and I'm not asking who you're paired with tomorrow, but how important is it to you guys to have everybody play with each other when it's in this four-ball setting?

MINJEE LEE: I don't think it's that important. We did well today, so yeah, I'm not giving it away, but I don't think it really needs to change if it's going well.

HANNAH GREEN: Yeah, I think we kind of discovered that we could all play together, but I think we're pretty happy with obviously the result today, so we'll just keep trying to play our best golf.