HANWHA LIFEPLUS INTERNATIONAL CROWN

May 7, 2023

Lexi Thompson

Nelly Korda

Lilia Vu

Danielle Kang

Harding Park

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with the United States team. I know not the result you wanted, but you played great this week. Evaluate the week overall.

LEXI THOMPSON: It's just been an amazing week. Anytime you can be able to tee up and represent your country, it's the highest honor you can possibly have, and to be alongside these girls, they've been amazing. We've had a lot of fun.

Today wasn't how we planned, but we did our best, and they played some great golf.

Q. What was the strategy as far as your pairings go, and will you try to continue that strategy for the consolation match?

DANIELLE KANG: Obviously we all can play with each other. I think the strategy comes down to -- I mean, Lilia, the singles, just throw out there, but the course is just really long for me, so I think the strategy is how we plan the even and odds and how we flip them. We can't reach par-5s with me part of it.

Even last hole, I probably hit it as far as I possibly did all week, and we barely got to the front --

NELLY KORDA: But we did.

DANIELLE KANG: We did, but I think that was the strategy on who wants to putt, who wants to hit, but how we're approaching the second shots in is how we've done this.

Q. Looking ahead, there's another team competition later this year in Spain. This is probably some of our U.S. Team at this juncture. You all seem like you had such a great time this week and got along really well in this dynamic. How excited does that make you for the Solheim Cup?

LILIA VU: I mean, Sweden played amazing yesterday. They're a really good team. I think that's going to be a hard test, and it'll show in Spain.

Q. Playing with these girls, it seemed like you got along well out there.

LILIA VU: It's been great. They've been really helpful, and to see their insight, and even early in the week they shared some of the stories from their past Solheim Cups, so it was really cool to see and hear.

Q. In all your matches you were 2-down through 5. How hard is it to fight uphill after a start like that in match play?

NELLY KORDA: I mean, you kind of just put your head down and tell yourself there's a lot of holes out there that you can win. The first five holes, there's three par-5s, so if you don't kind of take advantage of it and the opponents take advantage of those, then you are going to be 2, 3 or even 1-down.

After that, the course gets pretty tough. It is a tight golf course, and pars win sometimes, so you just kind of have to keep your head up and know that there are more opportunities out there.

I think we've done that pretty well this week, too.

Q. How do you think the team performed relative to expectations this week?

NELLY KORDA: Obviously it's a little disappointing not being -- can only speak for myself -- not being in the final, but I think we played well. Danielle and I shot 3-under in the alternate shot. That's tough to do.

The sisters just played super well today, and I think overall, even Lilia and I paired up the first three days, we had so much fun and we played solid golf, too. We wish some more putts would have dropped, but overall I think our performance has been pretty good.

It's a way for us to build hopefully going into Solheim, too.

Q. What was the difference do you think between you and Thailand today? Danielle mentioned the length. How much did that hurt you guys?

NELLY KORDA: Yeah, a little. They birdied the first -- they birdied the par-5s. I mean, right there and then -- were we 2-down or 3-down?

DANIELLE KANG: 2-down.

NELLY KORDA: 2-down, but overall I think we battled back, and we played really well. We still shot 3-under alternate shot. That's still a good score.

DANIELLE KANG: You still have to scramble and make pars and get up-and-downs because we're waiting for this stretch to come up. It's not an easy golf course after the first five holes.

NELLY KORDA: Overall I feel like if you shoot under par in alternate shot on a tough golf course like this, it's a good day.

Q. How significant was it for this event to be here? Obviously it's got a long history of men's events. To have a tournament like this on a course like this, how important was that?

LEXI THOMPSON: Well, it's been a spectacular venue for us, and I think it shows the women's game is moving in the right direction. We're getting to play some spectacular golf courses like this one. We're getting more and more fans each and every day, which we wanted to see, and the course is in great shape for us.

Everybody was working their butts off to get it in the best shape and the hospitality inside, for dining for us, we couldn't have asked for anything better.