LOTTE CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY HOAKALEI

November 4, 2024

Angela Stanford

Hoakalei Country Club

Press Conference

Q. All right, Angela, if people are watching your social media and following your year in general, this is potentially your last full-time event as an LPGA Tour professional. You just had what you called yourself a senior moment. What happened? What's it been like getting ready for LOTTE and what happened to you?

ANGELA STANFORD: Well, I literally like finished my round today, sitting through lunch I'm like, I'm going to go practice my putting. Won't be that many people out here. I get my bags up out of the locker room. I mean, it's a solid -- I don't know how many yards that is, like 500 yards plus stairs.

Get my balls, get my marker, get my headphones. I got everything. Get out there and I don't have a putter. I'm like, I think it's time. It's a senior moment. It's time to exit to the Senior Tour. It's time. Like you need those things to push you over.

Q. You've had kind of a prolonged good-bye almost throughout this entire year. You made it clear kind of at the beginning of the year that this could be the last one for you. You had some incredible moments, especially at the Evian. What's it been like having a prolonged -- I don't want to say good-bye because you're not going away a -- but just a good-bye from the LPGA Tour?

ANGELA STANFORD: It's been good for me I think just being able to express my gratitude along the way. I knew I didn't want to be that person that just retired and never said anything; but also knew I maybe wasn't the person that needed the grand see-you-later kind of exit.

For me it was important to show people how thankful I've been -- and even this week, like just how grateful I've been for this career.

I think I need that, you know. That's why I said if people are following along on my social media, skip right through it if you don't want to see it. It's fine.

But it's like I needed to kind of get it out there and just let people know how much it's meant to me. I wasn't highly recruited. I wasn't highly touted. I was kind of always overlooked and kind of always the underdog. But that didn't mean that it didn't matter.

Like all this has mattered to me. I think, you know, it's been good for me emotionally and mentally just to kind of -- but I'm also to the point where I'm like, I'm ready for it to be over.

It's so emotional. Like I think part of forgetting my putter coming down here is just so -- there is so much going on in my mind. You're trying to enjoy it. You're trying to embrace it. At the same time you're still trying to play good.

Q. Yeah. Have you thought about what you might miss the most out here, without getting -- I know.

ANGELA STANFORD: I think in between the ropes. I think when they announce your name. For 24 years I've been able to go to a different place and a different level, and just that feeling of competing.

I'll miss the people. I think the locker room. Locker room is one ever my favorite places. I think it's a place for players to go to just be themselves. They don't have to worry about who is in there except players.

I'm going to miss that. I grew up playing different sports, so the locker room and the competition, all that is really, really what I'm going to miss.

Q. You said it on social media and I know you're thinking about it a tiny bit. There is still a chance at Pelican, too. I know you and how competitive you are. You're still going for it. What does that mean to you, too, to just continue to have that drive even though this could potentially be your last one?

ANGELA STANFORD: I think it's a gift. I think it's God's way of saying, this is what you've always wanted; this is your passion; chase something.

It's also for my friend Kristy McPherson. Literally she's the main reason I'm really, really trying. I asked her a long time ago to caddie for me and then I signed up for Pelican and I was a reserve. I was like, what? Because I don't understand how the priority list works.

So, yeah, so when I asked Kristy to caddie for me I mean, she was my best friend out here. I thought it would be a cool ending for her to get to caddie for me.

I need to play well.

Q. And then recently Brittany recognizing that Pelican will be the time she steps away from full time. I know we'll probably see her a couple times. In general, what does it mean? You shared obviously many seasons with her and also shared a Solheim Cup with her as assistant captain.

ANGELA STANFORD: Yeah, Bam is one of those personalities that just kind of took the Tour to another level. She's a great player. I think she was one of the first ones -- I remember playing with her in Canada like in 2005 in a practice round. She just bombed it. At the time I had never seen a girl do that at her age being so young.

So just watching her mature and grow up and become a mom and win majors and win tournaments and get married, you know, if you're out here long enough you see people's lives.

Q. Yeah.

ANGELA STANFORD: You see a majority of their lives. Very happy for her that she got to that point. I understand that getting to that point is really hard.

Really happy for her.

Q. And also just with it being Hawai'i, I mean, just in general what a way to potentially have your last event in paradise.

ANGELA STANFORD: Yeah. At first I was kind of like, dang. None of my friends -- I'm going to have a friend come over, but none of my friends could really make it.

But the closer and closer it got the more right it felt. My mother obviously loved it here. You know, just it is paradise. It has a way of just making you forget about every thing.

So I feel really lucky if this is it.