WOMEN'S AMATEUR ASIA-PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIP

March 5, 2025

Chuc An Le

Gia An

Anna Le

Arena Tran

Press Conference

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OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2025 Women's Amateur Asia Pacific Championship here at the wonderful Hoiana Shores Golf Club, which is a Top 100 golf course worldwide.

Today I'm delighted to be joined by some of your young stars competing this week. From our host nation Vietnam I would like to introduce you to Chuc An Le, Gia Han, Anna Le, and Arena Tran.

For today's press conference we will begin with questions from the Vietnamese media and switch to English questions at the end.

Q. Welcome to seventh WAAP. I have a question to Anna. Yes, so impressing, I heard you study in South Korea. Please tell me your story about South Korea life or what is your next step in South Korea?

ANNA LE: Sorry, can you repeat?

Q. You study in South Korea, right? That's so interesting to me. Please tell me your story about South Korean life.

ANNA LE: It was amazing. I met a lot of friends from South Korea. I was joining academy and learning some new place and new friends and how they practice every day. I was playing at Korean Golf University. It was a great school for university students. I met a lot of teacher and mostly they taught me about skills and how I could maybe play better.

Thank you.

Q. I'm amazed you speak very good English. You went to Korea to learn golf and you also learned English?

ANNA LE: No. I actually learn at the American school. It was online.

Q. You learned English online?

ANNA LE: Yes.

Q. Wow. Fantastic.

ANNA LE: Thank you.

Q. Two questions for all of you. Number one, can tell me your favorite hole on the golf course and number two can you tell me who your favorite golfer is on the LPGA Tour.

CHUC AN: For me my favorite hole is hole nine, so today and yesterday when I play hole nine it's downwind, so it's a really easy drive and I drove it 300 yards today and yesterday.

So it's only like 100 yards left approaching shot so that's my favorite hole.

And my favorite player on the LPGA Tour is Nelly Korda. So you know she's been on world number one for a really long time already. She wins a lot of majors last year and the way she plays, she's very calm on the golf course. How she manages the golf course.

How her mentality on the golf course is also. Yeah.

GIA HAN: For me it's hole No. 15 because it is near the beach there so it has a really nice view. And my favorite player, I have two favorite players. They are Nelly Korda and Jeeno Thitikul. I like Nelly because she has good swing and she won a lot of tournaments last year. And for Jeeno, I like her because she is still young but she won a lot of LPGA and LET events. That's why I like them.

ANNA LE: For me, I would go with hole 18. It was a perfect Par-5 and a big, large screen that I could see. Mostly, favorite part is where I could see all of the hotel, the course, like bunkers. There are many bunkers challenging. And most favorite I want to see is the clubhouse. It was peaceful.

I love Lydia Ko. She was the most golfer that I love for a very long time. I watch her golf life since I was seven to now. She been a great girl and woman. She get up on her feet very quickly. I love her a lot.

ARENA TRAN: So my favorite hole is hole 16 because it's a really short par-4 and you can see the beautiful view on your right. My favorite player in the LPGA is Minjee Lee. Everything I was about seven or eight she would come to Melbourne occasionally to play some tournaments, is and when I watched her she just really inspired me and the way she played just really -- it just -- just like the way she played really inspired me and everything.

Just made me realize how your favorite players can really help you achieve your goals.

Q. So two-part question. One, before this week each of you, how many times have you played this course? Second, for those who have not played the links course, what kind of tips do you have for them even the fact this course is known as the links of Asia?

CHUC AN: So we been here for -- we been here since last week so it's been more than a week now. Played like four rounds last week, so we got to get used to the course and the weather; although the weather last week was a little bit better than this week because it's less windy. But still we get to know the course conditions and course management and stuff like that.

So for tips I think it gets really windy in the afternoon as you can see. I think the ball striking is most important thing; the course management. You have to know where should you land the ball on the green because the green is really slopey. And also the fairway, you have to lay it on the good spot. The fairways are hard so you don't get to -- like it rolls to anywhere bad.

GIA AN: Last week I played four rounds here. I think this course is quite challenging. My tip for playing at the links course is trajectory of the ball. I think that's the most important thing to play at the links course.

ANNA LE: So I've been here -- I played like around five rounds, and the first day I went here was raining a lot and a lot of wind is going around. But I think it was better and probably the tournament will be much better.

My advice for links course, just follow the winds.

ARENA TRAN: So I came a little bit later than the team, so I only played two times, which was yesterday and today. My advice for playing this course is you should really understand the wind because it does control the ball a lot.

OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Ladies, thank you very much for your time today. That has been very impressive. I know you were all nervous but did a wonderful job. We wish you the best of luck this week.

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