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KIA CLASSIC PRESENTED BY J GOLFMarch 25, 2010Na On MinCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA HEATHER DALY-DONOFRIO: Welcome Na On Min on your bogey-free round of 66 today. Can you just talk a little bit about your round and how you felt out there being your first tournament back for the year? NA ON MIN: Yeah, I mean, I feel pretty good and as soon as I make the long putt on No. 4, I think, after that I got my putter feel, too, so I made couple of putts, birdie, and I saved some pars, too. It was nothing too -- I mean, I'm not complaining, it was happy, yeah. Q. Do you know how long your putt was on 4 that got you rolling? NA ON MIN: It was about 15 meters, so pretty long. And, yeah, made it and feels really good, and then I make, like, couple of 7 or 8 meters, so I felt pretty good on my putting today. It was the best thing. Q. Have you been working a lot on the off-season, anything in particular? Being your first tournament back it's been a while since you played a tournament, can you talk about your preparation? NA ON MIN: I injured my wrist so I had to rest for four months, since June. I tried to start working on my game, like, about four months ago. Then I tried to fix my swing a little bit and working on short game, like everybody does, and it was pretty good. Weather hasn't been good in Orlando, but, still, pretty good because the work makes today good. Q. How do you feel being from South Korea that this event is sponsored by Korea and presented by J Golf all in the same week? NA ON MIN: I'm just so proud of it. I was so proud being Korean, this week. Whole week I kept saying this is my country's company, everybody, yeah, so that was -- it was nice. I hope it's going to be continued, yeah. Q. Can you tell us about your wrist injury? NA ON MIN: I practice, like, hard ground, so many balls on the hard ground, and it takes a little -- my wrist and my thumb was not that good, so I couldn't hit the ball, so I take year off. Q. During the four months you took off, were you able to play and hit at all? NA ON MIN: No, I haven't. I went to just hospital for doing this back to normal so I haven't hit any balls for four months. Q. What did you do during those four months? Did you go to the gym? NA ON MIN: Yeah, to the gym every day, some more, more than normal, maybe two times a day, maybe, yeah, it was pretty boring. I missed tournament, so I came out this week, I mean, I'm good, I like it. Q. Just to be clear, you stopped playing last June? NA ON MIN: Actually end of May. Q. End of May. So then you go June, July, August, September off? NA ON MIN: Yeah. Q. And then in September or October you started hitting balls again? NA ON MIN: Yeah, about September, end of September I start to hitting balls again, yeah. Q. How much work was it to get back to feeling comfortable? NA ON MIN: Well, it wasn't that bad because during that four months when I didn't play, I tried to make my body, my shape better, tried to make stronger, so I can practice more to get back. So it was okay, yeah. I had four months off like that, I think that was more better to -- in my golf, in my golf life, maybe, I can think about some things, yeah. Q. Before your long break, how long had it been since you took four months off from playing golf? NA ON MIN: How long? Say again, please. Q. Before you had to take the four months off for your wrist, how long had it been since you had taken four months off from playing golf? Was it when you were a kid? NA ON MIN: Oh, no, no, ever. Maybe I had month off, after the season, but not four months, yeah. First time, yeah. Q. And when did you start playing, at what age? NA ON MIN: Twelve, I start, yeah. Q. Did you miss it? Did you miss playing tournaments? NA ON MIN: Yes, a lot. Q. Did you watch it on TV? NA ON MIN: Yeah, I watch TV and talked to my friends, I so missed it. I couldn't wait. Q. The time you spent off was that all in Orlando? NA ON MIN: Yeah, it was, yeah. Q. Is your wrist okay now? Do you have any pain at all now? NA ON MIN: It's not 100% but, yeah, I'm fine to play golf so, yeah, that's okay. When I hit so many balls, like so many practice, which I'm not trying to do so, yeah, but I'm okay now, yeah. Q. Do you think that part of playing well today was that you are fresh? Maybe both mentally and physically? NA ON MIN: I think so, too, yeah. Maybe some good -- I knew I missed a tournament, like when I play in a row, just every -- go this week, okay, this week is there, and next week and next week and since I don't play, I knew I missed it, so that helped me a lot. Q. Were you nervous this morning when you first got here? NA ON MIN: I think so, yeah, first tee, yeah, I was nervous, but maybe second hole was fine, yeah. Q. 6-under seems like an impressive score on this golf course. When you played it in the practice rounds did you think this low of a score was out there for you? NA ON MIN: Not actually, but I tried to not think about my score today. I tried to just focus on what I do right now, so each of my shots. So, it helped me because -- yeah. If I tried to keep -- shoot real low score, this course doesn't take it. Q. Is it surprising to you? I think your career low is a 65, so six months since is you played in a last tournament. NA ON MIN: Yeah, surprised. I thought -- I didn't think about 6-under on this golf course, yeah. Q. During your time off these last few months, did you play in any unofficial events or anything that kept your competitive -- NA ON MIN: I played few before I come here, some course tournaments in Florida, I had a few, four or five to get my feel back, yeah. Q. How did you do in those tournaments? NA ON MIN: Played pretty good, yeah, so that helped me, too, to get into tournament and play it, yeah, that helped me. Q. This is a new course for everybody. What are your impressions of La Costa? NA ON MIN: I mean it's just great shape now. Nice golf course to be competitive on. Doesn't take any -- small greens, so it doesn't take a misshot, even like later, so really good golf course to play in the tournament. Q. You must have hit your irons well? NA ON MIN: Yeah. Q. To win here you're going to have to hit your irons well, right? NA ON MIN: Yeah. Q. Because of the small greens? NA ON MIN: Yeah, yeah. Q. Have you ever led an LPGA event after a first round? NA ON MIN: What? Q. Have you ever led an LPGA event? NA ON MIN: Yeah, I was in my rookie year -- not first round, actually, I think, I think not first round, but like my rookie year after third round on LPGA Championship I was leading. Q. How did that go in the last round? NA ON MIN: I finished third. It was pretty good for my first major. Q. That was your first major? NA ON MIN: Yeah. Q. That is good. Talk about that experience at the LPGA Championship. You were 18, you came out of nowhere and you played seven professional events. NA ON MIN: Yeah. Q. You shocked a lot of people that weekend. NA ON MIN: Well, it's a lot different between now and there. Right now feels I'm more grown up since then, I'm 18. But at that tournament I didn't know anything, nothing to be afraid of. So I hit it, but right now it's different. Yeah, that tournament was really good memory for me, yeah, really. Q. Can you do this again tomorrow? NA ON MIN: Trying to, yeah. Work hard. HEATHER DALY-DONOFRIO: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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