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MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLA

June 9, 2004

Grace Park

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

Q. All right, welcome, Grace, back to a place where you had a very good tournament last year and you're playing great golf this year. Can you just give us a few comments about your game coming into this week and how you feel to be back here?

GRACE PARK: Obviously, this year has been the best year for me yet, but I feel like since winning Kraft Nabisco, I've kind of slowed down, and I think it is finally time for me to step up again, and I'm hoping that this is the week to do it.

Q. What about being back here at DuPont?

GRACE PARK: I've always loved coming back to DuPont, especially more now since my experience here last year, finishing second here last year makes me want to win this more. Winning the first major of the year makes me crave my second major. I really want to do it.

Q. Do you have a goal of winning all four majors this year; is that a goal?

GRACE PARK: I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself. Obviously, my goal this year was to win one major championship, and after winning the first major, I changed it to winning two major championships, and if I'm fortunate to win this one, I'll switch it to three and go from there.

Q. Is it just natural if you win that first one, that maybe your game goes back a little bit because coming off that it's tough to keep that going?

GRACE PARK: I said slow down or went back, meaning that I couldn't win again. I finished second several times since then. My worst finish this year is like tied for 18th or something like that. I haven't played all that badly. I just haven't played as well as I would have liked, that I know I'm capable of doing or playing.

Q. Grace, did your experience here last year help you win Nabisco?

GRACE PARK: Honestly, no. The only thing I learned from my experience here last year was that when I get into that situation again, I wasn't going to let go. I was going to crave it more, and I was going to be the one that ended up grabbing that controversy.

Q. Phil Mickelson has said that winning that first major, he thinks it may make it easier for him to win more. Do you feel the same way?

GRACE PARK: I think it's a little different for Phil and I. I'm still a young 25 year old as to Phil, who has accomplished so much more on the PGA Tour. It is a huge relief that I got my first win, but sometimes they say it's easier to get the first and harder to get the second win.

Q. You said last year that nobody remembers who finishes second.

GRACE PARK: You remembered.

Q. Does anyone else? No. Do you think now though that people might remember you finishing second as somewhat of a launching pad?

GRACE PARK: I think that's what a lot of people say about it, and you guys know because you were sitting right there.

Q. We were in the next room, I think.

GRACE PARK: I think it's just it was a good experience for me. In order to win, I needed to experience a lot of losses and, you know, tough losses, and just, you know, the more if I get myself in that contention, I'm going to win, I'm going to win sometime. I can't lose all the time.

Q. Grace, how have things changed for you since the Kraft Nabisco, not only in terms of people recognizing you a little bit more, but in terms of your own confidence?

GRACE PARK: Nothing really. It's true that a lot of people acknowledge me more and congratulate me, even to this day, winning my first major, but within myself, nothing. I can say I have a little more belief in myself, but the golf ball is gone. My golf shots are gone. It's a new week every week, and I start fresh every week. That's my goal to start from fresh.

Q. Grace, can you go over why you first came to America and what your life was like as a kid over here? And also, did you also go back? You did you go back to Korea and get your degree there?

GRACE PARK: I did.

Q. Talk about why you did that.

GRACE PARK: I moved to The States when I was 12 years old, solely to learn golf and go to school, learn English, and get good education, and have good opportunities to play golf. And I started playing junior tournaments. Things led to one another. I went to college, went to Arizona State, number one woman's program. Finished there, went on, and here I am.

After being in college for two years, after

winning I don't want to sound cocky but pretty much everything you can win as an amateur golfer, but I wanted to face new challenges and, obviously, the next challenge was the professional circuit. I left ASU after two years, and the university top university in Korea offered me, like, a distance learning type schooling.

Q. Correspondence?

GRACE PARK: Yeah, correspondence, so I can finish getting my degree, although it was different, because I was majoring in communication, but it turned out different.

Q. When you came at 12, were you on your own? Were your parents here?

GRACE PARK: I had relatives living in Hawaii at the time, and my older sister moved to Hawaii due to illness when she was younger, she was already living there. I lived with my relatives for a ^couple ^ custom of years until moving to Phoenix to make the travel to tournaments easier and more golf opportunities. I lived with my family my parents found a host family for me to take care of me for six months, and then I went pretty much on my own, and my parents just mom and dad came back and forth to support me.

Q. On your own, what do you mean? How old were you when were on your own?

GRACE PARK: 14, 15.

Q. So one parent would come stay with you and swap out?

GRACE PARK: Yeah.

Q. The family you stayed with for six months, were they America or Korean?

GRACE PARK: They were Korean.

Q. In Phoenix?

GRACE PARK: Actually, my parents found them in Florida and moved them to Phoenix.

Q. What did you major in?

GRACE PARK: Sports and society type. There is nothing here in The States that but it's pretty much sports in society.

Q. So, we can make up whatever we want. Sports sociology?

GRACE PARK: Sports sociology.

Q. Grace, what kind of memories do you have from last year? Are they good ones or frustrating ones? What do you take from that?

GRACE PARK: It was just a learning experience for me, good and bad, easy and tough.

Q. Do you ever think about the one shot here or there?

GRACE PARK: So many times. In fact, I played the back side on Monday and hit a 3 wood, and I could have sworn I was on the exact same spot that I was on that playoff hole with the 4 iron, I moved it uphill. I was hitting punch shots all day long because we had so much rain. I said, "What the heck was I thinking trying to hit this hard and full?" I got too greedy.

Q. Grace, you have said that the first ^couple ^ custom of years out here you were not very happy, you were sort of almost miserable. What is it that sort of got you kicked into moving toward this goal of being number one?

GRACE PARK: Just maturing, I think, just aging, just realizing. Again, I mean, I struggled so much for that first ^couple ^ custom of years, and I wasn't the person I had always been. I was the winner. I was always a hard worker, always wanting to win. I just never had that crave, and I just it just clicked.

Q. Was there an event or an incident or something like that?

GRACE PARK: As I said, I think it was just maturing and aging.

Q. Kind of along those lines, after the great amateur career you talked about, has it taken you longer than you would have thought back then to get where you are now?

GRACE PARK: Yes, but I'm, in a way, glad it happened so early in my professional career instead of having that slump, mental disaster in the middle of my career. I got it out of the way. I know how it feels to play horrible and be miserable. I don't want to go back to that stage again, so I'm happier now and I work harder.

Overall, it becomes that much better and I know that now. And I appreciate it more.

Q. A couple years ago, even last year, the number one, did number one seem that attainable because of where Annika was, and how does it look now?

GRACE PARK: I said last year, I started speaking out loudly that my goal is to become number one player. I said I don't care if it takes me one year, two year, five years, I'm going to work until I get there.

I don't know if I can beat Annika this year. It's still my goal. She's so far ahead of everyone, I'll admit, her ability, her accomplishment, and everything. My goal is to not only catch her, but to get my game higher and better, and so that I can be number one.

Q. Grace, when going are there some specific things about this course in particular that either you enjoy or poses specific challenges to your game?

GRACE PARK: Because I'm a pretty good I'm a very good ball striker, fairly long, high ball striker, and last year, and again this year, the fairways are soft because there is so much rain, so the course is going to play longer, which is an advantage for me. The rough is thicker.

I think I hope that my strength will play to its advantage. Even around the greens, with all this long rough, if you're not strong enough, you're not going to get out of there. Hopefully it will help me.

Q. Grace, when you were going through those tough times did you ever see the light at the end, or did you think, "I'm struck here forever"?

GRACE PARK: I thought I was stuck there forever, but then time just passed by, the season ended, and I started with a new teacher, with a new trainer, you know, with new one thing that helped me was that after the second year, I took about a month off for the first time ever since I started playing, just took my clubs away and never saw them, and after a month, I came back in Korea, and I came back to Phoenix, and I said, "I'm actually excited to get back to work again, to practice and make my swing better." I had never felt that way in the past. I never got excited to practice and get my swing better.

Q. Grace, there are no official world rankings in the women's tour. In your mind, if you had rankings, where would you rank yourself?

GRACE PARK: We'll wait until it comes. Two, right now, and hopefully it will go up.

Q. Are you looking forward to them coming out next year?

GRACE PARK: Sure. I don't look at statistics or I don't look at the rankings as much. I don't even know who is on the top ten list this year.

Q. There is none this year.

GRACE PARK: I mean on our LPGA, the money list.

Q. You're two.

GRACE PARK: Yeah, I just know that there is one person ahead of me.

Q. Back home, are you revered? Is it difficult for you to get around at home?

GRACE PARK: Not very much. Well, I have to admit that more people recognize me, when I went back about a month ago to play an event, just walking outside my house or neighborhood or whatever, people recognized me more, but I don't I keep it to myself, and I think people know that and I don't get bothered. If they do, I smile and say thank you or hello. I just move on. I don't get too into it.

Q. Is Se Ri still

GRACE PARK: She's much bigger. She even hires bodyguards to go with her.

Q. You're not at that level yet?

GRACE PARK: No, I'm my own bodyguard.

Q. Is that something you would look ^1off the record ^ forward to, to having that sort of exalted status?

GRACE PARK: Bodyguards, no.

Q. In terms of popularity?

GRACE PARK: I think it will come as I play better. That visibility is not something that I enjoy or I crave, but I'm willing to take it and, hopefully, learn to deal with it well.

Q. With the way the Player of the Year standings is in the LPGA Tour, would you alter your schedule if that's at stake?

GRACE PARK: I think so. I think so. Or I will, I should say. Definitely, it's my goal to be number one, and if I have that chance to earn that title, I will do whatever is in my own power to earn that. If it means playing one more tournament to squeeze in another week, I'll do it.

Q. When you talked about taking that one month off completely away from the game, what time of year was that?

GRACE PARK: December.

Q. And were you in Korea?

GRACE PARK: I went back to Korea and I just

Q. What year are we talking about, by the way?

GRACE PARK: End of 2001.

Q. And what did you do?

GRACE PARK: Went skiing, and I didn't go skiing for about four years prior to that because I wanted to prepare myself for professional and didn't want to risk injury. I did all the right things, and I still got injured on the golf course and couldn't play. I said, I'm going to live my life, went out, went skiing and went out. I was just away from golf. I was away from "grass." It was actually honestly nice to come back to Phoenix, and I was excited to come back to Phoenix and looked ^1off the record ^ forward to my new teacher and everything.

Q. How did you get stuck with or I mean how did you pick Kostis for a coach?

GRACE PARK: Toward the end of 2001 I started looking for new teachers. I went to two or three different teachers and had a ^couple ^ custom of lessons with each of them, and just including Peter, and just liked his teaching and liked the way I mean, just his style. He's very simple, not too mechanical, and I said this many times, the first lesson, one of his first words were that "I'm going to teach you to become your own best teacher." He even actually just said it about an hour ago when he came out here. That phrase really caught my attention.

Q. Anything else for Grace? All right. Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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