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KIA CLASSICMarch 21, 2012Kraig KannTom LovelessMichelle Wie WestCARLSBAD, CALIFORNIA KRAIG KANN: First off, thank you all for coming here today and being a part of this press conference. We couldn't ask for better weather and it has delivered. So, very pleased to be here at La Costa Resort and Spa. My name is Kraig Kann, I am the chief communications officer for the LPGA. Proud to be here in partnership with the folks from Kia, and the third annual Kia Classic, which is one of our highlight events on the LPGA Tour schedule. So thrilled to be here. Got some special folks up here, one who certainly needs no introduction and is the focus of this today, and we'll get to her in just a second. But let me make a few introductions. First off, Tom Loveless is the vice President of sales for Kia Motors America, right here to my far left. George Brown is to my immediate left, he is the executive director Camp Pendleton ASYMCA. So let's give them a nice round of applause. We are here to talk about a charitable donation that can make a big difference, And we've got a player here to my left, sandwiched in the middle, who knows a lot about making a difference. Two‑time winner on the LPGA, one of the most accomplished players at a very young age in golf and now a professional, and I use that term in every sense of the word. One of the true professionals in the women's game and a role model to many who does and says many of the right things, and I'll also throw out about to graduate from Stanford and a communications major. So if the microphone falls out of my hand, she can take over now, so it will all work out just great. Michelle Wie, ladies and gentlemen. We've got a couple of announcements. One that's going to generate a lot of interest, and then we'll have some interviews at the very end. I'll ask Michelle some questions, but there will be some time at the end of this press conference for some one‑on‑one interviews. So without further ado, one of the world's fastest growing automotive brands and the representative who is here, Tom Loveless, take it away. TOM LOVELESS: Thank you for joining us this afternoon. As Kraig mentioned, my name's Tom Loveless, and I'm vice president of sales at Kia Motors America. And we are delighted to be back here at La Costa for the Third Annual Kia Classic. As Kraig mentioned, we are the fastest growing car brand in the United States and one of the reasons for our ongoing success has been some high profile sports marketing initiatives, such as our involvement with the LPGA. Another additional component to that relationship has been our partnership with Michelle over the last couple of years. One of the most recognizable athletes in the world. But Michelle's not your typical spokesperson. For the last few years she has driven a Soul in addition to graduating from Stanford. KRAIG KANN: How fast? MICHELLE WIE: It was pretty fast. I got myself in trouble. TOM LOVELESS: So at the risk of repeating Kraig's comments, I would like to congratulate you on your graduation from Stanford. Now, many of you may remember that Michelle appeared in a TV commercial that demonstrated how she and the Kia soul really stood out from the crowd. Remember that? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah. TOM LOVELESS: Okay, well, we're happy that Michelle is back, and she's starring in a new spot that we have titled Clay Pigeons. It shares that same sense of humor, and we have the opportunity to take a look here today on the monitors. So can we take a look? [ VIDEO PLAYING ] TOM LOVELESS: Nicely done. Some good stuff. I'd like to change gears, if I could. Kia Motors America is a Southern California based company, and we are deeply committed to supporting organizations that provide assistance to the local community. That's why, along with Michelle, we felt the best graduation gift we could possibly give would be to support youth education for the families of the men and women who serve our local community and our country. Now, here in the San Diego area, the Operation Hero program run by the Camp Pendleton Armed Services YMCA, provides free tutoring and counseling to more than 375 children that live on base. Amazing work. Michelle, would you care to add your two cents here, if I may? MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Tom. I'm absolutely thrilled to be here today to contribute to Operation Hero. Obviously, like you said, it provides free tutoring and mentoring for children whose families have sacrificed so much for our country. As you all know, I'm a big fan, a big advocate of youth education empowerment, and I could not think of a more worthwhile organization to assist. As Kia's golf ambassador, I'm so proud to represent a company who also believes in my beliefs, and that supports organizations that provide valuable assistance to young people and military families. It means so much to me, and it's the best graduation gift ever. Thank you. TOM LOVELESS: You're quite welcome. With that, George, would you care to say a word or two? KRAIG KANN: I'm going to give him the microphone right now. Yeah, I was looking for the check. GEORGE BROWN: Thank you very much for having us out here today, and congratulations on your graduation from Stanford. Wow, that's impressive. I also wanted to thank many of our families and our children from Operation Hero that came out today, so thank you for coming, and I really appreciate it. Michelle, for you also personally and also for Kia, thank you for your very generous donation. Operation Hero was started back in 1995. It provides education, tutoring, and mentoring to help a lot of the children who are undergoing a lot of the hardships of moves and deployments with a lot of the skills to be successful, not only in the home, but also in the classroom. It's a phenomenal program. It's one of our strongest programs, and most important. I consider it critical. So for myself, for my board, and for my staff and also for all of these young ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your generosity and also to Kia. On behalf of the Armed Services YMCA here at Camp Pendleton, for both Kia and also Michelle, thank you very much for this generous donation. It will take us a long time to be able to use it all for this program. It will be many, many months, probably a year before we'll be able to use all of this. So thank you very much. TOM LOVELESS: We know it will be put to good use. Our pleasure. KRAIG KANN: Thank you very much. Let's ask Michelle a few questions. By the way, graduation is exactly what day? MICHELLE WIE: June 17th. KRAIG KANN: But you're actually going to wrap up school? When is the final day for you, like, done with classes? MICHELLE WIE: Last week was done with classes. KRAIG KANN: That's it. A's on all the finals? MICHELLE WIE: I hope so. KRAIG KANN: We don't know that for sure yet? MICHELLE WIE: No, we don't. KRAIG KANN: Okay, but I think it's all going to be good. For everybody's purposes here, a phenomenal student who has accomplished a lot in golf and obviously gone to school and continued to play on the LPGA. What you don't know is that last night we had a big photo shoot, a video shoot. I'm just going to bring up a little bit about it. The Golf Channel and the LPGA teamed up for a big profile shoot. We're working on it again today with several of the top LPGA players, showcasing their personalities and their brands as we promote the players. Michelle actually played the role of Professor, not student last night, right? You want to share a little? Because they're going to see it on the Golf Channel anyway, so you might as well give them a little bit of a taste. MICHELLE WIE: Well, they gave me a chalk board and they said say you have a Ph.D. degree and you're Professor Wie. And I stopped them right there, and I said, no, please call me Dr.Wie, as I learned from my dad. But they gave me a chalk board and it was a lot of fun. You always see teachers and they underline things, right? And you always want to do it. So it was so much fun to get a chalkboard and underline things. It was a lot of fun. KRAIG KANN: She did a great job. There is a little dancing involved as well and some costumes. So tune into the Golf Channel and you'll see these spots throughout the year. Now let's talk about the donation specifically, and what it means. You're involved in a lot of different things professionally and personally, what's this mean to you? MICHELLE WIE: This means so much personally to me. Obviously, like I said, I'm a huge advocate for youth education empowerment, and this is exactly it. What you guys do, mentoring kids and providing these programs for them that I don't think they can get anywhere else. I mean, it's priceless. I'm so happy to do this. KRAIG KANN: They're very appreciative, everybody is as well. Want to ask you a couple questions about the event specifically. You look around. We have beautiful weather, a fantastic golf course. To be at La Costa for the LPGA is terrific. I know the PGA TOUR has been here before. What's this event mean to you? MICHELLE WIE: It means so much to me. As Kia's golf ambassador, I'm so proud coming to this event and seeing my Soul everywhere. It kind of makes me miss it a little bit. But, you know, just kind of looking around, La Costa has been awesome. A new golf course or new nine holes. It's been amazing. And it's always good to come back to California and just seeing the logo everywhere makes me feel right at home. So hopefully this week I can really show what I've got and bring home the cup. KRAIG KANN: Tom, we are thrilled at the LPGA to partner with Kia on this event. This is the third year, the annual, and hoping for many more years to come as we look for partners that we can work with as the LPGA continues to climb. We're thrilled. Thank you very much for all that you've done. I'd love to ask you about that and your relationship with the LPGA and players like Michelle? TOM LOVELESS: Well, our relationship with the LPGA is, of course, it's growing, right. And we're certainly the official sponsor of the Kia Classic, but we're the official vehicle of eight tournaments, eight LPGA tournaments throughout the year, the official vehicle and the like, and we have an ongoing and growing relationship with the LPGA. I think it's good for all involved, and that's what true partnership is all about. As for Michelle, we're delighted to be associated with someone who is of high standing from a moral standpoint, and concerned about the community. At the same time brings an element of youth and athleticism to our brand, which I think is good for anyone that's in the business of selling automobiles, good traits. We think the relationship with Michelle has been very good for us and good for Michelle too. KRAIG KANN: A communications major, you might want to hand her the microphone. We need to ask her about this commercial. How many takes and how long was your day to do that? How long did the filming take? MICHELLE WIE: This shoot was actually just shot right outside L.A. We rode to this ranch. I forgot the exact name of it, and it was absolutely beautiful. It looked exactly like Scotland or Ireland or somewhere where these old golf courses would be. And we're out there, and they told me the concept of it, and I was like that's near impossible. TOM LOVELESS: She said that's near, near. KRAIG KANN: That's right. MICHELLE WIE: I was like, okay. I'm up for the challenge. We went out there, and it was like, okay, do you want to practice a couple before you actually try to do this? And once I hit a couple, I missed it, I got really close. Then I was like I've got to hit this. I don't care about the commercial. I don't care if we're going to shoot this today or not. I've got to hit this thing. So I was out there four hours, grinding, hitting balls, trying to hit this clay pigeon. It was difficult. I was out there for two days straight trying to hit it. It was a very good shoot. Working with Kia, the people are so fun. Just being able to showcase the Soul, I feel like it embodies so much of me. It's young, it's new, it's different. And I'm so glad that they chose me to kind of take on the role of the Soul ambassador, which is pretty neat, especially because I drive it, and I absolutely love it. KRAIG KANN: Tell the folks out there a little about the current state of the LPGA and how your game is, and what they can expect if they follow you around for four days here at the Kia Classic? MICHELLE WIE: I love the LPGA. I've been a part of this Tour now officially for a very long time, kind of, going from a long way back, a lot of tournaments. I think we're definitely on the growing trend, as you can see with new sponsors like Kia and more tournaments in California and more tournaments everywhere worldwide, I feel like we're becoming a much more global tour, which I am very proud of. We come out here and there are so many nationalities, so many people are other places, people speaking different languages, that I feel it's awesome. Going to places like we just went to Singapore and Thailand, it's a great experience. New sponsors make things fresh, like Kia has done. And I think obviously with a new addition of Kraig, it's been great. KRAIG KANN: Thank you. I'll slip a check in your back pocket as well. I will say if you go to the LPGA, you'll see a lot of Kias. I traded in car Y for a Kia myself, and I also have a membership at the YMCA. MICHELLE WIE: I used to be at the YMCA. KRAIG KANN: You did? Well, now you have a personal trainer and that's something I don't have. So you're one up on me at the turn. Final comments from you, George? GEORGE BROWN: Yes, I think you're going to have a great tournament. I know you're going to take the cup, there's no question about that. MICHELLE WIE: Thank you, I hope so. GEORGE BROWN: For our families and for our children, we really appreciate you stepping up along with Kia to help with this really critical program. So thank you very much. KRAIG KANN: Last thing I'd like to say, and then we'll take some questions. I mentioned about Michelle and the LPGA Tour, and I was at the Golf Channel for 17 years and left to go to the LPGA because this Tour is on the rise because we have sponsors like Kia, and much because‑‑ and much I'm not just saying this because she's sitting here‑‑ but because we have players like Michelle Wie who can help make a difference. Five new tournaments on the schedule this year, more than $5 million more in prize money, and we're definitely going in the right direction. So I thank all of you on behalf of the LPGA for being out here today, for supporting a great event, for coming to La Costa under sunny skies, beautiful weather. We'll have a fantastic week. Any questions out there for Michelle? Q. Are the shoes custom? MICHELLE WIE: These are awesome shoes by the way. They're golf shoes, so you can see the bottom of them. But they're Nike Dunks and they made them into golf shoes. We've been working on them for a very long time. They have men's and women's and they're awesome. I practically live in my Dunks outside of the golf course. So to have a shoe like the Dunk, it's pretty cool. It's not custom made. You can get it at Nike.com. TOM LOVELESS: The Laces are custom. Q. When did you realize you wanted to play golf? MICHELLE WIE: Good question. I would high five you, but you're kind of far away. My parents used to play golf and they used to travel around the islands going to these couples tournaments. I would kind of follow them, and like most young kids, driving the golf cart was a lot more fun than playing the game of golf. But I kind of played a couple times, and I really started to love it. It was hard. It's a hard sport, and it's something you don't master in the first few years of playing. So that was really intriguing to me. Something that was very difficult and a challenge every single day. I don't know. I loved it as soon as I picked it up. It was so much fun to go at a golf ball and hit it as hard as you can. I still do that, so I think it's still fun. Q. How many plates did you hit? MICHELLE WIE: You'll find out in the video that they made (laughing). No comment. Q. What are you going to miss most about Stanford? MICHELLE WIE: I just think everything. I mean, I remember after I was done with my exams last Friday. I kind of walked into the book store and saw all these diploma frames and license plates and everything, and I just was kind of like I'm going to really miss this place. I couldn't pinpoint one thing. I think it was just the whole atmosphere, the whole blend between athletics and academics and just my friends that I made. I love my professors. I just loved everything about it, the whole community. I really felt like Stanford was a community. Sometimes I felt like I was living in a bubble, and a lot of us say that. Once we get into the Stanford bubble, we have no idea what happens outside of it, especially with the whole campus being really large and everything and close. It was kind of like that. Q. Do you feel extra pressure now that you're a full‑time player? MICHELLE WIE: I don't feel extra pressure. I kind of feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulder and I can really use the extra time to focus more on my game. I think that it was something I'm so proud of what I've done. But after I've seen all my friends graduate last year and being the last one to graduate, I was kind of ready for it. I see them transitioning into real world situations where they go to work every day and they only have weekends off. It feels like sometimes you're not living in a real world. I'm so ready to step into the real world and really focus on my job as this is, and really focus on the game and winning. TOM LOVELESS: You'll be working weekends though. MICHELLE WIE: I will be working weekends. Q. What personal message would you give to the military kids who this donation is going to benefit? MICHELLE WIE: Personal message: I really hope that they enjoy school. A big thing that I really want to focus on is really enjoying school enjoying your friends. Because everyone goes through hard times during school, whether it's being bad days at school, being bullied a little bit, you've got to push through it. I think this program really offers tutoring programs and mentoring programs where they can be helped through it. You've got to stick through it and never give up. A hard day at work is a hard day at work, whether it's at school or on the golf course. You've got to go through it and live your dream. No one can say that you're dreaming too big, no one can say that. Q. What advice would you give these kids to be able to balance, school, golf, spokesman, how do you tell these kids to balance it? MICHELLE WIE: Don't procrastinate. I think that's one thing that I'm very proud of. I don't know. It's just in me that I've never really procrastinated. If I have to do homework, if I have a homework assignment, I have to do it right then. Kind of prolonging it, it stays in your mind and you stress over it and you don't get it done. So I say just don't procrastinate. When you study, just study. Don't go to the fridge or go get ice cream or turn on the TV. You've got to focus, because time is rung out. Q. Do you keep track of how many cups you win? MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah. KRAIG KANN: Well, as a communications major that she was, you're very good on messaging, I'm sure now. Thank you very much for everything you've had to say today. I want to throw one other thing out there for you all. A little promo for Michelle -- David Feherty show on Golf Channel has never had a female guest until next week. And next week, Michelle Wie is the host, co‑host, star of Feherty. So hopefully you'll tune into Golf Channel Monday evening. They shot it on the Stanford campus, and we're pretty proud of the fact that she's the first one and representing the LPGA as well. Thank you all for being here. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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