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WEGMANS LPGA CHAMPIONSHIPJune 9, 2013Inbee ParkPITTSFORD, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: It's my pleasure to welcome the 2013 Wegmans LPGA Championship winner Inbee Park into the interview room. Congratulations. In addition to being the Rolex Rankings No. 1 player, you've now picked up your seventh career victory, your fourth LPGA win for 2013 and your third major championship of your career following the 2008 U.S. Women's Open, the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship and now the 2013 Wegmans. How does it feel? INBEE PARK: It feels so good. I mean I didn't know that I was going to be able to do it today. I was hitting the ball everywhere today on the final round. It just made my day so much tougher, and just putting my name on the Wegmans LPGA championship trophy just means so much to me. And this is my third win in a major championship. So that means a lot. And getting a lot closer to my goals set for my golf career. THE MODERATOR: If you would, take us through the playoff. We asked you before the ceremony about how it feels to win but we didn't talk much about the three holes in the playoff. Just walk through that for us. How did it go? INBEE PARK: The playoff, I wasn't getting that nervous. I was more nervous on the final round because my ball was just going everywhere, and I wasn't too comfortable with my swing in the final round. So I mean really expected nothing, I mean no expectations going into the playoff. I was just happy that I actually made a playoff. Yeah, I mean trying to hit every fairway and every green, and Mike said every fairway I hit he's going to buy me a big dinner every day. I had three fairways there, so three big dinners he owes me. THE MODERATOR: Before we talk more about today, I'm just going to give you a couple of statistics and I'm going to ask you to comment on them. As was mentioned on the green, in the last 52 weeks it's been one year since you've played here where you finished tied for 9, you've gone from number 26 in the world in the Rolex Rankings to No. 1. You have six victories including two major championships and 12 additional Top 10 finishes, and you have 3.3 million dollars in earnings which is more than half of your seven‑year earnings on the LPGA. How do you even react to that? INBEE PARK: I mean a year ago everything I think really started to click, and yeah, everything just, you know, my swing was getting a lot better, hitting ‑‑ I think my weakest part of my game was ball striking and my short game and putting has always been very good, and I wasn't really able to hit the shots that I needed to, and you know, starting last year, two years, I mean I started to hit the ball lots better and giving myself a lot of birdie chances. And yeah, I mean it was tough to win the second one, but Evian after four years with no win, but after that I felt so comfortable and felt the confidence, and yeah, just really comfortable when I'm in the last group. And yeah. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Inbee. We ask you to please use the microphone. Q. I've read where you've given your fiancé a lot of credit for your ball striking and I was told to my wife don't ever give lessons to the person who you're romantically involved with. So how did it work out for you? INBEE PARK: It worked out good for me. Yeah, I'm playing best game in my career with him. And not today with the way I strike the ball, but I mean certainly I'm ‑‑ you know, I have improved a lot. I mean I want to give a lot of credit to him. Q. Congratulations. You knew it was going to be a marathon going in with 36 holes. How much more difficult was it ‑‑ how difficult was it those 36 holes, mentally and physically and then to add three more holes to that? INBEE PARK: I wasn't really looking forward to playing more holes than 36 holes, but yeah, I knew that it was going to be a marathon and it was going to be many holes, even if I made a couple bogeys from the start, I knew I had a lot more holes left to, you know, get it. And just it was a tough day. It was a tough day for everybody, and I think the experience at the British where we had to play 36 holes last year in the wind and the rain, I mean it was much better conditions today. So it was a much better day. And I wish I had more days. It was tough on me even though I had to hit out of the rough every hole pretty much on the back nine there. I mean I think I hit like one fairway and I think very talented shooting 2‑over for hitting one fairway. Q. You had a three‑shot lead with I think five holes to go there. How would you describe the finish you had? Is ugly the word or you give me a word that describes what happened down the stretch. INBEE PARK: I knew that I would have ‑‑ I could have made one more putt maybe on 17 or 16, but I've made some amazing up‑and‑downs before that. So I mean bogeys were bound to come with the way I've been striking the ball today. I mean if you miss the fairways here, you really can't avoid bogeys here. And I knew that I had good plans, but I really didn't expect to win with the way I was playing today. I mean I was really trying to be calm, and you know, not to get mad even if I don't win. Inbee, you said you were struggling down the stretch. This is a playoff. You split the middle on three straight holes. What clicked? INBEE PARK: Yeah. I mean I was really trying a lot of different things on the course. You know, 18 holes today, trying to figure something out there. But nothing seemed to be working. So I really cleared my head and just looked at the fairway and I just smashed it, and it was going in the middle every time. I should have done that before and I wouldn't have to play three more holes. Q. Inbee, what was the length of your birdie putt to win the tournament, the last putt? INBEE PARK: 20 feet, I think it was. THE MODERATOR: 20 feet for birdie. Q. You were listing your goals a little bit earlier. Win the first two majors of the year and not have people talk about the grand slam. Has that ever been something that has entered your mind? INBEE PARK: I mean after I won Kraft, kind of a little bit sad about that, but I thought I had a lot more time in my career. And I mean there was no rush to get in a major win. I mean it's good that I got it early. But I know (inaudible) didn't win Kraft and she's still really trying for that. Hopefully I can do that before her age. Q. The fact that there are five majors this year, it would be the most difficult year to win the Grand Slam. INBEE PARK: Yeah. I think it will be. Instead of four, there's five. So there's more tournaments to win. I mean I won Evian last year. It wasn't a major last year. This year it's a major. I feel really good about the Evian golf course and I'm very comfortable there. So I'm looking forward to playing there. And I just love playing in major championships. Q. How much was fatigue a factor in the fourth round, Inbee? INBEE PARK: Well, I don't know whether my swing was bad or my body was tired. I don't know what was the reason I was hitting it everywhere in the final round. I felt really good in the morning and I felt really good but in the back nine I felt tired. I think everybody is really fit enough to play 36 holes out here and it's mentally that you have to be strong. I think in perfect conditions, perfect weather like this, I don't think anybody would have a problem with playing 36 holes. Q. I think it was on the 16th and I know you played a lot of holes today, but when your shot, your tee shot on the 16, went into the rough, you looked like you kind of (inaudible). Can you bring us back to what you were thinking and how disappointed or frustrated you were about it? INBEE PARK: I really wanted to hit the No. 16 fairway with ‑‑ I didn't even hit a driver. I hit a 3‑wood trying to hit the fairway. But I was just really disappointed. Yeah. Q. (Inaudible). INBEE PARK: Yeah. I mean we have something very well on the LPGA Tour and have won a lot this year. Everybody is really I think inspired by each other and trying to play better than each other and trying to help each other out. And yeah, I think it really helps that you have a friend together, traveling together. It's tough to do it on your own out here. Q. They say in all sports that the great champions are able to win when they're not at their best. Do you feel like today that you proved that, that you have that quality? INBEE PARK: Yeah. I mean I felt like I ran a marathon today and I'm just happy that we got it done. And yeah, I mean major championships I think should have this kind of challenge, I mean not the 36 holes every time, but I mean this golf course was playing so tough and fair at the same time, and I really enjoyed playing this golf course. You really have to be perfect on every shot. And that's what you need on a major championship, and this is I think a true major championship. Q. You battled Morgan for so long. Were you surprised when she got some distance between her, you look up on the leaderboard and all of a sudden you see Catriona right behind you? INBEE PARK: Yeah. I pretty much played Morgan all 36 holes all day today. I was trying to play better than her today. And after pretty much playing 35 holes with Morgan and I played probably three holes with Catriona pretty much. I didn't know she was up there until I was on No. 18. THE MODERATOR: Before we close we'll just ask you to go through your birdies and your bogeys today if you can remember them all. You birdied No. 5. No. Just the second round. INBEE PARK: Okay. THE MODERATOR: No, not all 36. The last 18. So you birdied five. INBEE PARK: Yeah. I think I made only two birdies. THE MODERATOR: Well, you gotta give me the bogeys for context. INBEE PARK: Pretty much all the same. Bogeys are like hit it out of the rough, get up‑and‑down. Okay. No. 5. There was a 9‑iron. About 15 feet over the flag. Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Six, hit it in the rough. INBEE PARK: Yeah. Hit it in the rough. 7‑iron, then I hit it and made a good bogey from there. THE MODERATOR: No. 8. INBEE PARK: No. 8, yeah. Hit it in the rough and then hit it out with like ‑‑ punched it out like 30, 40 yards. No, no. I actually hit a fairway there. I hit the fairway and hit it into the rough on my second shot. Yeah, it hit the tree and didn't go that far. And hit 6‑iron under the tree, over the green, didn't get up‑and‑down. THE MODERATOR: Birdie, 11. INBEE PARK: 11, it was ‑‑ yeah. I actually hit a good second shot just 20 yards short of the green and yeah, got up‑and‑down two feet, three feet from the hole. THE MODERATOR: 14. INBEE PARK: 14, hit it in the rough and punched it out and hit a wedge to about 20, 25 feet, didn't make it. THE MODERATOR: 16. INBEE PARK: 16, hit it in the rough, hit it out in the rough again and hit it to about 7, 8 feet, didn't make that. THE MODERATOR: And 18. INBEE PARK: 18, you saw 18. Hit it in the rough left, and second shot hit it in the rough again and then third shot, hit it in the rough and hit it just off the green and two‑putted from there. Used the putter from there. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Inbee Park? Thank you so much for coming in. Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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