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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 20, 2013Inbee ParkEDMONTON, ALBERTA THE MODERATOR: I would like to welcome in Rolex Rankings No.1 Inbee Park to the media center. Thanks for coming in. Last time we saw you, you were at the Women's British Open going for that fourth consecutive major. Came up a little short, but you got some well‑deserved time off, went back to Korea. Take us through the last two weeks. Did you get any rest? What have you been doing? INBEE PARK: When I was in Korea I obviously met up with my family and friends and I did some charity work. I did some stuff for sponsors. Everything kept me really busy. Yeah, I really enjoyed my time there. I feel like I'm more refreshed, feel like I'm ready to go again. THE MODERATOR: What was the charity work? INBEE PARK: Well, I'm an ambassador in Korea for Make‑A‑Wish Foundation, and one of the kids' wishes were playing golf with me, so I did their wish and spent some time with them. Yeah, I went to a hospital for heart disease with my sponsor. THE MODERATOR: You played here in 2007 when it was here last. Do you have any memories that you're trying to play off of the course? You said you got in Saturday so you've had a couple practice rounds. Anything about the course that maybe surprised you or you didn't quite remember? INBEE PARK: Well, yeah, I knew that I played this golf course, but I saw the golf course and it looked pretty new to me. The course is very challenging, I think, very narrow fairways and fast greens. The greens are rolling so pure. I love greens like this. The last couple weeks, last month actually, we didn't get this kind of speed yet, so I'm really excited to play fast greens and pure greens again. Yeah, I love the golf course here, yeah. THE MODERATOR: Lydia was just in here a few hours ago and she obviously won this event. You were runner‑up, but you got the first‑place check. But she said she saw you on the practice green and she was taking notes on your putting. Were you trying not to give her too many pointers because she might be gunning for you again? INBEE PARK: No, not at all. I saw her actually on Sunday when I came out here and practiced on the greens. Looks like she played the course before me. Yeah, I could give her advice, but I don't think she really needs advice. She's a good enough player, I think. I mean, she's a very talented player. Last year I had a good memory of Canadian Open where I finished second but got a first‑place check. It would be nice if I could actually get the trophy and the first‑place check this time. But yeah, I'll try my best this week and just see what happens. THE MODERATOR: Now, I asked Lydia, as well, big week in women's golf last week. You said you watched the Solheim Cup last week. What did you take away from that event and the competition and the spectacle? It put a really good spotlight on women's golf. What did you make of it? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I watched a little bit, and looks like every‑‑ I think it looked really good as a friendship for all the players. Obviously a lot of people watched Solheim Cup, and it's very exciting. It's a different kind of format where you don't play by yourself but you play with your team. That's not something that we always do here. It's nice to see very good competition like that and everybody really wants to win for their team. Yeah, especially when we have International Crown next year, I want to be part of it. This time, Solheim, I'm not European or American, so I couldn't be part of it. But next year we get some similar opportunity like that, so it'll be nice to compete in that and be part of it, yeah. THE MODERATOR: Yeah, a lot of people said where are the Asians this week, where are the Australians, and maybe people aren't necessarily too familiar with that event. How big do you think that event will be, being able to showcase how global this Tour is? INBEE PARK: I think it's going to be very huge, especially over in Asia. It's going to get a lot of big impact on women's golf. A lot of people back in Korea asked me why we weren't playing Solheim, so we expect to see you playing, what type of format it was and what type of players was playing on it. They were saying like all the Korean people who were watching TV and following me, they were like, oh, it's not fun this week because you are not playing. So I told them next year that we have something similar like that, a team play where we can play. Yeah, it'll be nice. Q. Can you talk about there's a lot of expectations on you, the record and stuff at the British Open. Do you feel like there's a weight off your shoulders now coming to Edmonton? INBEE PARK: Yeah, I feel like I'm a lot more relaxed now. I mean, I experienced some big pressure in British Open. Yeah, that week was big, and it could have been great if I could have played a little bit better, but some weeks you don't play your best. Yeah, but I had a great experience there, so I think that experience will help me throughout this season and my career. Q. Do you come into tournaments now expecting to win? Is that where you are? INBEE PARK: I mean, I don't expect to win every week. That's definitely not the case at all times. It depends how my condition is, how my ball‑striking is, how my body is. I mean, I feel really good about this week. I'm hitting the ball great and putting really good. I love these greens here, so I feel good about it. I feel like I'm ready and feel like all the pressure is off, and I feel like I'm starting new now. THE MODERATOR: Two weeks off; I know you practice hours and hours, you're one of the first ones on the range, one of the last ones to leave. Do you cherish your time to practice and really get technically sound rather than competing week to week and try to figure it out? Do you take into consideration the practice week is very, very important or do you like the grind of playing every week? INBEE PARK: Well, I like actually working on my game while I'm on the golf course. It's better if I'm actually even playing a tournament and working on things during the tournament because no better test than tournament golf than everything else. But you definitely need a rest, especially the season that I had this year. It takes a lot of energy off of you playing every week by week, especially being in contention a lot of the weeks. That takes a lot of energy, so you definitely need time to rest and time to refresh. I feel like I just did that the last two weeks. Q. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the course? There's a lot of guarded greens here. The wind can be a bit tricky. What are you finding is going to be the challenge of this course? INBEE PARK: Well, I think the challenge here will be hitting fairways, and obviously you have to avoid three‑putts because these greens are so quick that downhill putts, you can a little bit over‑hit it and it can go 15 feet past. I've been working a lot on the greens to get the speed right. I mean, I know the wind today, it blew a little bit on the back nine for me, and I couldn't read the wind exactly because a lot of trees were blocking it. It'll be important to actually read the wind and actually get the right speed of the greens. But everything about this golf course‑‑ this golf course played a little bit long today, but if it dries out a little bit, I think it's going to play at a very good distance. I think it's really like a major setting golf course. It's very challenging. It's going to test a lot of parts of your game, yeah. Q. What happened with you this year? You've been on Tour for a while, and now all of a sudden you're dominant. What was the switch that got flipped, and how can I flip that same switch? INBEE PARK: Well, I think just everything just‑‑ I had my bad times after the win in U.S. Open, and I wasn't experienced or I wasn't used to the Tour. My game was just not ready yet. But over the time, I worked on everything a little bit, little bit by little bit, and it improved, I think, every year. Last year I've learned a lot from finishing second places a lot last year. I think I finished six times second place or something like that. So after that kind of experience, this year when I'm in contention I feel a lot more comfortable and I have a lot more confidence to win. THE MODERATOR: Thanks for coming in. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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