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HONDA LPGA THAILAND


February 25, 2015


Stacy Lewis

Anna Nordqvist

Inbee Park

So Yeon Ryu

Michelle Wie West


CHONBURI, THAILAND

MODERATOR:  Anna, you said yesterday that coming back here brings a lot of good memories.  What are you most looking forward to today?
ANNA NORDQVIST:  Well, I think the course is in fantastic shape.  Just a lot of fun to come back.  Obviously had a lot of great memories from last year.  So the course is playing good; greens are fast.  I usually like that, so I can't wait to get started.
MODERATOR:  Anna, your win last year was the first of two for you.  You had a very fast start.  Is there anything in particular this year that you've been work on coming into this tournament?
ANNA NORDQVIST:  This is one of the first years where I don't feel like I have done any major changes.  I did a lot of changes coming into last year, so actually felt like a little less stressful in this off‑season.  I took a lot of time off and just kept the same team and, you know, been working on the same things.
Had a really good beginning of last year, so I'll just be trying to do the same.
MODERATOR:  Inbee, runner‑up last year; you won in 2013.  Is there anything for you in particular that you enjoy most about coming back here to Thailand?
INBEE PARK:  I think it's just the golf course here is great.  They are always in really good shape.  I had good results here in 2013 and '14 obviously with the win in 2013 and the runner‑up finish last year.
I just feel comfortable with the golf course and the atmosphere.  And the food and the people they are just so nice here.  I just love to coming to Thailand.
I love coming to Asia.  It's my part of the country, [sic] so it's just fun to travel all around the world, and this part of the country is very fun.  The people are great.
MODERATOR:  You usually start your seasons over here, but you did play the first two events.  You said early on in Ocala that you weren't happy with your putting.  Is there something that you in particular have been working on?
INBEE PARK:  Yeah, I mean, I been working on my putter all this off‑season and last two weeks as well.  Yeah, I feel like knew long game is in good shape, but not totally satisfied with my putter and the short game.  So I a, just trying to improve a little bit on that part of the game.
I think I'm slowly getting better.  I see a little bit of improvement, so, yeah, this tournament was always the first tournament that I played, but I play already two I feel like I'm warmed up and really to go.
MODERATOR:  Michelle, you're up next.  This is your fifth time playing this event.  Runner‑up in 2011; fourth last year.  You've played well here.  What do you attribute that to?
MICHELLE WIE:  Yeah, I love the golf course.  It's a great layout.  I love the drivers off the tee, which doesn't happen to me a lot over the course of the year.
But the golf course this year is in really great shape.  I think it's the best shape it's been in the last five times I've been here.  It's just a fun time.

Q.  This is a two‑part question.  How would you rate your start this year, and then also you made your acting debut.  How would you rate your acting debut on Hawaii 5‑0?
MICHELLE WIE:  You know, I played okay in Ocala.  I was just a bit little rusty.  Very up and down.  I had brief flashy moments of brilliance and then just moments of pure stupidity.
It was very up and down and unfortunately I got really sick in Valhalla, so that was that.  So beginning of the year.  Just working out some kinks, having fun.  Really happy to be back in Thailand and back into the rhythm of playing again and being on the road with these great ladies.
Hawaii 5‑0 was so much fun to shoot.  It was so weird.  He hate watching myself on TV, but definitely watched it.  I was like, Am I really that awkward in real life?  What am I doing with my head?  But it was actually really fun.  They made me feel really comfortable.  It was definitely an experience.
I kind of wish I was arsonist at the end, the villain, but maybe next time.
THE MODERATOR:  So Stacy, this is your fifth time playing here; three top‑5 finishes.  What are your expectations coming into this week?
STACY LEWIS:  Well, I'm excited, one, to be back.  I love this golf course.  It's one you can make a lot of birdies on; you can be aggressive; the par‑5s are a lot of fun.  They're tricky but they're good.
And I just, I don't know, it's a great place to start the year for us.  It's like you're on vacation still.  It's a resort town.  Smaller field makes it feel a little bit more relaxed.  I just like starting the year here.
I expect to do pretty well.  I was happy with the way my short game and putting kind of played out the first couple weeks.  The ball striking wasn't quite where I wanted it, but I've been working on that the last couple weeks and I think it's moving in the right direction.
THE MODERATOR:  You're one of the players in particular that talk about the importance of growing the game.  Can you talk about the strength of golf in Thailand and the importance of the young players here and growing the game in this country?
STACY LEWIS:  Well I think you just look at all the young Thai players we have right now on tour, and that's all in the last, what, five or six years we've been playing here that they're kind of coming, too.  It's great to see.  It's great to see the impact they're having on their country, the players that they're inspiring to come out.
So I think it's so cool that they get to play in their home country in front of all their fans, all the media, get all the attention, because they deserve it.
We play in Korea, we play in all these other countries to grow the game, and once we've finally been here long enough that you're seeing the players come as a result of us being here.
MODERATOR:  So Yeon, last but not least.  This your third time playing here.  You just finished the Pro‑Am this morning.  In your opinion, how is the course looking?
SO YEON RYU:  Oh, as all players said, golf course is in great shape.  Especially the greens are in great shape.  Well, you know, sometimes when you putted really well sometimes ball is not really going straight around because the greens kind of rusty and not really in great shape.  But this green is really honest.  When I pick the spot it's always going to there, so I really feel comfortable to putting on this putting green.  I am really happy with all the course set up and all the shape.
The other thing is, well, like last week my putting wasn't really great.  Looks like my putting is a bit better than last week, so I really look forward to putting well this year and have a great week.

Q.  The first three winners or tour this year all have connections to South Korea.  Do you take pride in watching your fellow country women dominate on tour?
SO YEON RYU:  You know, to be honest, so many Korean players on the LPGA, so it's really hard to say, you know, like all Koreans play super well.
It's really hard to judge.  But, yeah, really great to see all my friends hold up the trophy.  At the same time to be honest a little bit jealous, so I want to be next one.
MODERATOR:  Questions.

Q.  Stacy, Michelle, you guys are looking as fit and trim as ever.  You share the same trainer, I believe.  Can you tell us about your workout regime this week?  Do you watch each other in the gym or do you work on a very different program?
STACY LEWIS:  No, our workouts are pretty similar.  There are days in the gym where we have the same workout.  Michelle is trying to keep up with me usually.  But it's cool.  We have been able to motivate each other.  I think we're both kind of checking each other, seeing what the other person is doing.
I think it's been good for both of us, both of our games.
MICHELLE WIE:  I think I bring great entertainment to her day when I workout.
STACY LEWIS:  She does do that for sure.
MICHELLE WIE:  See a smile on her face for sure.
STACY LEWIS:  Uh‑huh.  She's really tall.  She just can't (indiscernible.)
MICHELLE WIE:  I just don't know what to do with my limbs.
STACY LEWIS:  The whole awkward thing, it's very true.

Q.  You obviously play a lot of events in America and then coming to Asia.  Apart from the food and the smiling people, what is the difference between the tournaments here compared to America?  What do you like about coming here to play?  Stacy?
STACY LEWIS:  The difference I think is every time we go to a country in Asia we're the biggest thing that's coming.  I think that the biggest difference, is the media attention.  We get it in the U.S. at the majors, but this is a major for each country we're playing in.  That's the biggest difference.
Food obviously is a little different.  Travel is hard.  I just got my golf clubs this morning, so that's a little bit different.  But once you're on the golf course it's really the same.  It's just more everything else.

Q.  Can I ask that question to So Yeon as well.  It's coming home for you playing golf Asia.  What's is it that you particularly like about the events in Asia?
SO YEON RYU:  Maybe more opportunity to travel with my family, because close to Korea it's not really long flight to come to Asia.
But I think that's maybe one of the advantage to me.  The other thing is even if I'm playing America I always trying to find good like think Thai restaurant, Indian restaurant.  I find good Thai restaurant because all the pad Thai and all the food is really great.  If I'm going to Singapore, all the like Singapore food is really great.  So family and food is biggest benefit to me.

Q.  One last question:  The greens here are particularly fast.  Where else do you compete on the LPGA where the greens are faster?
ANNA NORDQVIST:  I would say U.S.  Open is probably one the few tournaments that we have as fast greens as this week or sometimes even faster.  But the greens pick up speed.  If you're on the wrong spots on the green you can't keep it on the on the green sometimes.

Q.  Will you go for 18th in two if the tee is moved forward?
ANNA NORDQVIST:  You can, you know, but if you get it all the way back and the pin is in the bottom ‑‑ we tried a putt yesterday and it was really hard to even stop it on the green.

Q.  How does the 18 green stack up here?  Is it one of the hard greens to get to?
SO YEON RYU:  I guess it's (indiscernible) a lot of greens we play.  Especially the 18th green is obviously long green but very narrow.  It's very slopey and narrow, so it's a tough green.  But I think it's great for final day, final hole.
I think it's a lot of fun.
MODERATOR:  Any other questions?

Q.  Anna, Molly spoke about last year the fact that you carried good memories here.  Do you look back on the coverage of last year at all and try and remember how you were feeling at certain times and take positives out of it?
ANNA NORDQVIST:  I have not seen any coverage from last year.  I mean, remember playing with Inbee and Michelle the last day and they were both playing pretty good.  They made a couple birdies on the back nine and pushed me hard.  Michelle made a great eagle on 10.
They were really pushing me.  I think it's more the memories of certain shots.  I hadn't won in a couple years until last year and then I ended up winning a couple weeks after that, so it was definitely a big confidence booster for me knowing I was work on the right stuff.  It made me a little bit more relaxed.

Q.  Stacy, if you started ticking off goals at the beginning of the 2014, did you put down on a piece of paper Player of the Year, Vare Trophy, Money List that would've been a pretty good year, and you achieved that after 21 years.
STACY LEWIS:  Yeah.

Q.  So goals for this year, I know sometimes players don't like to share them, but do you set yourself goes at the start of the year on the back of such a brilliant year?
STACY LEWIS:  Yeah, I have some things in the back of my mind that I want to do.  I'm more trying to win every single week versus ‑‑ you're not the teeing it up at the beginning of the year thinking about player the year.  That's just not the way it is.
Right now I would like to move up the rankings.  That is just being in contention every week.  That's really the goal right now.  I said last year was a good year just because I had six runner‑ups.  So I think they're always room for improvement in this crazy game we play.  You can always get better.
Just when you think you got it figured out there is something else wrong.  So I guess I enjoy that challenge.
MODERATOR:  Any other questions?
All right.  Thank you, ladies.

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