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OLYMPIC GAMES RIO 2016: GOLF


August 15, 2016


Alena Sharp


Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Q. It's going to be a little different course if you get even a little taste of that when the competition starts, right?
ALENA SHARP: I'm glad we got done and we didn't have to play in that. It's cooled off and blowing 20 or 30 miles an hour now. Yeah, we played in a little bit more wind yesterday. We played five holes. But I think we have a good game plan. Just knowing where the lines are off the tee. I think that's what the big thing on this course is, you stand on the tee and you're like, where do I hit it? And so knowing where the lines are and if we have to adjust with wind, it will be easier.

Q. Looked like you're swinging it well.
ALENA SHARP: Yeah, feel really good about my game. I've been playing well the last couple months. Took a week off last week. Didn't touch a club for a week, and I feel like I'm rested and ready to go now.

Q. So much of your life in the LPGA, it's about routine. And this is about as opposite as you can get with the athlete's village. Can you just talk about the experience?
ALENA SHARP: Yeah, we got here Saturday, and didn't get to do much on Saturday. But yesterday we got to soak in the village experience in the morning, going to the food hall and seeing all the other athletes and going around to the villa.
Then last night we went to a women's basketball game. You know, was on the other side of the fence cheering them on. I think it's not a distraction, but it's like‑‑ I like it, to go do something different and get away from thinking about golf, because this is obviously a big event.
You want to win the Gold Medal and if you think about it all the time, it's not good. So going to do those things helps me relax, and having a great time the last two days that I've been here, we're going to go to Canada house tonight and see how that is. I've seen that on the web.
It looks really pretty and looking forward to take that in. Just doing‑‑ I like to go out and do things like that when I can at tournaments.

Q. Talking to the Americans Monday at a press conference, guys like Matt Kuchar were talking about just how they were embracing it and this is a boyhood dream to be thrown in the middle of all these athletes and competing for a medal; is there any of that for you?
ALENA SHARP: Yeah, I think embracing the opportunity is a great way to putt i because we don't get this chance all the time. And four years from now, I'm going to be almost 40; who knows where I'll be.
I hope to be on the team again, but when I leave here on Monday, I want to say that I experienced everything I wanted to experience and had a great time and didn't hold anything back on the golf course, and also be a part of bigger Team Canada and cheer the other athletes on, and really enjoy the experience of being on a team.

Q. Any capybara sightings out there?
ALENA SHARP: We did see one out there today on No. 5 along the water's edge from a distance. It looked like an 80‑pound rat.

Q. No caimans?
ALENA SHARP: We saw one on 4, but by the time we got up too close to him, he was under the water again.

Q. Did you see pictures of Henrik teasing it?
ALENA SHARP: Yes, I did. That was not smart (laughter).

Q. Any celebrity sightings in the athlete's hall? Did you see anybody interesting?
ALENA SHARP: Well, I saw Simone Biles from a distance. She's pretty short. I saw she won a Gold Medal again yesterday. I saw leaving here yesterday, I saw Sergio and Pádraig Harrington. I saw Nick Faldo in the crowd, Gary Player.

Q. Justin was saying this morning at a press conference that the guys that didn't come, they will probably kick themselves because they will realise this was a pretty special experience and they are not going to get this chance, like they can tee up again; they have got to wait four years. Was there any element in the women coming en mass, all the best players in the world coming, was there an element of saying, we're not going to be like those guys; we're going to do this and do it fully?
ALENA SHARP: I don't think we all got together as a group and said that. But I think that the concerns that the men are talking about in the media aren't something that the women even worried about, which was kind of weird, because Zika, you think a woman would be more afraid to get that than a man contracting it.
I think the only thing that I heard was people worried about security. But overall, like we just want to come here and enjoy it, because we see it as growing the LPGA and the game, and if we can maybe expand here in South America, that's great for the Tour and it's good for golf.
So I think we see it in a different way. We feel fortunate to get tournaments. So we want to give it all we have when we do get into a new tournament or have a new venue.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports




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