BLACK DESERT CHAMPIONSHIP

April 29, 2025

Christine Wang

Black Desert Resort

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, here with Christine Wang in the media center at the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion. Sponsor invite this week. Can you just talk about how excited you are to be here?

CHRISTINE WANG: I am so excited. This will be my LPGA debut. I have been playing golf since I was seven and dreaming of playing on the LPGA Tour, so it's finally happening. Yeah, couldn't be more ecstatic.

Q. Can you talk about the moment you realized, if it's hit you yet, that you're playing an LPGA Tour event this week?

CHRISTINE WANG: I think it hasn't yet because I haven't gone out and played the course yet. Yesterday I did some practice and I saw all the staff bags around, which is different than we're used to on the Epson Tour.

So I'm sure it'll hit me soon. Definitely by the first tee I hope.

Q. And just touching a little bit, could you speak a little bit to your background in golf and how you got to this point just for different media and people that don't know too much about you yet?

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, born and raised in Houston, Texas and started playing golf when I was seven. I am the first golfer in my family. Nobody else in my family plays golf which I think is pretty rare.

I did all the Girls Golf, First Tee, ended up playing at USC for college all four years. Undergrad Masters there. Now I play on the Epson Tour.

Last summer I played a few events so technically my rookie season, but this year will be my first full season, and, yeah, now I'm here. (Smiling.)

Q. You've also had some participation in Girl Golf Games and the social media side of golf. Can you talk about that and why you decided to be a part of some of that?

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, so I started posting on my Instagram and social media because NIL became a thing in college. I thought, you know what? I see all these football players, basketball players getting all these deals. I think golf is just as cool, just as interesting, so why not post about it.

That's where it all started. The Girl Golf Games is the awesome group of girls who travel to different courses and play really high level, competitive golf, but also show the fun side of it, which is something that I fully believe in.

They invited me to go play in a video they had here at Black Desert about a month ago to play for a sponsor invite. That was my first video with them. I think there will be more soon with me.

Yeah, it was just super cool to be part of something like that.

Q. I've heard that Girls Golf is a big part of your background. Can you speak to what and what Girls Golf meant to you when you were growing up?

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, when I was growing up, and I'm sure it's still the case now, there isn't that many girls who play golf. When I'm at the course it's just a bunch of guys. When you're seven or eight that's not who you want to be hanging out with, right?

Girls Golf gave me a chance to meet other people like me, around my age, girls who also liked to wear skirts, and played from the same tee boxes as me. Just made it a lot more fun and made me want to go back to the course when I was younger.

Q. And now you're having the opportunity to kind of grow the game in what you're doing on social media and on the golf course. Why do you think it's so important to grow golf for young girls, for young women that want to get into it?

CHRISTINE WANG: I think that I can speak from personal experience now. Golf has opened so many doors for me, whether it be in the golf world, golf industry, or there was a long time where I wasn't going to be a pro golfer and I was just going to graduate and get my business degree and do that.

Playing golf actually helped open a lot of doors that way, too. Sports in general for female athletes are just a great opportunity for you to get into the room with a lot of business people and stuff. (Smiling.)

Q. AANHPI month start this week, on May 1st. Obviously a member of Asian American community. How proud are you of that heritage and what does it mean to be a role model out here?

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, no, I'm very proud to be Chinese American. I think I wasn't always when I was growing up in Texas when I was younger. I definitely grew into that. I guess I just want to show more people that you should be proud, yeah.

Q. And back to the golf course.

CHRISTINE WANG: Of course.

Q. Bring it back here. You obviously played this course in the Girl Golf Games. Have seen it, which I think a lot of people in this field may not have before this week. What are your thoughts on the golf course? It's obviously beautiful. The vistas are gorgeous.

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah.

Q. From a competitive standpoint, what do you think about the golf course?

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, the golf course, I mean, you can't really have a bad day when you look around. You see red mountains, black rocks, snow on the mountains. It's gorgeous out here.

Actually on the golf course there are a lot of blind shots. I'll have the guy who caddied for me in the Girl Golf video is going to be my caddie as well, Kevin. He's a local caddie. He'll help me out with that.

The greens are sloped deceivingly and I feel like that is going to be a big factor this week.

Q. I think I saw on social media you got into an Epson Tour like 15 minutes before your tee time.

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah.

Q. Speak to what the experiences on the Epson Tour have done for your game as you've prepared for this week.

CHRISTINE WANG: Yeah, so last week I was in Beaumont, California and I was a reserve. I didn't play too great at Stage II of Q-School last year which is why my status was not good enough to get in yet, but I don't know why, I just convinced myself I was definitely going to play the tournament.

On Friday morning, because Epson starts on Fridays, I got to the course at 6:30 before the first tee time and basically was planning to just wait there for the next however many hours until the last group tee'd off just in case somebody withdrew.

By some factor or whatever, someone did, and I was ready to go. I went to go play, and, yeah, I feel like Epson has really helped me prepare for a big tournament like this because it kind of forces you to play with people who are at a different level.

In college, junior golf, everyone is a great player, but not everyone has that same drive. I feel like if you want to be a pro golfer you have to have a different level of commitment to the game, staying on the course for however many hours. So, yeah, I'm ready for this week for sure.

Q. Welcome back to Utah.

CHRISTINE WANG: Yes.

Q. Tell us, other than winning, what's your goal this week? What will make you happy at the end of the tournament?

CHRISTINE WANG: Well, I put a lot of work into my game this offseason. Changed coaches. Got a putting coach. Worked a lot mentally.

I just want to see where my game can line up with some of the best players in the world. Like I said earlier, it's been my dream to play on the LPGA Tour. I will get to be a full time LPGA player at some point. This is a good chance to see where I am at right now.

Q. Is there anyone you're excited to see in the field? Any LPGA Tour players you looked up to maybe growing up? We just talked about Lilia Vu. Is there anyone like that that you're hoping to see?

CHRISTINE WANG: I haven't really looked exactly at the field too closely. I think I was trying to avoid doing that.

But I have a lot of friends in the field, a lot of people I grew up playing junior golf with, a lot of former teammates. Allisen Corpuz, Lucy Li. I'm just excited to play with them again. It's been a really long time since we played a tournament together.

Q. Anything you're interested in looking at when you see their games when you play with them on Thursday, look at to see what they do differently or anything like that?

CHRISTINE WANG: Probably maybe nothing specifically. I think I'm just going to soak it all in. Yeah, I don't -- not anything right now at least.

THE MODERATOR: Well have a great week. Thank you so much for coming in.

CHRISTINE WANG: Thank you.