THE AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 9, 2025

Lydia Ko

Evian Resort Golf Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello and welcome to the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship. I am joined by Lydia Ko, former champion of this event, and No. 3 in the Rolex Women's World Golf rankings.

Past champion of this event winning here in 2015; finished in the top 10 multiple times. What do you remember most about your win here?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, you know, it's where I had my first major win, so it's hard when -- I think it's not ever easy, but I think it's a little bit easier when you go from your first win to your second time versus when you've never won a major before and to win the first.

I mean, I had one of the best final rounds of my career on that Sunday, became a major champion, so this place is very special to me. I feel like the great thing about coming to a golf course with the same kind of sponsors, you build a really good relationship.

I love seeing the familiar faces every time I come to Evian and am always drawing on good memories.

Q. This is a busy stretch of golf we have, and especially as defending champion at AIG. How do you reset and refocus for the remaining stretch of major golf and the rest of the season?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I'm playing five majors out of my seven starts, including this one and the AIG Women's Open in a few weeks. It's nice to I think play the majors. Chevron kind of happens and here we are at our fourth one out of the five, so it goes by fast. I feel like I've done a pretty good job maintaining my schedule so that my energy levels are really good.

And, yeah, I'm going back to the U.S. and coming in for Wales again. I think because I've been on Tour for so long I have the experience to kind of know and understand what I'm capable of doing physically. I think that's a good way to gauge how to manage the schedule.

I think I've been doing that a lot better so that I feel more energized when I come to those events and I'm not excited for the week to kind of end.

Q. I know this time, maybe a little bit before this time last year a lot of things happening for you in terms of Hall of Fame. Have you been back to France since all that happened? And if you haven't, what was it like to come back to the country where so much changed for you?

LYDIA KO: No, I haven't been back since then. Haven't even flown through Paris even, so it's nice to come here. I think my sister ended up flying through Paris to come here. She said she got very emotional kind of reliving those moments.

It's going to be exciting because when I played this event in the past a lot of fans that have come out and watched me over the years keep coming back. Some watched in Paris and then at St. Andrews. To be able to see them, that will be my version of reliving it.

Obviously this time last year was a pretty crazy stretch of my career. It was life changing, but at the same time life didn't really change much.

But this will always be a special place. Having my first major win and winning my first ever gold medal at the Olympics in the same country, it's pretty crazy. It's safe to say that France has been very good to me. I've come to France a lot since I was an amateur.

My French speaking has not improved, yes. The pronunciation or my vocabulary.

Q. Looking at the championship, started in '94 and has been 25 years since it as co-sanctioned with the LPGA. How the championship evolved and grown into what it is today?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, when I first played it was when Suzann won in 2013. I think that was the first year we had transitioned into this golf course and as a major championship.

No, I think we're the only tour in golf that has five majors. At that point it was our last one of the year. Now it's just our fourth one out of the five. But it has evolved a lot from playing in September to in July, so hopefully we can have more predictable weather with some sun like we have today.

And with Amundi obviously coming along.

But I think the structure of what it's been and what it always is going to be is the same. But it has just I think elevated in so many aspects, including the prize money, but hospitality and the experience people have here.

Yeah, I think it's a trend that we've been seeing on our Tour for many of our events, and I think this is going to be a very favorite and popular spot for many of us players.

We don't get to play in this part of the world very often, so for them to kind of go above and beyond and support women's golf and support our tour, it's really great to be able to represent them and have partners like that between the LPGA.

Q. Looking ahead to this week and ahead to the title defense at AIG, what are some goals for this weekend in France?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I would love to win another major. It would be pretty cool to win -- obviously be really cool to defend the AIG Women's Open. It would be really awesome to win this 10 years later. I didn't think of it as ten years until Grant Boone mentioned it to me yesterday. He was like, is this true? I was like, now that I calculate it, yes, it is true.

Yeah, it's hard. Paul, my caddie, asked me today how many events I won more than once and I think it's only been three or four out of the 23. It would be nice to add this one as a repeat.

I just love coming here for so many different reasons. This is always going to be a special place for me regardless of how I play. I think it would just top my experience I've had in France.

Q. Still an amateur in the French language?

LYDIA KO: Beginner. Beginner level in my French. My bon jour does not get any better over time unfortunately.

I learned what four was yesterday from Celine. I was like, that's my four; how do you say that? She said it and I was like -- I tried to say what she said and I sounded like I was saying cat. She like has the perfect pronunciation.

So, yeah, I've got a long way to go. Obviously I listen to the French language and it sounds really beautiful. I think it's one the most beautiful languages that you hear, yet I have no idea if they are joking or I don't know the context. I just think it's very beautiful. I am a little embarrassed that my vocabulary is within five fingers.

Q. You were talking about all the years of experience and one thing that has come up today is kind of seeing younger players, even amateur players winning tournaments, doing really well. Wonder what's your perspective on that and if you compare it from when you started to what you see now.

LYDIA KO: I feel like this is the third generation that I have been part of on Tour. When I first came on you're welcome Karrie Webb, Seri Pak were all still playing. Hadn't been long since Lorena or Annika had retired. And then the middle, Inbee, Stacy, that was our prime.

And then you were kind of the Jeeno, I guess Nelly fits in between the two as well. I think it's much more difficult to win. Not saying that it wasn't difficult to win then, but I think there is more diversity on the leaderboard; more players from Japan than I've ever seen, from Thailand and from the U.S. where I think it was a little bit more saturated when I first came on Tour.

So it just makes winning more difficult, but at the same time more fulfilling when you do accomplish it. It's impressive. I was telling my pro-am partners today, every single player out here is good. It's like sometimes the marginal differences are luck and your condition. It's just very small things.

But when you see scores, it may seem like drastic differences, but everybody is good and that's why we're all out here.

I think that's why there is so many players out there still practicing and grinding. If you just stay at the same spot, at one point, even if you were at the higher side, you're going to keep coming down. I think it's been awesome to see that inside the ropes and see how much our Tour has grown.

I'm really excited to see where the LPGA can go, and, yeah, at some point I'm going to be stepping away from this game. I think it's only really going upwards from now.

Q. Wondering the specific case of New Zealand, if you see young players coming up, you think about mentoring them being keep an eye on?

LYDIA KO: Yes, I have a fellow Kiwi on the LPGA this year. Fiona Xu. She came out from the Epson Tour. It's been awesome to have somebody else from New Zealand outside of myself.

I said Paris is probably going to be my last Olympics, so somebody like her is definitely probably one of the highest possible candidates to play in LA in 2028. I was like what year are we?

I think we have had a lot of growth. COVID, golf was one of the rare things we could do outside, and I think that period of time really I think jumped on how many junior golfers and golfers in general had in creased in New Zealand. I do hope more juniors get inspired and think golf is cool.

Obviously not only on the women's side but on the men's side, especially with Ryan Fox winning twice in his four starts a few weeks ago as well.

It's really exciting and I'm excited to root on the future Kiwi stars. I hope there are more of us out here.

Q. How is your game different now than it was when you won here many moons ago? What are you looking for in your game now to get back into contention?

LYDIA KO: I was playing a draw at the time, so obviously my ball flight was very different. I do hit it further now than then.

The course has changed in the sense of like when we played in September it was a lot more wet; whereas now, even though we had some rain the past few days, it's not as wet as it could have been in September.

I think just way around this golf course is different. It's funny when you come to these older courses the trees and everything grow in so the fairways and everything have naturally gone narrower because the trees keep coming in.

So I think just my way around this golf course has definitely changed. I remember the year I won I putted really well, so I think that's obviously going to be a really big key for me this week, too.

Q. You know the path of being a very successful amateur. What are the things you see in Lottie Woad?

LYDIA KO: She's very good. She's had a very successful collegiate career and won last week on the LET. I feel like she's one of us at this point.

She gets into all of the majors for I think winning the Mark McCormack Medal, being the No. 1 am. She's got a lot of experience, so she feels like me in the sense of when she does turn pro and come on Tour, she's going to feel -- she's a rookie but not really.

I think that makes a big difference, because when things -- when everything is new it's really hard and there is a period of time where you adjust. But for her, I think it's going to be a little bit more smoother transition, whenever that time comes.

Seems like she's an amazing ball-striker and she's done a lot of things that kind of points to her having a very successful professional career as well. I'm excited to see her and I'm sure she's going to have another good week this week.