CPKC WOMEN'S OPEN

August 20, 2025

Lydia Ko

Mississaugua Golf & Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Okay, welcome to the media center at the 2025 CPKC Women's Open. I'm joined by Lydia Ko. I'll ask you one question and open it up here and then we have some on the Zoom as well.

Lydia, this event means a lot to you. Looking back at your records you won here three times. Could you put into words what the CPKC Women's Open means to you and how you've seen it evolve?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, obviously this is where I had my first LPGA Tour win. That was a very long time ago. Feels like a long time ago.

Yeah, it's special in the sense of that first time feeling really is not repeatable to any other event that kind of follows.

Yeah, Canada feels a lot like New Zealand and the people here are so nice and they welcomed me as if I was a fellow Canadian. I know that sometimes -- I played in the past and some spectators were like, oh, if you were Canadian you would've been or second favorite Canadian. I said, I'm No. 1 favorite Kiwi hopefully, so I'll just stay that way.

Yeah, this event is really special. I think the tournament as a whole is probably one of the best championships that we play from the hospitality to spectators, and obviously with Brooke, Alena and many of the other Canadians in the field the Canadian fans get really excited and it's a blast to come here.

I wouldn't miss it.

Q. Next year's CPKC Women's Open is going back to Royal Mayfair in Edmonton. What do you remember about your win there?

LYDIA KO: I honestly don't remember a lot, apart from knowing the golf course was really hard. That was a really long time ago and I think still playing as an amateur you kind of come and play events with a slightly different mindset. I probably had more pressure playing something like the U.S. Women's Amateur as an amateur than as a pro.

So it's just, yeah, 2013, feels like yesterday, but at the same time feels like a really long time ago. I remember the fans being great and probably one of the coolest moments for me was to hole this birdie putt on the last to win.

Yeah, I know that Edmonton doesn't get a lot of sunny days. I know it can get pretty cold in the winter and we're there at that beautiful time the year. When I heard we were going to be back there I was excited.

It's great because we get to go and play these high caliber golf courses in Canada, but because there are so many you don't really come to the same rotation very long. So I think Vancouver Golf Club and the place that Paula Reto and SH won, those are the couple since I played that we've gone to.

So it's nice to be on Tour for long enough that you get to go to those familiar courses.

Q. Speaking of being on Tour as long as you have, the curious thing about this particular year on the LPGA Tour is that there has been a different winner every tournament. What do you make of that and the level of competition on the Tour this year?

LYDIA KO: As much I would love to win maybe a couple more to finish my season, it would be also really historic and cool if we had a different winner for every tournament up until the last one. Just shows there is a lot more players in contention and it's hard to win once, and it's definitely hard to win multiple times in a season.

Yeah, you know, you see from all the players all the players are from different countries, different areas, and I think it just shows a level of golf, the level of women's golf these days. You know, I think there is a reason why all the players are grinding out there to try and get better. Doesn't matter if you're the No. 1 ranked player or you're 100th on the CME, there is always that motivation to keep getting better, to be the one that's hoisting the trophy at the end of the week.

Q. It's funny that you mention that this in some ways reminds of you New Zealand, because the race car driver, Scott Dixon, also makes that joke. He feels like the race here is his home race because it's in the commonwealth. In what ways does it feel like New Zealand?

LYDIA KO: The scenery is obviously quite similar, depending what city we go to it varies. The parts of like Coquitlam and the BC area felt a lot like New Zealand in a lot of ways. I don't get to go back home very much so I think it's the closest to home.

I know Canadians say, ah in the end, but Kiwis also say it too. Even that, as a junior it felt like it wasn't very far from home and I felt that welcome even from the fans.

So I think there is multiple reasons why it's just felt like a second home close to New Zealand.

Q. As a follow up, I'm not sure how much time you've had on the course, but how is it playing?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I played the last eight holes on Monday and then I played the first 11 -- no, 10. I was like, that's nineteen. So 10 yesterday, so I've got to see all the golf course. Past couple days has been a little bit windier with a bit of rain, and I think this area hasn't had much of either in the past few months.

So sometimes the LPGA rolls in and we roll from some interesting weather, so yeah the course I think is probably playing a little bit different to how was it set up coming into the week.

I think because of the wind and the rain there is a lot of mid to long irons into greens. The rough is pretty thick as well. Yeah, it feels like every time I come to a Canadian Open, it feels like a major almost in the way the course is set up.

I think it's a great golf course. It's a good variety of holes. I don't know why, but the front 18, the first 10 feels kind of different to the last eight, so it feels like two different nines.

Yeah, there is a lot of character and some new holes that I'm not used to seeing, but I think it's going to be a great week and I think the person that's going to play well definitely needs to have really good ball striking this week.

Q. It's not about this tournament. Miyu Yamashita, she won the British Women's Open recently. She mentioned she was inspired by you. There are so many power hitters in the U.S. LPGA and when she joined the LPGA she thought maybe she should adjust the power. Then she look at your practice and then you just focus on what you have to do, that she was very inspired. So what do you think like younger generation like Miyu Yamashita is inspired not only by your career but also inspired your practice?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I mean, I never knew that I was that kind of an inspiration to Miyu. The first time I played with her was I think maybe at the Pebble Beach U.S. Open. We played a practice round together. We played one or two rounds at the Olympics as well.

So, yeah, she's somebody that I didn't really know a lot about, but I knew she had so much success in Japan. When you just come on tour and see so many different players you start comparing your game to other people, especially if you see the No. 1 and 2 ranked players hit it a long way and they're great ball striker's, you think you need to hit it farther off the tee.

That's the great thing about girls golf. There is more than one way to do it. Miyu showed how clutch she was coming down the stretch Sunday and as much as length is good and can make the course a lot shorter which could relate to being easier, I think knowing your game best and trying to play within what you're capable of is I think really important.

You know, for somebody that's had so much success like her to say that I inspired her, it's pretty cool on my end to be in this kind of position and to inspire others. I still get inspired when I play alongside the other players, and I see them and go, oh, maybe I should try this or work on this. I think that's a great thing about our Tour, is that we just motivate each other to become better. I think that's why the caliber of golf has just improved.

It's just been great to see, especially so many Japanese players playing so well. I think this is probably the strongest Japanese women's golf has been in a long time. We've always had top players from Ai and Mika the years before.

But there is just so many great players right now. It's really cool to see. I think for all of us, we all kind of motivate each other to some extent.

Q. To stay on the topic of New Zealand, it occurs to me as Ryan Fox won the Canadian men's championship this year, you have the chance to do something pretty cool and have two Kiwis win here in Canada. What would that mean to you and maybe for golf fans back home to win two in Canada?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I wish I had won it first and then there would've been a little less pressure for the second -- there is more pressure for the second person. Yeah, I watched his finish and then I was super excited when he won in Myrtle Beach a few weeks prior to that, and then watched his finish at the RBC and the playoff and definitely that second shot he hit on this final hole that he won in the playoff was amazing.

I think Ryan, even from when we were amateurs, is known to hit the ball is very, very long way. There is a lot of sporting genes in his family and he's just been an unbelievable athlete. To see him do so well and win twice this year on the PGA, it's been really cool.

Yeah, it would be awesome if I can kind of add to the end and just be two Kiwis that win the Canadian Open. But, yeah, that was probably -- I don't really follow a lot of golf, but that was one of the rare times where I just like couldn't stay away and I was just watching whole time. It was just really exciting for us.

If I can add to that excitement for the Kiwis, that would be I think an extra bonus.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the Rolex commercial that you voice the letter to your 15 year old self.

LYDIA KO: The one (indiscernible) featured in?

Q. Yes, yes. Can you give us a little background on the making of that, the script, how much you had to do with it and just your thoughts on how it came out in the end.

LYDIA KO: Yeah, you know, I was talking to Rolex and I said at some point maybe at the end of your career or towards the end it would be really cool to see I guess a collage of the highs and lows of my career. Obviously like that wasn't like my retirement video, but more Rolex to come up with that kind of video, it was really cool.

I think like for me, I was able to kind of fill in the gaps in between and the emotions I felt. As much as sometimes you get caught up in what's going on right now, but when I see my career like that as a whole, it just -- I think I am the player I am today because of all those moments, and probably the lows probably as much -- are probably more significant than the highs. They have they came up with that whole footage, and then with the script I went to a recording studio and pretty much said the same line from five to ten times.

Obviously we're trying to get the right emotions through. It brought tears to my eyes even -- I think more so before my voice was added because I don't really love hearing my voice. I don't know anybody that loves to hear their voice. But, yeah, just seeing that I think it brought tears to my eyes because I think there are things that I personally experienced where I may not have even expressed to my team.

Yeah, it was definitely really cool seeing the six, seven year old me skipping down the fairways in New Zealand to hoisting the AIG Women's Open trophy at St. Andrews. It's a pretty surreal career I've had so far. I think because all of those moments I'm able to enjoy being on Tour a little bit more these days.

You know, I have the luxury of being a bit more free than probably when I first came on Tour. Yeah, definitely cool that I get to share that kind of experience with Rolex, especially because they're my longest partner that I've had to this date. I hope that our partnership continues for a really long time.

As an athlete, I'm obviously very grateful to be part of a brand and have this partnership where they truly believe in me and my journey and they too know it's never been easy. To go and experience this with them was very special.

Q. If I can just ask one follow-up question. The kicker line, the decisions you make are yours; own them. We've obviously watched you grow up on tour winning this event as a teenager. When did you feel like you were owning the decisions for your career? You were so young at the time obviously; couldn't even drive. When do you feel like you came into that feeling?

LYDIA KO: I think honestly hasn't been that long. I think in ways -- and I've been very lucky to have a great team around me since day one. Obviously team has changed a little bit -- not a little bit, quite a bit -- throughout the years. No matter who it's been, I think I've been lucky to work with people that truly believe no me and guide me to making the right decisions.

But at the same time I think when he was young, if I decided to end my relationship with a caddie or with a coach or decided to play this event or that, I think I was still always the biggest influence. When you were so young people think you're under the influence of your parents and that's true. I think to some extent like they're trying to do that because they think that's the best for you.

But I think even from a young age I was -- I made most of the decisions myself. But I think now as I get older, I'm able to take more ownership of that. I believe that all of the decisions I made, whether it was good or bad, whether the results were good or bad, I've no regrets in making them. All of those little pieces make that final masterpiece. If one piece is different than I don't know if I would be the same person or if my career would be the same.