JM EAGLE LA CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2026

James Hochrine

Walter Wang

Shirley Wang

Chris Stine

Casey Ceman

Jill Painter Lopez

Allisen Corpuz

Alison Lee

Andrea Lee

Press Conference

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Good morning, everybody. We're here today for media day for the JM Eagle LA Championship. Before we get started, let's take a look at the TVs and take a look back at 2025.

[Video shown.]

JAMES HOCHRINE: Good morning, everyone. My name is James Hochrine and I have the privilege of serving as the general manager and COO here at El Caballero Country Club, affectionally known as El Cab to all of us. Many thanks to our board of directors who are here with us today, as well.

From our dedicated membership and our incredible staff, it is a distinct pleasure to welcome you to the 2026 JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro. We're honored and excited to host this premier event on the LPGA tour in its second consecutive year and to share the club's commitment to history and excellence.

El Caballero has long been devoted to supporting women's golf. Our legacy includes hosting the LPGA tour from 2002 to 2004, where Hall-of-Famers Seri Pak and Annika Sörenstam left their mark as champions. We also have hosted two USGA championships, including the 75th U.S. Girls' championship in 2024.

Designed by the legendary architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr., our golf course is challenging yet rewarding. Five years ago we invested in a transformative $10 million renovation guided by his son and renowned architect himself, Rees Jones, for what you see today.

This golf course posed a formidable challenge to the world's best players over its history, and we're eagerly anticipating seeing today's top female professionals take it on.

Beyond the game, El Caballero has always stood for inclusivity and community. Founded in 1957 by Bernie Shapiro, the club was built on principles that were groundbreaking at the time, ensuring that race, color, creed, gender, or religious belief would never be barriers to membership.

Instead, Mr. Shapiro envisioned a club where members were defined by their character and generosity, values that continue to guide us today.

We would like to extend our deepest appreciation to Walter and Shirley Wang for their unwavering commitment to the championship and the greater Los Angeles community. Through their leadership at JM Eagle and Plastpro, they have not only elevated this tournament, but have also made a profound impact on wildfire relief and recovery efforts throughout the region.

Their generosity and vision inspire us all, and we are honored to partner with them in making this event a huge success.

I'll leave you with these words from our founder Mr. Shapiro: Life is both play and pilgrimage. Life is good word and the world's reward is good friends, good food, good sport, and good times.

Thank you for being here today, and we hope you enjoy your time here at El Cab.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Thank you, James. Now I'd like to bring up to the stage Walter Wang, Jr. and Shirley Wang. We will get started with our first panel and our media day.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Jeremy Friedman. I'm the vice president of public relations for Outlyr, the tournament operator for the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and the media director for the tournament. Thank you, everybody, for being here.

I love seeing a lot of familiar faces at this tournament each and every year.

Before we get started with the program, I want to say a quick thank you to James who was just up here and his staff for the tremendous hospitality today, for hosting the press conference, for the media golf this afternoon, for the awesome pizza that y'all are going to be eating in about an hour.

Also, we have several members of the board of directors that will be with us, so thank you for opening your golf course to us and to the game's greatest players to showcase what they do best in about a month.

We have a couple of great panel sessions coming up. I want to give a big thank you to all of our panelists joining us today. First and foremost, to my left, Walter Wang, Jr., and his mother Shirley Wang. Mr. Wang, Jr., is executive vice president with JM Eagle. Shirley is CEO of Plastpro, title and presenting sponsors of this great championship.

Shirley's husband Walter wishes he was here today. He is traveling somewhere in the world today, so he sends his regards. He is so looking forward to the event coming up in about a month.

We have a lot of great announcements coming up, as I mentioned, about the LA relief and the continued LA fire rebuild. We will do that in the second panel. We also have Casey Ceman representing the LPGA tour, vice president of tournament and business affairs with the LPGA tour. Casey, thank you for joining us today.

I also want to give a special shout-out to this young lady, Mo Martin. Mo Martin is an LPGA major champion. She is a longtime friend. She's a Los Angeles resident. She shared media day last year, her story. Her childhood home, her mom's home was lost in the fires. Her AIG Women's Open trophy was also lost in the fires, along with a lot of other relics, but her trophy.

What The R&A and AIG did right before this championship, they made a new trophy and returned it to her. Mo has been a huge supporter of the ongoing LA relief and rebuild working with Walter and Shirley and family. Mo, thank you for being here today.

Closing out our panel sessions today, over here to my left, we have three of the greatest -- we have major champion Allisen Corpuz, we have LPGA tour winner Andrea Lee, and we have Ladies European Tour winner Alison Lee, three Los Angeles residents and natives. We have USC, UCLA, and Stanford properly repped.

When they come up on stage, Jill Painter Lopez with CBS and Golf Digest will moderate. It might be an entertaining panel when you've got Stanford, USC, and UCLA all together. Ladies, thank you for being here today.

2023 marked the dawning of a new era for the LPGA tour with this championship, with title and presenting sponsors JM Eagle and Plastpro. Dedicated to growing women's golf, the Wang family in the first year of the tournament doubled the tournament purse from $1.5 to $3 million. They were the first LPGA tour to feature a $3 million purse.

In 2024 they said, well, that's not good enough; let's bring it up even higher. They elevated it to $3.75 million, which that's where the tournament purse is today.

Fellow LPGA tour events note: This year in 2026, 13 tournaments on the LPGA tour outside of the majors, regular season events, have purses of $3 million or more. That is a testament to the Wang family and their dedication to the LPGA tour, to women's golf, to women's sports. They want to be trendsetters. They want to elevate the game.

In 2025, Ingrid Lindblad, LSU, she was the top-ranked amateur in the world. She had won everything in college golf. Just prior to this event, her third professional golf tournament on the LPGA tour, she won. She won right here.

We've got a tremendously strong field. You guys in the media, you should have received a news release in your inboxes about 15 minutes ago about the early commitments.

In addition to Ingrid Lindblad, we have Hannah Green. As early commitments in addition to these three ladies here, we have several Los Angeles LPGA players who have committed including Ryann O'Toole, Gabi Ruffels, Lilia Vu and the list goes on. We have a couple of sponsor exemptions.

Turning to my left, Walter Jr. and Shirley, thank you for being here today. We're approaching our fourth year of this championship. In 2024, this tournament was named the tournament of the year by the LPGA tour, a significant, significant achievement. In 2025, this tournament took on a greater purpose with what happened just a month prior with the LA fires.

Shirley, I'm going to start with you. You and your husband, Walter, have shared several times your passion for this event. Share with us how this started and the growth trajectory the last four years and how you've seen this tournament grow.

SHIRLEY WANG: Thank you, everyone, for having us here again. My better half, Walter Wang, sends his regrets that he couldn't be here, and he really wishes he could be here, but he had to go for a trial so he could not be here. But he sent the better version of him, Walter Wang, Jr., so you've got me and him.

I'll just tell you a little bit about the history of us starting this LA Championship. We're LA residents. We believe in LA, and we always felt that the LPGA needed a strong and spectacular championship. That's why we thought we had to increase the purse for the women, so we did. We doubled the purse to $3 million, and then in 2024 we raised it to $3.75.

What I think is even also great this year is that it's going to be a celebrity-studded event. We're going to really be Hollywood now. I think we're excited about being here and doing this.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Walter, same question. When your parents started as title sponsor, you worked for another company, so you were the fan kind of watching on. Now you're with the family helping them to run this championship. For you, how cool is it to see the growth and the success of your parents' vision with this championship, and now with you involved in it, continuing on in 2026?

WALTER WANG JR: Yeah, thank you, everyone, for coming today. Yeah, it's been really exciting watching sort of this tournament grow. I mean, if anyone knows our family, this really extends the competition between my mom and my sister who play golf and compete every single time.

To go from there to where we are now where we're sponsoring an LPGA tournament, we're the title sponsor, it's just super exciting.

Our companies, we talk a lot about getting better every year, we talk about being a role model. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the pipe in the ground at this golf course is our pipe. We just want to make sure it gets better every single year. And that puts a lot of stress on our team because they have to deal with that expectation. But we just want to make it better every single year.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Shirley, you touched on this briefly, but yesterday was International Women's Day; you are very passionate about women's sports. How thrilling has it been for you to be a part of this championship and shining a spotlight on these players and women's sports as a whole?

SHIRLEY WANG: Well, being a woman, of course, I'm going to say I have a bias for us, right? In Chinese there's a saying: Women hold half the sky. If you really look at it, the women's purse is one fifth of the men's purse. Women have just as many expenses and they have to pay the same airfare, the same hotel room, and many of them also have to raise their own families, right?

For them, we say we have to raise the purse so we can elevate their standards of living. We're so happy through the past few years that 13 of the LPGA tournaments have risen to above $3 million. I'm so glad we're raising the tide for women.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Walter, talk about this coming year. What are some of the initiatives that fans and all of us can expect in 2026.

WALTER WANG JR: Yeah, I think this year we're really trying to really play into the LA theme. We're really trying to make this a celebrity, star-studded event. That's number one.

I think another thing that we're doing for the players is we're providing hotel room accommodations for the whole field. I think we started a trend at our LPGA party where we do this huge raffle, so all the players show up. They have to be there to get their prize, so they have to be there.

I think we also do a lot with promoting golf to the next generation. My father is very involved with the DEA, and he had the DEA bring in a lot of underprivileged kids from local communities to come in and meet the players and learn about golf. First time they've ever been on a golf course, first time they've ever had a club in their hand. So I think that is very important to us, as well.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: In 2025, as I mentioned earlier, this tournament took on a much bigger theme and a much bigger role within the greater Los Angeles community. This event was one of the first outdoor sporting events and the only professional golf tournament, men or women, that was conducted here in Los Angeles in 2025. The Wang family wanted to use this tournament, I'm going to use your phrase, as a beacon of hope and a respite for the greater Los Angeles community.

The starting of your partnership, talk about why you wanted to use this tournament as a platform to elevate the Los Angeles community, have them rise from the ashes? If you could share a little bit about this in 2025 and then looking ahead to 2026 and your big announcement for today.

SHIRLEY WANG: Well, we saw what happened. He lived through it. Like, he couldn't sleep at night because he's like, am I going to get evacuated, am I going to get evacuated. There were many people who lost their homes and lost their trophies and lost their memories and all this.

Being part of LA, how we're part of the community, that's why we donated $6.5 million to the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department, to relief and recovery. We saw how we needed to help the whole community to rise from the ashes. We donated heavy equipment to help make the fire lines and also sandbagging equipment. These are all things that are necessary.

Then we also donated generators for fire departments that are underresourced. We wanted to be part of it and help out.

WALTER WANG JR: Yeah, I think it's really important to understand that this is our home. I went to high school here. I live here. My wife and I, we were here during the fires, checking our phones and the Watch app and getting the texts that say, hey, you might need to evacuate.

I called my dad, I called my mom and was like, so I want to go to your house. What do you want to save because we're packing the car, putting everything in the trunk, so what is valuable to you.

I think going through that lived experience, we realized that, wow, the firefighters are there day in, day out, at night, 24/7 just fighting these fires and leaving their homes. And we realized that we needed to support. We needed to help rebuild LA. We needed to help the first responders do their jobs.

I think that that's what we decided to do with the family's generous donation, and I think we're doing that also for the tournament.

You'll see the people in Altadena and Pacific Palisades, (indiscernible) It's more, hey, we're just doing our part as Angelenos.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: The first responders and the military (indscernible) the provide the complimentary admission.

We also have a special (indiscernible), hole number 10. Its called the SERVPRO Hero Outpost. You were there last year. It's exclusively for our heroes. As you said, it's something small, but it's something that is impactful and important and something that we want to do.

Again, thank you.

Looking ahead to 2026, the floor is yours, about how you're continuing the partnership with the LA Firefighters Association and the donations you're making in 2026.

WALTER WANG JR: Yeah, I mean, this year we announced that we're going to rebuild all the firefighters' homes from scratch, everyone who lost their homes. So that's exciting.

A big part of why the fires were so bad is because the pipe system was wrong and there was not enough water pressure. I don't want to speak for you all, but what I heard was the firefighters didn't have enough water pressure when they hooked up to the fire hydrants. And that's partly because of our water infrastructure here.

So we want to figure out how we can be more of help in rebuilding infrastructure and donating more to where we're making a huge impact.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: I'd like to bring up the five families of the firefighters who are here today of the homes that they are rebuilding. Chris, if you could come up to the stage and take my seat.

If you could introduce yourself to the audience and also explain the LA Firefighters Association and then your partnership with the Wang family.

CHRIS STINE: I just want to start by saying thank you to El Cab, thank you to Outlyr and Jeremy and all the LPGA tour, JM Eagle for their hospitality. We did this last year. We're here again this year, and we've never felt so much like family. We feel like when we interact with each other, we feel more like family, but when we're welcomed into an organization like this, it means everything.

I'm Chris Stine, I represent over 15,000 firefighters, active, retired and the surviving families of those firefighters. What we do, we celebrate 120 years December 6th this year of doing this work. We do help families that have lost their loved ones. We have about 800 widows and widowers and 86 children that lost a family member to in-the-line-of-duty deaths.

We provide hope for these families that things are going to get better and they're going to be made more whole. It's really hard to be completely whole after having a loss like that, but I can see that the work that we do has that effect. And partners like JM Eagle help us do that in a way we've never experienced before. JM Eagle has stepped up to the plate like no other company ever has for our organization and has made a bigger impact for our firefighters than any other company ever has in the past. That's a lot.

One of the things they came to us was they said we want to make sure that the efforts we put forward are going to be a direct effect and we want to see that direct effect happen, and I think we're doing that as we roll this out for 2026.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Chris, I think you have a -- well, I'll leave this as another teaser.

Shirley and Walter Jr., with Chris, if you can just talk about your partnership with the LA Firemen's Relief Association and how much it's meant to you as a family and also for the greater Los Angeles community.

SHIRLEY WANG: You know, there's a lot of organizations that ask for money, let's be honest. And you're wondering if it's real, if it's going to make an impact, if there's going to be a lot of administration fees, is it going to make a difference. We're so glad that Sean found Chris and he says, yes, we are the ones that if you donate to us, it'll go directly to these people. It's been very true.

I have seen the families that come up to me and say, oh, it really made an impact to their lives. It warms our heart.

It also breaks our heart what happened, but we're just so happy that we found a great partner and Chris has been with us all along the way doing this. So we appreciate all of you.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Chris, also last year at this tournament, members of fire station 93 and a few others, they got to come out along with everybody else and just have a respite and enjoy professional golf at its best. How much did that mean to them with everything that they have been doing to fight for our lives in 2025?

CHRIS STINE: Thank you for the question. For weeks on end, months on end with the wildfires, for them to have a good time. And the LPGA tour were super welcoming. They let all of our families come up on a day where kids were the focus and allowed us to just have a good time. A lot of our families are golfers, so it was a great match.

We have our local fire station 93 just down the street who protects this club and the surrounding area, so we're glad to have them. And I believe on the days of the tournament we're going to have them up here, too, just to interact with our folks and be here just in the presence of all our Angelenos. I am too born and raised in this city and care a lot about this city, and that's why we're passionate about the work that we do.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: I believe you have one of the families that you would like to recognize and bring up to the stage.

CHRIS STINE: Yes, sir. So we have a total of five families that were helped by this generous donation from JM Eagle. Four of them were LA city firefighters, and we have one firefighter from the city of Pasadena.

Jerry Puga, if you can come up here. I would like Jerry to tell his story because I think it's more impactful when somebody who went through the loss of his home -- he's a captain of the LAFD. His wife, Kelly, couldn't be here today. He also has a son who's an LA city firefighter, lost his home in the Altadena fire, and I'll let him speak on not only the loss of his home but the help that he's received.

Jerry, if you could just speak on those points.

JERRY PUGA: First I want to thank JM Eagle, Walter and Shirley, for your generosity and help. It's been beyond what words can say. Thank you very much.

As you all know, we lost our homes January 25. Most of us were either fighting the fire or trying to protect other homes. When we came back home, we found out that our houses were gone. So we had a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of things of what are we going to do, how are we going to get back to our homes, how are we going to rebuild our homes. Even though we all had insurance, once we started seeing the costs of rebuilding, we were like, oh, there's a big gap in between.

So Chris along with the Los Angeles Firemen's Relief Association through the Widows, Orphans & Disabled Firefighter's Fund has been there from day one. They came (indiscernible). Our angels, Shirley and Walter, came through, and boy, it has made a difference.

We've been about a year and a half more or less. When it first happened, my thoughts were in a year, year and a half, I'm going to be back. Well, that's not the case. The insurance money that we had and the cost of rebuilding, it's been like, what are we going to do because the numbers just are not -- with the help that they have given us, we all have been able to proceed forward.

We are all in the planning phase. All five families are more or less in the same area where hope that all of us will start building soon, and we hope that sometime next year we all will be back home. Thank you.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Thank you for sharing your testimony, and behalf of all of us, thank you for all that you do for us.

Chris, I think you have a special presentation and gift.

CHRIS STINE: Yes. Just, again, Shirley and Walter, we want to welcome you. We know no other way than to do it the firefighters' way. We have a plaque that was made by John Morosco (phonetic) here on the left, and he is a woodworker. He painted obviously the colors of the flag. We would like to present this to you. We hope that maybe you'll display this somewhere in your headquarters or in your museum as Sean was talking about that you guys have there.

We'll deliver it to you when the time is right, when it's convenient, but we would like to bring this up, present this to you, and maybe we can get a couple photos of this awesome plaque just showing appreciation for JM Eagle.

SHIRLEY WANG: It will definitely be prominently displayed in our office so everyone can see.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Everybody, thank you. Gentlemen, thank you. Jerry, thank you.

Walter and Shirley, thank you.

[Hannah Green video shown.]

Thank you, Hannah, Shirley, Walter. You can return to your seats.

I would now like to welcome up Casey Ceman, vice president of tournament affairs of the LPGA tour along with Jill Painter Lopez with Golf Digest and CBS. Alison Lee, Allisen Corpuz, and Andrea Lee, welcome to the stage.

CASEY CEMAN: Thanks, Jeremy. Excited to be back here today at El Cab.

Walter and Shirley, you guys continue to be the best advocates that we could ever have at the LPGA tour. As Jeremy was talking earlier, you guys have been true trendsetters in everything we do here, not only here at the JM Eagle LA Championship but across the LPGA tour, from dramatically raising the purse to the player and fan experience throughout the week to what you've done here in the community. It's truly remarkable, and we're proud to be partners with you guys.

I remember sitting here last year with Chris and the team and our first responders. It gives you chills listening to some of these stories that this city and the community have gone through. And I think what struck me as most impactful was Shirley and Walter telling the story about how intentional you were with how you gave back to the community.

It wasn't just writing a check, as Shirley was talking about. You made sure those contributions were being allocated to where they needed to go and really make a difference in the recovery. So thank you again for doing that.

This is so much bigger than golf. I think we're just excited to be a small part of what you all are doing in the community. Let's give them another round of applause.

I love having the opportunity from time to time to attend these media days and talk a little bit about what's going on at the LPGA tour. The numbers are impressive. We're going to be playing for over $132 million across the calendar this year, which is a new record for the LPGA. Again, thank you for being such trendsetters and elevating these purses for our athletes.

I think last week we spent some time out in St. George, Utah, Black Desert Resort, Allisen had a chance to join us. We hosted our first ever partner summit where we brought our title partners and operators across the calendar, and the energy coming out of it was certainly palpable.

You may have seen our commissioner, Craig Kessler who recently started here with the tour, had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with Laura Rutledge from ESPN to give a little peek behind the hood of what's coming. I think there were probably three (indiscernible). We recently announced an upgraded broadcast partnership in partnership with FM, the title sponsor of our event in Boston, Golf Channel, and TrackMan, which is going to dramatically improve our broadcast, and just really elevate the quality of how we show up to the world, not only for our players but for our events.

We're going to have 50 percent more cameras during the broadcast, three times more microphones, and four times more shot tracing in the broadcasts. This is an investment that we're super excited to make, and the JM Eagle LA Championship is going to be one of the first events to show up that way to the world. So we're super excited about that.

Secondly, we just completed the biggest ever piece of fan research that the LPGA tour has done, just to learn more about who's consuming our product. I think the message was really clear that the fans love the authenticity of our players. They show up with grace and passion every single week. And then, two, they love the up-close-and-personal nature of our events where our fans are right up there with the players, and it's just a great experience.

I know our partners JM Eagle, Plastpro, and Outlyr are laser focused on bringing that to life each and every day. So we're excited about that.

And then, third, we talked a lot about the work we're doing to identify and promote the stars of the LPGA tour, and there's a lot more to come on this. It's still in its early phases. But I can't wait to share some of that with all of you as the tournament approaches in just a few short weeks.

As you can see, we're super pumped about where the LPGA tour is heading. Wouldn't be possible without everybody, all of our partners in this room and the media. Thank you all for being here today.

With that said, I'm going to exit stage right here. I think I'm going to turn it over to Jill (inaudible). Thanks, everybody, for being here today.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: Thank you, Casey. I appreciate it. I'm honored and privileged to be here with the celebrities. We talk about the celebrities that are going to be here this year, and of course you guys, there's none bigger than the players themselves. Allisen Corpuz to my left far, Alison Lee, and Andrea Lee, thank you for joining us here and taking time out of your schedules to be here.

I'm going to start with you, your thoughts and reactions to what Walter and Shirley Wang have done this this tournament especially the building of the homes for these firemen here?

ALLISEN CORPUZ: I just think the investment that the Wang family has put into not just obviously women's golf but also just the local community has been just really inspiring. I had a few friends affected by the fires, as well, living up in Altadena. And just to see how they've been approaching the rebuilding process, it's really inspiring to see what they've invested back into the community.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: All of you have ties to the LA community. Alison, I know you have a friend who lost their home in the fire, too. What is it like being from this area, seeing the devastation but then also the home that has come out of it?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I feel like typically in a really big community such as this, LA County is so big, it's very rare that you see a community this big truly come together and give back to the community. Obviously what happened during the LA fires was so devastating. I have quite a few friends who lost literally everything.

Yeah, even just us as friends trying to come together, donate to our local friends, help them build back their life, trying to do everything we can. JM Eagle, Plastpro coming together donating so, so, so much money to the LA community and bringing the LA community together. Like I said, I feel like that's so rare to see and doesn't happen very often.

Yeah, it's really cool to see what your family has done, not only for the LA County community and I'm sure you guys do so much more that we haven't seen or that we haven't talked about today. It's just really cool to be a part of and witness it all.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: So many great activations over the week of the tournament, and some of them we talked about. Last year I got to tag along while you got to go to one of the fire stations not long after the devastating fires and talk to the firefighters and take a tour. What did that mean to you?

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, it was an incredible experience to meet with the firefighters that fought the fires last year. And what they do every day is incredible, what they continue to do for our community. Got to see a little bit of the ins and outs and got to see inside an actual fire truck, which was pretty cool. And the tools that they use to fight the fires, they're all so heavy, so they always have to be in such great shape.

It was just a really cool experience for me and a couple of the other players to see that firsthand. Just reminds us to be so grateful for you guys who continue to preserve our community and fight the things that we don't encounter every day. Thank you to you all for being here, to our first responders and firefighters and police department. It's truly inspirational what you guys do for us.

Q. Alison Lee, your thoughts on coming back from -- congratulations on having your son Levi last year. You tabbed this tournament to come back as your debut back again on the LPGA tour. Why this one?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, I had a baby last year in April. He is now 10 months. I've played a few events here and there. I actually was planning to make my LPGA return in May. But I feel pretty good about my game. I feel like I'm very, very close to getting my full strength back. My game is very close to where I want it to be.

I'm going to be playing my first LPGA event right here at El Cab, so I'm really excited about it.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: That's great. We're the lucky ones to have you here in the field.

Allisen, what is it like for you having played golf at USC to have this tournament where you played collegiate golf?

ALLISEN CORPUZ: Yeah, absolutely. I don't live here anymore, but LA was home for me for over eight years, I believe, and it's still a really special to have a home game. I have a bunch of friends and family that come to this event to watch me play. It's just a really special thing. The pro-am party is a lot of fun. I've benefitted from things that Walter and Shirley have given to us in the lottery.

It's just overall such a great week all throughout. Putting us up in a hotel for the week (indiscernible) commitment that JM Eagle has made into this event and into us. It's awesome, and it's a fun week, and I'm looking forward to being back.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: We talk about how special it is that you guys are all here. Allisen and Andrea have come back from the Asia Swing so they're still a little bit on jet lag. But so many of the activations that the Wangs have done including, as you mentioned, Allisen, the hotels.

Andrea, you live in Hermosa. How much does it help to not make that commute and be able to stay in this area?

ANDREA LEE: It helps so much. Walter and Shirley have done an incredible job growing this event over the past four years, and we're so grateful for everything that they do. This is a tournament that I look forward to every year now. It's a home game for me.

I live about an hour away down in Hermosa Beach, where I grew up. Coming back here and playing in front of a home crowd, in front of a lot of friends and family who typically don't get to see me play in person, is really exciting. It's just always a week that I really look forward to.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: One of the cool things about these three ladies is beforehand they had a chance to catch up. They're all so supportive of one another. They may get together for a practice round at Riviera because as you guys probably know, the U.S. Women's Open is at Riviera.

What do you think this can do for junior golf having the JM Eagle LA Championship here at El Cab and then the U.S. Women's Open at Riviera?

ALISON LEE: Growing up in Los Angeles for me, a big part of me and golf and falling in love with the game and wanting to pursue this as a career was being able to go to these golf tournaments and observe as a five, six, seven-year old. I feel like that's so important for the community, to be able to go out and see, this is what I want to do when I grow up, what does it look like, how are these girls playing golf. And I feel like being able to have all these events here in Los Angeles, growing up for me the closest tournament we had was (indiscernible).

I remember still to this day being six years old, waking up super early with my dad and driving two hours to Palm Springs to go watch a tournament. I feel like that's really affected me so much.

So I think it's really cool to have an event here, super local. And we have multiple events here now in California this year. To have this, to have the U.S. Open in a couple of months, as well, I feel like it's great for the little young ones to be able to go out and witness women's professional golf.

For other people to be able to watch women's golf and see how talented and great these girls are. Golf has grown so much over the last few years.

And just to see what the Wang family has done, too. I remember when they announced this partnership with the LPGA and they announced that it was a $3 million purse, all the girls' jaws just dropped to the floor. Because when I first came on Tour, a lot of our major events purses were $3, $4 million, and now I think with them stepping up, you see a lot of our purses going up, you see the major purses up. I think everything has been a snowball effect.

Yeah, just really excited to basically play here locally, have friends and family come watch -- because we travel and we have around 20 to 30 events a year, and it's very rare that we get to play in front of friends and family -- it doesn't happen very often. It's nice we get to do it a couple times.

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: Allisen Corpuz, you were very successful at a young age. Last year you were part of the junior golf day which I know is the favorite activation of the Wang family. What does it mean to you to be giving back to the next generation?

ALLISEN CORPUZ: Yeah, echoing what Alison just said, I think every tour player now has some story of being a young girl and being able to attend an event. For me, I was six years old in Hawaii at the Fields Open, just collecting a bunch of signatures after the 18th hole. You just kind of grow up and go to an event to see -- even before you're watching the golf, you're interacting with the players. Everyone out here is so nice.

On the other side of it, giving the signatures to all of these junior golfers and hopefully inspire the next generation, it's always just really cool for me to kind of feel like it's a full-circle moment where I was inspired by all the women golfers. And now hopefully I'm able to contribute to the legacy (indiscernible).

JILL PAINTER LOPEZ: I've covered a lot of golf tournaments. I have never seen an LPGA player not sign an autograph when there has been a kid that has come by. Real quick, your thoughts on why you guys are so invested in doing those kind of things?

ANDREA LEE: At the end of the day, it's just to grow the game. Golf has grown a lot in recent years. I feel like ever since COVID there's just been all these people taking up golf, and all of my friends think it's so cool now. I remember being in middle school and telling people that I golf, and they always thought it was an old people sport and it was so lame. And I'm like, it's cool now.

It's always amazing to see the young kids come out and watch us, support us, find inspiration. It's amazing to see how many young kids have taken up the game in recent years, especially the girls. It's awesome. We never not have a smile on our face. Even if I make a double bogey on the last hole, I'm always willing to sign autographs even though there's a little pain inside still.

But yeah, it's great for the game. It's fun to see all the young faces who are taking up golf now. Yeah, it's just awesome.

Q. For Alison Lee, do you think you'll plan to introduce your child to golf and what takeaways from your own junior career will you keep in mind and why?

ALISON LEE: 100 percent. I definitely would love for him to play golf. Obviously I hope he likes it, too. That's, I think, the main thing.

But yeah, I feel like golf in general you just learn so much about yourself and about life when you play golf. You learn patience. You learn etiquette. You learn how to not shout the F word every time you make a bogey. You just really try and stay composed.

I just feel like golf, you just learn so much with the game. Obviously me being a professional, in a perfect world, I would love for him to pursue it professionally or in college or something like that. But I think just introducing him to the game and being able to play as a family -- I feel like golf is a family sport, as well. Just so many positives from it. Hopefully he can learn to love it.

The word so far has been ball. We have golf balls all over the house. He'll pick it up now and say ball.

Q. Recently I joined my school's golf team and a lot of the girls are still beginning and I think they're getting a little frustrated. If you were going to give advice to a golfer like them, what would it be?

ANDREA LEE: I know that's what my dad did with me. He played golf for a long time but he never wanted to pass down his bad habits to me. I think that would be the biggest thing is just find a solid golf coach to get the basics down. I feel like it's always good grip, good setup, good alignment. Those are things that even I check still. Just finding a good swing coach and just having fun with it more than anything.

Golf is such a hard game. It requires so much patience. I feel like just try to have fun and not get too discouraged, but also just try your best.

ALISON LEE: I would say the main thing is just try and have fun. Get a few girls together, and even though you don't play great, even though you go to the range and you're just starting and they miss the ball a few times, just try to do it again. Just try and have fun.

I played high school golf, as well. My freshman year I played at CIF. I think I shot at CIF 69 and our second best player shot like 105.

But still, I'm glad they kept with it. It's just something you want to do and have fun. You just want to bring the girls together. I feel like not enough girls play golf. I feel like they usually trend to a lot of other sports, team sports. Golf is an individual sport, so sometimes it's a bit intimidating and tough to get into.

But if you can get your girls together, it just takes one time and then trying to go one more time. And then you guys can keep going as a friend group.

I know you like to play, so just keep inviting them out. Even if they say no, ask again and again and again, and hopefully they come out.

ALLISEN CORPUZ: Yeah, I think it might seem a bit far away for you, but I've had a lot of friends now recently pick up golf, and they're just like, you never told me what a business opportunity this was. They're kind of getting into it that way.

No, I think just the longevity of the sport. This really is one of the only sports that you can play for the rest of your life. You'll go to the range and there's a 90-year-old man hitting golf balls still.

Just going to keep working and really just making it fun. I just think it's such a unique sport where you can really enjoy it at any level as long as you can put your ego to the side and just say, we're maybe not out here to be the best golfer, we're just out here to have a good time. I think that refrain is always just going to help you and your friends.

Q. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but obviously all Los Angeles residents, at least for some part of your lives. And I'm wondering if you've given any thoughts or had any experience with the idea of the LA 2028 Olympics being here and what it would be like for you to be in position to qualify for that team or just what the Olympic experience has been over these past few cycles and the game's popularity.

ANDREA LEE: It's a huge goal for all of us. I know it's personally on my mind. It would be amazing to call myself an Olympian, having competed in the Olympics in prior years. So it would be incredible to have that opportunity.

It's pretty tough to qualify for the U.S. Team. Very competitive. But we'll see where we are in two years' time. But it's definitely on my mind, and the fact that it will be at Riviera Country Club is pretty special. Definitely thinking about it.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's definitely in all of our minds. I was this close, very, very close, and instead when I missed it, I said, all right, let's have a baby now.

I think it's really cool that we have the U.S. Open at Riviera this year. I think it'll be a great little sneak peek into the future. And I honestly am really worried about what the situation in LA is going to be like because it's already so crowded here.

But I hear they're going to be using a lot of the UCLA and USC facilities as well, which is cool for us having gone to school there. But we're all super supportive, and I definitely will attend.

ALLISEN CORPUZ: Yeah, I haven't competed in the Olympics, as well, but definitely a big dream of mine, and hopefully if it happens, it happens, and if not, like Andrea was saying, it's so tough to make it. But definitely will be tuning in. I don't know if I'll be attending with all the traffic.

But no, it's awesome. I know for sure the Coliseum is slated to host a few other events, as well. So really special to just know the area and know that it'll be hosting the Olympics in a few years.

Q. I wonder if you can drill down a little bit on the Open being at Riviera. The area that was ravaged, and obviously the importance to that community as well as what it means to each of you.

ANDREA LEE: I think it's been a long time coming. Our first U.S. Open being held there is the first exclamation point. Obviously the fires came really close to burning Riviera Country Club itself, which would have been awful. And thankfully it was saved, as awful as it was, a lot of homes lost, obviously.

But I think it'll be incredible just overall as an Angeleno and for the LA community as a whole, to have such a huge women's event being hosted there. I know it's really special for me and Alison and Allisen to be able to play there and have a major championship there. I think we're all really excited and looking forward to it.

Obviously golf is just such a small part of everything that has been going on over the past year, and everything else trumps really anything else. All we do is hit a white ball around the golf course. Hopefully with this event it'll bring a lot of people together, a lot of Angelenos together just to enjoy. And hopefully we'll be watching some of the best golf by some of the best players in the world.

ALISON LEE: I couldn't have said it any better than that. Southern California for some reason breeds great golfers. So many great golfers have come from Southern California. To have a major championship here is a really, really cool experience, I think, for everyone, especially for us, obviously, because we have some ties here.

I feel like a lot of the time, a lot of girls don't typically on our tour enjoy coming to Southern California. I feel like there's a stigma around here. There's always so much traffic. They feel like there's not very many places to practice. Allisen and I left to live in Las Vegas for tax reasons, obviously, but yeah, I think it's great that we're having more events here.

There's so, so, so many amazing golf courses here, and I feel like a lot of the time if we do potentially make a stop here, we don't really get to play a lot of those cool places.

Over my career, it wasn't until the last few years where we would play incredible venues. For the USGA, for the LPGA, for people like the Wang family, having us play at really, really cool places in Southern California, I think, is really important for the game. I just see it getting better and better. It's been really cool to be a part of, and we're really excited.

ALLISEN CORPUZ: Yeah, I think Riviera being the host this year is just a testament to how far the women's game has come. It's just such an iconic and historic location, and I feel like the USGA and the LPGA have really just stepped up our major championship venues. If you look at what we have upcoming, it's just phenomenal to see the investment into the women's game that we've seen the past few years and what we'll continue to see.

Yeah, just being in Southern California, I think it really speaks to the resilience of the community, just coming back after the fires and just hope to see a lot of people out there and supporting us.

JEREMY FRIEDMAN: Women's golf is going to shine a spotlight here in Los Angeles over the next couple of months for sure. Ladies, thank you for joining us today.

[Ingrid Lindblad video shown.]

Ladies, thank you.