FORD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY WILD HORSE PASS

March 25, 2026

Lindy Duncan

Roberta Bowman

Sarah Kellam

Rob Johnston

Whirlwind Golf Club

Press Conference

SARAH KELLAM: All right, welcome inside the media center at the Ford Championship presented by Wild Horse Pass.

I'm Sara Kellam senior manager of content and narrative strategy for the LPGA.

Today we're here to celebrate a really exciting launch of the LPGA DriveOn presented by Ford platform across all of our LPGA digital and social channels.

The original DriveOn series was something our athletes adored and we are so grateful to Ford for revitalizing this content platform, and we hope to provide LPGA members with an avenue and a platform to tell their stories in their own words and share their unique experiences with the world.

We have a really exciting debut story. We are featuring Lindy Duncan and the telling the tale of the 8 that she made on the final hole of the last day of Qualifying School for the 2023 LPGA Tour season. It was a quad. It was a quad that I think Lindy thought ended her LPGA Tour career, but it was actually an 8 that changed her life.

We'll now take a moment and turn our attention to the video screens and see Lindy's DriveOn story.

(Video shown.)

Pretty incredible.

(Applause.)

To celebrate both the launch of the DriveOn platform and Lindy's premier story, I am pleased to be joined in the media center by Rob Johnston, manager of sponsorships and brand activations for Ford; Roberta Bowman, executive strategic marketing advisor, quite a mouthful, for the LPGA; and LPGA Tour veteran Lindy Duncan.

Rob, we'll kick things off with you. Why was it so important to Ford to partner with the LPGA on the DriveOn series?

ROB JOHNSTON: Listen, we are so excited to be partnering with LPGA on DriveOn. It's a perfect fit for us. At Ford we believe in human potential and we love storytelling, so an opportunity for us to be involved with this platform that tells the story of grit, determination, drive, never giving up, it's a perfect fit for us.

Storytelling through the stories like Lindy's is just wonderful, so really excited to be involved.

SARAH KELLAM: Roberta, you were instrumental in the creation of DriveOn platform. What does it mean to you to see this series revitalized in such a strong way with Ford as a really exciting new partner?

ROBERTA BOWMAN: It is really a dream come true for me and for our players as well. As you said, Sarah, this was a really important player platform. What we hear from our LPGA professionals is golf is what we do, not who we are, and DriveOn provides an opportunity to have just a bit of a window to the why behind each of our players.

We are so grateful that Ford invests in those stories and invests in these women professionals, because storytelling is the oldest form of communications and it's still the best.

I just need to say a special thank you to Lindy for trusting us with your story. There is an incredible amount of courage to do what Lindy did, and I hope, Lindy, that we've honored you by telling your story in this particular way.

LINDY DUNCAN: Definitely.

SARAH KELLAM: Lindy, I know you're quite a known athlete out here. You are one of our player directors for the LPGA. You have been so open and honest and vulnerable in this process.

What was it so important to share the story of what transpired in 2022 at Q-School and how you used that as the catalyst to change into the woman you are today?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, thank you. It was such an honor to be part of the DriveOn series and be the first story this year presented by Ford. Truly incredible. I feel overwhelmed.

It was really fun for me last year to have a great year on the LPGA Tour. It was my best year ever. The Chevron was an amazing experience. I sent out an Instagram post after Chevron kind of explaining some of my struggles because I hadn't been around for a few years.

So it was kind of piggybacking off what I had shared on Instagram and had received so much support and was blown away. Players and caddies were coming up to me and it was really -- it kind of blew my mind how people were receiving what I was saying.

So I felt like my story was relatable and I felt like it was something uncomfortable for me to do, and that's why I did it. I'm still so glad that I did.

SARAH KELLAM: I'm going to have one more for you before we open it up. Your story has been everywhere this morning, but we did a little sneak peek for your fellow athletes last night at the LPGA player meeting. Can you just walk us through that experience and hearing that room going into some raucous applause in honor of you?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, that was super school. Roberta gave an amazing introduction to the video. I got chills just running to her speak about how important this series is going to be and how it's come back and been revitalized.

It seemed like the players were pretty encouraged by what they saw, and that's the idea behind the story, is to be inspiring to players out here, the next generation and to keep pushing and going after your dreams and what you love to do.

So I was really excited by the ovation that it got.

SARAH KELLAM: Questions in the room?

Q. You talked about just now that it was uncomfortable for you to do this. I imagine the whole process, starting with Q-School, just turning pro in general is uncomfortable. Part of the process is leaning into that discomfort. In the months, weeks after Q-School, the days are filled with players swearing off golf. I know I've been among them. I am wondering if you could talk about those days and that month following the 8 on the final hole.

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, definitely. We talked about it a little bit yesterday at the Q and A with Roberta. That was one of her first questions, what did you do after that 8?

I reflected on that time quite a bit because it was a very pivotal time sort of not only just in my golf life, but also in my entire life. I had to do a lot of reflecting on why am I doing this, what is my purpose, what do I get out of this?

And I learned a lot of things, the reasons why I play, and I think I found a bigger perspective to the whole thing. I felt like the thing that was holding me back was just I was wrapped up in golf. It was my entire life. So every tournament it was the be-all, end-all of everything.

You can get sucked into that, especially when we play so much and travel so much and you're sort of in this rat race and you sort of forget what's going on outside of this small bubble. There is just so much going on.

And so I really started to think what could I do outside of golf. I started thinking about applying to jobs though I still loved the game, so I was in a weird kind of place trying to figure it out.

I knew that I had the game. I just knew that I was the reason why I wasn't able to actually play my game. So I was trying to figure myself out sort of in that whole process.

And I came away from that 8 feeling very down and like I wasn't good enough and that was the proof that I wasn't good enough.

And when I started to realize that that was actually not true and that it was more the pressure that I was putting on myself that was the biggest limitation that I had, what I was doing to myself, and realizing that I was really hurting myself by having that perspective, I started to write down mantras, life mantras, not just about the kind of golfer I wanted to be, but the kind of person I wanted to be.

That started to feed into my game and I started playing freely. One of the first times I played freely I felt like was last year at Chevron. Had an amazing result and enjoyed that experience so much. I was nervous, of course, but to your point, when you were uncomfortable you can still manage your way through that and enjoy it.

That was one of the most fun weeks I've ever had on the golf course because I just let myself enjoy my game and all the other things that came along with it.

Q. I'm with Girls' Golf and also Backspin, the golf show. I have a lot of listeners that might take away the DriveOn campaign independently in what they can learn from it. Is there something you would tell yourself as a younger version of you or even the girls or the boys, juniors of the future of the game, that makes it about themselves and not competing with others or setting goals like other people do? What would you tell them for making their own way to move forward and Drive On?

LINDY DUNCAN: Definitely. Thanks for your question. That's a brilliant question, and I've thought about that quite a bit. I think that when you're just starting out and if you fall in love with the game and you want to see where it can take you, you have to put a lot of time in.

There is also a lot of cool things that can come from playing golf, not just the golf part of it. The people that you meet. The lessons you learn along the way. The competition. It will reveal so many things about yourself and other people.

It's just such a great place to learn so many things about life. I would say that if you're young and getting serious about golf to work really hard, take your game seriously, and also think about your life alongside golf.

Don't make it your whole life like I did. If I could go back I would definitely talk to myself -- I probably wouldn't listen because my mom told me this since the beginning and I wish I had listened to her.

So maybe that's another thing. Listen to your parents because they have been along the ride and they're doing their very best. So, yeah, listen to your parents, your mom.

But, yeah, to think about interests outside of golf as well. There is so many amazing things that you can do in the game on the outskirts of the game. To really just have fun with it and enjoy it. If you do feel that sense of love and passion with golf, see where it takes and you work really hard.

Q. Question about this week. I see you're paired with World No. 1 and No. 3 going into that. Have you played much golf with those two, and what's it like playing with the players that are all the way up there on the rankings?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, it's going to be really fun. I've played with Charley a couple times and it's always fun. She's a super fast player. I've never gotten to play with Jeeno, so I'll be really curious. I know her. She's just an absolute sweetheart and I love listening to her talk because she's another very inspiring story for all the players out here. Her perspective is really big and she cares a lot.

So I'm very excited to play with both of them and my mom is here this week so it'll be fun for my mom to get to watch us. I'm really looking forward to it.

There are so many amazing players out here. And to get paired is with two incredible players. I'm very excited.

Q. And they are probably going to draw a big crowd. Is that something you look forward to, playing in front of a lot of people?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Q. Question for you. What would be your advice to other LPGA players who are going through the same thing or maybe going through the same thing as you are?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, I would say to spend time thinking about why you're doing this. For me a lot of that came in the process of writing, typing on my iPad or just writing in a notebook and asking uncomfortable questions.

What if you give everything and it doesn't go the way you want it to? That was a question I had to answer for myself, and I avoided that question for quite a long time. Can I feel like there is different ways to love golf or to play the game, and to pursue the kind of person and player that you want to be when you play, you know, think about that type of person. What do they do? How do they act?

We're all a work in progress and we all have things to work on every single day. It doesn't just -- you don't just double click the easy button and change. It's a process. For me I try to write a lot and that has helped me the most I would say.

And also talking to a lot of really smart people. So reach out to people and ask for help as well if that's where you feel like you do your best work, is talking it out.

Q. On that topic of writing, I know your journal has been instrumental and important to you. It led to that moving speech that you gave at the LPGA awards. Wondering if you look back on that journal, your career, journey, and you had to pick a title for that journal what would it be?

LINDY DUNCAN: That's a really good question. So I write a lot of -- like I'll think of a topic or question and specifically write on that, so I have a compilation of a number of different things.

But if I were to give a name to the whole thing, it would probably be just be -- it would be something big, like my life, but not as a golfer or something along those lines. Thinking about, yes, this is about golf. I want to be the best that I can be. But what the main point is is to try to be the best person that I can be.

Q. Thank you.

LINDY DUNCAN: Thanks.

Q. I just had a question for you. In your segment that you wrote for the website you mentioned you worked with a sports psychologist. How soon after Q-School did you reach out to that person, and what did you guys talked about in the initial meeting?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, sure. Raymond Prior is my guy. He's one of my closest friends and we have talked along the way probably since 2020. He caddied for me for a few events in 2020. So he was the one who asked me a lot of those difficult questions.

I didn't want to answer them for years. I just kept putting them off or sort of answering them but not really, and he was the one who really pushed me to the place where I am now.

Also Sean Foley.

So those two guys have been huge part of my whole journey.

But, yeah, he asked a lot of tough questions and it's kind of up to me whether I want to go there with him. Luckily I got to a point where I didn't have a choice. I had to face those things.

Looking back I'm really grateful for that now.

Q. One more question. I was talking to Auston Kim last week at Founders Cup. She told me that she had a word for 2026, which was purpose. Do you have a word or mantra for 2026?

LINDY DUNCAN: Yeah, one of the mantras that I wrote at the beginning of last year is my purpose is to uplift, to care deeply about the world as people in all that I do. That's kind of one of the overarching mantras that I go back to all the time. That is one of the favorite things that came from writing the mantras was Sean me his and then asked me to write mine. When I wrote that one out I was like, okay, that's a cool place to start. A lot of things kind of spiralled from that particular one.

But in thinking about your purpose, it's not just all about you. It's about how you can uplift others. When you operate from that place, it's amazing how much comes back to you without even realizing it. You might realize it later.

But it really is sort of a full circle moment when you think about that.

SARAH KELLAM: Rob, I want to ask you one more before we close out.

ROB JOHNSTON: Sure.

SARAH KELLAM: We heard a lot from Lindy today. She has poured her heart and soul into this project. How much do our athletes like Lindy and so many others inspired those at Ford and your colleagues and yourself off the golf course?

ROB JOHNSTON: Yeah, we can take a lot of inspiration from the athletes here. I think in life we've all had our own 8, whether it's personal or professional.

And you don't really ever lose it unless you quit, that grit and determination to keep going. We got that at Ford in our global employees. We take a lot of inspiration from the athletes.

And for myself personally, getting involved this year in the program and getting to know some of the athletes the last few days, it's been wonderful. Really excited about this story in particular and those that are going to come in the series later this year.

SARAH KELLAM: Before we end our session here today, we have to give a big thank you and a shoutout to Robert Bowman man. She obviously was the catalyst for the DriveOn series in its first iteration and I know is beyond excited to have it back.

We just really appreciate everything that you do for the LPGA and the women on our Tour and really to support our athletes in these storytelling efforts to give them a voice and a platform to share themselves with the world. The work that you do is very important.

ROBERTA BOWMAN: Thank you so much. I'll just say I get so much more out of it than I give. The stories that every one of these players had to get to the journey to the LPGA, every one is different, every one is personal, every one has, to Lindy's point, had an ability to have an impact on others.

So it's part of what we do at the LPGA and we are so grateful Ford for investing, Rob, you and your team, and Lindy for just being you. With that, DriveOn.

SARAH KELLAM: Thanks for joining us here today. We really appreciate it.