KROGER QUEEN CITY CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY P&G

May 13, 2026

Lydia Ko

Maketewah Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: All right, we are joined by Lydia Ko at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G. Lydia won this event in 2024 but here in a new location. Going to go play in the pro-am in a little bit. Have you been able to see the course yet, and what are your thoughts so far?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I played early 18 with Anna yesterday, but back nine is very unique. I think in saying that I think if the course setup is played really well. I think it's going to be really fun.

There are lot of tee box options, so I think some holes can play quite long and some a little bit more risk/reward.

Yeah, it's exciting. It's always nice to come to new golf course. I feel like we are all starting on a pretty plain slate, clean slate, so I think it's going to be fun.

I kind of have no idea what the scores are going to be like to be honest. I think just with how crazy they go with pin locations and tee boxes, I think that's going to be probably the biggest key on how the scores will be.

But I think it is a style of golf course that can be really fun when it is played the right way.

Q. That was going to be my next question. You mentioned not sure what the scores will be since it's the first time out here. How does that factor into your game plan as you head into the first couple rounds of the event?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I just obviously have to play the best I can with how they do set it up. There are a few holes where if you don't hit your driver to a certain point the hole can be very different. You know, you could go from literally hitting a flick wedge into the green or having a mid-iron or even a long iron.

So I'm not really sure how the rules officials are going to play that out. But, yeah, just because there are a lot of tee box options, and with the contourings of the whole golf course, I think they can really make it exciting.

So hopefully that will be the case going forward. But as much as there are hard holes I do believe there are some birdie opportunities. It's unique that there is only two par-5s and it's a par 70. Maybe it's not as easy as some other golf courses.

But the golf course is not like super long to start off with anyway, so I do think there are birdie opportunities outside of the two par-5s.

Q. Then I believe one of the last times I spoke to you was after your 60 at Ford. You mentioned you and your putter were in a honeymoon phase. Checking on the putter and how we're doing?

LYDIA KO: We broke up. (Laughter.) I'm not with that putter anymore, which is funny, because a lot of people were like, why would you change from the putter that you shot 60 with?

But it was I think just a one-off, one-day honeymoon. I played good that week in Phoenix. After the first day I really didn't hole anything that was past like makable range, so I was kind of getting a little frustrated.

Even when I missed the cut at Chevron I drove it really well. My irons could have been a lot better, but my putting was probably the thing that really needed to get my momentum going.

And I put in a new putter actually last week. You know, the first day was the best day I putted with it, so I joke that maybe I should have a new putter every day or every tournament, and, you know, I'll kind of have that honeymoon phase a little bit more often.

But the putter that I was with last week is what I have in the bag this week. It is quite a big change from my putters before because I was in like a half-mallet, center-shafted putter for a really long time.

So even changing that putter in Phoenix was different because it was like the putter prior was something that I had used for years. But this one has a completely different hosel configuration with the head, so it is a different look.

But I felt like it was probably going to take time for me to get used to it. If I'm going to change I needed to have changed last week or this week before the U.S. Open rather than taking a new putter for the U.S. Open.

I do feel like it was a good change and I feel really good. Last week's greens were pretty hard to kind of like make that be an assessment of how I'm putting, because the greens are severe there. There are a few holes here where the greens are pretty slopey.

All in all, I felt like what I was looking for in my stroke and in my putting I was able to see, so it was a good change. So, yeah, it's hopefully something that's going to stay a little bit longer in my bag, yeah.

Q. Last one from me. Your hair claws are kind of the rave the social media recently. Got any new debut hair claws coming out any time soon?

LYDIA KO: Yesterday Anna got me a watermelon clip and a turtle clip. I have the turtle clip here today. Nelly sent me like a link of this chili pepper and I was like, maybe it's Spicy Sundays.

So, yeah, there is a few just from what my husband got me and my sister and a few of my friends. And fan gave me actually a seahorse and a shell last week, too. So with the collection I feel like I need a whole bag for all the clips.

But, yeah, I didn't think of it as a fashion statement at all. I just like food, so I started with a taco and had a few more, and it's kind of become what it is now.

But, yeah, it's nice to jazz it up a little bit. It's been pretty funny that other players have been like, I think this will be good for you, too. Yeah.

Q. With your love of food, is there a certain food clip that you would just love to find, you haven't been able to track down yet?

LYDIA KO: I love sushi, so like maybe something like sushi-related would be really cool. Anyone send me a link if they see it.

But, yeah, it's funny that I don't even have a clip of my dog, which I have gone to the extremes of getting things of my dog from towels to mug cups and all these things. So people are like, oh, soon you're going to have a hair clip of Kai, which sounds like something I would do.

But, yeah, it was just I thought it was fascinating that there was a taco clip. My husband was like, please don't tell me you had that on when you shot 60, and I did.

So it kind of became a lucky charm thing. Just I don't really like my hair sticking to the back of my neck so that's why I had it. Yeah, it's been quite fun to chose what goes with this and that, yeah.

Q. You were talking a moment ago about this golf course, not seeing anything like it, not knowing what the setup will be like. When you see a course like that, if you ever have before, what is your mindset and how do you approach a course when you have a lot of question marks?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, I obviously had only really 18 holes, so like pretty much only once to see every hole out there. So I'm just trying to get a good idea of what the course is going to play like. Obviously the day of and the weather plus the pin positions are probably going to be the biggest things on how the course is going to be played out.

But, yeah, I think it was just good for me to just get a good idea of what the golf course looks like and just kind of take it in. You don't want to ever go to a hole and be like, whoa, this feels like a completely new hole that I've never seen before.

Sometimes practice rounds are about trying to just get used to how the course conditions are and at the same time, just trying to get that imagery in your head and be like, okay, doesn't matter how it's going to play, at least this hole feels familiar to me.

I think the cool thing about this golf course is there is a lot of shaping to the holes and some holes where it's completely blind because the fairway is way below you or way above you so you don't really know what's up there until you get there.

So I think that's kind of where I spent most of my time yesterday, trying to be familiar with it. But it's not like anybody else out there has more of an advantage than anybody else. It's really the same. Ultimately doesn't matter if you play a major championship golf course or a golf course you played ten times or ten plus, if you play good golf you're going to get rewarded.

So that's what I'm trying to do out there.

Q. How would you assess your overall start this season to this point in the year?

LYDIA KO: I feel like I played really solid. I missed the cut at Chevron, but it was probably one of the best driving weeks that I had. I just -- my irons weren't great and it was the type of course where your second shot needed to be good to set up a lot of birdie opportunities. Even when I did, I didn't take any advantage of my putts.

So I think it's been hard to get the momentum going. But I've been working hard with my coaches in the ball striking department, and to kind of see that pay off and even under pressure to be a little bit more consistent has been great.

And it's funny. I'm 13 years in and I'm still excited to try the new technology, something that could help me. Excited to see, okay, what kind of club adjustments or swing adjustments would be beneficial for me under the gun when I'm playing.

So I still have that excitement, so I've been really working hard with the Titleist reps here, Ping reps, Scotty Cameron reps, and it's been fun, which is like something different. I think a little bit of a different demeanor I've been taking as well.

Just with the combination of work I've been doing with Chris and Holton and Si Woo, I feel like I'm in a really good place going forward. Sometimes I think the hardest thing is to bring all the puzzle pieces together, and I think that's kind of what's lacking for me a little bit, that I still feel like I'm playing really solid golf.

So I just kind of have to try my best to kind of not pressure, give myself extra pressure to bring it all together, but ultimately try and do that more frequently.

Q. Lydia, you touched on the course's two Par-5s. So it's got two par-3 finishes on nine and 18. It's sn anomaly on the LPGA Tour. Talk about the par-3 on nine and par-3 finishing hole on 18 for you guys.

LYDIA KO: I really hope it's not into the wind on nine. I was joking, I might have to hit like a small driver. It's like 200 to the front, but it's not like we can hit from any other tee boxes because it's either 200 or 60. So there is not many options going forward.

Not very often do we hit woods or long -- it's woods for me, but long irons for some of the longer hitters into a par-3, so it is unique. I always think like if you finish on a par-3 it's almost like you've already hit a good drive and now you can almost preferred lies and put yourself in a really perfect position to hit and attack the green.

I think like it's just honestly as simple as that. Sometimes, oh, it's a par-3 finish, it's different. Hey, I just got to imagine I hit a really good drive and now I have this into the green. Nine is definitely the more difficult one out of nine and 18.

I do love that 18 is kind of on the short iron length where I think there would be potentially a lot of birdies coming in, and that always creates a little bit of drama at the end of Sundays.

It's fun. I think that's the cool thing about this golf course. You could end up hitting a lot of long irons and short irons and wedges, so you just have to play very strategically.

But the rough seemed actually quite long, so driving it well is probably going to be the most important thing around here.

Q. Last one: We are starting a stretch on the LPGA Tour of being in kind of like the mid-market cities. So here over 50,000 fans were here at this tournament last year and coming into a stretch where the communities just come out and support you guys in droves. When you're in markets like this and on Thursday you have fans all along the first tee cheering you guys on, as players how does that elevate you? When seeing all the young girls and the kids that are on the first tee and also waiting to sign -- get you to sign autographs, how does that elevate your play to inspire the next generation?

LYDIA KO: Yeah, even for the Cincinnati area, we've played in three different areas from TPC River's Bend to Kenwood, which is a little bit closer to this golf course here. We have kind of moved around, so it's probably been good to be the spectators that are also local to the areas.

The great thing about this golf course is we're closer to Cincinnati so hopefully that attracts even more of a bigger crowd than we did maybe being in more the rural parts or rural outskirts of Cincinnati itself.

Yeah, it's always I think exciting for us to come when we're kind of one of the biggest and most exciting events of the year, sporting events of the year to the area.

I think that just always creates a lot of excitement. And we're back -- I think we used to play in September or something, so we're back, you know, in eight months, so I think for the golf fans and juniors that came out last year or the previous years, they're excited that it's been less than a year for us to come back.

But it does seem like we attract a little bit more fans when we are kind of the coolest thing in town. I think personally as players we love that. We love the interactions we have with the future generations. We know that the 12 year old that got our signature will keep it and be like, one day I want to be in her shoes.

That's I think probably one of the biggest and most important things that we can do, is to inspire those juniors going forward and kind of spark their little dream of wanting to play on the LPGA someday and playing these kind of events.

I obviously didn't grow up in the United States, but for a lot of them I think it's something for them to be very proud of to like play in their home state or in their cities. I think that is kind of an inspiration itself. Yeah, it's very exciting.

I think having it like in different areas have kind of helped in that sense of creating a little bit more traction towards our event. I do hope this is something that continuously grows.

Yeah, I personally love seeing -- as much as I love seeing all spectators, the girls, the young junior girls and boys that are dreaming of becoming the next Nelly Korda, next Minjee Lee, Scottie Scheffler, who knows, or the next me.

Yeah, it's been very exciting. Ohio is a very special state for me personally because I won the U.S. Women's Amateur in Cleveland and I've had actually wins in Toledo and Cincinnati and all that.

So it's been a state that's been very good to me, so I am trying to give back as much as I can while I'm still out here doing this. I'm excited and hopefully a lot of people will be able to come because it's a great golf course. I think if you stand in one area you can actually see a lot of golf not only on the one hole that's out there.

Q. Last one: You talked about other wins in Ohio. What is it about Ohio that just suits your eye?

LYDIA KO: No idea. If I had that, I would probably play more in Ohio or ask the Tour if there were more events here.

But I did notice that I seem to win in areas that I've won before. Like I've won a few times in Florida, won a few times in California, won a few times in Ohio. Never really played well in New Jersey kind of area.

But who knows. It's like that was kind of a goal of mine, was to win at different locations in different tournaments that I've never won before.

I think like outside of just winning in different areas, it expands the type of golf courses I can really compete at a high level at.

So I'm trying to like not jinx myself in that point.

Yeah, I feel like the fans have been great and I think we're going years back but Covid was kind of the first time where it was like, wow, it's so different playing without them.

So having them all the time I think you kind of take it for granted. But when you have something like the pandemic like that, you realize how big of a difference they make.

I love all the love and support that I've gotten so like maybe that's it. But I don't really know if there is a common denominator apart from Ohio has been great to me. I'm just trying to give back as well.

THE MODERATOR: Perfect, thank you so much, Lydia.

LYDIA KO: Thank you.