LOTTE CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY HOAKALEI

October 1, 2026

Jin Young Ko

Hoakalei Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Jin Young Ko after her first round at the LOTTE Championship. Jin Young, you had a bogey-free round today. How difficult is that to do on a course like this, also with the weather conditions as well?

JIN YOUNG KO: Yeah, it's been a long time to shoot like under like 70, but overall I play really nice. I thought it was shower but it was pretty long, so we had some break before to play.

But course is very soft. Greens are soft as well. And then one of the harder thing is like judge of speed on the green. Without that, I don't complain anything.

Q. You mentioned just staying ready. Obviously staying loose. (Audio skip) in order to just kind of stay loose through the weather?

JIN YOUNG KO: Not really. Just trying to having fun in Hawai'i. I love here. It's been almost over 13 years to come here, so pretty nice. Yeah, I've had good memories in Hawai'i so I'm trying to think about that like on the course.

Well, rain is not easy, but we cannot control the weather, so, yeah, just accept it.

Q. Yeah, and 14 out of 14 fairways hit. What was feeling so good about your driver? Obviously a lot of success in that area today.

JIN YOUNG KO: Well, I had little struggle to driver this like early of the season, but I change something and I trying to focus myself. This is my eighth year on Tour. It's getting hard to focus myself because young generation is coming up and I felt like I'm very old.

So it's kind of disappoint me so it's so hard to focus myself. I just trying to focus myself. I don't know, everyone is very young and everyone hits very far and straight, so I need more keep grinding.

Q. Then you mentioned your love for Hawai'i. Is there anything specifically you might be doing on your time off the golf course here?

JIN YOUNG KO: Well, I love acai bowl and Musubi. I want to go to the -- like I want to go to Waikiki yesterday but it has little traffic so I couldn't get there.

Maybe Coco Head after this event or Ko Olina the beach and something good food. Some beer or like nonalcohol.