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U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2006

Se Ri Pak

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND

RHONDA GLENN: Ladies and gentlemen, former U.S. Women's Open champion and the recent LPGA champion, Se Ri Pak. It's good to have you back.

I'm interested in the week before you won the LPGA Championship and then the week after. What was the difference in the way you felt? You hadn't won in a long time the week before; now all of a sudden you hole that fantastic shot. You must have felt completely different the week after.

SE RI PAK: It does. Actually before the LPGA Championship, I already felt great. My game, it's not really quite the way I want it, but I know it's so close. Just last winter I worked so hard for my swings, and physically I was a little bit off last year but I'm kind of getting back now.

Three or four weeks before I felt a lot better and I struck it a lot better and I felt so strong. I'm really excited every week, and after that I won the LPGA Championship, which is always great. That was big for me. After that, I mean, I'm still last week I didn't really play well as what I'm expecting, but I felt good. I still am striking it well, but I just missed so many putts last week. But I feel really ready to go this week.

RHONDA GLENN: You're coming into the Women's Open, you've won this before, you know how to do it. What are your chances this week?

SE RI PAK: Well, I'm not trying to make anything crazy this week, not trying to make anything really low, low. I played yesterday afternoon, this morning I played 18. Always USGA is the best to find a great golf course for us. It's very stressful. But like I say, the golf course is now so wet and makes it a lot longer, basically longer than what we're used to playing. The rough is basically going to be really difficult. Especially this week, I'll probably try to get stable, like not too much scores up there, not trying to make a big number up there, trying to make a very smart play out there, probably on the leaderboard. I don't think on every single hole trying to make a birdie. This is the way the USGA plans for it.

I saw it in the men's event a little bit, so I know what this week is going to be for us. It's not an easy situation this week. This week just try to go out there and enjoy it, do my best and try to get as smart as I can.

Q. There are about 36 Korean players on the Futures Tour and more coming. What I hear from them is they're here because of you. They were little kids, kind of like Americans had Nancy Lopez, you're their Nancy Lopez. Do you feel happy about that? Do you feel scared about that? Do you feel responsible for them, or what do you feel when you hear young Korean players say they're here because of you?

SE RI PAK: I feel really happy about it basically, yes. The way I'm growing up, the same thing. I've got so many idols for myself, you're looking forward to being in that spot.

I know right now so many players from my country, and at the same time they play so good, so every week you have a lot of pressure on it. I know just the last three or four years there's so many more players from my country, which is good. At the same time they're young and they have such a great opportunity right here to learn themselves. This is the best place for golf, ladies' golf. It's good for them, especially trying to give them not trying to give them, but they're having their own dream about playing the LPGA.

I'm very proud of it and very happy to see that and happy to see them perform well, too. Hopefully I'm trying to do my best to be out there, like one of the leaders, so make sure I just help them to get whatever they need.

Q. To follow up on that question, the Korean players on the LPGA TOUR, so many of them have won and contended. I'm just wondering how many, for lack of a better term, mother hen you are to them, how much they come to you for advice and what kind of things do they ask you?

SE RI PAK: Right now actually there's so many players. Right now we have one gentleman here who helps all the Korean players on the LPGA. They're a lot easier right now than last eight, nine years ago when I first came out on the LPGA. At that time there was no one even here, so I had a hard time making friends here. Now they just feel so comfortable out here because they see the same country, speaking Korean. At the same time it's a lot easier to do that. Right now everybody on the LPGA listens to them and tries to help them. Not only myself, though. For them right now it's so comfortable and easy for them to be on Tour. I don't think it's a big problem for the Korean players right now.

RHONDA GLENN: It was a big difference when you came on the Tour and you were the only one from Korea here. It was hard and you were alone virtually except for your friends and people who worked with you.

SE RI PAK: It was because by that time first time I came out here, I feel like very lonely. Nobody here, I don't have any friends, and at the same time I can't even speak, too. For me everything was not easy to handle myself, at the same time playing.

I have so many stuff to do on the golf course. At the same time I just wanted to be myself. I wanted to make friends but I couldn't speak. That was not easy for me to get used to this Tour. At the same time you're traveling a lot, too. I'm not used to traveling that much. Still, we're traveling a lot. I was traveling myself to everywhere, every city, new golf course and new people, new crowd, new galleries, and just for me it was so much pressure every week. But now every week just so many players seems like out there you can see they're excited about being here and they speak Korean, but at the same time they speak English a lot. Actually they're pretty quick, too.

They play so well, and it seems like they're like comfortable on Tour. It looks pretty good. That's why I say how lucky they are. It's good for them, at the same time good for the LPGA, too, so it's nice.

Q. A lot of players play a lot of years and don't won a U.S. Open. You won yours so young, at age 20. Do you feel like when you look back on it, do you appreciate it even more than you did at the time you won it?

SE RI PAK: Oh, yeah, definitely. Starting from the LPGA Championship, my first major, and then after that second tournament I won was the U.S. Open. It's once in a life. U.S. Opens are so difficult all the time, it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter how your game is ready. Just the way the U.S. Open is always so much pressure now, I mean, I don't know why, everybody is the same way. But after you've played in a U.S. Open I think I learned a lot since that because I know I want to play the golf course, there was so much planning the golf course and so much control out there in myself.

Right now, the last eight years past, I've learned a lot, not only my game, not only my success, just personal, Se Ri, which I learned a lot from myself. At the same time I'm very happy about it being right here, this time, this moment.

Q. What's your lasting memory of Black Wolf Run, 1998?

SE RI PAK: Probably the playoff (laughter). I still remember that. I can't forget about that moment. Playoff.

We went to 18, every single hole just being very somehow it's fun but very, very hard, too, being out there playing. Especially the golf course, played four rounds of a tournament, so I'm already tired, but now I have to play one more day to play at the same time. Anyway I'm going to win or I'm going to lose, nothing in between.

Me and Jenny, we just had so much fun out there, same age at the same time and so many galleries following us on a Monday, which I thought was very impressive. I know at a playoff in a U.S. Open you have so many galleries, but Monday, unbelievable. It's the first time I ever saw that many people out there. So just the moment of the playoff in 1998, for me that was a great memory of it.

Q. Is that still the most difficult golf course you've ever played?

SE RI PAK: Yeah, I feel still that is the best golf course. I'll never, never forget it. That I've ever, ever played at. That was the most hard golf course.

RHONDA GLENN: I think we announced recently that we're going back there for the Women's Open. I believe we are.

Q. As someone who won this tournament at a young age, could you talk about what you see in Michelle Wie's game and whether you think she's ready to win an Open, even as young as she is?

SE RI PAK: I think she's such a great talented player, no doubt about it. She's great she has a great game, she's got such a great swing, she's powerful, she's great. Golf is a game that's not perfect. It doesn't matter how good your game, it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter who you are, you just have to play the golf course. Make sure you're smart enough out there to control yourself every single shot at the same time.

So it's not really thinking about pushing myself to be leading this tournament, just make sure go out there, just one shot at a time. That's the best way for myself. That's the way I'm learning it, just one shot at a time every single time. Make sure not trying to make it perfect, but just make sure I'm playing smart enough out there out of trouble. That's the best game of golf, I guess.

But her right now, her game is ready. She's such a strong player. She hits it long. But like I said, you just have to have more experience. You're out there playing a difficult golf course under difficult conditions and being on top of it. Leading is the most difficult thing, just leading the tournament, there's always so much pressure on it until you finish the 18th, last hole.

For now I can see her, she's great. As I said, she needs to have a great experience. Probably she already has so many experience with her game because she plays so many events with men, which helps her game a lot. I guess this week, yes, she'll have a chance, but maybe sure, just go out there and do her best, and we'll know after four rounds, final round, 18 holes, who's going to get a trophy. Right now everybody has a chance. 140 players, 170 players, everybody has a chance. You can't say me or you can't say Annika or you can't say Karrie or Michelle Wie. Right now 140 players have a chance and that makes it even. It doesn't make any difference who's going to be leading it. We'll know after the final round, 18.

Q. If you hadn't won at Black Wolf Run when you did, in your own mind would your career have been the same and vice versa by winning? How much did that change the way you approached golf going forward?

SE RI PAK: I think it changed a lot. I mean, as long as for me, after LPGA and then after the U.S. Open, after that, I got so much confidence. I don't know if my game is already that much good, I'm not sure I can guarantee that. But I feel just personally I had so much confidence in myself every week I played. I got so much confidence after winning the U.S. Open. After that, that was a great success because mentally, physically it helped me. I just really had nothing to lose out there. I felt so good, so strong, I felt like my game was right there. I can't tell my game 100 percent, but I know my mind, every single time I was ready.

Q. Why was the Korean media so tough on you for the last couple of years, and how much satisfaction did it give you to be able to win the McDonald's and say, see, I still have it, I'm not dead?

SE RI PAK: Well, I think because I'm the first one, leading our country in ladies' golf basically, and I'm doing so well for the last seven years. Everyone had so much high expectation for me to be every single week seems like I always used to be up at the top there. Because people are so much used to it, and I never had a problem before. Like I said, people never realize that the game of golf is just not easy. It's not an easy game. They don't know how much I work for it, how much time I spend at the golf course and practicing a lot and trying to play the best I can. Every single time it's the same routine, and I'm doing so well for it. People are pretty much used to it being that way, seeing me on TV, seeing me on the leaderboard and they're seeing always I'm winning the tournament. Everyone was pretty much high expectation for Se Ri, which they're never thinking I'm going to be going the other way.

I am a human being, too. Now they realize it, and every single time, now every year seems like we have more Korean players doing well and now it's just a lot more comfortable, like they are sharing all the pressure together.

I'm still there, love to see me up there doing well. The last two years I had such a hard time for all the media attention. It's not easy for me to accept it. But now I know I have so much fans out there no matter if I play good or not, just always seeing me out here and playing, that was kept me from giving up on my game. Just so much pressure the last two years, was never happy when I played golf; for the first time ever. But I know my fans out there, it doesn't matter if I play bad, they still love me and cheer me on and they send me letters and send me emails, send me just a bunch of stuff just to be sure they're out there. That makes me feel very strong after that.

After that I said it doesn't matter when I'm going to come back, but I knew I'm still up there, going to see my fans out there. That's what I'm here for. I'm always right now thanking all of my fans still, and no matter whether I get great success.

The last two years has been a perfect time for me to step one more level, upgrade myself, which is great for me. I mean, not easy, but I think it's a perfect time for me to see.

RHONDA GLENN: Se Ri, thank you very much, and good luck to you this week.

End of FastScripts.

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