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HSBC WOMEN'S CHAMPIONS

February 23, 2011

Christabel Goh

TANAH MERAH, SINGAPORE

DAMIEN McDOWELL: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to Christabel Goh for joining us in the media centre. Christabel won the local qualifier about three weeks ago to take Singapore's host country invitation for the HSBC Women's Champions.
Maybe tell us a little first that, was about three weeks ago, tell us about your preparations since then you've been here playing at the course. What have you been up to?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, pretty much just been playing on the course, practising around the greens, chipping, putting, pitching into certain greens that I'm not quite so comfortable with, and that's about it really. Spending lots of time on the golf course.
DAMIEN McDOWELL: How many times have you been out here since you've qualified.
CHRISTABEL GOH: Probably around ten, give or take a few rounds.
DAMIEN McDOWELL: And then yesterday, you played a practise round with Nicole Castrale, an LPGA player, who is on an invitation this week; what was that experience like, and what were you able to learn from that that is going to help you this week?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Not what I expected, spent the entire round chipping and putting. For them it's quite easy because the hole locations are about the same every year. They probably move a few inches. They are really, really, attentive. They pay so much attention around the greens. It blows my mind, actually.
DAMIEN McDOWELL: That's a good thing to learn obviously.
CHRISTABEL GOH: Yeah.

Q. (How was the professionals' approach different to the practise round from an amateur's approach)?
CHRISTABEL GOH: As an amateur, you kind of like during your practise round, you just hit the ball, and oh, okay, just chip from around here; it looks like a good spot to chip from.
But they say, maybe if I'm going to miss it, I might miss it here and will chip to a certain location on the green. It's not like random. It's very, very specific.

Q. Will you tell us a little bit, you have a soft spot that went through your mind that you decided to go --
CHRISTABEL GOH: Life in the U.S. is good. Playing lots of golf. Getting a lot better than being here.
Before I left, not very many, was kind of like -- and see where it takes me. You just sit down -- I didn't sit down with my parents and talk about it for a really long time: Yeah, I think you should go to America, it would be good for you; just do it .
DAMIEN McDOWELL: And has it been good for your golf?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Very. Getting better.

Q. What's a typical week like for you?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Tournament weeks are a bit different from regular weeks, but I still play golf and go to the gym and just chill out mostly. Tournament weeks, tournaments I play are usually three-day events, so it will be four days of golf, and one day of rest in between somewhere, and then during a tournament week, I probably spend four or five days at the gym depending how my body is feeling. Non-tournament week is six days a week at the golf course, range, short game, nine holes at least and gym before all.

Q. How many times have you been to the tournament here?
CHRISTABEL GOH: I've been out every single year to watch this tournament. The only -- not the only one I've watched live, I've watched, so that doesn't really count.

Q. What do you think is something you can learn this week?
CHRISTABEL GOH: I don't think that there's the most important thing that I've learned. I've learned quite a few things. Like every single year, I come out and I just try to be like a sponge, hopefully I've been successful and I can use everything that I've learned in the past two years, but just really the amount of attention they pay, everything they do, they actually -- like you can see them thinking about shots, sometimes they talk to their caddie, sometimes they don't.
But it's quite obvious to me, at least, that they don't hit something until they are ready to hit it and they are committed to it.

Q. What would it mean to be paired with -- and who would be in a dream pairing for you?
CHRISTABEL GOH: I'm not fussed about playing with people I don't know, because I don't know like almost everyone. I don't speak Korean. I'm assuming they speak some form of English. If they don't, there's always the caddies. I'm not worried about that.
Dream pairing, probably myself with Yani and Na Yeon, since we are quite good friends. So that would be interesting.

Q. Inaudible.
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, it's always been somebody against everybody else. Yeah, everyone is competing against everyone. I suppose people kind of write me off, but that's not a big deal. She's world No. 1, and I'm just like local qualifier, not quite on the same page.
But quite a few people are playing well, so it's just out there and being the favourite doesn't mean that you have an advantage.

Q. Do you think right now, the environment for female golfers is there --
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, tournaments like this help a lot. If I were like an upcoming junior golfer, I would be like just excited to come out and watch. Hopefully people will be excited to come out and watch me.
But I mean, it's a lot better now than when I started playing. It's a lot easier for juniors to get out on the course. It's a lot better when you have pros that are actually willing to teach juniors and bring them on the course; not just like the parent are giving me lots of money to take care of their kids for an hour. I'm not saying it was like that when I was younger, but it was more difficult for me. My dad had to get permission for me to get out on the course, to get my handicap down.
HSBC has been really supportive of the juniors, and you can see like tons of kids out there. They are trying to bring golf to everyone and it's not so much an elite sport anymore. They are going in the right direction. It might be easier if they had more tournaments but I understand with the schedule and everything, it's difficult.
DAMIEN McDOWELL: You touched on people coming out to watch you this week; who were you expecting? Your family, your father is coming?
CHRISTABEL GOH: My parents are going to be out all four days. My sister and boyfriend might come out over the weekend. I have I think some friends who might come by; I'm not going to name names.

Q. What do you expect from yourself this week?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Like performance, goal-wise? Or just anything?

Q. What do you wish to get out of your golf?
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, I expect to be a much better golfer once the week is over, eventually. Not saying that it will happen on Monday morning and I will wake up and like, yeah, let's go shoot 59. I can try and probably won't happen.
But, yeah, I mean, just going to try and watch them, learn, see what they do different from me, maybe take up a few things and just go out and have fun and play golf. It's a game, after all, so why not just enjoy it, right.

Q. (Inaudible.).
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, to me, being a favourite, there might be added pressure depending on what kind of person you are. Sometimes it helps being the underdog. It really depends on your mental state I guess.

Q. (Inaudible.)
CHRISTABEL GOH: Well, she's been doing it since she started playing golf every time she tees it up, it's like, Yani is there. She bombs it on the first hole and she's going to just kind of rip through the golf course and play something that everyone else isn't playing.
DAMIEN McDOWELL: Thank you, good luck tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a big crowd watching you and will be eager to see you sometime tomorrow afternoon. Good luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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