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RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENSeptember 12, 2012Colin CallanderPaula CreamerGuy KinningsShona MalcolmSimon SasakiWIRRAL, ENGLAND COLIN CALLANDER: Good afternoon. Can I start without any further ado to introduce the top table panel, nearest to me on the left side you are looking at Mike Whan, Commissioner of the LPGA. Next to him is Guy Kinnings, Global Managing Director, IMG Golf; and next to him is Simon Sasaki, Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Ricoh Company, Limited. Next to Simon, as we all know is Paula Creamer, who is the Ricoh Global Ambassador and world No. 14. Getting toward the far side next to Paula is Shona Malcolm, Ladies' Golf Union's CEO, and last but not least Alex Armas, Executive Director of the Ladies European Tour. I'll now ask Simon to say a few words on behalf of Ricoh. SIMON SASAKI: Good afternoon, everybody. First I'm very honoured to be here today. Thank you all for coming. It has been a great year for sport here in the U.K. The Ricoh Women's British Open follows a series of major global events, such as Wimbledon, Olympics and Paralympics. This is our sixth year as the title sponsor of this tournament. The first time the tournament was played with the Ricoh name was 2007. I'm sure many of you remember it was at the Old Course in St. Andrews. We are extremely proud to have been working with you, the LGU, IMG since then together seeing the tournament go from strength‑to‑strength. We bring the best players to the Open each year, and we have received extremely positive feedback. We have an opportunity here to provide the ideal platform to discuss business challenges and to learn more about how to improve and to help discuss business challenges. It also gives us an excellent opportunity to show our commitment, and this year, to communicate the meaning behind the new tag line, 'imagine. change.' So what is next? Well, we have good news to share with you. It gives me great pleasure to announce today that Ricoh is extending its commitment to the Women's British Open for another three years. This will include the 2014 and 2015 and 2016 championship. That takes us up to ten years as title sponsor of this tournament. We look forward to further building on the momentum that has been created. Just before I finish, I would like to share one last thought about this historical year of golf. We have seen the professionalism and commitment from so many sports stars in a wide range of disciplines, from athletes to swimming and tennis. Now it is the turn for golf and the celebration of this great tournament. I hope we all have the opportunity to hear many more great stories here at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club. Thank you very much. SHONE MALCOLM: Clearly the Ladies' Golf Union and our partners and IMG, are delighted that Ricoh has delighted to extend it's sponsorship of the Women's British Open. This is fantastic news not just for our championship but for women's golf. In the current climate, nothing can be taken for granted and for a prestigious grand like Ricoh to make this sort of commitment, it's a testament to the strength of the championship. It's been a pleasure working with Ricoh since 2007, and indeed showcase our championship associated with such a high‑quality global organisation. This announcement reflects the importance of this championship, and the LGU is committed to playing the Ricoh Women's British Open only on world‑class courses. Since we started our partnership with Ricoh, we have visited Sunningdale, Royal Lytham & St. Annes, Royal Birkdale, Carnoustie, and now here at Royal Liverpool. Next year we return to the home of golf where it all started, at the Old Course at St. Andrews. All of these courses are world renowned, showing the commitment of Ricoh, the LGU, IMG and our partners. We bring the British Open only to venues that provide wonderful test of golf and provide an exciting challenge for the best women golfers in the world. I'm sure you'll hear, Ricoh Women's British Open, that it looks right, even more so, after Ricoh's great news on Ricoh's extended sponsorship. Thank you, Simon. GUY KINNINGS: Ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests. The Ricoh Women's British Open is a unique tournament in golf. IMG has been running golf events for over 50 years around the world but of all of the many projects we are involved with, this event here is undoubtedly is one of the most prestigious, working with the prestigious governing bodies, LGU is a privilege. And they have charged us with managing all aspects of the Championship outside the ropes. So that includes all commercial aspects, which brings us to the excellent news that's been announced today; that Ricoh has decided to extend their already generous commitment to this great championship until at least 2016 is a wonderful indicator of the excellent team that Ricoh and the LGU and IMG have together with our partners the LPGA and LET; a ten‑year commitment, which it will be in the end, shows Ricoh's loyalty to the event and to ladies golf, and it shows that the tournament delivers real return on investment. Ricoh's new corporate tag line, 'imagine. change.' may have been good in that mantra in their vision and their ability to develop the same property in exciting new ways. In tough economic times to show dimension, delivering on sponsorship promises it becomes ever more crucial. As anyone in sponsorship will tell you, re‑signing a long‑material sponsorship deal is 100 per cent down to whether the sponsorship itself is delivered on all of its promises, and this ever‑involving strengthening championship is continued to deliver on sponsors partners players and spectators. The women's game is glowing in stature globally in geographical and demographic terms and works hard to present the best product for its partners. It's a testament to the governing bodies here and the LGU and the game's stars, and that's led by players by Paula who understand the need to make an investment like Ricoh's really work. I would like to thank Paula for taking the time out of her busy schedule to be here to show her support for the event and for this announcement, but that's in a sense of what we come to expect of her and the player body in general. The Ricoh Women's British Open is a wonderful showcase for the game of golf displaying all of the wonderful assets that the game has to offer. I hope we all enjoy, I hope you all enjoy your week here at the outstanding Royal Liverpool Golf Club and after many championships to come, supported by Ricoh, thank you. PAULA CREAMER: Being an ambassador for Ricoh is just a huge thing for me in general, everything that they do and they represent and the fact that they are so heavily involved in women's golf, and taking this tournament to a whole other level, I think this is probably one of my hardest British Opens that I've been at, and I don't know if we would have been able to have the chance to be here if it wasn't for Ricoh. On behalf of all of the players, I think it just shows the dedication that we have to the game and how they come to us, as well; just with the new tag line, 'imagine. change.' people wonder, how do you‑‑ between Ricoh and women's golf, but we change and we imagine and we believe all of these things into one and we work together as teams and they both correlate with each other so well; and the fact that we can continue on for another three years, and hopefully many, many more years after that. But ten years in a British Open, that's pretty amazing to be a title sponsor. And like I said, I thank for believing not only in me but in our Tour. Q. After last week, have you recovered, and how do you look forwardto playing with Shin? Would you like to play with her again or would you like to avoid her? PAULA CREAMER: I've played with her a lot lately, so either way. I feel good. I feel very positive. I mean, it's tough what happened, yes, going into a nine‑hole playoff and just everything that happened was a little bit out of the order, if you could say. And you know, I told myself, the moment I stepped on the plane coming here, what happened, happened, and you know, if somebody would have told me that I was going to be in a nine‑hole playoff the Monday of Kingsmill to win the tournament, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. I didn't feel that I lost the tournament in a sense but at the same time I learned a lot, just coming back, playing one hole and playing the same hole eight times, things like that. It's just‑‑ looking back on it, that was one thing that my dad and I talked about was writing down what I learned, the experience. I watched a little bit of it last night before I went to bed, and you know, there's really nothing I could have done differently or I would have done differently in the playoff, maybe just make a putt a little bit sooner, but it was kind of tough to do. And we are here this week and like I said, I've been in playoffs before and I've been able to bounce back after that. This golf course sets up incredibly well for me. I hope it stays this windy and this hard; I like that; I enjoy it. I don't know how many players can say that, but truly I like the challenge. We are here one week, and we don't get this very often. So let's make it as hard as we can. Q. We saw that you came and played the course a few weeks ago. What did you learn from that trip that you can kind of put into play this week? PAULA CREAMER: Well, when I played, I was in shorts and a short‑sleeved shirt and there was zero wind. I got to play it actually twice. The first time I played it, I had no wind, and the second day, I had kind of like when it was today when it died down a little bit, so I got to see what it was like. So just seeing the golf course, in reality and in looking back on it, it's great that I did it because I only got to play today and a couple holes yesterday. You know, I didn't get a whole practise round just in today. It was seeing the golf course helped in that way. But just lines, things like that. I got to see some of the golf course that I didn't want to see when I came here first, and I knew where to avoid and where not to go; wind like this, conditions like this, a lot of it you can't control. But definitely am very happy and I think it was a smart idea what we did. Q. Do you have any comment for Shin? Would you like to face her again or how do you feel about that? Are there any other Korean players that you're looking out for? PAULA CREAMER: When I tee it up on Thursday and I tee it up on Sunday, I'm playing the golf course. I'm not playing a specific person. I've always had that mentality. Maybe coming down the back nine or however many holes obviously you're going to against somebody; and the situation last week in a playoff, match play, you're going against her; Jiyai is a great player and she wouldn't have been there if she wasn't. She's proven herself for the max, that's how good she is. But there's not one specific person, and if we meet again, we meet again. You want to play against players that are playing the best, and you know, like I said, when I tee it up, I don't play a person; I play the golf course. COLIN CALLANDER:  We thank Ricoh for their great support for this tremendous championship. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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