Hana Bank • KOLON Championship 2008
Sky 72 Golf Club, Ocean Course
Incheon, South Korea
November 2, 2008

Final-round interviews: Candie Kung | Katherine Hull | Paula Creamer

Final-round notes

Kung holds on for fourth LPGA Tour victory at Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008
Seven-year Tour member earns first win since three-victory season in 2003

INCHEON, South Korea, Nov. 2, 2008 – Candie Kung's ninth-hole eagle during Sunday's final round of the Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008 pushed her into first place (70-71-69=210, -6), enabling her to later enter the winner's circle for the fourth time of her LPGA Tour career and first time since 2003. By sinking her lob wedge from 76 yards on the 545-yard, par-5 hole, she broke away from a pack of players at 4-under-par to earn the $240,000 winner's check of the $1.6 million purse.
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“I've been pretty close a few times this year and just happy to be back and finally get a win before the season ends,” said Kung, who pulled her left hamstring in the shot prior to her eagle. “It's been really cold this week, and I've been hitting the ball solid, so the wind didn't really affect that much. I know that I was going to hit good shots, every time I stand over the ball, I know the ball was going to go where I'm looking at, so (I) pretty much just played each shot by each shot, and it turned out well.”

Kung is now the 17th player this season to win a LPGA Tour event and second from Taiwan after rookie Yani Tseng won the McDonald's LPGA Championship Presented by Coca-Cola. They represent two of five Taiwanese LPGA Tour members.

Throughout the final round of the 54-hole event hosted at Sky 72 Golf Club, the title was anyone's for the taking. No fewer than eight players floated in the 4-under-par range all day until Kung broke through with her eagle. Shortly after, first-round leader Katherine Hull, of Australia, made her move on the back nine. Hull's first-round 6-under-par 66 was a course record, however, a second-round 4-over-par 76 dropped her to a tie for ninth. Hull (66-76-69=211, -5) was even par for the day through the 12th hole, but then three birdies in four holes (13 through 16) brought her to 5-under-par. A lip-out for birdie on the 18th nearly pushed the event into a playoff.

“I hit it okay on the front and made some good up and downs and didn't get anything going until the end really,” said Hull, after earning her seventh top-10 finish of the season for $991,660 in 2008. “The greens were so pure that they were the best part of the golf course. You have some tricky pin placements yesterday and obviously you have to be really accurate with your club selections, so it was a fun golf course and I'm looking forward to playing it next year for sure.”

Lee is high finisher among past champions. Jee Young Lee almost became the first of the Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008's six past champions to repeat as the winner. Lee (74-74-69=212, -4) entered Sunday's final round tied for 11th and carded her second consecutive round of 69 (-3) to finish tied for third, which was the best performance of past champions. LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Famer Se Ri Pak continued her top-20-or-better streak at this event as the 2002 champion tied for 17th at even par 216 (71-72-73). Defending champion Suzann Pettersen couldn't gain momentum throughout the week. After starting off with an opening-round 77, she followed up with a 69 and 74 for an overall 4-over-par 220 and tie for 34, while 2006 champion Jin Joo Hong tied for 60th (76-70-81).

Kang, Kung own all eagles. Jimin Kang carded two eagles during the Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008, while champion Candie Kung picked up her fourth eagle of the season on the par-5 ninth hole. The three eagles were all that were carded among the field of 67 all week.

Kung (70-71-69=210, -6) eagled the par-5, 545-yard ninth hole to take the lead at 6-under-par overall, which she held down the homestretch into the clubhouse for her fourth LPGA Tour victory.

Kang's eagles were her eighth and ninth eagles of the year, occurring with a pitching wedge from 99 yards on the 13th hole in the first round; and a 7-iron from 162 yards on the fifth hole during Sunday's final round – both par 4s of 327 yards and 403 yards, respectively. She finished the tournament tied for seventh with rounds of 72-71-70=213 (-3).

Kung earns stay at Canyon Ranch. Candie Kung will be able to celebrate her Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008 victory with an all-inclusive stay for two at a Canyon Ranch resort. She is the 17th LPGA Tour member this season to earn the package. In a combined effort to promote health and overall well-being among Tour players, Canyon Ranch will provide every winner of an LPGA event with one all-inclusive stay at one of Canyon Ranch's two destination resorts.

WD/DQ: In the first round of the Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship, Eun-Hee Ji and Joo Mi Kim were disqualified because Kim's caddie and Ji accepted transportation between the 18th green and first hole when making the turn. Because the violation was not discovered until after their round had been completed and scorecards signed, the two were disqualified. Angela Park and Ji Young Oh were assessed two-stroke penalties for the same infraction, however, rules officials were notified of the situation when Park and Oh were on the third hole and the issue was resolved prior to them signing their scorecards, thus the two-stroke penalty.

It was specified in Rule 4 of this week's Supplementary Rules of Play, which were given to all players in the field, that players could accept transportation between the first green and second tee; sixth green and seventh tee; ninth green and 10th tee; and 16th green and 17th tee. It is prohibited for players to accept transportation at any other time during their round of competition.

Final-round interviews: Candie Kung | Katherine Hull | Paula Creamer

Candie Kung, 70-71-69=210 (-6)
Scorecard: Hole 1, 373-yard par 4: birdie – 5-wood to 15 feet
Hole 6, 323-yard par 4: birdie – lob wedge to four feet
Hole 8, 148-yard par 3: bogey – 8-iron into the bunker, sand wedge to 12 feet, missed putt
Hole 9, 545-yard par 5: eagle – lob wedge from 76 yards
Hole 16, 524-yard par 5: birdie – lob wedge 12 feet past the hole
Hole 17, 181-yard par 3: bogey – 6-iron to 40 feet (right side of the green), three putt

Q. Candie, congratulations on becoming the second Taiwanese champion this year. Your win at the Hana Bank ● KOLON Championship 2008 is your first since 2003. How does that feel?
CANDIE KUNG: It's been a long time and I'm just so happy to be back in that winning circle again. I've been pretty close a few times this year and just happy to be back and finally get a win before the season ends.

I've got a few more tournaments left and hopefully I can do it again.

Q. There were some strong winds out there, and the weather was not really cooperative, either, quite chilly. How did you sort of brave through all of these elements?
CANDIE KUNG: It's been really cold this week, and I've been hitting the ball solid, so the wind didn't really affect that much. I just go out there and keep playing on my own game and make sure I'm hitting good shots.

I know that I was going to hit good shots, every time I stand over the ball, I know the ball was going to go where I'm looking at, so I'm pretty confident over there and pretty much just played each shot by each shot, and it turned out well.

Q. Taiwanese players have a forte in windy weather; is that the case?
CANDIE KUNG: Taiwanese players?

Q. And is it the same with you as well?
CANDIE KUNG: How many Taiwanese players are we talking about here? Because I only know four.

Q. Not just the LPGA players, contemporary LPGA players, but in the past as well when Taiwanese players came over to Korea, the men, they were all renowned for playing well in gusts and in winds and braving the elements; so that's what the overall Korean sentiment is to the Taiwanese players, they are good in windy situations and therefore has been sort of a reputation that Taiwanese courses are quite windy. Is that the case?
CANDIE KUNG: That, I don't know too much about because I didn't play golf in Taiwan and I played very, very few rounds in Taiwan, but for myself, I'm a pretty good ball striker I think, and that's the advantage I take in the windy conditions. I can hit the ball where I want it, and the wind will not affect it that much. I think that is all I can say about that.

Q. Was it the first, or the second shot to the 9th, did you have some pain in your leg?
CANDIE KUNG: Oh, yeah, it was my second shot out of the rough. I hit a 5 wood and it just happened to pull one of the muscles and from there on, I just said, keep saying, ‘We have nine more holes left.' The physio came out to look at it. You know, just asking for some stretches to get me through the nine holes, and I took some Advil and I've got the heat pack still in my back pocket now. It just a little pain and I could still feel it the first few holes after it happened.

Q. But you eagled it.
CANDIE KUNG: Yeah.

Q. How come?
CANDIE KUNG: I think it's just a little distraction instead of putting too much into the shot and kind of got distracted a little bit. That kind of, you know, is what happened before, to me, I'm not – sometimes when I'm in contention, I'll be too focused into the game and that kind of goes the other way for me for my game. But it kind of helped a little bit.

Q. So you used it to your advantage?
CANDIE KUNG: Yeah.

Q. Which leg is it?
CANDIE KUNG: The left.

Q. This is your first win in five seasons?
CANDIE KUNG: Four or five – six.

Q. Taiwan has a lot of similarities to Korea and Japan, and ladies golf and golf in general is really high profile here, but to see one of the up and coming Taiwanese players win a major championship and still not get a lot of coverage in the local papers and that Yani Tseng is still struggling to get a sponsorship is perplexing. Do you know why that is so and what is the current status of Taiwanese golf in the world market?
CANDIE KUNG: We don't have too many players right now in total; what, five right now? And I think that's part of the reason why there's not a lot of people following golf.

But I do know that there is a lot of them that follow golf, in the background that do not appear on the table. And there's only very few reporters doing golf and so that's probably the reason why. Very happy to see what's going on over here in Korea, the full gallery, everybody, it's awesome.

Q. How does this course, in your feeling, rank among the other courses on the LPGA Tour this season, or in general?
CANDIE KUNG: In general, this course is awesome, it's in great shape, first time we are here. I guess they closed the course not long before we came here, and it's unbelievable here, and compared to what we play in the U.S., I think it's one of the top golf courses we play all year.

Q. This course is going to commemorate your championship over here by naming the tournament course the Candie Kung course for one year. Did you know about that?
CANDIE KUNG: I didn't know about that.

Q. Well, they are going to do it and they actually announced it out there. How do you feel about that?
CANDIE KUNG: Cool. There's going to be more Koreans that know me. Seriously, there's more people that know me than any other place. I go outside and people are like, ‘Candie Kung, Candie Kung.' I'm like, ‘Okay, do I look Korean to you?'

But that's great. It's going to be awesome.

Katherine Hull, 66-76-69=211 (-5)
Scorecard: Hole 10, 383-yard par 4: birdie – grip 4-hybrid from 161 yards to seven feet
Hole 12, 147-yard par 3: bogey – 6-iron, chip to 14 feet, missed the putt
Hole 13, 327-yard par 4: birdie – grip 9-iron from 114 yards to 30 feet
Hole 14, 490-yard par 5: birdie – 52-degree wedge from 90 yards to six feet
Hole 16, 524-yard par 5: birdie – 56-degree wedge from 72 yards to one foot

DANA GROSS RHODE: Talk about your 66 during the first day – a tournament record – followed by a tough second round and then coming back today and what was going on the back nine.
KATHERINE HULL: Yesterday was kind of frustrating because I wasn't making anything. So I think the longest putt I made yesterday might have been the par save on 18. John and I said we've got to be a lot better to be three behind rather than four behind, so it was a relief to finally make one.

Yeah, I hit it okay on the front and made some good up and downs and didn't get anything going until the end really. I had some good chances and lipped out on 18 and almost made it on 17.

So, it was fun.

Q. Can you just talk about your season?
KATHERINE HULL: Season's been probably better than I expected. I set some goals at the start of the year I thought were challenging and I have to kind of reset many goals.

Yeah, the last part of the season has obviously been really good and it's nice to know that the hard work has paid off.

Q. How were the course conditions this week and your game, what was going well for you?
KATHERINE HULL: Honestly, I thought that it was going to be a long hitter's golf course, but it didn't play to that, and with the wind, I think it was quite fair.

The greens were so pure that they were the best part of the golf course. Yeah, it makes it easier to make putts when that's the case. You have some tricky pin placements yesterday and obviously you have to be really accurate with your club selections, so it was a fun golf course and I'm looking forward to playing it next year for sure.

Q. When you get to the end of the season, what do you do to stay healthy and keep your game sharp as you continue to reset new goals?
KATHERINE HULL: Staying healthy is a struggle at the end of the year. I've played 30 events now, which is a lot. I played in Australia at the beginning and I played a lot in the summer, like 15 to 16 weeks. I've kind of worked harder since July with cardio and weights and nutrition – nutrition is very important – and that's been probably one of the biggest reasons for staying healthy and staying competitive this late in the season.

I've been working out more, cardio, strength training but nothing too hard or too heavy, that's more off season training but yeah, it's working. It's kind of one part of the package. But it definitely helps out on the golf course.

QUICK QUOTES

Paula Creamer, 75-69-70=214 (-2)
Q. Why do you think you made the mistake on 16?
PAULA CREAMER: I don't know. I hit it fat. Se Ri, she hit it short, and then I hit it short, and you know, it's just one of those things where I didn't feel 100 percent comfortable over the ball and I probably should have backed off and gone through my routine again but I didn't. It was huge. It was very costly.

Q. The direction of the wind changed for all three rounds, each round it was different. Was it very difficult to play?
PAULA CREAMER: Yes, you could never get any kind of rhythm. That day, you had your own rhythm. But targets changed every single day, even in the practice rounds, they were different.

But the golf course played hard. It was difficult. It was cold, windy, and you know, it's just so open out here that it really affects the ball.

Q. You've played this round with Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim who represent Korea. What do you think was the mood?
PAULA CREAMER: We had so many people, huge galleries. It was exciting. It almost felt like U.S. Open, last group, and we weren't even really close to the last group.

But it was a lot of fun, especially playing here with them in Korea. You could not ask for a better pairing and I played well in that group.

Q. You were here last year, and this was for Se Ri, getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. Comparing last year and the conditions of the course, what do you think were the differences and comparisons?
PAULA CREAMER: They did a wonderful job with this golf course. When we played here last year, the fairways had lots of divots, the greens were not very fast and these were very quick. The fairways were perfect. The golf course superintendent, everybody that works here should be very proud of themselves because this was a very challenging golf course than when I played here last year, it was still cold and I made a lot of birdies, but it's just in great shape.

Q. So this year you had four wins, going into next year, are you confident to become the number one lady golfer?
PAULA CREAMER: Well, I still have three tournaments left. So I have Mexico, ADT and Lexus Cup. My goal was five wins this year, so a couple more tries to get that. But my number one goal, yes, is to be the number one player in the world and I will work very hard this off season to get there and it's just really a matter of time.

I think my game is there it's just believing it and going out and doing it.