2015 Blue Bay LPGA
Sanya, Hainan Island, China
Wednesday Pre-Tournament Notes
October 28, 2015

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Lydia Ko had a celebration of her 10th LPGA career win fit only for a good ambassador to the game of golf. The 18-year old woke up early Monday and had an hour-long trek to start a two-day clinic and outing hosted by one of her sponsors and Taiwanese organization Swinging Skirts. Ko, alongside fellow LPGA Tour players So Yeon Ryu, Min Lee and Hyo Joo Kim, manned skills stations and their own par-3 holes for 36 groups playing through.

Ko arrived to Blue Bay in the early hours of Wednesday morning and said arriving late to an event won’t derail her schedule much and will get right back to work.

“The last few days we did quite a bit,” said Ko. “A little tired in a way. It’s the first time I’ve come to a tournament and have already seen what time I’m going to tee off on Thursday. I guess you kind of get right back into it. Hit a couple balls, play in the pro-am and try to see the course and then starts tomorrow.”

Ko said she didn’t feel any different on Monday morning waking up with the No. 1 ranking and instead opted for a nap. She’ll admit she loves her sleep and luckily she realized it wasn’t all a dream.

“No not all,” said Ko. “We had to wake up early and get back into it and had nearly an hour drive to the other golf course so I think we were all a little tired and half sleeping in the car.”

Ko said her text message inbox was loaded of congratulations, particularly from family members in Korea who came out to watch her play two weeks ago at the KEB Hana Bank Championship.

“Had quite a few of texts,” said Ko. “A lot of my family members texted me because at Hana Bank I was close and they came out to watch. So they were happy for me I was able to pull it off this time.”

BUDDING WITH CONFIDENCE
Lydia Ko shouldn’t have any issues with confidence these days and the New Zealander said she felt totally in control on Sunday last week. Asked what she was most proud of in her win, Ko said having the ability to stick to her normal game plan.

“It was the first time I think I had that big of a lead going into Sunday on the LPGA,” said Ko. “David (Leadbetter) told me to keep to my game plan. I think that was kind of good for me because I did stick to it. Obviously got some birdies from that kind of thing. In a way in the back of my mind I could have said oh just hit 3-wood on a hole where there’s some water. But I just kind of stuck to it. I think that was good. I could be confident in what I was doing.”

Ko tries to get win No. 6 of the year this week in Blue Bay where she tied for seventh in 2014 in the event’s inaugural year.

GOOD MOTIVATION
Inbee Park was candid after her win at RICOH Women’s British Open that her only goal was to win that event and complete the career grand slam. So what now? Park hadn’t thought ahead of what would keep the 27-year old motivated throughout the rest of the year. But now the back and forth battle with 18-year old Lydia Ko is something she can concentrate on for the last four events of the year.

“It’s a good motivation to have,” said Park. “It’s a nice goal to have, especially I’ve been to the No. 2 spot before, I’ve been to the No. 1 spot before. Both doesn’t feel that bad. I mean, everybody thinks, ‘are you okay, are you okay, going back to No. 2,’ but I’m fine.”

Park knows that each week they’re both in the field, there will be a chance to unseat one another but at the end of the day, she knows winning takes care of everything.

“We compete every week, and it can change every week,” said Park. “I mean, it’s actually good that I have another goal to take, and obviously I love the challenge, the challenger position. I love this position, too, just trying to play some good golf and just, yeah, have a good finish so that I can maybe go back to No. 1.”

Park has taken notice of Ko’s stellar play as of late and didn’t hesitate to throw some compliments the teenager’s way.

“But the way Lydia has been playing the past couple months has been really unbeatable,” said Park. “She definitely deserves where she is and she has been playing some fantastic golf this year, so I definitely respect her. She’s a very young, talented player, and yes, it’s going to take a lot to beat her, definitely. Obviously everybody in this field is going to try hard to do that, and same as me, I’m trying to hold a trophy at the end of the week. That would be the ultimate goal.”

CAN’T IGNORE IT
Inbee Park has no regrets of playing in front of her home crowd in her sponsor’s event on the KLPGA last week. Park finished in a tie for second and said her putting, the most dangerous part of her game, helped her late in the week.

“I felt like I was putting a little bit better last week, so that’s definitely going to give me confidence coming into this week and playing,” said Park. “Obviously I think I feel like I really did the right thing playing the sponsor’s event, and they really loved it. I got to meet a lot of Korean fans, and it was great to play on the KLPGA again, to see a lot of young growing professional golfers, and they are very competitive, and it was good to see the growth and the development of the Korean Tour.”

Even though she wasn’t in Taiwan watching Lydia Ko run away with her 10th victory, Park said the Korean media made sure she knew what was going on at Miramar Golf and Country Club.

“Yeah, yeah, because all the writers have been like asking me right after the round,” said Park. “They were telling me, ‘like Lydia is doing well.’ Okay, yeah.”

As Ko expected, Park was humble and threw the 18-year old praises for her achievement and said it was no surprise.

“I kind of knew it was coming,” said Park. “Lydia was playing so good, and she played so well the last couple, two to three months, and she obviously loved that golf course, so nothing really surprising.”

Wednesday Pre-tournament Notes: Blue Bay LPGA

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