Golden Ocala Golf and Equestrian Club
Ocala, Florida
Pre-Tournament Notes
January 27, 2015

Rolex Rankings No. 2 Lydia Ko
U.S. Solheim Cup Captain Juli Inkster

United States Solheim Cup Captain Juli Inkster announced Tuesday that Wendy Ward will be her second and final Assistant Captain when the team heads to Germany in September.

“She’s played on three Solheim Cup teams,” Inkster said. “I’m very good friends with her, Pat [Hurst] is very good friends with her. I think she brings a calmness and a confident attitude to the team. She’s a busy bee. She’ll do anything that’s asked of us, and the girls all love her and that’s the key. She’s got a lot of respect. I think we all bring a little bit to the table and we’re all very different. I think it’s going to be good.”

As for the trio’s strategy, Inkster has already read Paul Azinger’s book in which he talks about the need to include the players in the decision-making process for the team’s captain’s picks. Inkster thinks along those lines as well.

“Totally going to do that. This is a democracy. I’m going to have everybody come and help and pull them in. I think if players can be accountable for their team, I think they play harder,” Inkster said. “I think we can – if someone says, “Hey, I like this player,” and everybody gets on board, you know they’re going to do their best to get that player ready to go.”

More than anything Inkster believes that brings some automatic inclusivity with the picks.

“I think another thing, I think a lot of times captain picks kind of feel like they’re left out. If you’re on my team, you’re on my team,” Inkster said. “You’re just as valuable as No. 1 and I want to make sure that they know that, too.”

IF I HAD A 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS...
After netting the biggest golf payday in women’s golf history by winning the inaugural Race to the CME Globe and CME Group Tour Championship in late November, Lydia Ko returned to South Korea to see her family and left her grandfather with a surprise.

“To me, the coolest thing that happened this offseason was my Rookie of the Year watch. I was able to give that Rolex watch to my granddad, so that was a really special moment for me,” Ko reminisced.

There were other gifts she purchased with the money. Nothing major for herself but she did get a little something for herself. “I got some earrings,” Ko said. “And my mom got a handbag.”

WHO IS THAT?
Lydia Ko returned to the Tour for the season opener with a different look. Gone are her trademark glasses. She’s transitioned to contacts and gleefully left the glasses behind.

“I’ve always thought about it, but glasses kind of became comfortable. I’ve used them for the last four or five years. It’s weird now without them. But a lot of people have recognized me, so it’s been a little bit of a surprise in that way,” Ko said.

However, one person didn’t recognize her.

“My caddie, Jason, I saw him last week without my glasses and it was kind of on and off during that time. I was like ‘Oh, this is me without it.’ And then like a couple days ago he couldn’t recognize me, but the other caddies did,” Ko said with a laugh. “So no, I think it will be like that for a while. But I guess after a week or so everyone will get used to it.”

The change has been welcomed for Ko, though. She no longer has to worry about cleaning the raindrops off her lenses on a rainy day and thinks the contact lenses are here to stay.

“When I now hit balls with my glasses, everything looks smaller, so I start fatting it or doffing it. In that way now it’s a little uncomfortable going to what I originally had. It feels good now,” Ko said. “Everything just seems more wide open. I heard that contacts, because they’re right on your eye, they look straight everywhere I look out of, but with glasses it’s only perfect when you look straight out. So in that way it’s a good change.”

Eventually Ko’s hoping to not wear contacts either.

“I think it will be a couple years until I get Lasik. I think Lasik will be great because then I don’t need to worry about contacts, glasses and all that. My mom’s had Lasik before and it was good for her,” Ko said. “So
hopefully I can get it one day, but really need to get it after your eyes stop getting worse. I think even now we’re kind of on that border, but I don’t want to do it too early where it becomes a problem again in 10 years.”

The No. 2 player in the world being able to see even better now should be a scary reality for the rest of the Tour after a season that saw the 17-year-old Ko win three times including the season’s biggest prize.

INKSTER’S ONE WORRY

Juli Inkster was all confidence when it came to talking about her plan for leading the 2015 LPGA Solheim Cup team on European soil. So what is the one thing that Inkster worried about heading into Germany?

“My speech,” Inkster said. “I hate giving speeches.”

Once that pre-tournament speech is out of the way, Inkster believes she will be ready to roll.

“You know what, I think we’re going to be ready to go, and my plan is when we get on that bus from Evian to Germany, that we’re just going to be in gear and there’s not going to be a lot to do. If Wendy and Pat and I do our homework and get what we want to get done, I’m just going to try when we get there, girls are going to know what they’re doing and who they’re playing with and it’s going to be easy.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It’s cool to see that a couple years ago I was watching TV or looking at the magazine and thinking, man, one day I want to be there playing alongside them. That’s what’s happening right now, so that’s really been cool.”

- Lydia Ko reflecting on some of her accomplishments at just 17 years of age.

Coates Golf Championship Presented by R+L Carriers Tuesday Pre-Tournament Notes

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