NFL PLAYERS ENJOY JTBC FOUNDERS CUP PRO-AM

Four members of the Arizona Cardinals - Larry Fitzgerald, Carson Palmer, Michael Floyd and Patrick Peterson - took part in the pro-am on Wednesday at the JTBC Founders Cup.

“I’m like a kid in the candy store,” Fitzgerald said. “I watch them all the time on TV. I’m at home, and my son will ask me, ‘Dad, is this all you ever watch on TV?’ But I really enjoy it. It’s something that you work very hard to do, but you’ll never be able to achieve the lofty goals that these young ladies have performed to. But it’s great to be able to see them and the work they put in and just their due diligence in terms of the way they see the course and manage the course. It’s so fascinating, and I’m so privileged to be a part of it.”

Fitzgerald and Peterson teamed up with Cheyenne Woods and Carlotta Ciganda while Floyd and Peterson were paired with Sei Young Kim and Suzann Pettersen.

“It’s fun. It’s always fun to play with other professional athletes,” said Woods. “They’re competitive. They want to do well, and it’s also cool to get their perspective on our sport.”

Both teams did do well as they both found themselves near the top of the leaderboard with Fitzgerald’s squad finishing near the top of the leaderboard at 18-under, which was tied for second.

KO LOOKING FORWARD TO HER FIRST AUGUSTA TRIP

Lydia Ko’s plan following the first major of the year – the ANA Inspiration – is to immediately head to the men’s first major at Augusta the following week. Ko will be honored there by the GWAA as their Female Player of the Year.

“Even after ANA last year, I really wanted to go to the Masters, but I decided to go back and work on a few things and chill out,” Ko said. “I’m just really excited. I’ve heard so many great things about it, and I’ve heard that there is not one piece of grass that is in the wrong place. Anna Nordqvist said it almost feels like you’re walking into a postcard where it’s so perfect. Some other people told me that I’d be surprised how undulating it is compared to on TV.”

Ko last had the chance to watch the men when the USGA staged the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in back-to-back weeks at Pinehurst and admitted she’s particularly eager to see her favorite player, Phil Mickelson, tee it up again.

“I haven’t had that many opportunities to go out and watch the PGA Tour players, and I’ve watched a lot on Golf Channel or on TV, so that will be really cool to just see them play,” Ko said. “I’m going to be there the whole day of Wednesday, so there’s going to be that par-3 contest, so that will be really cool to see some of the legends tee it up.”

And if Mickelson isn’t careful, Ko may just have a different favorite male golfer by the end of The Masters.

“I’m just excited to see the whole vibe of things. There’s a reason why the Masters is the Masters, so you kind of want to experience it yourself. I’m really looking forward to getting the opportunity to meet Jordan Spieth, too, because I’ve read so many great things about him, how nice he is, so I’m really looking forward to taking a photo with him and getting to meet Jordan Spieth.”

LYDIA KO TEES IT UP WITH CHAN HO PARK

Se Ri Pak started the wave of women’s golf stars in South Korea. Chan Ho Park started the wave of South Korean MLB stars.

Those worlds merged Wednesday as Chan Ho Park played in the JTBC Founders Cup pro-am with the next wave of LPGA stars that Pak in part helped bring to the game. Park teed it up with Ha Na Jang and world No. 1 Lydia Ko, who was born in South Korea but grew up in New Zealand.

Park even took over caddying duties at the last hole, putting on the caddie bib and toting the bag for Ko.

“I think he was surprised how heavy it was,” Ko said. “You know, when he asked Jason about how heavy the bag is and we said, oh, around 40 pounds. I think he was pretty shocked. But it was really cool to play alongside a legendary player like him, and he seemed like he really loved golf, so that was really cool to see. You don’t get that many opportunities to play with a player like Chan Ho Park, so that was a really cool opportunity for me.”

The feeling was mutual, and as impressed as Park was with Ko’s golf game, he was even more impressed with Ko the person.

“Well, I’ve been watching her playing on the TV a lot, but I never think about to play with her, you know,” Park said. “But this is great for me to learn from, and how amazing her personality I realized today. I can see she’s feel like she has many experience and she gets along with us very well. It makes us very comfortable. I’m hoping we gave her good luck.”

WHAN WEARS ONESIE AT GIRLS GOLF PRESS CONFERENCE

LPGA*USGA Girls Golf (Girls Golf) is the only national program of its kind that specializes in providing a “girl-friendly” environment for juniors to learn and play the game of golf and on Wednesday they held their annual press conference at the JTBC Founders Cup.

“This is a celebration of dreams,” said LPGA Chief Teaching Officer and President of the LPGA Foundation Nancy Henderson. “In 2010, we had 5,000 girls engaged in our Girls Golf program. Our dream, at that time, was by the Olympics in 2016 to have more than 50,000 girls engaged in our program and I’m excited to say that we reached that number last year in 2015.”

To illustrate the LPGA’s commitment to Girls Golf and its movement to change the face of the golf industry, Commissioner Mike Whan wore a penguin onesie, which was voted upon by LPGA fans, during the press conference as part of Girls Golf’s #WhichOnesie fundraising campaign. Girls Golf raised over its goal of $50,000 which was enough to get Whan to don the onesie.

“I have to say I wasn’t really excited about the onesie,” Whan said with a smile. “I got a lot of interesting looks crossing the lobby to get here but I’ll dress however I have to dress to do what we’ve done in the last five years.”

Tiffany Joh also joined in on the onesie fun wearing her own monkey onesie to the presser.

After Whan was finished speaking, Joh was joined on stage by fellow pros Lizette Salas and Cheyenne Woods who shared words of wisdom with the more than 50 members of the Girls Golf program in attendance.

To learn more about Girls Golf and their movement to change the face of the game, visit GirlsGolf.org.

Wednesday Notes & Interviews - JTBC Founders Cup

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