Lydia Ko | Winner's Press Conference | AIG Women's Open

good evening ladies and gentlemen I am very delighted to introduce our AIG Women's Open Champion Lydia Co Lydia incredible effort how are you feeling um uh it's been a crazy past few weeks um you know something that was too good to be true happened and then I honestly didn't think it could be any better and here I am as the a woman's open Champion here uh this week and obviously that being uh you know here at the old course at C Andrews it makes it so much more special and I just loved being out there this week you know I had a lot of family members here with me and you know when I played here when I was 16 in 2013 I I think I was 16 yeah I was 16 um I don't think I got to really enjoy and realize what an amazing place this is and now that I'm a little older and hopefully a little wiser you know I just got to realize you know what a historic and special place uh you know this this golf course is and um it's it's honestly been you know such a fairy tale and yeah I it's uh I'm on cloud n really yeah incredible and we'll have our first question from Martin Dempster please congratulations lyia you had some great shots out there today but how good was the second shot at 17 given the conditions at the time and know the the sort of challenge you were faced with that shot yeah I said um you know what a time for it to you know what a time for us to play that 17th hole um and for both Alexa and I to have parred uh that hole in those conditions um it was probably one of the best shots I've hit uh you know on on 15 I thinned my three-wood um into the green and hit into the bunkers so my biggest goal was to make solid contact and honestly it was so windy and rainy I saw that the ball was heading towards the pin um but I had you know no idea that it was you know on that second tier um but yeah in ways because it was because of the conditions I could only hit one club uh it was three-wood or 3w and um the back was completely out of play cuz I couldn't reach it so it was nice to just be able to hit an uh make an aggressive swing at it but yeah that's probably one of the best um you know punch shots or shots I've hit you know coming down the stretch Andrew's with a Scott on the bag talk us through how important Paul has been this week and since he he picked up your bank yeah um you know I said he's won up on me he won in carti with uh with Anna and now here um he's just a Paul is a very positive person and I think when the conditions are tough or things aren't going your way it's very easy for all of us to kind of just spiral down and and be be not a little bit negative but he's always got a um positive outlook on things and obviously he has a lot of experience you know growing not playing in Scotland and he was telling me that one of the rules officials joked last week that um they don't know how there could be any professional golfer in Scotland you know with the weather um nobody would want to play golf uh so it's um been great to have somebody like a veteran like him to help me and um you know for us to have I think three wins together it's it's been great and I know that you know when we first started I wasn't playing my best and I think the first event uh we worked together I shot an 81 on the third round and if I was in his shoes I would have had not as much of a belief in my player um cuz it's it's not really a common score that you know I think all of us shoot on a dayto day uh but know he's you know stuck it out with me and you know he has really believed in me and um you know I'm very grateful to have a team that has kind of been on this journey no matter if I'm playing really well or not Sean please when when you leave the 16th T you've got a two-shot deficit at what point do you realize that it's tied and and what what does that do to your mind um no I had actually a pretty solid t-shot on 16 but just didn't cut as much as I thought and I was in the rough and um I got a little bit of a flyer so I ended up being in the Fescue P the um P the green and I just didn't want to make two consecutive bogeys coming down the stretch and no matter if I was fifth or leading it I think the position didn't matter it's just I didn't want to end my Championship that way um and I had my three-footer and I looked back uh towards the leaderboard that was there and it said I was tied for the lead and the three-footer kind of seemed a little bit longer at that time cuz I thought it was a straightforward part but then I was like looking at it from all sorts of directions cuz I was like wow like I don't want to you know keep making mistakes o you know over and over um so you know holding that and you know 17 was going to be difficult for you know every single person that was that teed up this week and um I just wanted to finish uh in a way that I could be proud of um not just you know the score but you know with my commitment and my approach to you know these shots so yeah 16 was when I first knew that I was tied and then um I just my goal was to make par on 17 and then make Birdie on 18 cuz I just wanted to make Birdie on 18 period uh to uh this week and um when I hit know just before my second shot on the 18th I realized that you know I was tied for the lead and I knew I kind of knew felt like the girls coming in would also birdie there the 18th so I wanted to make sure that I birdied and just give myself a chance at it you know no matter if I go in the playoff or end up not winning like that was kind of besides the factor so yeah you know I kind of accomplished and um did you know all the small goals and I think that made me a little bit more focused on what was right in front of me than thinking oh am I going to win or not and no I I I mean it's no lie that sometimes you know when you're about to win you start thinking about what you're going to say in this speech and all that but know there I think there was no you know time for that you know I was just so focused on what was in front of me and um I think that just made it a little bit easier the the LIE quickly Beyond 16 hard for us to tell what it looked like I mean it could be worse uh it honestly wasn't that bad and I knew it needed to be perfect cuz I'm trying to you know bounce it into the slope and then you know feed it down but I felt pretty confident um you know with my short game and I put in a new um wedge like new Grind wedge uh this week um even compared to last week just cuz I thought the conditions would suit this grind better so yeah it's um ended up being you know really useful around the greens and it was kind of the perfect shot so yeah it was um I couldn't have you know hit that shot any better but I did get lucky with the grass cuz it is a bit of a hit or a miss when you do H in the long stuff bethan congratulations you've been really honest in recent years about both the highs and the lows now that you have another major championship Victory how hard was it to wait for the third one um I honestly like the only bit I remember of winning the Chevron Championship um the Ana at the time is jumping into Poppy's Pond and holding my nose going down cuz I didn't want to get water up you know up my nose and that's about it you know it feels like it was such a long time ago I've had my fair share of ups and downs you know in between 20156 to 2024 and a lot of things have happened and I think when things are going well it's kind of hard to think about when you're not playing well because all you're really doing is just enjoying that moment but and on the other hand when things aren't going well you feel like you're never going to get out of that lull and I've you know been in both of those um positions and you know I thought you know what i' very fortunate to say that I am a major champion and a two-time major champion and so I've got nothing to lose um in that in that sense and um my husband I remember asked me this like last year and he said it was a very like like aggressive question but he was like would you rather you know have our dog and not win a major again or uh or like uh not have him and win a major and I said no I want to have Kai and um cuz I'm I'm really proud to say that I've won a major championship like he's a new know love of my life um so it's like I said you know I won't like I even though I'm a golfer and you know to win a major championship is know probably the biggest thing for for all of us um I said I wouldn't trade it you know just even if that guaranteed me my third major win and now I can say I have both um which is which is pretty cool but yeah it's it's difficult and um to try and we're all trying to peek at the five Majors but you know that's it's hard to kind of time that and how do you time that you know you're just waiting for that moment and um you know of all the majors I didn't think this one would be the one that I'd win for my third third time just cuz I haven't really been in contention very much I you know I said in my I I told money pay Chen yesterday um that I haven't really teed off at two something uh p.m. at this championship before cuz she asked me like do you guys always tea off this lay and I said I don't know I I don't I haven't really teed off this lay before so it's just of them all I probably thought my chances would be the slimmest um but I had so much fun this week and I just really enjoyed it and sometimes when I hit like bad shots I just laughed cuz that's all I could do and um just was trying to you know Salvage the par from there so it's I think I had a different um perspective on how I played um this golf course whereas normally I think if it was this windy I would be complaining about the Dr or the wind or or all of that we'll take the final three questions in the room so starting with Ellie over here please congratulations Lydia um you're in such a special place here in St Andrews what are your plans to celebrate tonight um my sister say she was talking to my husband and I don't think any of us expected for me to win that she was oh let's go to the Thai restaurant and just eat after the round and I I don't know if um it's open so I don't know if that's still on the menu but you know I've been fortunate fortunate enough to stay at the um RX hotels and um I've like I always eat a burger uh like very high most of the time I eat a burger like after a Sunday's round and um so there's a high chance I'm going to do that but I'm fortunate you know my mother is here this week my sister my husband and my brother-in-law left this morning but to have family and I'm Paul to kind of celebrate together um we're excited and um but I have a 550 a.m. flight to catch tomorrow so I think there won't be there will be very little sleep uh before I take that flight great Sarah please I know the gold medal was huge for the Hall of Fame Chase uh but now that you have this third major how does that change your perspective those two things happening within a month of each other of your career maybe as a whole and and how are you different than the last time you won a major um I uh it's just you know so many things have happened I was I'm pretty sure I was still in my teens when I won um at Mission Hills uh and no I my mom I said it in another interview my mom says I was so much better when I was like 15 I was a better golfer when I was 15 than when I'm now but now I can say hey maybe that the stepen is wrong long um but yeah you know it's been a whirlwind of the past you know 3 weeks and um you know it's just it's been crazy you know to like get into the Hall of Fame by winning the gold like these are things that know I could have never imagined cuz they were just too good to be true and it's to say oh like what are the odds that that's going to happen at the Olympics and you know a couple weeks later I'm going to win the AIG Women's Open I would have thought somebody was like honestly messing with me um but here I am and it's it's just been unreal I feel very fortunate um but I think one of the coolest things about actually winning this week is um you know having Stacy won here in 2013 and now I'm I'm the next Champion here at St Andrews uh it's um I think that's one of the coolest things for me cuz she's always been um her and her parents actually have you know always given me advice and words of wisdom and to say that you know I've won the woman's open at a CH at a venue that she has won I think that makes it very special that I feel like I'm following in the footsteps of somebody that I really respect um and yeah it's just uh I don't think there's a word in the dictionary that um can explain what just happened uh but somebody put into the perspective of before I won the gold they said try and think of like getting into the Hall of Fame is just like a like a gas station on the way to my final destination and not like my final destination and I think for a while cuz that was my my goal I was making it seem like okay that was my end point and I think after hearing that that put it into perspective of saying you know what it's not like I'm gonna get in the Hall of Fame and say bye-bye you know bye golf um you know I'm still planning to play so I think that just made it easier to say you know if it's going to happen it's going to happen and then I'm going to also focus on what's in front of me and I think these past three weeks was kind of like a uh I think good representation of you know that uh kind of scale and our final question from number one over here please next year the um Women's Open goes to Wales For the First Time new zealanders have got quite a good record in Wales you must be looking forward to going there as defending Champion are you talking about the rugby yeah I was I'm pretty sure this is like a rugby question um yeah you I've never been to Wales personally um so it's it's exciting to go to these new venues um I'm not in uh uh entirely sure if the woman's open has been there before um it's Royal p right yeah so I'm uh yeah I'm excited to go and um I was know we saw our like preliminary schedule and as I'm going to do this and do this so hopefully you know my family can go um you know with me there but I think that's the one of the coolest thing as I've gotten a little older is I've just been able to enjoy these places a little bit more whereas before it was very Hotel Golf Course Hotel golf course but now you know I'm going to some of these different restaurants and just you know taking all these views and the and the venue in a little bit better so yeah I'm excited to go to a new country that um um I've I've never been to and um yeah it's uh you know it's going to be pretty crazy to say that I'm uh or feel that I'm going to be the defending Champion there um in Wales well Lydia thank you very much and congratulations once again it's to like to have you as our champion thank you thank you thank you thank you thank [Applause]