THE MODERATOR: All right, hello everyone and welcome to the media center at the 2025 CME Group Tour Championship. I'm joined by Minjee Lee, major champion this year.
Minjee, just ask you a couple questions and open it up. First things first, 11th CME Group Tour Championship. What does it mean to hear that and be back in the field again this year?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, no, really looking forward to this week. I think just being my 11th one I just think back and I think the first thing that pops into my mind is maybe consistency. So I feel like I've been really consistent over my 11 years on tour so far, so it's a nice feeling to be back.
Q. You had a really incredible season winning the RAMA Award and you were honored for that last night. What did it mean to be recognized last night? As you reflect on your season, what does that mean to you?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, it's just really special to be able to have won it twice, the RAMA Award. It just goes to show my consistency in the majors. I think I'm constantly working towards trying to play well in the majors and contending.
I think this year obviously won KPMG and that was really special to just where I was in my game at that point and obviously in my career.
So I think overall this year has been really solid, and we have one more week for me to go. Excited to hopefully have a good week this week and contend come Sunday.
Q. Your goals come into the season and if you can assess your season and how those met your goals?
MINJEE LEE: My goals like 2025 or 2026?
Q. Yeah, for this year. As you look back what are you happy with? How did you meet those goals?
MINJEE LEE: I think my goals were more process goals this year. I obviously changed my putter at the beginning of the year to a broomstick, and obviously with changing to something new I was not really -- I didn't really have big expectations, so I was just trying to work through my processes and just see where it took me.
Obviously I've had quite a lot of success with it this year and hopefully continue to do that.
But I think the biggest thing for me was putting, so I feel like I've knocked it on the head a little bit more this year and hopefully I can get better and better with the years to come, or with the season ending and next year as well.
Q. How would you explain what that change has done for your career?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, I think I've said it quite a lot of times. It's given me a lot of freedom and allowed me to essentially win KPMG. A lot of my goals are around winning majors and contending in big events - any event really.
It's just given me the freedom to play more confidently on the course and I think because it's given me less -- well, because of my putting I feel like I've had more pressure on the other parts of my game. I think it's given me a bit more confidence in my long game and chipping and even my irons.
So, yeah, I think it's given me a lot.
Q. The Tour had a pretty big announcement this morning regarding television, more cameras and more live TV. How would you assess Craig Kessler's tenure so far and how important do you think that television partnership is?
MINJEE LEE: I mean, television partnership is everything really. Essentially we're entertainers, so if we don't have TV times, live TV times or the slots are when a lot of people are watching TV, it's hard to really build the Tour the way we want to build it.
So I think it's great news that we're able to get more live TV time. TrackMan will be doing the ShotLink and that's really cool. I love seeing that. I'm sure all the fans will love that. Even the drones, that is really cool. Different aerials and angles that people are not able to see just from camera straight down the line.
So I think it'll be interesting to see where that takes us in terms of the Tour, and I think having more exposure as players that's everything to us, too. It's really cool to see how Craig has -- with his short time being on Tour how he's trying to elevate our Tour, and see how we go.
I think it's really cool that he's done that already.
Q. With a brother playing in the men's game, I'm not sure how much golf you do watch, do you notice differences in terms of men having more bells and whistles on their coverage?
MINJEE LEE: I actually watch quite a bit obviously because Min Woo is playing on the PGA and when he's playing DP I have it on and I watch him. I do think they have like good TV times so that's why I can just turn it on and it's live.
So I think that's kind of an important part of building a better tour. Just having more exposure as players. That's sort of what we are always working towards I think. So I think it's good.
Q. When you talk about the LPGA getting more exposure, you look at this year with only two repeat winners, in your mind is it more important for a dominant star or two to grab that attention or is the depth and strength the LPGA has shown a benefit?
MINJEE LEE: That's a tough question. I think the Tour itself is the strongest it's ever been, you know, just having, I don't know how many different winners that you said. There is only two repeat winners. I think that's great in it's sense.
I think because our television -- or our Tour, we play mostly in America, so I do feel like if we have one or two stars on the LPGA who are -- you know, I don't know, as you said, maybe then it can help us in a way.
But I do feel like having the depth is better. Yeah. It's hard to word. (Smiling.) Yeah. I don't think we can be right or wrong in any way, yeah.
Q. Slow play was a hot topic this time last year. Are you feeling a noticeable difference with the new policy?
MINJEE LEE: Yes, actually. I feel like we're not waiting as much on our rounds as a whole. I think sometimes there are a few holes what are reachable and going to be a little bit slower, but there is no -- there hasn't been holes where we have been waiting two or three groups like backed up.
So I definitely think as a whole all the players and the groups have gotten definitely quicker.
And I think in terms of our whole rounds as a whole it's gotten shorter. A lot of times it's under five now, so I think that's great.
Q. So obviously this TV partnership with FM is a big step. What do you think should be highest on Craig Kessler's to-do list now?
MINJEE LEE: I still think pace of play is the highest thing on Craig's list. Obviously as players we're trying to be -- you know, I think it's hard to be quicker as a whole with maybe the field size sometimes. We are definitely going to be quicker when we play in Asia because the smaller fields and the flow the courses.
I thin definitely when we have bigger fields and full fields it's going to be a little bit slower and that's just maybe the name of the game. I don't know if we can really make it that much quicker.
We're definitely working towards -- I mean the Tour and the players, us players, we're trying to be as quick as we can in terms of keeping it entertaining and fun for our fans to watch. I think the next step is to get a lot of people out to watch us live. So hopefully we continue to do that and get a little bit quicker, you know, over time.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you so much, Minjee.
MINJEE LEE: Thank you.
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