Q. In Rio you were one or two back?
LYDIA KO: I think it was two shots. Yeah, two shots back.
Q. Will it have a similar feel because of what you did today?
LYDIA KO: I think Nelly is like way ahead, right? To me like where I am today I'm just more having fingers toes and everything crossed to say that the weather gods will allow to us play tomorrow. I feel like the Olympics itself has gone through so much and Tokyo's gone through so much to host us and have the Olympics on and I think for it to be cut short I think it would just, I feel like it will sum up the whole situation, but I hope like we get to play another golf round and I think it will be so exciting and I'm not sure where I'm going to be at the end of today, but I would love to have one more chance to be hopefully on the podium. Because I'm not just playing for myself but I'm playing for my country and even though I do that on a daily basis I think it's a very different feel. So I would love to play. Sometimes there are going to be days I'm like, man, I don't want to play in this heat, but in this situation I would love to play.
Q. How are you feeling on the first tee this morning? A bit frustrated after last night and then how were you feeling today?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, there might have been some F bombs (laughing) after my round yesterday. I was just so upset at myself because normally I feel like my wedges are some of the most like stronger part of my game and I hadn't hit a single wedge within 30 feet all day yesterday. At one point I got to realize it's going too far or too short or something, but I just wasn't getting a sense of it. And I hit such a great drive down the 18th and I only had like 105 to the pin and I was telling people, you have a 30 feet radius with a gap wedge and I missed that 30 feet, I was like so upset. And, yes, I missed like two, 3-footers, but at the same time trying to 2-putt 60-footers, that's me putting myself in that position is where that is the flaw and not the putting itself. I think if I keep putting myself in 60-footer range I'm going to stress out the bits that I need to do to clean up. So I was really upset at my wedge game and I was hoping that like with the way I was feeling frustrated I didn't want that to affect the way I went into today. Putt luckily I had a pretty smooth start, but then I missed a 3-footer on 2 and I was like, Not again. But I think I just stayed patient and there's so much golf ahead of me. So I just tried to play my heart out and I played the back nine really well today, which was the aspect that I kind of struggled over the last couple days. So definitely nice to I know if issue on that. Hopefully good momentum into the 18 holes we get to play tomorrow.
Q. Did you make yourself go to the range yesterday or did you just figure it out in your head?
LYDIA KO: I was like, at this point I really don't even want to see my wedges. I gave it the silent treatment. I did some putting. It's so hot and I know that I was frustrated but at the same time I can't kill myself because energy is, it's extreme and even though we might continuously play 18 holes it's different playing 18 holes in contention, it's different playing 18 holes at the Olympics. It's very situational and I think it can be very draining. I just wanted to keep it simple and make sure that I wasn't going to drive myself up the wall and have a few putts and go. My mental coach messaged me and said, Hey, being frustrated and being upset, that's an energy and you can feed off the all sorts of energy. So I tried to listen to her and channel the good and I know that there were plenty of good. So I just got to focus on those. I told myself that if I made two bogeys at the middle of my round I would have been less frustrated, but sometimes when it's at the end or at the start that's when it impacts you the most. I tried to feel like those were on hole 9 and 10 and not 17 and 18 and I think that puts a little bit more into perspective and not completely close my mind off just with the way I played.
Q. Who is your mental coach?
LYDIA KO: She is a Korean mental coach. She works with quite a few players. Pretty sure she works with Jin Young and yeah, she is famous in Korea.
Q. What's her name?
LYDIA KO: Tong Ko Din (Phonetic.) Yeah.
Q. Has Sean texted you at all this week?
LYDIA KO: Yeah, he messaged me after my first round and he said that he felt -- he said him and Justin was watching me play and he said, I was so upset with the way you played 11, how human of you to play that way (laughing.) But, no, he's been super supportive. He sent me like a message today saying, Hey, with all these circumstances if you can't have fun, like you clearly can't have fun. So I think he's just telling me to enjoy it out there. He said he wants to see my teeth more when I'm out there. He said I'm not smiling as much. So I'm trying to do that but at the same time trying to not get too hot out there.
Q. She's only five ahead at the moment. Can you catch her?
LYDIA KO: I mean, Minjee proved that you can be 10 shots behind and win a major championship. That's the crazy thing about golf that you never know until that last putt drops on the last hole. So I just think that you can never give up, I think it doesn't matter how many shots back you are. Rory Sabbatini shot 10-under on the last day last week to become the silver medalist. Sometimes I just don't think you can count yourself out of it and if you feel like you're playing good golf, you're going to have opportunities and at points when you're playing from behind that you know that really it's only gold, silver and bronze, maybe I end up attacking pins that I normally wouldn't in any other situation. So I think it changes the tactics, but for me I'm just praying to the weather gods that we get to play, that I can do some sort of tactic out there. At the end of the day who knows, I might fall more behind or I might be one of the Olympians that end up standing on the podium. But I'm going to try my best out there, have fun and see where that finishes me at the end of Saturday.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports