THE MODERATOR: Very pleased to be joined now by Grace Kim here at the Maybank Championship. Grace, just talk about got a couple rounds of practice in, played the pro-am. What have been your impressions of the course?
GRACE KIM: Yeah, this is my third time here at Kuala Lumpur Country Club, so nothing much has changed, which is nice. Obviously we are all prepared mentally and physically for the heat, so as much as we are trying to get to know the course once again, we are also trying to conserve our energy as much as we can for the tournament days.
So just trying to be smart about how I go about this week.
Q. Speaking of conserving energy, we were talking walking up here. A lot of golf played last week; Team Australia winners at the International Crown. Take us through the week and how special it was to share winning that with some of your best friends out here.
GRACE KIM: Yeah, obviously great result from us last week, which was very special. But I guess leading up to the International Crown this year, seeing how strong every single country was, we were very -- we knew it was going to be a very tough battle throughout the week.
It's already a big week mentally and physically before the tournament even started. There is a lot of media stuff, pre-tournament days as well as just lots of golf. Also played probably extra holes as well.
Yeah, just kept going. I guess in the end, I think our team was able to endure physically longer, so our stamina seemed to last longer, which was very helpful.
Q. Obviously won a major this year. How do you summarize this season for you as we come towards the end here?
GRACE KIM: Yeah, I was thinking about it the other day. Even before I won Evian I was looking into the final qualifying for British as well, so just to be able to overcome all that, go through a mental slump over the last few months and then to be able to get that done and win the International Crown together as a team, which is obviously very different for our sport, and our country, because we don't get to play a lot for our country like that, yeah, it's been a bit after rollercoaster of a year which has been great.
I had a lot of highs, so yeah, definitely cherishing this year for sure.
Q. Looking back to this week, what part of your game is well suited for this course?
GRACE KIM: Yeah, I think this course, apart from conserving your energy, making sure you don't miss the fairways, which I tend to hit a lot of fairways, which is nice.
The rough is up so it's quite thick; bermudagrass as well.
And then just being able to read the greens well. I think it's a great preparation for our season finale in Florida being the same grass type as well.
Yeah, just keeping it in play, making sure when the tees are up -- they're gettable holes, but making sure you do hit it straight and also not in the water or in the rough.
Q. Congratulations on your win last week.
GRACE KIM: Thank you.
Q. Just asking about the win, do you think that was one of your best in your career, beating the Americans?
GRACE KIM: How honest do you want me to be? Yes, we were pretty happy to beat the Americans. Obviously the American team was very strong, even with a few withdrawals and replacements.
But, again, everyone seemed to have the top players, as they should. So it seemed like, again, it was just going to be such a long battle. Yeah, especially the Americans, knowing that they're seeded one as well, so, yeah, definitely tasted a lot sweeter than it would've.
Q. Just to find out, now that you're a winner, what's been the biggest change for you since the Evian?
GRACE KIM: I would say the biggest change would probably be just being able to take it in mentally and not worry about having to keep my card for the next five years.
That's obviously huge.
At the same time trying not to let that get in the way of slacking, so I'm still going continue to grind as I have been. But at the same time, just try and take that opportunity and continue to play better and just kind of build on top of that.
But, yeah.
Q. Another question. This is kind of close to home for you. You enjoy coming here? What do you enjoy most?
GRACE KIM: I enjoy coming to Malaysia, one, because we always get good crowds. No matter how hot it is and no matter how many delays we have with thunderstorms we always get good crowds. It's a great event.
But I also do like shopping. It's definitely a better currency see here, so I take my chances here.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Awesome, thank you so much, Grace, and best of luck this week.
GRACE KIM: Thank you.
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