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NOTABLE QUOTES: WOMEN’S OLYMPIC GOLF COMPETITION - FRIDAY’S 3RD ROUND - KOREA’S INBEE PARK LEADING, NEW ZEALAND’S LYDIA KO AND USA’S GERINA PILLER T2

Golf Channel Notable Quotes
Women’s Olympic Golf Competition – Round 3
Friday, August 19 (6:30 am – 3:35 pm ET)
Olympic Golf Course, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

**Live final round coverage of the Women’s Olympic Golf competition gets underway at 6 a.m. ET on Saturday morning immediately following Golf Central Live From the Olympics, airing from 5-6 a.m. ET.

**In order to avoid potential inclement weather in the afternoon, groups will be going off split tees on Saturday (No. 1 and 10), with the leaders beginning their final round at 7:39 am ET. Barring any playoffs, the expectation is for golf to conclude around 1 p.m. ET, with the medal ceremony immediately following.

** NBC Olympics’ 34.5 hours of live coverage of the Women’s Golf competition marks the most-ever live hours of coverage dedicated to a single women’s golf event for Golf Channel. Play will culminate with Saturday’s final round, followed by the medal ceremony.**

Current leaderboard: Leaderboard
1. Inbee Park (Korea) -11
T2 Lydia Ko (New Zealand) -9
T2 Gerina Piller (U.S.A.) -9

For more Olympic Golf coverage on NBCOlympics.com, visit HERE.

On the third round of the women’s golf competition at the Olympics and the afternoon gusty wind conditions
Annika Sorenstam – “As the conditions get tougher, it weeds out the players who are not playing well.”
Jerry Foltz – “It is a far different course than it was earlier in the day. It is just a bear.”
Gannon – “Make no mistake, this is a Royal Troon wind this afternoon.”
Curt Byrum – “There is nowhere to hide. You’ve got to hit quality shots or the wind is going to take hold.”
Foltz – “I think the only way to climb the leaderboard this afternoon was to sit in the clubhouse.”
Byrum – “All of these players that are well outside of third place, they can free-wheel it tomorrow. The people that are inside that, they may hold on a little tight tomorrow.”
Foltz – “You want that gold medal so badly but you are playing in the one competition that is new to you for the first time in our life with the most coveted consolation prizes in the world of sport. It is new to them but the enormity of it is not lost on them at all.”

On the players not in contention for medals heading into Saturday’s final round
Karen Stupples – “It is a great source of pride as you are standing there on the first tee, knowing that what you are doing is representing all of your country’s golfers in the Olympic Games.”
Stupples – “It will give them the hunger and the drive to work, to try harder and to practice more to become better golfers so they can return to the Olympics to represent their country.”
Stupples – “Peaking for this one week in four years is not an easy thing to do. The athletes and the trainers of the athletes have started to perfect that technique. They will start to think about how they can peak to be at their very best for the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.”
Sorenstam – “This is special. This is different than any other tournament, any other major they have played in.”

On Korea’s Inbee Park, leader at 11-under par (1-under par 70 on Friday)
Jerry Foltz – “She is acting like the Inbee of old.”
Foltz – “It is no secret she caught everybody by surprise this week, including most of us, by the play she has put together.”
Foltz – “I said it before the week started, if Inbee were to get a medal here, that would be more of a surprise to me than just about anything.”

Inbee Park speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following her round
Inbee Park – “It was a struggle out there today. I feel like I battled really well. I putted really good on the greens, but my ball striking was not great with the wind. Very happy on the greens but I just need to work on the ball striking a little bit more so I can be more consistent.”
Park – “It will be something very special if I am able to do it tomorrow. I felt some pressure coming into this week. It feels like the final round of a major championship every day and obviously tomorrow is going to be a tougher one.”

On U.S.A’s Gerina Piller, T2 at 9-under par (3-under par 68 on Friday)
Terry Gannon – “Big move from Gerina Piller today.”
Sorenstam – “She played very solid today. Gave herself a lot of chances.”
Gannon – “She has hit some big shots the last two days but also some great par saves.”

Gerina Piller speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following her round
Gerina Piller – “I would say that is one of the best rounds I’ve played. Just kind of plunked along and kept it in play and made some huge putts. I finished with a bogey but at the end of the day, I like my position where I am at and I like where my game is.”
Piller – “I feel like my ball striking is really good right now. This is a ball striker’s course and my putting has been great for the last couple of weeks and months. Just focusing on putting a good swing on the ball and being all in on every shot and being committed and believing I can do this.”

On World No. 1 New Zealand’s Lydia Ko’s first-ever hole-in-one at No. 8 and standing T2 at 9-under par (6-under par 65 on Friday)
Foltz – “When we were at the airport flying here to Rio, she admitted she had never had a hole in one in her life. She has one now.”
Tom Abbott – “Lydia Ko, out in 29, the lowest front nine of the week the World No. 1 is only two shots back.
Gannon – “If you were going to write up a blueprint for what to do today. Go out, make an ace, post 29 on the first nine. Have the wind blow 30 miles an hour from that point forward and make all pars the rest of the way in. That is what she did.”
Gannon – “Some kind of day for Lydia Ko.”

Lydia Ko speaking with Golf Channel’s Steve Sands following her round
Lydia Ko – “It was the first hole-in-one in my whole entire life. It was going right for the pin, and with the wind direction and the pin being tucked on the left I knew it was going to be a tough one to go near. But I hit it really solid. I haven’t been very lucky with hole-in-ones. At KPMG one went in the hole and come out, and one hit the stick and came out. I didn’t really expect it to go in but when it dropped, I thought I was going to cry almost. Cry from happiness. I’m very thrilled with the hole-in-one and how I played today.”

GOLF CENTRAL LIVE FROM THE OLYMPICS

On Inbee Park
Brandel Chamblee – “When you look at her, she doesn’t hit it very far. In baseball terms you’d say she hits a lot of singles. But you can make it to the Hall of Fame hitting a lot of singles… It didn’t matter whether she was downwind or into the wind, she’s completely unfazed and just goes about her business with no change of rhythm.”
Paige Mackenzie – “Inbee Park is so difficult to beat when she’s at the top of the leaderboard. She did make mistakes [today], but then she recovered. She didn’t compound the mistakes, she was an experienced player. It’s going to be a tough road [for the other players] to climb, because I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of birdies out there if we get the weather that we’re expecting.”

On Lydia Ko
Karen Stupples – “Lydia Ko, somebody who we expected to be at the top of the leaderboard [at the beginning of the day], she wasn’t. She was all the way down at 3-under par and had some work to do. She came out firing on all cylinders and really stamped her name on that leaderboard for everyone to know that she’s still there.”
Chamblee – “Tomorrow, if the weather is going to be as bad as it is [expected], it’s going to be a lot about scrambling and it’s going to be hard to find the fairways. And right now Lydia Ko is the best scrambler in the field and she hit every single fairway today.”

On Gerina Piller
Stupples – “She came to golf a little bit later, she didn’t start playing until she was 15. And for her to be achieving this, she doesn’t really know what her capabilities are yet as a player.”
Chamblee – “Improbable, it’s absolutely unbelievable that she hasn’t won [on the LPGA Tour]. She looks absolutely flawless.”
Mackenzie – “There’s not a person on the LPGA Tour that doesn’t think that a win will come. It’s not if, it’s when for Gerina Piller.”

Martin Piller (PGA Tour player – competing in the Wyndham Championship this week) speaking by phone with NBC Olympics’ Rich Lerner about his wife Gerina
Martin Piller – “She loves in general being on a team and she loves her country. She takes it very seriously…She’s been playing great golf for a long, long time now. Anybody who follows the women’s game knows that. She’s been knocking on the door for a long time and she’s ready for it.”
-Rio 2016-