• Wright: Our Aussie team is strong

Australian team member Lindsey Wright. Photo: Getty

Q: Feel like people are overlooking your team?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: They can do that if they want. Aussies, we like to be the underdog anyway. I think we perform well. Team competition is so funny. At any given day any team can win. Unless the four of you all just play lights out. I guess the U.S. team is probably the strongest team. It’s going to be a fun week to see how it goes. Our team I think is a really strong team. It’ll be interesting. New tournament for everyone.

Q: Seems like you have pretty good momentum going into this, you’re playing well this week, Katherine’s playing well, Minjee’s had great finishes in back-to-back majors and then Karrie.

LINDSEY WRIGHT: Minjee will show up. She’s such a talented young player. She’s fearless. Karrie’s Karrie - she’s a legend in her own right. And Kat and I are both playing well. To be honest, I was concerned about myself because it’s been a struggle to put scores on the board, but I’ve been hitting the ball well and putting well. So now I’m starting to putt well and I love team competition, so I’m excited about next week.

Q: You guys don’t get to play team competition too often like the Europeans and Americans with Solheim Cup, how much team experience will you have going into that?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: I haven’t played in a team competition since the World Cup in South Africa, which must have been six or seven years ago. I loved it. I love team competition. Kat and I have played together many, many times in team competition, and I love match play. I haven’t played match play in a few years, so it should be good. I love it. It’s going to be exciting.

Q: What sticks out about team competition? What do you love about it?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: Just the camaraderie. If you’re not playing well or struggling a little bit, you boost each other up. You don’t get that out here because it’s each for their own. It’ll be fun to work within a team situation and the dynamics of it. I’m always jealous watching the Solheim Cup. I wish that was me. It looks like so much fun.

Q: With the global nature of this tour, is an event like this a long time coming out here? Seems like such a natural fit with the nature of this tour.

LINDSEY WRIGHT: I think so. For a while they had this huge influx of Koreans and now we have a huge influx of South American players, Spaniards and European players. It’s really healthy right now, and it’s very encouraging. There’s a lot of young players and it’s just really encouraging. Mike Whan and the people running this tour, it’s really awesome. If we didn’t have that mix of diversity on the tour, we wouldn’t have that tournament next week so it definitely gives us opportunities to have different tournaments and play around a little bit and make it different from the men and make it exciting. Hopefully it’s a success next week.

Q: Since Adam became No. 1 on the men’s tour, has that had an impact on golf in Australia?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: That’s a hard one to say because we’re so many miles away from home. I think it’s just fantastic. Greg Norman kind of ran the show for a while; it was all about Greg Norman. So now it’s great to see these new young Aussie guys and girls coming up. I think the next 10 years you’re going to see with Lydia Ko and Minjee Lee - and we’ve got some good young Aussie players coming up the ranks - it’s going to be fun.

Q: What sticks out about Minjee Lee’s game?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: She’s just fearless. I mean she doesn’t make many mistakes. She has a really smooth golf swing. She putts very, very well and she’s fearless. She doesn’t let any of this bother her. Very similar to Lydia. Geez, Minjee, if you look at the last couple of majors, she’s been up there with a chance at leading and playing with the best golfers in the world and it hasn’t affected her at all. She’s got the whole package. She’s going to go a long way out here.

Q: No captain, how will you decide the lineups?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: I think we’ll probably catch up with everyone on Monday and then sit down and have a chat, see who wants to play with who. Me and Kat played together a long time and played in college together. We were talking, and it’s a no brainer that we would play together. I’m not fussing either way, happy to play with anyone. Just depends on how our games match up.

Q: Who is the one team, taking you guys out of the equation, is the team under the radar that people need to watch out for?

LINDSEY WRIGHT: I think, that’s a good question, I’m trying to think of the other teams. The Spaniards, the Spanish team. They’re a really good team. I would say the Spanish team under the radar. They’ve played Solheim, they’re kind of similar to us, Aussie and Europeans, we love team sports. We thrive on it. We’ve all grown up with match play and they’re very passionate. And that’s part of it too, getting the adrenaline and pumping each other up. So I think it’ll be exciting.

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