Rory McIlroy, Max Homa, Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang dish on Capital One’s The Match, mixed golf and playing under the lights

Lexi: “I think it’s very important. You know, as a woman golfer, we’re just really just trying to grow the game, and I think we’re moving in the right direction. And I really think moments like this for myself and Rose to be able to tee it up with the guys and really grow our fan base even more and just grow the game. As athletes, we just want leave the sport in a better place than it was when we first stepped out here. So to be able to see the women’s movement in the game of golf going in the right direction. That’s really all we want to see. And we want to continue to grow our fan base, and I think it’s events like this, events that are teams and matched up with the guys and hopefully from many more of these kinds of events. I think it just moves us in the right direction on both sides, the men’s and women’s

Rose: ” There’s just so much momentum right now in women’s sports in general. If you look at this past week, with Caitlin Clark breaking this school, the scoring record for most points, and you know, the 3-point contest with Steph (Curry) and Sabrina (Ionescu), like these are all kind of events that everyone is tuned into because it’s so different from previous years of just men individually playing, woman individually playing, and The Match essentially is just all about having fun. Our purpose is to give back to charity. So it’s almost kind of a perfect combination of just the men or women growing the game together but also having a good time, and that appeals to a different sort of audience as opposed to before where golf may have been very strict, maybe a little bit more serious than people would have liked.”

Max: “I watch a lot of women’s golf, especially we’re on the west coast because it’s kind of like nighttime golf for me, and it’s fun to tune in after I’m done with my day. I think what’s cool about the women’s side is, I mean if you go to a men’s event and watch Rory McIlroy hit a driver, it’s something that 99.9% of any golfer can’t do with the ball speed and just how high and far it goes. What’s always fun for me to show my friends that you know want to improve at golf is their ball speeds are still slower than the women but more in that realm and you know, my friends have played a lot more, as Rory said, hybrids and 5-woods into par fours and the way like the elegance that they do it and the skills that they have to do that are are something to learn from more so than how does Rory hit it 360. My friends will never be able to do that. I will never be able to do that. So I feel like it’s actually a lot. It’s quite fascinating to watch. They’re completely different skill sets. I feel like in the men’s and women’s game, but that doesn’t make one better than the other, and I feel like if people can be more exposed to that and tune into it they would find a beauty in both uniquenesses of the kind of the differences in the games. The women are incredibly accurate and make shots with certain clubs seems so easy, where you know, I’m not sure I’ve hit many greens with my 7-wood in the last year, and when I watch women’s golf, it just seems like it’s target practice. So I feel like it’s very great to watch for people who are trying to improve at golf because you’ll see how amazing they are and you can relate to the clubs in which they’re hitting into greens a bit more. And then also you’ll see that you know it’s very similar to the men. Lexi is a power player, she hits it really, really far. We probably hit it a very similar distance. I got to play with Nelly at the what’s now the Grant Thornton last year and it was pretty fascinating how much speed she has and then how much touch she had around the greens. So I just feel like the exposure for the women is long overdue and something I feel like people would be really interested in. It’s different than how the men play and it’s, you know, beautiful in a different way. So I just feel like the more eyeballs on it, the more the fans of golf will get to just see more golf.”

Rory: “I think it’s just all about the platform right? If we can give the women a great platform to showcase their skills. So whether it be the Grant Thornton or whether it be matches like this, whether it be like combined U.S. Open’s like we did at Pinehurst, things like that. I think it can only be good for the game of golf as a whole. I think other sports can find it easier to integrate both men and women into like the same venues. For example, tennis and the grand slams and tennis, I think the women have really what both men and women have benefited from, from having those combined venues and those combined tournaments and you know it would be great to see I don’t know if golf can get all the way there just with logistics and you might need two courses and all this sort of stuff, but if it can get closer to the bottom at least. We’re at least on a journey of trying to produce more of these events where the men and the women come together a little more often. I think it’s great for everyone.”