JM EAGLE LA CHAMPIONSHIP MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 27, 2023

Alison Lee

Quick Quotes

Q. What a round today, 67 out there, bogey free. Finished really strong. What switched when you hit the back nine?

ALISON LEE: Overall I feel like I just hit my driver really well today. I struggled with my driver a little bit last week, and that made a huge difference. Every single hole I missed the fairway last week I made bogey basically, or it was a struggle to make par.

Coming into this week, I knew that was the main focus and part of my game that I needed to work on the both. So I've just been working on that the last few days, and thankful to see that it paid off, and it worked well today, so hopefully for the rest of the week I can continue that.

Q. Any of those birdies in particular stand out? Obviously four on the card, some of them on some pretty tricky holes.

ALISON LEE: I would say 16 I made a pretty good birdie. I made a longer putt. Most of my birdies today were pretty short tap-ins, which like I said, makes golf so much easier. But yeah, that's this course. You've got to putt well. It's obviously a very different green than what we're used to playing all year.

Yeah, just trying to give myself as many opportunities as possible. Most of my birdies today, like I said, were because I hit it so close to the hole. Yeah, just got to keep doing that for the rest of the week and hopefully can just play with confidence and play aggressive.

Q. Being a Bruin, I know you just told Paige you just lived right around the corner when you were in this area. How cool is it to be home and have people cheering for you?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's so nice. I was able to see a lot of friends, got dinner with them last night, getting dinner with a few other friends tonight. I'm actually staying with my parents this week. They live in Santa Clarita now, so it's like a 45-minute drive without traffic, which is fine. I mean, I like being home, sleeping in my childhood bed basically from when I was middle school, high school. It's just nice. It definitely makes me feel a lot more comfortable being out here.

Yeah, like I said, that's the key to playing golf. If you're not in the right mindset before the week starts, it's tough. It's a bigger battle to fight when you're out here and trying to shoot a low score and hit some good shots. Yeah, it's really nice to be home.

Q. Staying in your childhood bedroom begs the question, is it still your childhood bedroom?

ALISON LEE: Yes.

Q. What's the vibe?

ALISON LEE: It's like Hello Kitty, little doorknobs, lime green room. Definitely a little choogie now, but it's nice.

Q. Heading into the next three days, what are you looking for from your game?

ALISON LEE: Same thing. Like I said, my driver has been a little bit of a struggle the last week, and that's the thing out here, if you set yourself up in the middle of the fairway every single hole, it's tough to have a bad round. It just showed me today, so hopefully I can continue that and not let that waver basically and just try and work on that and stay confident over the tee and hope for a good three more days. There's just so much golf left. Even being last year leading after the first round and not being able to finish the way I wanted to was a little bite in the butt, but hopefully I can learn from that and just, yeah, try and make it one shot at a time.

Q. How are you staying within yourself? I know golf is challenging, sometimes we live and die with every shot. How are you trying to stay within yourself?

ALISON LEE: It's tough. I've been reading a lot lately, and I'm reading a really good book right now, so hopefully just trying to get my mind off of golf. As soon as a round is over, just trying to immerse myself in a different world basically and kind of take my mind off of golf, even if it's for an hour or two. That just kind of takes away a little bit of stress.

Yeah, and just enter into a different world and try and compartmentalize my hours in the day. Being in contention to win, as much as you try and push it off and make it seem like and make it feel like it's just another day out there, it's not, and it's really hard -- no matter how many times you tell yourself it is, it's tough to do that. I think it's so important to try and take your time off the course to do something you like, something fun, whether it's watch a show, and for me read a book or have dinner with friends.

Q. What are you reading? What's the book?

ALISON LEE: I'm reading "Things We Never Got Over."

Q. Who's it by?

ALISON LEE: Lucy Score.

Q. Can you describe what went well for you today in what was a difficult afternoon for the players out there?

ALISON LEE: I think the key for me today was I hit every fairway. This course can give you a lot of opportunities to make birdie out here, but if you miss a fairway, it's tough to do that.

Just being able to hit my driver in the fairway every single hole really helped a lot and really kind of opened up the whole course to me and made me feel more confident and gave me more opportunities to try and make birdie basically. Really happy with how I played. Pretty calm out there for me.

It's just nice to be home. I grew up basically around the corner from this golf course, so I have a sense of familiarity here, and it's just nice to be home.

Q. Given your comfort level here, what does that bring to the table when you step on to this golf course?

ALISON LEE: I think it's huge. It's important. Golf is a huge mental game, and so before you even tee it up, if you don't feel comfortable and you feel a little uneasy, it might not be the best day and you have a lot more to battle with. So being here, having friends and family close by, being able to see them all week is just really nice and takes a little bit of pressure off my shoulders.