U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 19, 2014

Minjee Lee

Q. Great round of golf, you finished with a birdie, you've got to feel pretty good.
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, I had a pretty good round today, I guess, considering how I hit it. I chipped and putted pretty good. And there's always room for improvement. I'm hoping for every round a little bit more improvement.

Q. You went out and hit balls after you finished?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah.

Q. What was you were working on?
MINJEE LEE: I think everyone is going to miss greens. It's playing tough. So just trying to get the ball to have a little fade on it, so it stops, it holds the greens. Yeah, just trying to get that shape into my head.

Q. How do you feel playing your first U.S. Open, your first round in a U.S. Open under par at a very, very difficult golf course?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. Just being here, I think it's such a great honor to be here. Yeah, I'm just going to try to enjoy it, yeah.

Q. You've had great success as an amateur, do you think that there is things in that background that have prepared you for this stage?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, of course. I got to play a lot of professional tournaments, even as an amateur. So I think every kind of tournament that I've played has given me different kind of experiences. Yeah, it's definitely helped me until this stage.

Q. When you come in, obviously with whatever expectations you have -- what are your expectations in your first U.S. Open and have you met them?
MINJEE LEE: I came in with no expectations, really. I just wanted to have fun and play good golf. Yeah, just whenever you come here -- whenever you play a professional tournament you want to get low am and just play good.

Q. How difficult is it out there?
MINJEE LEE: I think because I played in the afternoon the greens were softening up a little bit. It wasn't like -- they weren't totally rolling off the greens and like bouncing everywhere. But they were still playing tough. But like some of the tees were moved forward. So a little bit shorter than how I practiced them. But, yeah, I don't think it's -- yeah, I think it's still playing tough, yeah.

Q. An eagle on 5, is that right?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah.

Q. Can you talk about that?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, just hit drive down the left side and it just kind of rolled all the way down to like the bottom bit there. And I hit hybrid on just, not on the green, but about a yard off the green to the right and I putted it in. So, yeah, it was good.

Q. Good momentum for you, right?
MINJEE LEE: Well, I don't know, I think I was 1-over and I made the eagle and then I went to 1-under. And then just made par and then bogey and then par and then birdie. So, yeah, I just finished good, so I'm happy with that.

Q. And the mindset going into tomorrow?
MINJEE LEE: Well, it won't be hot, so my brain won't be trying to burst. But I just want to have a good round tomorrow as well. Just improve every day is my goal.

Q. How hot was it out there?
MINJEE LEE: It wasn't really, really hot, but it was just really humid, like I'm all sweaty right now, so you can see how it was hot today. Yeah, I drank lots of water and everyone had their towels out. It was pretty hot.

Q. So you feel pretty good about that right now?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah. Yeah. I feel pretty good.

Q. You mentioned a few things that maybe gave you trouble there. Can you elaborate a little bit on where you struggled where that might have made a difference in your score?
MINJEE LEE: Oh, I missed a couple of drives right, which I kind of put me in not great places, like in the sandy areas. But most of them I made up and down. But when I had my mistakes I missed the green from there and just kind of led to bogeys.

Q. Do you do anything radically different to your game tomorrow or steady stays the course?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, just be patient and play the course as how you're going to -- you have your game plan, so just play to your game plan.

Q. Considering the success you've had at 18 years old, what are the ambitions you have, what would you like to see yourself follow through on?
MINJEE LEE: I'm going to try to go to Q-School. I think if you make top 40 in the Rolex you get to Stage 3. So it's going to be my goal, get to Stage 3 straight away. Yeah, I'm just going to try and play good the next three tournaments.

Q. Going up against the world's best at a tournament like this and see your name up there high up on the leaderboard, what does that mean in terms of your own sense of confidence?
MINJEE LEE: Well, I feel like I'm playing like my B game. I guess I feel like I can contend with the girls. If I play well, then I can definitely win on the Tour. Yeah, it gives me great confidence to like kind of -- I can make this Tour, I can play with the girls.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports