PELICAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP

November 21, 2020

Ally McDonald

Pelican Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Take us through that hole-in-one.

ALLY McDONALD: So the pin was 12 yards on the green, so it was playing like 115 front, 127 hole, and there was a little bit of downwind. So I thought a 115 shot, just playing the front edge, would be enough to pitch it a few yards on and let it release.

Honestly, this is kind of how my strategy works was everything told me to look a couple paces right of it, so I did. That's kind of my strategy, because I wasn't looking at the hole but then it went in. That's kind of how it is.

Q. What club was it?

ALLY McDONALD: Pitching wedge.

Q. $24,000 to St. Jude with the hole-in-one. What's it like not only to help your scorecard, but also help an organization like that?

ALLY McDONALD: It's awesome. I think any time our tour does something that can give back to charities, anything, especially St. Jude, it's just great to help kids. I know that the donation will go to great use with St. Jude for sure.

Q. You were within one after that hole-in-one.

ALLY McDONALD: Uh-huh.

Q. And then there is something about Sei Young's zone that I feel like is just ridiculous when she hits another gear. Does it feel like that when you guys are out there?

ALLY McDONALD: You know, to really be honest, I felt like I played really solid during that stretch. I hit good shots. I just unfortunately my speed got a little off, especially 16, 17, 18. For a little bit I kind of lost my touch with the putter.

I was able to make the putt on 17 for par and then make that one, which I think is huge for me just going into tomorrow. Yeah, Sei Young, obviously she turned it on those last several holes. Yeah, you just have to give her credit for it for sure. She definitely extended her lead there.

We'll just go out tomorrow and see what we can do.

Q. Yeah. How much fun do you anticipate tomorrow being, the last two champions on the LPGA Tour going head to head?

ALLY McDONALD: Yeah, I'm starting quite a bit behind, but like I said, hats off to her for how well she played to separate herself there.

I'll tee it up with the same mentality that I have, and that's just to go out there and try to execute shot by shot, hole by hole. Hopefully that gives me a lot of really good looks for birdie and can close that gap a little bit slowly.

Q. How aggressive can you be out here, do you think?

ALLY McDONALD: Well, it's kind of hard because we don't know where the pins will be tomorrow really. If you really try to get too aggressive out here those aggressive numbers that could be a birdie can quickly turn into a five or six if you get overly aggressive.

So I'm just kind of going to stick with my game plan and try to execute the shots that strategically might be a 20-footer and just trust that I'm rolling it well to roll a few of those in.

Q. What's your hole-in-one history in your life?

ALLY McDONALD: That's my first competitive hole-in-one.

Q. Like ever? In college, anything?

ALLY McDONALD: In college, anything. I did not make a hole-in-one in general until a practice round at the Marathon my second year on tour.

Q. Nice.

ALLY McDONALD: So that was the first hole-in-one. I made one like the following winter in like a winter shootout at Old Waverly, and then I've made one where I set up on a par-3 and was hitting shot after shot. I think it took about 12 shots and ended up making one.

You can stand on a par-3 all day and still not make one, just happened to be the one.

Q. I mean, like 12 is one of those holes where you can actually like see. So like what was like that like just like watching the ball just like literally drop into the hole?

ALLY McDONALD: It was really cool. We had some people standing back at the tee, some people on the green. So that was obviously like the biggest reaction for anything. I'm pretty sure I just reacted with my hands up and then Dan I and got really excited and stuff. Sei Young was great.

Yeah, just it was a really cool hole-in-one. Then I had to kind of -- it's easy to get into like I just made a hole-in-one. I still had golf to play, so I tried to regroup after that. Okay, now it's time to go take care of more business.

Q. That was my question. We're good. This is kind of random, but like I was walking past the driving range and saw you were wearing headphones. Like what kind of music like do you normally try listening to just to kind of get in the zone there?

ALLY McDONALD: Actually, funny enough, I'm not listening to music I'm listening to a metronome.

Q. Okay.

ALLY McDONALD: Yeah, kind of boring. Probably not what you wanted to hear.

Q. No, yeah. It's interesting. How long have you done that?

ALLY McDONALD: For a couple years. Yeah.

Q. What is it about that that you prefer over like listening to music?

ALLY McDONALD: For me it's a big timing thing. I can go hit putts and hit chips and full swing work. Just trying to kind of sequence everything out.

I feel like when my swing is at a really good sequence I feel like I can execute my shots that I want to, when I get really quick or something at the top.

So I really like the metronome. It gives me feedback for preparation to go to the first tee and have that timing.

Q. Okay. Very nice. When do you start the metronome, like listening to it?

ALLY McDONALD: I start it on the putting green, but my metronoming time changes as I move to different spots.

Q. Different spots on the green or different spots...

ALLY McDONALD: Like the green to the range they're different.

Q. Got you. Interesting.

ALLY McDONALD: Yeah.

Q. So your entire warmup routine you're listening to a metronome?

ALLY McDONALD: I'm just listening to a bunch of boring metronome. Beep, beep, beep.

Q. That's cool. Thank you.

ALLY McDONALD: Yeah, no problem.