BANK OF HOPE LPGA MATCH-PLAY

May 27, 2021

Alison Lee

Shadow Creek

Quick Quotes

Q. We're just thinking about that amazing putt that Alison just hit at 18. How many feet to the left did you play that break?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I mean, I literally had to aim that three feet left and just tap it because it was downhill, and just prayed for the best. Obviously not the best round overall for me and Megan, but it was fun out there. We're really close friends so it was a fun day.

Definitely stressful the last few holes in the back nine. We both weren't playing our best, but tried to battle through it, and that putt on the last hole was really big for me.

Q. She had control on the front nine and you flipped it on the back. What did you say to yourself to get yourself back in this match?

ALISON LEE: I was hitting it pretty solid on the front nine. She just made a couple birdies and I had one bad hole that kind of got her to 2-up.

But I tried to stay confident. My caddie, Tyler, too, we both tried to stay positive out there. Anything can happen in match play, so just tried my best to take it one hole at a time and take every hole as an individual battle, just go from there.

Q. Well, you're a Las Vegas resident now, taking advantage of your association with Shadow Creek. Keep it rolling.

ALISON LEE: Thank you.

Q. So take me through the match. It was back and forth playing there with Megan.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it was a tough day. I mean, I started off the round not too hot. Three-putted the first hole. Definitely very nervous, but playing against one of my best friends out here, she's awesome. She's super cool. We kept it light all round. A little bit of trash talking, but not too terrible.

Yeah, I mean, anything can happen on this golf course. It's is easy here to make a bogey, so easy to make a small mistake, and you just kind of have to stay steady throughout the round. I feel like I was able to do that well. Obviously I took advantage of the back nine. Megan made some -- few big mistakes, and so, I mean, the back nine we both, in my opinion, played very poorly.

But I tried my best to just stay steady and make pars out there. If both of us -- if we just made pars it would've been a crazy match, and that's what it kind of is out here. If you get a birdie, great, but you just want to stay pretty steady throughout the round.

Q. We're hearing from a lot of people, and you hear in match play anyway, you can win with par, you can win with bogey, but especially out here knowing how ling, how firm, how fast, how difficult this course is, does that change the mentality at all playing a course this tough?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, of course. You definitely have to think more thoroughly through each shot. You have to know where to land it, where not to hit it. You have to know where it's going to run out to and keep that in mind and play.

Even though you hit a great shot sometimes it's not going to end up where you want, and you just have to take that and move forward. That happened a couple times today. I hit a great shot and ended up kind of rolling way right or over the green, and you just kind of have to play with what you got and stay positive and confident.

So, I mean, there were definitely moments out there where I felt like I'm going to lose this thing, but I tried my best to just stay positive, confident, and finish strong.

Q. You're an MGM ambassador. I know you don't necessarily play here a lot, but still, even the few times you've played here is more than a lot of people. Relying on that a little bit of insider knowledge?

ALISON LEE: Oh, yeah, of course. Definitely. I mean, usually when I'm out here sometimes I come out with some of the guys and we'll play from the tips for fun, so some of these tee boxes I've never played before.

But just knowing the course in general, you know, I mean, it's not so much course knowledge. I just feel so comfortable out here because I been out here before. Get to sleep in my own bed, drive my own car. You know, just takes a little bit of the edge away and makes the week a little bit more comfortable.

And so just all that combined, playing the course prior, staying at home, yeah, it's a good week.

Q. And you've been playing well of late. You qualified to get in for next week. Playing well this week; playing well the last few weeks. What's the state of your game right now?

ALISON LEE: It's getting better. I mean, it's been a really rough last few years. You know, rookie year coming out strong and then just kind of falling off and struggling, having to go back to Q-School numerous times, trying to Monday into events, having to play couple Symetra events, it's definitely humbled me out a lot.

So just trying really hard to work on my mental game and tell myself, It's there. I've done it before. I just need to not psych myself out and play my game. It's slowly coming back together and it feels really good.

Q. This has to be a big boost of confidence.

ALISON LEE: Oh, yeah, 100%. Unfortunate I had to lose -- win against Megan because she's such a great golfer and even better person, but, I mean, I did have a lot of fun out there, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week. Hopefully I can continue to win.