MARATHON CLASSIC PRESENTED BY DANA

July 8, 2021

Alison Lee

Quick Quotes

Q. Bogey-free round. Good way to start a tournament. How are you feeling right now?

ALISON LEE: Feeling pretty good. I would say my strength today was my irons. I hit a lot of good approach shots today. I missed two like three-, four-footers, which was obviously a little disappointing. That was earlier on in the round, too, so just kind of like just kind of brush those away.

I was hitting my irons well so I knew I would give myself more birdie opportunities. Obviously 4-under to start the tournament is not bad. I'm not upset about that, but definitely left a few out there.

Yeah, because I feel like this course is very gettable. A lot of the approach shots you're hitting shorter irons in so you want to take advantage of that.

Yeah, I mean, overall I'm happy with my round. Hopefully I can roll a few more in this week, weekend.

Q. I know you've been working hard on your game and it's showing. You've really been playing well of late. What have you been working on?

ALISON LEE: I don't know. I just feel as though I feel like me again. I'm out there playing confidently, not worrying about the trouble, and only focusing on my target.

I'm way more confident and having a lot more fun out there. I've had a rough last few years and it's been hard to get it back. It was mostly mental, just trying to believe in myself, and I wasn't for a while.

And so out there the last few weeks I feel like I've been slowly believing in myself again and getting back at it. Happy with my finishes in the last few tournaments, but I've always had like one bad round in the four days I've played in, which is kind of disappointing, so it's been keeping me just outside of the leaderboard.

So, yeah, hopefully I can just keep it rolling and try and minimize my mistakes and give myself a good shot for this week.

Q. It was really hot and humid when we got here earlier in the week and now it's cooler. I know we got some rain overnight; there is maybe a shower coming at us. How is the course doing? I've heard it's in great shape.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's in great shape. To be completely honest, I didn't play any practice rounds because I played a pro-am on Tuesday at Inverness and then I played the back nine -- no, the front nine yesterday in the pro-am.

My flight got delayed on Monday so I only played nine holes, pro-am.

But I've been here many times. I think I've played this six or seven times. I know the course pretty well so I wasn't too nervous about playing this week without a practice round. I got a great caddie that we've been working basically through that.

And I've had a long summer. I played six tournaments in a row. I finally had a week off last week, which was nice. So, yeah, I feel like for the rest of the week I just got to stay positive, minimize my mistakes, and take advantage of the birdie opportunities out there.

Q. I've known you long enough to know you're not a big practicer, right?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I mean, off weeks, you know, the last couple years I've definitely been working really, really hard, especially last year. I mean, we didn't have any events for a long time so I got a lot of time to practice and time to myself and time at home. We don't get that very often. It was nice.

I don't really like to play. I like to hit balls. I feel like that's a better use of my time personally. I know everyone is different.

Q. But like you said, you know this place.

ALISON LEE: Exactly. And my philosophy is if you're hitting the ball straight and it's going where you want it to go you don't need to play a practice round. It's going to do what you want.

So, yeah, I mean, I hit my irons really good today, so hopefully I can continue that. Hopefully make a few more putts this week. Overall I feel really good. I mean, like I said, the 4-under I played today I feel like I could have played way better, which is always a good sign.