DOW GREAT LAKES BAY INVITATIONAL

July 15, 2021

Lindsay Weaver

Alison Lee

Midland Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Welcome inside the virtual media centre here at the Dow GLBI. I want to start off with team Wizards of Weaverly Place. Love the team name. Alison, we were talking about it yesterday, but how did that one come to be for you?

ALISON LEE: Honestly, I just saw a lot of girls making plays on movie names and all that stuff, and for some reason it just like popped into my head. I texted her about it because we were trying to figure out what our name should be. She was like, Oh, I kind of like that, but we never fully went through with it or confirmed it or anything.

But yeah, I thought it was all right.

THE MODERATOR: How do you like the play on words, Lindsay?

LINDSAY WEAVER: I think it's cute. I was afraid a lot of people wouldn't get it. Obviously I know and I get it. Yeah, I think it's cute.

THE MODERATOR: Let's talk about this outstanding round here today of four-ball. Your front nine, birdies all over the place. Alison, what was working so well for you guys?

ALISON LEE: I think we were both just playing really well, and it worked out. We obviously weren't making birdies on the same holes. We did birdie No. 9 together, which was awesome. Or 18, yeah. But yeah, it was great. We were both on our game on the front nine.

I feel like obviously we had a really good round today, but we did leave a lot of strokes out there. On our back side, we missed quite a few birdie putts. But overall, I think we shouldn't be too upset where we are going into the weekend.

Q. Lindsay, what do you think of this format and how do you think it fits your games?

LINDSAY WEAVER: I think it's just really fun, and I think regardless of how anybody has been playing, it's like you come here and you're with your teammate, you feel so comfortable -- well, especially for us since we're such close friends. I just feel very comfortable.

I think it's just easy to play well and easy to have like a nice support system out there. And her caddie and my caddie, I think we've just had a really good chemistry throughout the week. I think it's really fun. Just got to continue to make some more birdies.

Q. What have you thought of yesterday, that alternate-shot format? What do you think worked yesterday for you, as well?

ALISON LEE: Honestly I felt like we were both hitting it pretty good. When it comes to alternate-shot you can't make too many mistakes or else you're going to get a high number on every hole. We played pretty steady throughout -- for the whole the round.

We only had two birdies, one bogey, and they were both pretty easy birdies. Lindsay hit one really close. I hit one really close. We did miss quite a few putts yesterday, as well.

So overall I feel like we're both playing really well. Our games are pretty good right now, and that's the thing about this format, too. We both have been friends for so long and we both know each other's games so well and know how we kind of act on the golf course, so if one of us gets down or whatever we know how to handle the situation and stuff like that.

LINDSAY WEAVER: I think we've also been playing very consistently, and that's definitely -- as individual players that's our strong suit.

Q. When did you two decide that you wanted to team together for this event, because I know there were some different partners back in 2019?

ALISON LEE: We were actually going to play together last year before COVID and stuff hit, but obviously it didn't work out.

LINDSAY WEAVER: Yeah, and then she texted me. I think she texted me early in the year and was like, Still want to partner for Dow? I was like, Yeah. So here we are.

Q. Wanted to ask kind of to that point that we just talked about, too, just your friendship and how important it is and how it translates to success on the golf course in a team event like this, obviously with the magical, I guess we could call it, front nine. I was going to make a pun about Wizards of Weaverly Place. I decided against it.

Anyway, how does your friendship translate to success out on the golf course?

ALISON LEE: Well, I think the mental aspect of golf is so important, and if you have someone there right next to you, a playing partner that you're super comfortable with and you've played golf with them basically your whole life, and we've been playing golf since we were really young, so yeah, we're just really comfortable around each other, and it just kind of brings us a level of confidence on the course because I do trust her, I think she trusts me, and so yeah, it just kind of brings that great chemistry.

We played with Hyo Joo and Eun-Hee Ji today and they're really close friends, as well, so that was nice to see both teams in the same group basically having a really fun day?

LINDSAY WEAVER: I think it really helps the vibe and the team dynamic. Obviously we're so close and we know each other so well. She's in my wedding and we've been very close for a long time. It's just fun.

Q. Alison, a question that floats around a lot this week, but your experience in the Solheim Cup, how does that experience -- obviously that's a match play experience versus a stroke play experience here. How does that time in Solheim Cup help you kind of prepare or think about this tournament even though it's a little bit different?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, obviously Solheim Cup is basically the same format. I mean, I haven't played Solheim Cup since 2015, but Lindsay and I actually played together in the Junior Solheim Cup when we were like --

LINDSAY WEAVER: 2011.

ALISON LEE: 2011. In junior golf they do have quite a few match play events where they do have quite a few formats like this, and we've played together in those.

So yeah, I mean, to be honest, this tournament isn't really like anything else. I think a lot of players just come because it's such a good time, and it's very rare you get to play in a team setting in golf because it's an individual sport. Both her and I went to college and we got to experience that in college, and so it's kind of nice to come out here and not have to carry your whole round on your own back, and you just have partner there to help you.

LINDSAY WEAVER: A lot less stress.

Q. That Junior Solheim Cup that you mentioned, is that where you two met, or did you meet prior to that, as well?

ALISON LEE: No, we met prior to that?

LINDSAY WEAVER: I remember playing together in Las Vegas in I think 20 --

ALISON LEE: If that was Las Vegas I was probably 12 or 13.

LINDSAY WEAVER: Yeah, you were 13, so I was 14.

ALISON LEE: So more than --

LINDSAY WEAVER: You might have been 12.

ALISON LEE: Probably 12. So yeah, 14 years we've known each other.

LINDSAY WEAVER: Not to date ourselves.

Q. Probably feels like yesterday, right?

ALISON LEE: No. I feel old now. When I think back to those days...

Q. When is the wedding date, Lindsay?

LINDSAY WEAVER: It is November 27th.

Q. For both of you, if you could just tell me what you think the key is to your consistent play, not just this week but coming into this week.

LINDSAY WEAVER: I feel like everybody -- my dad and my fiance always tell me, you're such a consistent player, like that's your thing. You make a lot of pars. You are very steady. That's the way you've always played. That's how you are as a player. And I feel like Alison is really the same way. It's just a trait.

ALISON LEE: I think it's always good to have two players that are pretty consistent, and we are both pretty consistent today. We made a couple mistakes here and there, but overall we didn't make any bogeys today. We missed quite a few birdie putts on the back.

LINDSAY WEAVER: Just a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, a lot of looks at it.

ALISON LEE: I don't think there's any real strategy when it comes to playing an event like this, it's just make the birdies when you can and trust your other partner will do the same thing.

Q. In your own game this year, Alison, what has been your strength this year?

ALISON LEE: Honestly it's just having fun and being confident on the golf course again. I'm hitting my driver a lot better. My iron shots have been really good. I've been pretty consistent with my iron shots, which has helped me a lot.

I think just overall just feeling a lot better on the golf course. I did struggle the last few years. We both had to go back to Q-school a couple times, which is really frustrating. But that's kind of how it just kind of made us stronger. Like our friendship even stronger, because we've had to go through things like that.

LINDSAY WEAVER: That's actually kind of how we got so close. Like in 2019 we were both struggling, and so we spent a lot of weekends together. And then went to Q-school together for two weeks and we were very close throughout that. We played our practice rounds every day together, went to the movies together, and then it just kind of translated to more out here, even more so.

Q. Is there anything when you were struggling on a weekend that either one of you remember the other one said to each other that kind of helped you mentally to stay positive?

ALISON LEE: I don't think it was anything that was said, but it was just more so having each other and being able to have that escape from the golf course and not just have to be so depressed on the weekends when we'd make cuts. We'd have each other's company, make each other laugh, go do fun stuff and just kind of get away from golf.

LINDSAY WEAVER: We kind of had each other to lean on and be supportive of one another because we both knew what the other was going through. So we would find activities to do on the weekends. Alison is so good at that, so we would always do something fun on the weekend just to take our mind off the tough year we were having, me specifically. I was having a very tough year.

Q. You both had success early on and golf seemed fun and easy and then you both struggled. Was there a period of time where you were like, I'm done with this, I hate this game, I'm walking away?

LINDSAY WEAVER: Oh, yeah.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, of course. We both have talked about it. When we would go back to Q-school, have to play Symetra Tour events. I had to play a couple Symetra events in the beginning of the year, and sometimes you just kind of get really down on yourself and you get to negative and you kind of question yourself, is this for me, do I belong out here.

I mean, having good weeks like this where you have a really good round, it just kind of makes you believe in yourself again, and I think that's so important when you're out here. When you come out here you need to believe that you can win, as opposed to coming out here and just going through the motions.

LINDSAY WEAVER: And just trying to make cuts. I think for me, like I did not want to continue playing golf after 2019. I've told this story before, but my mom said, oh, just give it one more shot, go to Q-school and give it one more shot. I said, I don't even want to go to Q-school because I was just done. I was just so over it. I happened to -- I finished like fourth and got my card back, so I was like, okay, I guess I'll give it one more try, and had a pretty good year last year. My mother takes the credit for that one, as she does.

Q. As nice as you both are, it's hard to use this word, but golf is a hard game and you have to harden up to play it; when did you both realise that and what's it been like?

ALISON LEE: For me, I've had so many up-and-downs in my career ever since I was really young. Even in junior golf, there have been years where I would just -- I don't know, like my whole career has been such a roller coaster for me.

When I had my struggles over the last couple years, it didn't feel new. It just kind of felt so repetitive, like oh, my gosh, this is happening to me again, why am I so mentally just not in the right place whenever I play golf, and why does this happen to me.

It's always nice to come back and play good golf, and it just kind of makes everything go away and you kind of forget about all the bad times, but I feel like that stuff kind of happens. You're never going to see someone in their career consistently just always going up. It just makes you learn a lot about yourself and kind of grounds you as a person, I think?

LINDSAY WEAVER: Yeah, there's just so many highs and lows, as everybody else said. There are so many highs and lows out here. My fiance plays on Korn Ferry, too, so between the two of us one has a good week, one has a bad week, and particularly for me it's always up and down, and it's never going to be steady, and so it's just mentally trying to stay as level as you can and just knowing that if you miss a cut one week or two weeks or three weeks, it's not the end of the world, there's always next week, there's always another opportunity.

Q. Could you speak about the embrace that this community has had for this event? Last year this golf course was underwater.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I've heard. I think that's what's so great about towns like this. You can go to a restaurant down the street, like Oh, are you playing in the tournament? Where I'm from in LA, we'll have that Wilshire event, I'll go to the restaurant literally across the street from Wilshire, and they'll be like, Oh, you play golf? That's a thing?

LINDSAY WEAVER: It's really cool that the community has really rallied behind this tournament, and a lot of people who work for Dow and Three Rivers and all the major sponsors. I know I'm staying with a family who works for Dow and one of the -- the man is retired and the woman still works, but they love this tournament and they actually feel a little guilty for so much involvement because they haven't done any work this week. But it's really cool to see that, and such good crowds out here. They're to uplifting, and it's nice to just have the fans back.

Q. Lindsay, if you weren't playing golf, what else were you considering doing in 2019?

LINDSAY WEAVER: I majored in finance in college, so I moved to Dallas with my fiance and I was planning on getting a job in finance there.

Q. Alison, you mentioned that it's been a roller coaster of a career and you've learned a lot about yourself. What in particular have you learned?

ALISON LEE: That there's just so much more to life than my score on the golf course. I mean, I used to think golf defined me and I used to think people will only care about me or like me if I play well. I think a lot of it was college, as well, going to college and spending all four years there, just kind of really showed me that there's so much more to life than just going to a new golf course every week.

Yeah, basically that, and we both went to college, we were both in sororities in college, as well. We have a lot of non-golfer friends who just bring us back to reality whenever we have conversations with them or catch up with our friends from back home, which is nice.

LINDSAY WEAVER: Yeah. They have no idea about golf or how we played. They don't really care. It's so important to have something to just find your own happiness outside of golf and just to have something that it's not so heavy all the time.