AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 19, 2021

Andrea Lee

Mixed Zone

STUART MOFFATT: Good afternoon, everybody. We're joined by Andrea Lee. Andrea, 4-under par round of 68 to start the championship. You must be very happy with your performance today.

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, extremely. I played really solid golf today. I hit a lot of fairways and hit a lot of greens and was really smart off the tee and where to place the ball in the fairways and trying to stay out of the pot bunkers. So really pleased with that.

I made a lot of really solid putts on the front nine. Started off with three birdies in a row, so that's always nice. You had to really stay patient coming down the stretch. 14 through 18 are really tough holes, so even-par coming out of that is all I could ask for really. So I'm really pleased with how I started.

STUART MOFFATT: You talked about your birdies. How important was that for building momentum for the rest of the round?

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, definitely. I was a little nervous off the 1st tee. I think we all get 1st tee jitters, but I think it really helped calm me down. I had just an easy two, three footer on the 1st hole, and then the 2nd hit a really solid shot with a hybrid to about 12, 15 feet, made that. 3rd hole, didn't take advantage of that pin location as I wanted to, but ended up making like a 35-footer for birdie. So that was a nice stretch there, and it just kind of calmed me down, I think, right from the get go.

Q. Andrea, great round.

ANDREA LEE: Thank you so much.

Q. I saw on Instagram that you played the Old Course. Where else did you play last week, and what is it about links golf that you love so much? You play so well.

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, I played Downfield one day, kind of like an inland course that you would see in America, and then two rounds at Panmure, which is where the final qualifying was, and then two rounds at the Old Course, which was pretty incredible. My caddie helped set that up.

It was obviously a really neat experience. I knew holes No. 1, 17, and 18 really well, but didn't know the rest of the course, so it was cool to play the rest of the holes that I didn't know.

Yeah, I don't know, I love coming back to Scotland and playing links golf. I feel like it really suits my game. To have like a low ball, kind of a flighted ball into the wind on a lot of the shots. I really like getting creative out on the greens, kind of putting off from the slopes or even using a 5-wood from kind of the putts where you have to go over tiers and stuff.

Yeah, I think it's just so much fun, and I just had a blast out there. Hopefully, I can keep it going.

Q. What did you shoot at the Old Course? And how did you find your caddie?

ANDREA LEE: So I think the first day I played the Old Course, I shot 1-over, and then 3-under the second time around off the blacks, which was pretty neat.

My caddie, I just found him through my agent. He reached out looking for a bag this week. He's a local here, lives ten minutes up the road, and he's a member here at Carnoustie, so he knows this course really well. So I decided to give him a shot, and it's been working out great so far.

His name's Ian Engalls, and he's been super great, super friendly, and really kept me calm out there, I'd say.

Q. Could you talk about the season as a whole and how much another strong week at this championship would mean to you.

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, definitely. This year started out not how I really pictured it. I've had a rough year up to this point, several missed cuts, and it was definitely frustrating, and I was beginning to kind of doubt myself a little bit. But just kept sticking to it, sticking to the process of just working on what I needed to work on and improve on, and slowly, slowly, it got there.

I had a good finish at the Marathon. It was my first top 25 finish all year, so built a little bit of momentum there. Then had a decent week in Ireland. The game's just been feeling really solid ever since. So I just went out there and played my heart out today and planning to do that the rest of this week.

STUART MOFFATT: I think that's all the questions we have. Well played today. Good luck for tomorrow's round.

ANDREA LEE: Thank you. Appreciate it.