LPGA MEDIHEAL CHAMPIONSHIP

October 6, 2022

Alison Lee

The Saticoy Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with the clubhouse leader at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. Alison, did you see 6-under on the board today as you you went through and were prepping for this first round?

ALISON LEE: No, not really. You know, it's kind of getting at that point of the year and in the season where I feel like everyone is kind of getting really tired and almost burnt out. I came into this week without any expectations.

Like I said, I've just been trying to take every off week and fully take the time off. I just feel so exhausted.

But it's nice to be back in California. I grew up playing courses like this. I never played here before, but there is a sense of familiarity out here with the same type of grass and the same similar look to a lot of courses I grew up playing.

Yeah, it was great. I felt really comfortable out there. Feel like I played pretty good. I only had two holes where I feel like I really made a mistake, but somehow I was able to save par.

Other than that, I feel like I played awesome.

Q. What were those two holes?

ALISON LEE: I had two holes where I missed the green. One was 7, and then the other hole was 18.

So I missed the green and probably had like maybe ten feet for par. I made both which was -- I mean, sometimes you need a few putts like that to go in and it really keeps the momentum going and gives you more confidence throughout the round.

Q. Started off strong with those two birdies in your first nine holes. What was working really on 12 and 16?

ALISON LEE: I feel like I was hitting it really good all day today. I feel like I pretty much hit all my shots in makable birdie range. I could have made a lot more. Like I said, I just feel like I played really awesome today.

I would say it's not a super easy course. It felt easy today obviously because I played so well. Other than that, you definitely need to think a little bit when you hit your approach shots and really need to keep in mind where the pin is and where the slopes are, too.

It's a really fun course to play, and I'm excited for the next few days.

Q. Nothing like continuing the momentum, like three consecutive birdies on 3 through 5. To be able to close out with a nice bird on the par-3 9th, how much confidence did that gave and you satisfaction with today?

ALISON LEE: You know, I feel like for the entire year I feel like I've been playing really well. I've just had a few putts here and there that weren't able to go in. A lot of the time it was not putting aggressive enough.

And today I had quite a few uphill putts that normally I wouldn't make, and I made a conscious effort to just ram it back into the cup and it worked.

Yeah, sometimes there are days like that where the putts just drop. You have to take advantage of those, and hopefully moving forward for the next few days, that can give me a sense of how to read the greens better, and hopefully I can do a little bit more of that.

Q. How much nicer is it to be around a community that not only you grew up near, but went to school near as well?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's great. My parents live like an hour from here, so I took last week off and I went home. It was my mom's birthday last week. I spent a little time with my parents. Maybe a little too much time. After a few days I kind of was over it. Get me out of here.

But it's nice to be home and see familiar faces. Yeah, being back in California, the weather has been great this week, yeah.

Q. You were saying it's been kind of an onslaught of events the last couple weeks and months since the summer swing. What do you do to kind of just take yourself away from kind of everything that is going on?

ALISON LEE: Lately I've been burying my head in a book. I've been on a kick right now reading a lot of books, so that's been a lot of fun.

I mean, making time to see my friends, just trying to get out of the golf headspace and just kind of doing other fun stuff I guess and trying to have that little escape.

So I feel like those two things do it for me. Seeing some old friends that I haven't seen in a while, because we don't get to when we are traveling every week, and reading a books.

Q. Good to hear. What will you take from today as you head into tomorrow?

ALISON LEE: I mean, like I said, I feel really good about my game today. Try not to think about it too much and just play my game, because I feel like I've been in this position a couple times this year. I really got into my head a little bit. I had a few events where I was either in the lead or close to the top, after the first round, just kind of falling off.

Hopefully I can just compartmentalize my whole rest of the day off the course and just kind of keep an open mind and start fresh tomorrow like it's the first day again, like it was today.

Just try and play aggressively.