LPGA DRIVE ON CHAMPIONSHIP

March 25, 2023

Alison Lee

Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Alison Lee. Another solid one today. Made three birdies in a four-hole stretch in the middle of your round. Solid overall. Finished with a birdie. Tell me about your day out there.

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a little unnerving when like before I even tee off I just see a ton of low scores out there. So definitely put me in a little bit of a pressure spot I guess, so I had to shoot a low one.

You know, satisfied with a 5-under. An improvement from yesterday. Like I said, all these girls are so good. Like I look at the leaderboard and I think I'm doing great, but I just got to step on the gas pedal. All the girls are just making so many birdies.

So one more day left. That's exactly what I'm going to have to do: make as many birdies as possible. I know someone is going to go out there and shoot a low one.

Q. How do you mitigate the nerves pre-round? How do you lessen the nerves and the pressure?

ALISON LEE: Staying with my boyfriend this week in Scottsdale. It's a little far way and he has a little dog, so cuddling a dog is always nice.

Just that and trying to treat this like any other day at the office. Like I said, it's going to be a tough one tomorrow. Going to have to play really aggressively. I can't make too many mistakes tomorrow if I want to win this thing.

Definitely keeping that in mind. Going to go on the range today after my round and just hit a few, make sure I make a few tweaks so I'm ready for tomorrow.

Q. What did you do this morning to maybe chill out for a bit?

ALISON LEE: I took the dog out for a walk. Nothing too crazy. Last couple days I did a little workout before because I do feel like -- I mean, it might be tiring to do a little workout before, but it does calm me down a little bit. I get the heart racing pretty early in the morning.

Maybe I'll try to do something like that tomorrow to try and calm me down.

Yeah, no matter how many times you're in that situation where you're on the leaderboard and you have a chance to win, that's not something you could recreate.

And so, yeah, going to do my best to play some good golf, not make many mistakes, and try and make putts.

This course looks amazing. The greens are rolling so pure. It's easy to make a lot of putts because it's rolling great.

Q. Which is something you've done over the past three days. Only 25 today, which is impressive on any golf course. What was working so well with the putter?

ALISON LEE: Honestly for me it wasn't so much the putter. I'm hitting my irons great. Giving myself a lot of opportunities, putting myself in good chances to make birdie.

So, yeah, honestly, if my putter is rolling I feel like I can shoot 59 out there easily. Got to work on the putter a little bit, get the nerves, brush them off a little bit.

Overall feel like my game is pretty solid. Really happy with where I'm at.

Q. You've had a lot of great experiences in your career, and I don't want to ignore any of those, but what have you learned in the last few times in this position that things might not have not worked out? What do you take from from those? We talked a little bit yesterday. You said you felt like you were more mature now. Have you learned anything that's helped you a little bit more?

ALISON LEE: Definitely. A lot of people think the longer you're out here the more you mature, the stronger you get.

But I feel like the longer you are out here the more battle scars you have, so you always carry that with you. So you are sometimes a little more nervous. You do -- you've seen the bad shots and you're afraid of those shots and you've seen bad rounds and you're afraid of those rounds as well.

So just trying to do my best to manage those and know I'm playing great. Like I said, playing aggressively. Sometimes when you don't think about the water on the right or the trap on the left, and if you zero in on the target and focus on the pin, sometimes you can be great, and that's what's been working for me the last couple weeks.

I mean, like I said, this course is looking really good right now and there is not too many weird holes. Like if you hit it great and at your target you're not going to get weird bounces and it's going to end up right at the pin.

Playing aggressive is key out here. Not leaving putts short for sure. Just literally trying to make as many birdies as possible.

Q. I know you're feeling it a little bit right now, but in the scenario, chasing, you can go for broke, really got nothing to lose at this point, does that free you up at all?

ALISON LEE: A little bit. I definitely have some work to do tomorrow. I know that for a fact. Like I said, that's girls are so good. Before teeing off I saw Amy Yang shot 9-under. I was like, wow, I've got a lot of work to do today. I can't slack off, I can't slow down.

With that in mind, I don't feel at ease, because like I said I know I'm going to have to step on the gas pedal tomorrow. That's what golf is about. It's making as many birdies as you can, shooting a low round, and winning basically.