AIG WOMEN'S OPEN

August 11, 2023

Alison Lee

Mixed Zone

Q. Alison, tell us your thoughts on the round out there.

ALISON LEE: I would say overall I hit the ball pretty good. Made a lot of really good putts. Yeah, that's basically it. With this course, all you've got to do is just hit it in the fairway and then try and find a way to hit the green.

There's quite a few holes that are playing pretty long but thankfully the R&A and everyone running the event moved up a few tees, so that kind of helped out a little bit.

But yeah, I mean, I think that was the key for me, making sure I hit the fairways on important holes and difficult holes and making some really good, important putts.

Q. The par 5s, especially on the back nine looked to be offering big opportunities for you. I think you're 4-under collectively on them for the past two days. Has that been the key?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, both holes are playing pretty short for me. 11, I hit driver, hybrid in both days and then on 16, I hit driver, 6-iron and then an 8-iron today, so it's playing fairly short.

So it feels as though par, you would be losing a stroke against the field, so I just try and treat those holes as par 4s. I mean, we played No. 2, I hit, you know, wood off the tee and that went into the bunker and hybrid to the green. So it feels like the same hole as 11 essentially.

Q. Bogey-free, always nice, especially on a course like this. No heather for you today?

ALISON LEE: I hit it in the heather once today. Thankfully I was very lucky and he had a pretty good lie. I was able to get it on the green and still make par. So that's super important out here.

You know, it's tough to hit perfect 14, 15, tee shots every time you tee it up. Especially looking around, it's pretty wide open but when you go out there, it's not. You need a little bit of luck involved, and thankfully I got that today.

Q. Obviously you're right at the top of the leaderboard but when you look at Ally and she's clearly so far ahead, what does that do to your mentality and how do you approach the weekend?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, Ally has had a really dominant performance over the last two days. To be honest, there's so much golf left, especially with the potential forecast of it being very, very windy tomorrow. Anything can happen.

And so I don't want to try and play too aggressively just yet because like I said, I feel there's a lot of golf left, because it is a lot of risk/reward out here. If you try and play aggressively you might not end up in the best place and par is better than most other scores.

Yeah, just trying to stay patient and it will be a new game plan after tomorrow depending on how it is because like I said, I mean, it's going to be -- if the wind is what it says it is, it's going to be pretty brutal out there tomorrow.

So yeah, just trying to play my own game and just play against the course, honestly. I know Ally is pretty far ahead but anything can happen tomorrow.

Q. So you really feel like tomorrow is a key day for this championship?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, for sure. I think it can change a lot of things. It's not supposed to gust and be really windy until later in the afternoon, so that gives a lot of the girls who tee off early a huge advantage. I'll probably be teeing off a little bit later. So it definitely will be tough. If the wind is supposed to keep -- is supposed to do what it says it is, so yeah, with that in mind, it's tough to make a game plan. All I can do is try to go out there and make as many pars as I can.