PORTLAND CLASSIC

August 31, 2023

Andrea Lee

Columbia Edgewater Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. All right, here with Andrea Lee after your first round at the Portland Classic. I want to know if while you were out there on the course if any memories came back to you, any spots you were like, I'm not supposed to hit this here. Anything you remember from last year out there on the course today?

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, I love this golf course. I really tried not to think about the stuff that I did last year. You know, every round is completely different.

Just had a lot of fun out there today. I think the memory that's stuck out the most was just walking down 18 fairway. Hit it in the left rough today which wasn't ideal, but hit it down the middle last year, and just reminiscing on that shot into the green and the two-putt for the win, yeah, that was pretty cool.

Q. You got off to a really great opening round. What were some of the keys out there today?

ANDREA LEE: The course is definitely playing a lot different compared to prior years. It was so wet out there. Drew and I had to adjust some of our numbers and club choices. You know, the first hole right off the bat I came up way short, and we knew we had to get it to actually the pin today with the numbers.

So just adjusting to that. Managed to make a couple long putts out there and had a few short birdie putts, so that was nice.

Q. Obviously the big storyline with you has been making your spot on the Solheim team. I'm wondering if the energy is just with you since doing that and preparing for the Solheim Cup. Has your energy, spirits been lifted because of that?

ANDREA LEE: Yeah, for sure. It was a huge wave of relief after I made it on the number to make the Solheim Cup team and qualify automatically. I'm just extremely excited to represent the United States. It's been a goal and dream of mine and I've played in a couple of Junior Solheim Cup teams and I've always wanted to play in the real thing.

Yeah, I'm just super excited. I can't wait.

Q. We've talked about your game trending upward the last couple weeks. Is there something specific you have been working on or that you think is just the best part of your game right now?

ANDREA LEE: I think my putting has definitely gotten a lot better since the first half of the year. I was struggling a little bit, but feeling really confident with it now.

I think just overall my mentality and my headspace is a lot better than where it was the first five months of the year. I think I'm just a lot calmer and a lot more positive, and when I get bad breaks or have a bad hole, I kind of just brush it off.

I feel like I got really, really frustrated and anxious at the end of the year, so I think that in itself has really helped me.

Q. Last question: What have you taken out of today that you hope to carry into the next couple of days, especially as conditions change here in Portland? Just what you learned today from the course that will help you through the next couple days.

ANDREA LEE: Hopefully the course will firm up a little bit more after today. I think today was like our only real day of rain, so just kind of adjusting to that and I'm sure it'll still play pretty soft, so I'm going to be really aggressive I feel like.

On this golf course you have to make birdies to be in contention, so that's the game plan. Nothing is going to change. Just going to try and stay really patient out there.