HILTON GRAND VACATIONS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS

January 21, 2024

Ally Ewing

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Here with Ally Ewing after her fourth round at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. Talk about your round today, especially the eagle an 15.

ALLY EWING: Yeah, it was a little bit slow, but it was a good day given everything. I missed a couple of short-ish putts, but all in all I told my caddie, I said, I hit those putts right where I wanted to. Maybe the slightest misread or wind was affected a little bit.

Yeah, to get out of the gates with a Top 5 finish, definitely would say I exceeded my expectations knowing the rust would be there. Disappointed with a three-putt on the last hole. Yeah, happy with what I saw this week.

Q. Fourth start here at this tournament; best finish. Just what has this week been like for you? Was there a change in game plan coming in or things fell where they did?

ALLY EWING: I would say they fell more where they did. The first tournament every year there is this low expectation just because you're coming off off-season.

I really just enjoyed the week. Tried not make anything bigger than it was. Even being in the last group today I knew it was going to take really spectacular golf to chase down Lydia and Alexa.

Just stuck with the game plan and stayed patient, tried to work on executing the shots I wanted to hit.

Yeah, it was a good start to the season no doubt.

Q. Everyone joked this is the first one so you shake the rust, get the cobwebs out. How do you feel after your first full round? Are you ready to take on the season?

ALLY EWING: I feel good. Definitely saw some good things out there. I would probably say as far as rust is concerned, I want to tighten up my speed on putts just a little bit. That was one thing I wanted to do a little bit better.

But, yeah, one week in, and where I saw my game coming out of off-season is by far the best I've seen for a first tournament coming out of off-season. Definitely happy about that.

Q. How would you characterize the conditions this week?

ALLY EWING: Yeah, they were -- I would say the first day very scorable.

Second day we saw some wind and the rain and everything.

Yesterday was obviously good day.

Today was a test with just the wind.

The greens are pretty slick out there, so you were starting to see putts affected by the wind. Course was in spectacular condition. Really good test of golf. So to get the week started off at Lake Nona, it's a good test.

If your game is not tight, it will definitely show you where you need to tighten it up for sure.

Q. On that note, what did you think of the way Lydia just cruised today? She made on the back nine particularly -- they weren't long putts but, miss-able par saves.

ALLY EWING: Yeah, like I said, this golf course is a really good test. I don't know if anyone knows how good her up and down was on the par-3 No. 13. You know, in a bunker, it's downwind, downhill, that bunker shot, she landed it in the perfect spot.

Then you got everything running away. It's always fun to play with opponents that you're competing against. To be able to appreciate difficult shots people pull off, I always just want to make sure -- I mean, people sometimes don't give the credit where credit is due in difficult shots. She hit some really good ones today.

Q. She makes it look easy. All you guys do. On a few par saves how clutch were they? She just kept the momentum from like -- seceding the momentum.

ALLY EWING: Yeah, I can't really speak for how she was feeling. I would have to say that regardless of having a lead or not, I would assume she's had several rounds around this track. Playing with a lead, even if there is a lead, being able to roll from some putts that really mean something down the stretch, the lead doesn't matter at that point.

Executing those shots, hats off to her.