THE LPGA DRIVE ON CHAMPIONSHIP

January 26, 2024

Lucy Li

Bradenton Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Joined now by Lucy Li after her second round at the LPGA Drive On Championship. Take us through your first two rounds. You're playing some great golf right now.

LUCY LI: Yeah, I've been hitting it good, putting it really well, which I'm excited to finally be doing.

It was really quiet this morning on the front nine. I was only even on the front nine, and I feel like the pins were a little easier today. So I was trying not to get too frustrated because I felt that today was an easier scoring day than yesterday.

I was just trying to stay patient, and I got a few putts to drop on the back nine. So it was a good day.

Q. What do you do to maybe try to keep those frustrations in check and just kind of focus in on the golf you're playing?

LUCY LI: Everyone says one shot at a time. That's kind of it. I like to have a good chat on the golf course, so that's what I did. I talk to my caddie and keep it easy.

That's what's really important for me to play well, if I can keep it loose and just have a good time.

Q. Second season here on the LPGA Tour. How do you feel making your first start this season compared to last year? Where do you think you're at in terms of your game, your comfortability out here? What are some of those things?

LUCY LI: Kind of the year before last year, I spent maybe almost half a season playing tournaments out here even though I wasn't a member. So I was comfortable being out here. That wasn't really the problem. I just kind of put too much pressure on myself last year, and that was a huge lesson I learned to not take things too seriously.

This season's really long. I feel like I started out okay, but I just gave myself so much pressure to be playing well. This year coming into it, I kind of just wanted to change my mindset a little bit and kind of play each tournament as it is and not think about the future too much.

So I think that was like -- hopefully I can keep doing that.

Q. What are some of the things you maybe worked on this off-season that have kind of put you in the contention here?

LUCY LI: Yeah, I worked on my putting. I switched putters, switched grips. I feel much more comfortable over the ball putting now, which has been huge. Just worked on some little things that I wasn't really -- that I've done really well historically that I didn't do so great last year. So just making sure that I put my time in there.

My wedges were good this week. So just keep doing what I've done well in the past and just work a little bit on my short game.

Q. What was the putter switch?

LUCY LI: I just switched from a center shafted putter to a little bit more of a mallet that had a little more -- that's not center shafted. So it has a little more arc to it.

Q. What's it going to take to keep staying towards the top and keep in contention the rest of the week?

LUCY LI: I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and see what happens. Get some rest a little bit. At the end of today and the end of yesterday, my back was cramping a little bit, so I kind of hit a couple of those drives a little snap hooky just because getting a little tired.

So I think I'm just going to get a little rest.