THE MODERATOR: Here with Ally Ewing at the Pelican Women's Championship presented by Konica Minolta and Raymond James. You finished runner-up here last year. What's it like being back at Pelican Golf Club?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, it's really nice to kind of relive some of the shots that I hit. Really good week following my first win on the LPGA. I haven't felt like I've been playing great golf, but a month at home I think was much needed to just regroup mentally, physically, all the things that you just kind of miss home.
So it was nice to have a month at home and be back to a site where I've got really good memories from last year.
Q. How different is this course playing this week? We spoke to some people earlier in the week and they said the greens are a little bit softer than they were last year. Seems like it's a little more friendly now that it's had time to kind of cook after the renovation. How have you found the golf course and the differences between last year and this year?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, I think overall we see the green complexes were kind of new in their renovation from what I recall last year. This year you certainly see some of the greens with a lot more grass on them, a little bit softer. Still firm, but a little bit softer.
But overall, I mean, the golf course is in great shape and you can see why the members love it around here.
Q. A year and two weeks removed from your maiden win last year. That was obviously life changing for a bunch of different reason, but how did that change your mindset as a player, and not only help you in the end of the last season, but propel you into the year you've had this year?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, I think it's just the overall confidence. I think we as players do so much, put in so much work to accomplish the goal to win, and sometimes we get to a week and we play our best but the best is not good enough that week.
To actually feel yourself in a winner's circle and to see all the hard work pay off and see a win happen, it just kind of instills a little bit more confidence in the moment. If you're back in contention it kind of calms your nerves. I've been here before, and can kind of build off the past, a past win or a past experience so to speak to try kind of calm yourself and realize that you've been in this situation before and try to rise to that occasion again.
Q. It's been 54 weeks since you broke through. Feels like ten years. When you look at everything that has transpired, how are you different now than you were as the person who hadn't won out here?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, I think just being more confident in who I am. I think until you win you kind of -- you kind of trust what you're doing, but you're still searching. Is there something I'm missing? Is there something I'm not doing on a weekly basis that is not getting me to that point?
Me now versus 54 weeks ago, it's just kind of settling into who I am as golfer and a person and just trusting that everything I do is good enough to win out here. You know, just going back and relying on all the things I've done in years past with my coaches, just people who have poured in a lot of support knowing all that led me to where I am today and there is nothing I have to change.
Just kind of continuing to build and to trust in my process, and hopefully get in the winner's circle again if I'm lucky enough to.
Q. Did you carry all those thoughts and feelings into Vegas when you won?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, and I think Vegas was just so much different, too. Even though it's an LPGA win it's a match play tournament, so you don't have to have your best for 72 holes. You just have to have your better-than-the-other-player for 18 holes. I just love that competitive aspect of the Bank of Hope Match Play tournament and being able to go head-to-head with the best players in the world.
Just trying to find that mental frame of competing at the highest level against an opponent for 18 holes or however many holes you play. But the level of confidence that I had in already getting a win back at the Drive On in Georgia certainly helped me, even though it was a different format. It helped me to kind of calm my nerves and realize I've been in moment, it's just a little bit different, and try to rise to that level again?
Q. Was this week a year ago one of those weeks where you did have your best stuff and it just wasn't quite good enough?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I can't remember exactly, but I know there was a little bit of time that was between Georgia and here, so maybe a couple weeks, I can't recall exactly.
But just kind of hoping that the form and everything stayed intact to come and finish or to play here in Florida. I played really good golf. Sei Young played excellent golf that week and pulled off some incredible shots, especially on the back nine. I can't remember what we turned at, the stroke differential.
It was a great week for me, especially following my first win just being secure and seeing myself play good golf back-to-back. And, yeah, it wasn't good enough for a win, but it was good enough for a really good week.
Q. We talked before you won in Georgia about how much you love bermuda. Got it at Waverley and it's what you're on out here.
ALLY EWING: Uh-huh.
Q. What's the difference and what's the comfort level on a golf course like this?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, I think a lot of it, some players aren't familiar with grain and the bermuda and just how it might affect the putt, how it might change how you hit a chip, different things like that.
You just have to be able to read lies around the greens. Even in the fairways it might change your approach shots in some ways. And then especially in green reading, just kind of being able to recognize the grain and what it might produce, whether it's a speed differential or more or less break, into the grain or downgrain or crossgrain.
It's a familiar grass, like you're saying, but these are the best players in the world, so I don't think it necessarily gives me a leg up to are any reason. (Laughter.)
Q. You mentioned the rest over the last month or so. After what seems like a sprint of a season, what has this year meant to you, and to get that rest for the final two weeks, biggest two weeks of the year, what did that do to help prepare you?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, I think for me personally, with the length, even though our year was shortened last year, the rollover for me has kind of dug a little bit harder into me at the end of the year; just physically feeling a little bit more tired than I have at the end of the year. The mental exhaustion, just kind of trying to be in a peak form week in and week out.
For me that month at home, I put the clubs away for a couple weeks and just said, I need a mental recharge. Let my body rest and just try to be in the best form mentally and physically. Probably for me, a little bit more on the mental aspect.
I found myself very frustrated the last few weeks that we had, Arkansas and the two in Jersey. I think my body was completely tired and mentally I wasn't able to kind of jump over hurdles of the physical exhaustion. So that month at home was huge and instrumental.
Hopefully we see good results from that these last two weeks.
Q. Speaking to that, you think about what transpired in the Solheim Cup for you as well. You kind of came out and made your name known, if it wasn't already known. To have that much of a buildup to that big of an event, how has the energy level been after that just the past couple months?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, Solheim definitely takes a lot out of you because you're putting your best out there more than for just yourself. You're trying to represent your country the best you can. A week like that is full of a lot of different things, which are great, but it's something that now that I've been a part of a couple, I want to be a part of a winning one.
It's still kind of a drive for me to play on more teams. Even though it is one of the most exhausting weeks of the year, it's unlike anything that you play on the LPGA Tour. It's worth it, but it is a tiring week.
The month at home probably, I mean, it still has carried over. I think the long week in Vegas, even though that was months ago, it's just kind of like you just keep -- try to keep rolling.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to these two weeks, but also looking forward to the off-season.
Q. One question going to the KPMG stats that we keep. We've always thought you were one the best ball strikers. Is having that data something that you look at regularly, and does it confirm where you thought you were in your game?
ALLY EWING: I wouldn't say that I address it constantly, but it is something where I look and I'm like, Okay, maybe I'm telling myself that I'm not gaining enough strokes here or there, but it actually says that I am, and maybe give myself a little bit more slack.
I've always been the type of player that's really hard on themselves. Kind of my coaches were laughing at me couple weeks ago working with them. They were like, This putt is around 60 feet. I think I was like, It's just over. He paced it off and it was like 60 feet 5 inches.
We were just kind of doing things, and I have such this perfectionist type of wanting to make sure I'm doing everything correct, and sometimes I kind of gauge things in a perfectionist type of mindset that I don't give myself slack and credit when I'm doing something really well.
The insights, more than it can help me build confidence, it can help me look at something and say, Hey, you're not giving yourself enough credit for what you're doing there. I think the insights are great, and moving forward it's going to be big for me to be able to take a peek and see where I can get better, but also give myself a little bit more credit where credit is due.
Q. How do you curb that perfectionism?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, it's just managing the expectation. Like I think we all strive to be the best, and there is -- you kind of feel like there is not a lot of room for error playing on this tour and against the best. I mean, a round of golf is -- it doesn't have to be perfect, but we certainly strive for that perfection.
Yeah, it's a game unlike any other. I think once you realize your best -- you could go out and shoot 67 and it not be anything close to your best, but then you can also go out there and shoot 72 and you've hit 18 greens and you've two-putted everything and you're walking of the course completely frustrated and want to pull your hair out.
It's realizing it's both worlds you could live in and doesn't necessarily take your best to shoot a really good score, even though we want to strive to have our best every single day.
Q. Last question on the golf course. Coming here again, having such good mental imagery from last year, these greens are tough. This is about the only defense mechanism I feel like this golf course really has. What's the strategy going to be for you on approaches and around the greens this week?
ALLY EWING: Yeah, there are a few greens that have a lot of movement to them, maybe some mounds and stuff that you don't want to find yourself on the opposite side of them.
But in terms of how I play a golf course strategically, I look at the green surfaces, just what it is, and it doesn't really change how I play an approach shot even though there might be necessarily a place on the green where you would not want to have a putt.
But I wouldn't necessarily say I change my strategy. If there is a pin that is off the water but there is a mound to the left, I'm going to play for strategically the higher probability type shot and where I would want to be on the green regardless of what is on the green itself.
THE MODERATOR: Awesome. Thanks, Ally.
ALLY EWING: Thank you.
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