Q. Here with Minjee Lee after a great round here at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. 10-under; bogey-free. Tell us about what led to this amazing day.
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, I mean, starting with two birdies is always going to be a nice fast start. Before I started today I was like, let's just get off to a really fast start and see how low I can do today.
Yeah, just tried to ride the momentum over like the end of the -- like the 8th and 9th hole and into the 10th and 11th. So that was nice.
Having an eagle on 15, it was like the cherry on top. So just hit it really solid and made some really nice putts.
Yeah, it was easy today.
Q. I hard you tell Amy that it was like target practice out there; hitting much closer to the pin. Was that a key contributor today or was your putting also a big factor?
MINJEE LEE: I definitely hit more greens today. They weren't really tight but they were all like 12, 13 feet, which is a nice length to hole.
Just with the new putter, getting a little more settled and getting used to that, I think it's just a really nice confidence booster that I got this round under my belt.
Q. Great round.
MINJEE LEE: Thank you.
Q. I was hoping to drill down a little bit on the long putter. What inspired you to switch to that? Have you messed with one in the past or is this all new?
MINJEE LEE: Just here and there back home. There are a lot of putters at the golf club, so I was just feeling around with a few. Not necessarily the long putter was my first choice. I think once I started practicing with it it was -- it was not super unnatural or didn't feel too weird.
For me, I think it's just a little new adventure and see where it takes me.
Q. What do you look for when you're trying to find a new putter?
MINJEE LEE: I think obviously being comfortable when you're like looking down at setup. You want to be comfortable looking at the putter.
Just depends what kind of tendencies you have. For me I droop a little bit inside in my backswing, so this putter really promotes really straight back, straight forward, or just things like that in a putter, something that can help you fix your tendencies a little bit.
Q. Did you bring another putter just in case?
MINJEE LEE: No.
Q. Does the head of the putter look similar to what you were using before?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, so I use a square to square, but in a bigger blade. It's not that much different in terms of the putter head to itself.
Q. At what point today did you tell yourself perhaps, hey, this could be a really extraordinary round?
MINJEE LEE: In like the middle part, probably from like 3 to 7. I gave myself a lot of opportunities but I just didn't make the putts, so I was like -- I made a long one on 8 and then obviously 9 I hit it on for two, so of was reachable.
Yeah, just kind of tried to ride the momentum as I said before. I felt pretty good in my iron game today, so I was like, let's try and be aggressive and go at the pins that I can go at. So pretty much that. I was just trying to stay aggressive and just put nice roll on the putts and they went in.
Q. After the eagle on 15 were you asking yourself, can I get to 61, 60?
MINJEE LEE: It didn't really cross my mind. I did have a nice opportunity on 17, and obviously 18 I didn't make -- hit the green, so, yeah, not really, no.
Q. Score-wise this is your career-best here.
MINJEE LEE: Yeah.
Q. How would this compare to other rounds that, score or not, that you would consider your best?
MINJEE LEE: I think I just made putts at important times. I made birdie at like an important time so that's why I could like go onto make the other birdies as well.
To be honest I didn't feel that different out there. I just kind of reset every hole and I was like every hole I can make birdie on. I just had the mindset of just keeping up with my game plan, which was to be aggressive because it was quite soft out there.
It kind of paid off today.
Q. Starting your season a little earlier than normal, how did that impact your offseason? Did you take less time off?
MINJEE LEE: I would say guess. I would probably have taken another probably two to three weeks off, like no clubs, nothing.
I came back at the beginning, like beginning of this year, and started playing. It was a little quicker turnaround this time, but I didn't really feel too off with my swing or anything like that.
So it was more just like getting the reps for the putter and then just coming out here really.
Q. So you're playing next week?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah.
Q. Which ones will you play...
MINJEE LEE: I'm going to play Singapore and Blue Bay.
Q. Okay. Also a new caddie.
MINJEE LEE: Yep.
Q. How long have you known him? He's been out here forever.
MINJEE LEE: Yeah.
Q. How long did it take you to get into a rhythm with each other?
MINJEE LEE: Actually with Mikey, he worked for me two weeks last year -- no, wait, in '23, the International Crown and the Founders Cup, so it wasn't something that was like totally new. He's been around for a really long time so it's not like he's new to caddieing.
It just feels very easy. We get along really well. His wife, Tanya, is from Perth as well and known her forever and seen Mikey around for a really long time as well.
Yeah, it was great week this week.
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