Q. All right, I'm here with Alison Lee, leader in the clubhouse right now, shooting 5-under. Can you just talk us through your round today and the seven birdies you had out there?
ALISON LEE: Yeah, overall I made a lot of putts. You know, putting has been my weakest point over the past year. You could just look at my stats and that's something I've been trying really hard to work on.
Yeah, today was one of those days where, I mean, I even laughed at some of the putts I made because it just wasn't expecting it to go in.
After the first few holes, making a few good putts gave me a lot of confidence going into the rest of the round. Every time I had a birdie chance I really looked at it as if I can make this. That's what I said to myself.
Because for me, especially off the tee here, it's very visually intimidating. Rough was fairly thick for me today. In certain areas if you get if the rough you might not have a good lie.
You got the street hanging over on some holes. So it is a bit visually intimidating for me. Overall I feel really solid about my game. Yeah, today was one of those days the putter worked. 5-under, I'm really happy with the start of my round.
Q. And then you mentioned your putting as well. What are some of those things that specifically you have been doing to improve the putting?
ALISON LEE: It's honestly been a lot of mental. I really believe deep down I've always been a really good putter, and just for some reason this year I just haven't felt comfortable over the ball.
I actually was speaking to my swing coach and he was so frustrated with me because he was looking at my stats and I want to say thanks to the KPMG Insights, I was ranked like 15th for strokes gained from approach to tee; my putting was pretty bad, so that's obviously what my game was lacking.
I hired a putting coach right before U.S. Open. He works with a few girls out here and he's been amazing. We've been working a lot on not so much my stroke, more so like mental, speed, and more feel, stuff like that.
I think it's really helped.
Q. And then what can you say as well about the Evian Resort Golf Club and the conditions out here and the community in Evian?
ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's nice to play in Evian in the summertime. This is my ninth year on tour so I've played out here when we would play later in the year with a lot of rain and cold, so it's nice to be here when it's sunny and warm.
Yeah, I thought the conditions were great. Fairways are nice. Greens are rolling pretty good. Yeah, I mean, I can only say good things since I played well, too. It looked perfect out there for me.
Q. I think I feel like you've been shooting some really good rounds it's just putting all four together. When you have a round like this to open how do you calm yourself down and reset to put through more rounds like that together?
ALISON LEE: Yeah, you would think if I have a good round, whether it's the first day, second day, all three days, going into the final round, it puts me in a better state of mind.
But honestly, sometimes it doesn't, and especially a course like this, when it's a little difficult off the tee it just takes a lot of positive self-talk. I'm trying the best I can to stay confident and in the moment.
A lot of the time if you see your name at the top of the leaderboard it is a little bit more nerve-wracking and a little bit more anxiety and adrenaline running through the veins.
So just trying my best to stay calm and not worry about that too much. Like I said, I've been putting great. Just trying to focus on making birdies and not making too many mistakes.
So, yeah.
Q. We see players out here play well that have played this golf course a number of times. I think local knowledge helps at this point. How have you managed to adjust to the sidehill lies you get pretty much every single approach shot?
ALISON LEE: Yeah, 100%. This course is pretty quirky and challenging. You have to know where to land it. You have to know where the good spots are and the bad spots are obviously to avoid the bad spots.
A number of my birdies today were because I just kind of landed in to the right spot. It wasn't necessarily because I was going at the pin or getting -- taking an aggressive line.
So sometimes when you take a little bit of a different line than you're used to you have to trust the fact that slope going to bring the ball to the pin. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Today was one of those days where it worked out for me.
So, yeah, I mean, you do need a little bit of luck on a course like this and definitely a lot of local knowledge.
Q. You mentioned intimidating tee shots a few times. What do you tell yourself when you are looking down the fairway and you you think, uh-oh?
ALISON LEE: Yeah, I just have to focus on my target. It's very easy. There are a lot of trees, stuff going on. It's very easy to be looking left and right.
But you just got to stay focused on your target. I would say just have that one swing thought and just trust it. I know that's worked well for me and no matter how many negative thoughts I have I just tell myself if I do this one move, if I trust this one swing thought, it will go straight.
And sometimes it won't. You know, you will have bad tee shots here and there. I had a few bad ones today. You have to brush it off and really trust and have that one swing thought to keep you focused and not get your mind wandering too much and take yourself to too much of a negative place.
On a course like this, if you hit it, great, hit greens be birdies are possible. Also if you don't hit it in the right spot it's very easy to make a bogey as well, yeah.
Q. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?
ALISON LEE: Well, I'm going to go track my suitcase and make sure everything is there. Maybe take a little nap. I slept through the night last night so I might not have to do that.
But I'm going to send Delta a pretty nasty email, so, yep.
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