Q. Andrea Lee, 3-under 68. Can you just talk us through your round today?
ANDREA LEE: Yeah, I had a pretty fast start. Birdied three of my first four holes, so that was a nice momentum kick to start the round for sure.
And then kind of cooled off for a bit, parred. Just kind of parred until the back nine and had just one blip in my card today, a 3-putt from about 30 feet, which I was upset about, but then came back with another birdie on another hole.
Yeah, just overall really happy with the way I played. Really solid, and I was just playing really smart golf.
Q. Only one bogey on the card. How hard is it at a U.S. Women's Open to keep those bogeys off the card and keep a clean score card?
ANDREA LEE: You can't expect, especially in a U.S. Women's Open to have a clean card all the time. Today I thought I might have a chance except for that one mistake, but, yeah, I'm still super proud of myself. Really grinded. Saved quite a bit of pars out there.
And, yeah, like I said, just played really smart. Hit to the right side of the fairways and the greens. Yeah, just hopefully can keep that going.
Q. This is your fourth appearance in this championship now. What have you learned in those past three?
ANDREA LEE: Yeah, I mean, it's a really long week. It's grueling and it's tough out there always for U.S. Women's Open. I just have learned to stay really patient and stay in the moment. Just focus on every shot that's in front of me and go through that process of getting the numbers and trying to hit the right shots.
Yeah, like you said, this is my fourth year at the U.S. Women's Open, and I'm just really excited to be here. I think my last one was back in 2019, so it's been a while.
Q. You put together two solid rounds so far. How are you going to replicate that over the weekend?
ANDREA LEE: Just trying to do the same things that I have been doing the first couple of days. Just minimizing the mistakes and playing really smart, hitting to the fat sides of the green.
There's a lot of runoff out here, some turtleback greens. Obviously, not as severe as Pinehurst No. 2, but still tough. I'm just going to try and do what I've been doing.
Q. How are you going to spend the rest of the night?
ANDREA LEE: I'm going to eat dinner. I'm starving. Eun-Hee and I were like running, practically running down 8 fairway so that we would get in before the weather.
But, yeah, just going to grab some food and hopefully get a good sleep. I think that I'll have a little bit of a late start tomorrow, which is nice, so I'll get some rest.
Q. I'm sorry I don't know what you have already asked, but what's your energy level like after such a marathon week last week?
ANDREA LEE: Yeah. I mean, this week is an exciting week. It's the U.S. Women's Open, so the adrenaline is definitely pumping. I don't really feel as tired as I thought I would be coming into the week after Las Vegas.
I took Monday off completely. I went and registered and left because I couldn't even walk that day, so I think I was really smart about the way I approached practicing and just played the front on Tuesday, the back on Wednesday, and, yeah, just got a lot of rest.
Q. What did you do on Monday on your day off?
ANDREA LEE: Did some laundry. What else? I took a three-hour nap, which probably wasn't really smart because I couldn't fall asleep that night very well. Yeah, just hung around, watched some Netflix.
Q. When you look back on Chevron week, you were winning on the Epson Tour, and now you're good to go, basically, for the rest of the season status-wise. What was the turning point for you where you really felt like momentum had massively shifted in your direction?
ANDREA LEE: The win on the Epson Tour was definitely a confidence-booster for me. Last year I had a really rough year. I missed the cut at Q-Series, and honestly even at Q-Series I thought my game was in a solid place, but nothing was really clicking.
I think it was just a matter of time before everything kind of came together and I felt really comfortable again on the golf course. Yeah, the Epson Tour really helped me. I played four, five events out there and just gained some momentum back and got a start in Hawaii, a start at PV, and thankfully capitalized on those, and now I'm here.
It's pretty cool looking back to see how I've been able to turn the season around.
Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports