U.S. WOMEN'S OPEN

June 5, 2026

Alison Lee

The Riviera Country Club

Flash Interview

Q. We're here with Alison Lee after a second round 68. Alison, obviously a long way to go, but a great start so far.

ALISON LEE: Thank you. Do you want me to elaborate on that?

Q. Yes.

ALISON LEE: I feel like I just did a really good job at grinding these last couple days. The front nine yesterday, I mean, if you told me in the front nine I would be leading going into Saturday I would have thought you were crazy because I just missed a bunch of fairways and I missed a bunch of greens.

But I feel like I did a really good job at just grinding out there, saving a lot of pars. I mean, even today on hole 2, I pushed my drive right and had to punch out. I was able to make like a 6-footer for par from like 100 yards in. It's shots like that, holes like that that I feel like really make you or break you for this week.

Yeah, I was able to see my swing coach earlier in the week, my putting coach as well. I was able to tweak a few things and just keep doing what I've been doing. I mean, the last couple months I feel like I've been playing really solid. I feel like my game's in a really good spot, and I feel like on courses like this, you can really take advantage of that because not everyone's making a ton of birdies out there. You just have to play really smart and be really patient.

So I think a course like this, any major week we play, it just really -- a lot of really good ball strikers and girls who are able to scramble really well. It really helps them out, and they're going to be the ones on the leaderboard this week.

Q. Knowing you have a lot of support out here this week, more coming, a lot of ticket requests, what does that sort of change in the mindset? Is it more pressure? Is it exciting?

ALISON LEE: For me, I would say it's so exciting. I would say my first couple years on Tour, probably a lot of pressure. I mean, my rookie year was 2015. Now just to be able to play in front of friends and family is just really special.

I got a little bit of a taste at JM Eagle, which was nice. It's nice to have fans out there, have friendly faces out there that you can see. I think it took over 5 1/2 hours today, so even in between shots just seeing a friendly face in the crowd just kind of calms me a little bit. Maybe chitchat here and there when I'm waiting for to hit my approach. So it's just nice to have that support.

Q. There's a lot of down time during a round of golf. How often does your mind drift to Levi and wonder about him, and at what point did you notice him out there today?

ALISON LEE: They didn't bring him out there until 18 because he can be a little loud at times. I think at Chevron Trey brought him out on my 14th hole. Literally in the middle of my backswing, he yelled "ball" really loud. Thankfully it was during my swing and not during any of the other girls', so it was okay.

It's a tough course to walk, so it was really nice they were able to bring him out for the last hole. I always love seeing him out there. He loves being outside. He loves golf too. Any time he sees a golf club or a ball, he tries to whack it. He's already doing all that, which is really cool to see.

Yeah, I think about him all the time. I think about what he's doing. I guess it's like toxic mom. Like okay, is he sleeping right? Are my parents feeding him when I tell them to? It's small things like that. I think I micromanage a little bit too much. So it is a little bit of a nice distraction.

But I'm not going to lie, when you're out there, when you're in the heat of the moment, you're locked in. You still have all the nerves, no matter how much I try and tell myself like, hey, it's just a shot, like I have such a great life. My son's healthy, he's amazing, but you still feel those nerves when you're out there.

Q. I'm curious how much you talked to Juli Inkster about what it was like? She's the last mom to win this title.

ALISON LEE: I talked to her and Stacy quite a bit on what it was like to balance everything. I saw Juli, I think, in January, February; we played in an outing together. I talked with Pat Hurst as well, like what -- like how did you do it? I feel like I'm drowning every single day just trying to figure out timing, like when can I practice? When can I workout?

I'm also tired, but I didn't get a good night's sleep, but I need to hurry back home and see Levi and take care of him, make sure everything's all right at home.

You know Juli, she's like, you got it. You're good at this. You can do it. It's just cool to see how nonchalant she is about it because that just shows you how good she is. Hopefully I can follow in their footsteps.

Q. (No microphone).

ALISON LEE: You know, Stacy just talked about little things. I asked her balancing and little tips and tricks on when she was on the road or traveling. I mean, the hardest part, the scariest part for me when I started playing was the travel part. I have this, that, so much luggage. You already have so much luggage already to begin with, even when you're traveling alone for three, four weeks in a row, and now you have this extra stuff.

But just sharing stories too and having a good laugh about it. Even other moms out here on Tour, Caro, Aza, just talking to him, getting a few tidbits here and there. Michelle too has been a huge help. She lives in Vegas. So we do quite a few play dates once in a while, and she's been super supportive and helped me navigate motherhood too, especially the first few months.

Like it's either ask ChatGPT why Levi won't sleep at 3:00 a.m. or text Michelle. So she's been a great help.

Q. What does practice look like when you're home normally?

ALISON LEE: It's tough. A lot of it depends on how Levi sleeps. I would say for the most part of my off-season, he slept great. So what I was doing was I would wake up around 6:00 and see my trainer for an hour. Then I would go home -- because when we're home, it's just me and Trey and we're watching Levi. We don't have any help. He can work from home, which is great.

So I wake up at 6:00. I go workout; come back. I'm usually back home by 7:30, 8:00, and that's right when Levi wakes up. I get him up, I feed him, I take care of him until I think his first nap was like 10:00, and then I would go practice. Then I would come back home probably around 3:00 or 4:00 and then watch him for the rest of the evening.

Then when I come home too, it's like so much stuff -- laundry, cleaning bottles, cleaning the house. I mean, I clean the house a million times, and it still looks like a tornado went through. I think I just have to accept my house is a mess and I can't ever have people over.

Yeah, then I just do the same thing over and over again. There are days where, if he doesn't sleep great, it is really difficult. I'm not going to lie, there are days where I'll just start crying because I'm so tired, like I can't do this.

I feel like over time I've found a good routine for myself. There was a moment I would say for about a month before I played my first event at JM Eagle I lost so much speed. Like my ball speed was like 135, and I started freaking out. I think I was just so tired and overexerted myself.

So I was like, okay, now I need to figure out -- rest is so important. Let's just take a backseat with practice and working out and let's just try to focus on rest, spending time with Levi, and then finding what works best for me.

Right now I feel like my game's in a pretty good spot so I don't feel like I need to spend hours and hours out there, but I would say it's just trying to be efficient when I practice. Like I rarely go out and play nine holes or 18 holes. It's just spending time on putting green, working on drills, hitting range balls, making sure my swing's in a good spot.

Q. With motherhood, you've dabbled in TV and having success in doing that. What motivates you to keep competing, and has that changed from when you first started playing the game?

ALISON LEE: Realistically, I thought a few years ago when I became a mom, I wouldn't want to come back and play. I thought it would be too difficult. I would say, just before having Levi, I played amazing. I had one of the best runs I've had in a really long time. I was really close to making the Olympics, playing on the Solheim Cup team.

I think that really gave me that spark again, and that was kind of -- having that success really showed me like, hey, I can still have a chance to win out here because I still have yet to win on the LPGA Tour. That's been my biggest goal since turning pro. Like I feel like I had so much success in junior golf. I had a lot of success in college golf. Then when I came on Tour, I came close so many times, and I still haven't been able to do that.

So I told myself, okay, I'm going to have Levi. I'm just going to do everything I can, just tell myself absolutely no regrets looking back and just try really hard for this next probably year to maybe two years to just play the best golf I can because realistically I feel like I've thought about my future a lot, and moving forward I do want more kids. I want a bigger family.

I think, if I were to have another baby, I think it would be ten times more difficult to try and come back and play. So I've really told myself like, hey, this next year, 2026-2027, I'm just going to do everything I can to possibly -- I possibly can to play the best golf I can and say that I have no regrets.

So that's kind of like a comforting feeling but also putting a little bit of pressure on myself. But I feel like I'm in a good head space now because I've truly accepted that.

Q. How much have you played at Riviera before this week?

ALISON LEE: I got to play a practice round the week before JM Eagle, and then before that, I would say I've played maybe half a dozen times. I think the last time I played Riv before that was maybe 2023. So I haven't played here very often.

When we were in college at UCLA, we didn't get access to Riv. So I haven't really played here much.

Q. Do you think now those few rounds, which are probably more than all the competitors here, have been helpful this week?

ALISON LEE: Oh, of course. Especially a golf course like this, some tee shots can be a little bit intimidating. The conditions were quite different when we played last month -- no, was it two months ago? The greens were just freshly punched, and the fairway was still pretty long. I remember thinking, oh, my God, this is so hard. I think I had like -- the shortest club I had into the green was like an 8 or a 7-iron, and everything was a long club or hybrid.

Compared to that, I think it's a little bit nicer to have a few shorter irons in. But definitely, any time you could get one or two or three extra rounds, it's a huge help. I was able to come out here on Sunday and played nine holes on Sunday, which typically I don't do for most events. Yeah, just to get some more reps and see some of the holes a few more times to get familiar with it.

Q. With all your early success, there were huge expectations, I'm sure, on your part and people around you's part. How have you handled not winning and the weight of that? Has it changed through the years in terms of how much pressure you put on yourself? Is this a reset of your goals and views at some point now?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, I'm not going to lie, it's been very tough. I've gone through a few stages, a few slumps, if you want to call it, in my career, even since I was like 15 years old.

I think Beth, I remember Beth when I was playing in college or junior golf, I was struggling really, really bad. So I think that just gave me a lot of perspective, just going out there and wanting to hit the ball straight. Then no matter what I did, no matter how much I practiced, it just wasn't going my way.

Yeah, it's been tough. I feel like I've definitely under achieved what I could have done out here on Tour. It's definitely been really frustrating. I'm at a point now where I've truly accepted it, but like I said, that's part of why I want to come back and play.

I feel like I was so close so many times. I feel like it's literally sometimes one shot. You just need to be lucky here and there. You need to have weeks where -- I mean, realistically, I would say in a full year, unless you're Nelly or Scottie, there's really only a handful of events where you truly -- you know, you get the good wave. You have a good first round. You're putting really well. You can see the matrix on putting green where you know it's going to go in.

That doesn't happen every single week. So that makes it more challenging.

Last year Walmart, our Walmart event in Arkansas, that was like my third or fourth return back postpartum. I think I was five or six months postpartum. After the first round, I was second or third place. We started the second round, I was in the lead after a few holes, and they had to call the tournament, and I was devastated. I was like this could have been my week, you know.

But I think at this point now I've definitely accepted it. Like I said, I have this year and next year where I truly want to grind and I have a lot more opportunities, and if I keep playing like I am now, I feel like I'll keep setting myself up for success and good weeks.

Q. Madelene Sagstrom is playing in this championship almost seven months pregnant. How impressive is that, especially at Riv, and what should she be expecting when she and her husband have their first kid?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it's so impressive. I think people truly don't understand it. For me, I played my last event right when I was, I think, three or four months. I don't know how it was for Madelene, but oh, my God, I was throwing up almost every single day. I almost didn't even play Solheim Cup because I was so sick. Oh, my God, I don't even want to think about it.

Yeah, it's just so hard. You can't even sleep. Oh, my gosh, TMI, but you have to pee every 30 minutes. It's just so much stuff you have to deal with. For her being here playing, it's so cool. It's so awesome to see. I don't think I could have done it when I was six, seven months pregnant, so I think it's really cool that she's doing that.