KPMG WOMEN'S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 27, 2026

Alison Lee

Hazeltine National Golf Club

Quick Quotes

THE MODERATOR: Alison Lee is with us now at the 2026 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. 7-under through three rounds, what are your thoughts heading into tomorrow?

ALISON LEE: I feel like my game is in a really good place. I'm not going to lie; before the round I had a little bit of a kink in my neck, so I had to take a lot of Advil before the round.

But I feel like I held on pretty good, especially the last few holes when it felt like I couldn't quite get to my finish with the pain in my neck, which is probably what I get for playing four weeks in a row. My body is just falling apart.

I feel like my game has been in a really good place the last few months. I feel like I do really well at tough courses, especially with tough conditions, since I'm striking the ball really well. So just tried to use that to my advantage today.

Q. Could you talk about the 16th hole? You knew there would be a day, probably today, that they'd move it up there. What did you hit in practice rounds and what did you do today?

ALISON LEE: I actually didn't hit a shot from the up tee in the practice round. I probably should have. But I just wasn't sure if we would be up there 100 percent. To be honest, in our yardage book, that tee box isn't in there.

I know that we teed off from up there the last time we were here. So it was just a bit of confusion, which is why I didn't hit one from there.

I was in between my 7-wood and my 3-wood, but I wanted to play aggressive. Honestly, I didn't hit my 3-wood great. I hit it a little bit heely, which was probably a good thing because it got the ball to spin a little bit and not go as far. I feel like if I would have hit a solid 3-wood, I would have been over the green, but I got really lucky there.

Q. Is the neck thing something that happens from time to time?

ALISON LEE: No, not at all. Just over the last four weeks, I feel like just getting older, different body part, constantly hitting every single day, playing the fourth week in a row, carrying Levi all the time. It's been a back thing, a glute thing, a neck thing, a shoulder thing. It's kind of been all over the place. Thankfully I have a great physio who's been working with me the last few weeks who's been able to help out a lot.

But it's not really a common thing, so I was definitely pretty surprised this morning when I woke up and there was just a little kink in my neck.

But to be honest, I feel like every time I've been a little bit in pain, I think it shows down my swing a little bit more and makes me take a little bit more time for my routine and things like that, and it grounds me a little bit, so it really helped me today, to be honest.

Q. How aggressive do you think you can be tomorrow?

ALISON LEE: Ooh, I mean, from what I can see, it's going to be very windy tomorrow. I think it'll be pretty tough. Even today, the first few holes played really tough, in my opinion. Every single day, I feel like the wind has kind of been a little bit different, so regardless of what we did in our practice round, it's kind of a little bit new. You're hitting a new club into the hole. It plays a little bit differently.

Tomorrow I feel like I'm going to have to -- depending on the wind, just try and play smart. I don't think I can play too aggressively because if the wind gets up there, I think you're going to see a lot more bogeys, especially final round of a major, as well. I'm just going to try and play it smart, play aggressive when I can.

But we'll see; it's all a feeling. It's just what feels right. If you have an 8-iron in your hand and you know in your mind you can go right at it and you feel like you can do it, that's something you kind of have to feel out there.

But going into tomorrow, I feel like the game plan is probably just play safe and play smart.

Q. Did the neck pain go away with the medicine or as the round went on, or are you still in discomfort?

ALISON LEE: I'm in a little bit of discomfort still. I can't quite look all the way to my right. I definitely could feel it at impact once my shoulder starts to go this way. So it was just trusting, like, don't stop. Once I start my swing, don't stop and just continue the swing and trust it even though it hurts a little bit. But yeah, hopefully I can work with my physio tonight, and hopefully I'm pain-free tomorrow.

Q. Did it hurt as you were swinging the club?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, it hurts right at impact and then follow through because I'm going this way and my head stays here. But yeah, like I said, that's kind of something you have to trust and just have your swing thought, and once you start the swing, just not stop and trust that. If you hit it properly, it might hurt a little bit, but just try and get it to go straight.

Q. I was curious about what you said about it making you slow down. We've seen this this year with Collin Morikawa and what he went through and suddenly he's playing some of his best golf. I think it's two things: It's how you embrace this pain during in your swing in a way and if this kind of pain makes you focus more?

ALISON LEE: I would agree with you there. No one really wants to play in pain, and you play your best golf when you're pain-free. But given the circumstances today, I just tried my best to put a low round together and just play smart, and I played a lot better than I thought I would.

But yeah, it's just trying to slow down. For me, my personal swing habits is I get really quick when I get nervous. My routine gets quick, as well.

When I have this little kink here, it helps me slow down. Especially today with the wind, the first few holes were straight into the wind. I was just kind of hitting a low punch shot, and that worked nicely, especially the first few holes. Once you get that confidence, that really helps with the rest of the round.

Q. I guess it helps to lower your expectations?

ALISON LEE: Yeah, of course, of course. I felt like I was out of the tournament up until yesterday. You had some leaders that had really low scores on this golf course, and it's tough to catch that, especially today with it -- I thought it was playing a little bit more tricky with the wind. The last two days, we didn't really have much.

But yeah, I think for me, my strength today was hitting really good iron shots. Like I gave myself a ton of birdie opportunities out there, and that's what really helped.