Hear from Minjee Lee at her Round 1 Press Conference at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
Q. Minjee Lee is with us now at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Minjee, great start for you today; 3-under. What did you do well out there?
MINJEE LEE: I putted really great today. I made a lot of birdie putts and a whole bunch of up and down par putts as well.
I mean, my iron game was pretty solid as well, but I think I need to sharpen up my drives a little bit. But then I think I felt quite good today.
Q. Do you have an estimate of how much water you drank today?
MINJEE LEE: I just kept telling my caddie, can you give me another water, can you give me another water. So, I don't know. I don't think we could have enough out there. It's really hot.
Q. How do you think tomorrow is going to be in the afternoon; you'll have the heat and the wind.
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, it's the same for everyone. I mean, if it's tough for me it's going be tough for pretty much the whole field. Just try and use my umbrella to shade the sun and the more wind we have it's a little bit cooler so just try and hydrate and eat well on the course.
Q. You have to pick a highlight of the day today, what it would be?
MINJEE LEE: The highlight? I mean, I putted really good. I can't really think after hole that it was like an amazing putt or something like that.
But I was clutch under like 14 feet.
But, no, I don't really have a highlight. I was pretty solid all day.
Q. First time anybody on the LPGA has ever played this course in competition. Did you feel like -- did it change any? You played here. Did it change in competition or what did you think overall as a competitive course?
MINJEE LEE: Obviously it's different. The rough is much thicker. If you hit it just off the fairways you can -- I mean I'm thankful for the volunteers because I couldn't find my ball some of the times.
Yeah, pretty much you can only see maybe a third of the ball. Just the top. So when I came to practice it was a little bit more dormant so the rough hadn't quite come in yet. Yeah, I think that's the big difference.
The greens are a little bit quicker and it's just in tournament -- it's set up for tournament play now and before it was just the members could still play and we could play, so it was not the same at all.
Q. You won multiple majors. Through your time playing golf, this is a bit of a bigger picture question, how have you seen the game grow and what do you think has attributed most to the growth?
MINJEE LEE: I think just the depth of the fields have gotten much stronger. I think when I first started it was a bit more top heavy and now all the girls can compete; everybody is much more competitive.
I think over my 10, 11 years, it's just a lot more girls from like overseas are coming to play in America and on the LPGA, so I think that's been a big difference.
I just think everybody is hungrier. They're younger and more fierce and just aggressive -- obviously on the course; not as people.
I just think they're not afraid. Yeah, I feel like that is more the theme now than it used to be.
Q. Obviously won a couple majors. You know there will be bogeys in a major. When you bogey the first hole and two of the last three, how much do you think about the seven birdies you had in between?
MINJEE LEE: Yeah, I mean, I feel like they were pretty soft bogeys, so the last -- well, on 16, that was a bit soft and obviously the first hole is a par-5. I should be making birdie or par at the least.
So, yeah, I mean, obviously there will be bogeys, but I think for me, I just try to stay patient. If I make a bogey I just try it back it up with something better than that.
Yeah, can't get ahead of yourself, especially in this kind of weather. I think it's more just the heat that's draining your focus, so it's going to be a big factor come the next few days.
