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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 23, 2015

Ryan Ruffels

OAKVILLE, ONTARIO

Q. First round for you, low amateur of the day. How are you feeling after round one of the Canadian Open?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, it feels great. This is my first PGA TOUR start. So it's fun to be out here and fun to be where I want to be in the future. I played with some guys today that also went low, so it helped me along a little bit.

Q. What's it mean for you to not only play out here but play in this atmosphere?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I had a little bit of experience back in Australia, and I played a European Tour event a few weeks ago. But this is that next step, which is great. I love the course, and I love playing in front of people. So kind of every birdie I made there are a few more people out there which is good fun.

Q. I think you weren't at St. Andrews last week. You see what the amateurs did there. Do you look at this tournament like I can do that?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, to see Paul Dunne lead after three rounds and see three amateurs finish in the top 15, I think it was, you kind of look at it and think I'm competing against these guys every week. I can match it with them and match it with the pros. So it gives you confidence, and I was able to carry it out there today.

Q. A great opening round a week ago. Not even three days ago we saw amateur magic at the Open Championship, and you bottled that and brought it over to the RBC Canadian Open. What were your keys to success today?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, you saw the amateurs at the Open, Paul Dunne leading after three rounds and three finishing in the top 15, and that kind of gave me confidence that I can come out here maybe and match up with the pros like they did last week. My coach was out here the first few days, Monday, Tuesday, and we kind of worked on a few things. The game felt good coming in. I really like the course, and it all just kind of clicked today.

Q. Did you have an opportunity to speak to your country men that know their way around here and played in some of the practice rounds with the Australians that have been out here for a while?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I actually played a practice round with K.J. Choi on Tuesday, and he showed me a few things out of the bunker which were some of the coolest things I've ever seen. So I walked off saying that is the most valuable practice round I've ever had. I got to meet Jason Day on Tuesday as well and had a little chat with him. So all these sort of things that you don't quite get in an amateur tournament, and I'm getting to meet my idols and play against them.

Q. Were you able to just make sure that this is just another round of golf for you?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, my game felt really, really good. I think this sort of course suits me. So I was very positive coming into the week. Worked with my coach earlier in the week, like I said. I don't know. Once I had a really good save for par on 10 and got up and down for 75 yards out of the rough for par, and that kind of got the ball rolling a little bit. Didn't fall behind the eight ball early. From there I was kind of able to ride a little bit of momentum and Emiliano played fantastic as well. So we kind of urged each other on. Andrew played awesome, so it was a great group today.

Q. So it was nice seeing someone else have success, and it was easy to feed off that?
RYAN RUFFELS: Yeah, I think we only had one. I'm not sure if that's true, but one bogey for the round between all of us. Or maybe two. So that's pretty good. I was lucky I only had fours and threes on the card today. I didn't have any fives, so that also helps the scorecard. So just seeing birdies drop from everyone kind of helped me drop a few myself.

Q. What is the schedule like for the rest of the summer?
RYAN RUFFELS: I'll play the Western Amateur in a couple weeks and then the U.S. Amateur after that. Those are my next two events and hopefully play well, and carry on from there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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