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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

July 28, 2016

Ross Fisher

Springfield, New Jersey

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I'd say the course is set up really well. The conditions, obviously the first thing this morning it was a little bit cooler when we teed off at 8:50. That back nine, it started to heat up and get really warm. You have got to take on a lot of fluids. Try to keep the hands dry.

For the course part, there's some tricky pins out there. If you hit the ball in the fairways, you give yourself good looks at trying to attack some of these pins. Some of the pins are tucked away. If you get the wrong side of some of the slopes, you can leave yourself tricky 30- or 40-footers. I felt like I did that really well today. I think I only missed one fairway, which was the 18. I think perhaps missed two greens in two greenside bunkers. My only blemish was from a 3-putt. Apart from that it was a really solid first day's golf.

Q. You don't see this too often when the 17th and 18th are par-5s. How does that go into your mindset for the week?
ROSS FISHER: Mindset doesn't change. They are par 5s, whether they are there on the first hole or the 17th, 18th hole, just play each hole as it comes. In the back of your mind, if it's not going so well, you know you've got two par-5s to finish with.

Having said that, 17 whether many people are going to be able to reach it in two, that's another story. It's about hitting the fairways and giving yourself a chance to put it in position to hit a good third shot in there. Whereas 18 obviously you can hit it in two. So you have got that backboard there with two par-5s to finish.

Having said that, there's still a lot of birdie opportunities in the first 16 holes.

Q. What did you use (no microphone)?
ROSS FISHER: 18, I hit 3-wood and just kind of pushed it out to the right a little bit. It was just in the rough so, I hit an 8-iron to lay it up and I think I had about 95, 96 to the pin. So just hit a smooth sand wedge and hit it in there to about 10 or 12 feet, just short of the hole and had an uphill right-to-left putt and managed to knock it in.

Q. What do you think about (no microphone)?
ROSS FISHER: There's going to be a lot of excitement. You can hit driver off the tee and be aggressive and go in with a real short club. Obviously you can't hit it left because there's water there. Obviously the bailout is right, but then you hit in the bunker. It's a tough hole.

I think on the Monday I might have hit driver or had driver out and saw a couple of the guys I was playing with were hitting 3 woods. Because it's hot here, yardage is kind of a little bit -- not irrelevant, but it doesn't play as long as what it may seem because it is so hot. For me, I'm quite a high ball hitter. If I get it up in the air, the ball seems to go quite a long ways. I felt like a 3-wood setup was better for me. Didn't come off as well as I would have liked, but I still walked away with 4.

Q. Some of the guys mentioned the heat. How are you handling it?
ROSS FISHER: You just have to drink way more that you think. I think I've only done nine holes in practice. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I just wanted to conserve my energy. Majors are a tough, long, grueling week. Very rarely would I play 18 holes, whether it was a Masters, Open or U.S. Open. I structure it to play nine holes each day just to conserve the energy. Especially here, it is very, very hot.

Q. Other than the heat, what is most challenging about being out there?
ROSS FISHER: I'd say apart from the heat, it's a major. It's a massive tournament. It's the last one of the calendar season. Everyone wants to win it. Three have already gone so this is the last one. Obviously everyone is striving to become a major champion. Obviously that would be no different from myself. I'm coming here believing my game is good enough to win. I've got off to a great start, but I'm not going to sit back on that. There's still a long, long way to go. There's still three days golf to go.

Q. I think five out of the last six major winners have been first-time winners?
ROSS FISHER: It would be nice to make it six out of seven, wouldn't it? The standard across the board now is getting -- the variety of good golfers is amazing. It feels like anyone can turn up on any given way, pick it up and win a golf course. You have got the big name guys that are generally going to be up there.

Having said that, there's a lot of youngsters out here that aren't scared to go out there to play some good golf and win. It's pretty wide open. It will be an interesting next three days.

Q. (No microphone)?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, definitely. I mean, this is where you want to be. You want to be in the four majors. I've missed some of those over the last few years. I missed the Masters and the U.S. Open this year. I got to experience The Open, but only for two days. I would like to experience this major for four days which would be nice. It's always great to be in a major championship and compete against the best players in the world to see where your game is at and where you need to improve, where you are good, where you are not so good. So it's a good start but there's a long way to go.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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