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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

October 27, 2016

Rickie Fowler

Shanghai, China

Q. Great round today, 65, way to start your week here at the HSBC. What was the key to your round today?
RICKIE FOWLER: Tee-to-green. Drove it well. Ball-striking was nice. Hit some close. Made a couple putts from decent range early to kind of get the round going. But other than that, missed a couple short ones and just kind of kept it simple out there, fairways and greens.

Q. How are you going to go about this next year and next season, continuing this great ball-striking, this consistency, because from what I've seen that tends to be the issue with you; going forward, if you can continue that, you go play some phenomenal golf. How are you going to be able to do that?
RICKIE FOWLER: I just need to keep monitoring the golf swing and not getting too lazy at times or letting it creep too far away from where I want it to be. I can't settle for it just being okay.

And when I do drive it well and play well tee-to-green, things fall into place after that. It takes a little bit of stress off the short game and putter, and makes it easy to just play simple golf. When we can do that, yeah, things fall into place.

Q. Today's round, what was the hardest part about today's round with the weather conditions that you guys had to play in?
RICKIE FOWLER: Probably the greens on our back nine. You start to get some marked-up spots where obviously with the traffic and them being as soft as they are, it's tough. To hit putts uphill is hard enough with water on them, and some short ones can get a little dicey with, like I said, the foot traffic around the hole.

Q. How is your feeling about today's competition? You're the leader now?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, it feels good after today. Off to a good start, a good, solid start to the week. With coming off of a few weeks off after The Ryder Cup, excited to get back in the swing of things and playing a bit. Yeah, pleased with the way I started.

Q. So which hole was the most difficult, do you think?
RICKIE FOWLER: Let's see, I think it's 5. 5 because playing pretty tough today, and 8 is always a tough hole. Even though it's a par 5, it's tough, because you've got to drive it well there just to give yourself a shot at the green in three.

Q. What do you make of seven under? That's brilliant, isn't it, to start?
RICKIE FOWLER: Always nice to start with 7-under, doesn't matter where you're at. Pleased with that. Felt good in the Pro-Am yesterday and the nine holes that we got to play. I knew with the soft conditions, they were going to try to tuck some pins. It was going to be very scorable if you drove it in the fairways and I was able to do that. Played very well tee-to-green and made things a lot easier from there.

Stress-free, simple round.

Q. Very nearly perfect, not a single blemish on the card.
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, no bogeys is always nice. Accompanied that with a few birdies. Missed a few short ones. The greens got tough there on the back nine, with them being as soft as they are, and they are a little slow, just because they are soft, can't cut them as much as they want. With the amount of traffic, you start getting a little marked up around the hole but everyone is playing the same golf course. I got off to a quick start on the front nine, 5-under, and was able to add a couple at the end.

Q. And the momentum dropped off just that little bit?
RICKIE FOWLER: So I was 6-under through 11 and made a stretch of pars there. Had some looks at birdies. Just didn't quite get it close enough to the hole, and then missed a couple opportunities.

You know, when you look at the whole day, kind of looking back, drove it well and hit a lot of quality golf shots. Yeah, to be 7-under after the first day, I'll take it.

Q. Was it beneficial playing with Russell Knox and Paul Casey who were right up there and challenging?
RICKIE FOWLER: Yeah, both of those guys have been playing well. And Russell being defending champ here, both great players. We enjoyed each other's presence. I'm hoping they enjoyed playing with me, too. But we had a good time out there, fed off each other a bit. Always fun to play with some fellow good golfers and put up some good scores.

I don't know, I don't think there's a threesome that beat us today.

Q. They said they did; you're inspirational:
RICKIE FOWLER: All right. I'll take it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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