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SAUDI INTERNATIONAL POWERED BY SBIA

January 31, 2019

Ross Fisher

King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia

Q. What do you make of your performance?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, obviously delighted to be honest. Early start. Quarter past five alarm. Yeah, it was very pleasant. Not much breeze out there. You know, felt like you could take advantage of the front nine, the back nine, but only managed to make one birdie. Hit some good putts. Just weren't going in. Some seemed to click and managed four birdies on the back nine.

For us, obviously the front nine on the golf course, so yeah, 5-under very pleased with today's work.

Q. It's a golf course that you haven't seen before. You've been on Tour a long time. Very few places you turn up that you don't know like the back of your hand now. What's it like to come somewhere like this, especially out in the morning starters on the first day and you have no idea what a good score is. What's the strategy when that is the case?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, we played 18 Tuesday, because I wasn't in the Pro-Am. Kind of felt like we got a good feel for the golf course. Only two par 5s. Some good par 3s.

But it's just where the pins are. The pins can really trick the golf course up. Today we got lucky, there's been not much breeze. We were thinking close on minus 20 maybe could win if there's no breeze. But then again, if the wind picks up, maybe low to mid teens.

You've got to try and attack because the greens are very, very close but they are very slopey. If you hit in the wrong spots or wrong segments on the greens, you can really struggle around there. I felt like I did that really well today.

Q. A lot of players mentioned the greens are quite slow compared to what you usually are putting on. What effect does that have to how you go about putting on them. What amendments do you do to cope with that?
ROSS FISHER: Just try to hit it hard. To start out with, I left I think my first three or four putts short, because they don't look slow.

But as soon as you give one a rap, which kind of goes up the hill to start off with, I mean, I let one slide by a good eight feet on the eighth hole just because it was slightly uphill into to the grain. But as soon as it got to the top, it was downhill, downgrain, so it can make you look really, really stupid at times.

I think the key this week is coming in off the fairways, and where the pins are, make sure you hit the greens in the right segments because it's going to play a big role this week.

Q. Round of 65. You must be so happy to get off to a good start.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, very, very pleased. It was an early start, but I was looking forward to it. Felt like when we played Tuesday, came up with a pretty good game plan. Pretty much stuck to it all day. It's a tough golf course where the pin positions are put. They can really tuck the pins away, and if you don't hit your second shots or your approach shots into the right segments, you can leave yourself really, really tricky up, over slopes, putting up the hill into the grain and then the pin is on the top and so then it goes away from you.

It's tricky out there.

But for the most part, felt like I put the ball on the green in the right spots, and it was nice to get the putter going on the back nine, for us, the front nine, and to make four birdies, and nice to finish off with a birdie there and 5-under, obviously delighted with my start.

Q. Obviously not to have any dropped shots, was the putter working very well today?
ROSS FISHER: No, not really. I felt like I putted well last week. Just the ball just wasn't seeming to drop. Felt like I hit a lot of good putts and started off very similarly today. Hit some good putts early on that just didn't drop, and you know, it's easy to get mad at yourself and frustrated, but I tried to stay patient.

I knew I was hitting it well off the tee. Hit my iron shots really, really well, and I knew if I just kept hitting good putts, they will drop. I was pleased -- hit a lovely shot into the par 3 third and made a birdie there, which is playing very, very tough today. To birdie the par 5, and then I think the big putt for me was probably the return putt on 8 after birdieing on No. 7 to knowledge the first putt eight feet past. You think, you want to try to keep bogey off your card, so to knock that one in, and then obviously hit it very close on 9 and tap-in, sign for a 5-under, obviously delighted with my morning's play.

Q. Most players have told me that this course is suited to long hitters. Do you think this course suits your game?
ROSS FISHER: You know, I mean, it's a fairly long course. It's pretty generous off the tee. There's not an awful lot of rough, but you know, having said that, you still need to concentrate and focus on your lines, because if you don't focus on your line, and you are a bit crooked, trying to get to some of these pin positions, even like I say, there's not much rough, or even if you hit it in the waste bunkers, the Tour can be very, very smart with where they put the pin positions. There wasn't too many out there today, but it's only day one, so I'm sure they will look at scoring today and I can imagine it getting tougher as the week goes on.

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