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IRISH OPEN PRESENTED BY DISCOVER IRELAND

July 28, 2011

Ross Fisher

KILLARNEY, IRELAND

ROSS FISHER: It's nice to be back, come back defending champion and just it felt great.
And my game, it's been in it good shape. Just happy to have scored as well as I feel like my game is at the moment. Just go out there and shoot 4-under without dropping a shot is very, very pleasing.

Q. How did you find the greens?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I thought they were a little bit slow today for some reason. Myself and Rory and David we all struggled to get the ball to the hole on a number of occasions and yesterday they seemed really, really good in the Pro-Am, nice speed.
I don't know whether it was a bit of moisture or dew on the ground but they just seemed a little bit slower, so I think adapting to the speed of the greens was tricky. I holed a couple of -- some nice putts, but the key for me is I holed some really good putts around the turn which kept my round going.

Q. Obviously Rory being from this place will attract a bit of a crowd, as well. Seemed like there was a large amount of people. What was the atmosphere?
ROSS FISHER: It's nice to be back. Obviously playing with Rory is quite fun. He's a great guy, very, very talented golfer, and obviously after winning the U.S. Open his profile has risen dramatically, if it wasn't big before then. The crowd was great for the three of us, and obviously pulling for Rory because he's an Irish guy. I still had really good support out there.

Q. What was the highlight for you?
ROSS FISHER: Just pretty much steady golf. Felt like my game's been in good shape, and you know, I had obviously fond memories coming back here to a place I did so well last year. So I was really up for this week, and feel like this is the start of three big weeks for me. So it with a nice to get off to a good start.
It played tricky out there today. Compared to last year, there's a bit more rough so there's a lot of shots coming out very soft, and it was tricky to gauge how far the ball was going out of the rough, and especially on the greens, the three of us, myself, Rory and David, we really struggled on the greens because we felt they were a little bit slower in the Pro-Am. It was tough to adapt but 4-under is a solid start.

Q. You're out there with Rory as you say, tremendous crowds following with tremendous enthusiasm; can you feed off that energy?
ROSS FISHER: It's great obviously playing with Rory, he's in great form, obviously, after winning the U.S. Open. So always a tremendous privilege to play with someone that talented of that age in Ireland. The crowd was pulling for Rory, but still felt it a good bit of support for myself and Dave.
Obviously disappointing to miss at The Open and fell out of the Top-50, so I didn't play in the U.S. Open, so that's the goal to get back in the Top-50. So this is for me the start of three big weeks. Nice to be back on familiar territory and hope I can just put in as golf a performance as I can and just give myself a chance on Sunday.

Q. How was that today?
ROSS FISHER: It was good. Obviously tough setting at alarm at that time of the morning, but once you're out there, it was very pleasant. The crowd wasn't huge at the start, but it grew once it sort of got past nine, ten o'clock.
So yeah, it was good fun. Obviously playing with Rory was great fun and a delight and playing with Dave, which we actually played the first two days together last year, so hopefully that's a good omen.
The crowd were tremendous. Like I say, by the time we got out to probably 6, 7, 8, 9, the crowd was pretty large. It was great. It was obviously a tremendous amount of support for Rory, obviously being an Irish guy but still felt like a good deal of support for myself, obviously being defending champion. There was a lot of people out there supporting me, especially as well for Dave. So it was just good fun.

Q. And you picked up where you left off.
ROSS FISHER: It was nice. I felt like I played pretty good. I think just all three of us really struggled on the greens. The greens were just a little bit slower today than the Pro-Am yesterday, which was really tough to get used to. You're looking at the greens and they look really good and pure, which they were but just not quite running as quick as yesterday.
So it was tricky to trust yourself that the greens were that bit slower. And I lost count of the amount of times, certainly I did, but Rory and Dave left putts short in the middle of the hole. It was just tricky. To go around and not drop a shot and shoot 4-under par was very pleasing.

Q. The nature of the scores so far is that they have Fisher-proofed it after last year.
ROSS FISHER: There's a little bit more rough. It's not really, really thick, but it definitely makes you think in places, because it's quite long in patches, and it's tricky to gauge how the ball is going to come out, especially first thing in the morning, when it's a little bit dewy and soft, and a lot of balls were coming out quite soft and quite short.
So it was really tricky to gauge how far it was going to pick clubs. But myself and Adz did a pretty good job today and 4-under par is a solid start.

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