Q. Paul, 64, nice start. If we can get some comments on your round.
PAUL PETERSON: Yeah, it was nice to birdie the first hole in my first official TOUR start, so it was good. So got momentum early. Hit a really nice 7-wood into 9, made an eagle there, and I think made six threes in a row, so it was pretty fun. Yeah, just hit it nice, putted it nicely. Put some extra time in on the greens yesterday evening, and it seemed to pay off. So it was good.
Q. How were you feeling this morning warming up, and were there any nerves on the first tee?
PAUL PETERSON: The best kind of nerves. Just ready to go. I felt ready to go yesterday. I had a good range session on Tuesday and sent some TrackMan reports to my coach, and was just like, can we go tomorrow? Yeah, it's been nice to feel like I'm hitting it well and getting off to a good start.
Q. Has there been a time this week where you've been able to reflect on the journey to get here or has it been all about preparing for the week?
PAUL PETERSON: Yeah, so a little different from Korn Ferry where we knew we were playing in pro-ams so we were kind of having to adjust our preparation a little bit, we went up to the north shore, my caddie and I did yesterday morning, and spent about two hours there just kind of feet in the sand and taking it all in. We had a little time to soak it up a bit and reflect, and just so grateful to be here.
Q. Do you feel like a rookie? Also, have you spent any time with any veterans this week?
PAUL PETERSON: I'm lucky to have a lot of veterans on Sea Island. Getting to kind of get in the mix with Patton and Zach and a bunch of those boys from the island, and you can ask them a few questions here and there. I felt like this golf course was going to suit me pretty well, especially when I saw how firm the fairways were. My driving accuracy tends to be pretty good, so I knew I'd have some good opportunities.
Whether I feel like a rookie, no. I've traveled a lot. I've seen a lot of golf in a lot of places. I feel like all of that's helped prepare me to get here.
Q. What did you hit on 9, by the way?
PAUL PETERSON: I hit a little 7-wood into 9.
Q. Is that as low as you go is a 7-wood?
PAUL PETERSON: I've got driver, 3-wood, 7-wood, hybrid, so it was just between 3-wood and 7-wood and we hit kind of a hot one that carried that bunker and rolled on up there, so it was perfect.
Q. What took you to long to get to the Korn Ferry? Were you trying, or were you so embedded in Europe that it was hard to come over?
PAUL PETERSON: I was really trying to get to the PGA TOUR via World Ranking or having a really good event in some of the bigger events and getting some starts, whether it was getting inside the top 100 in the world and getting in the PGA Championship and having an opportunity to come over. I thought Japan was going to be really good for me because it was high World Ranking points at the time and a spot where I hit a lot of fairways and putted it well and really thought that was going to be good, and COVID kind of screwed that up for us a little bit over there.
I felt like the purses with the Rolex Series and some of those things that Europe was offering, it was a good way for me to make a living and gain experience. As a young guy, I got to see the world and experience a lot.
Do I wish I was over here a little bit earlier? Yeah. But do I regret any of the experiences I've had along the way? No.
Q. A little scouting trip for Amex last week. With it being your rookie season, some courses you may not have seen. Will you do that throughout the year?
PAUL PETERSON: Amex kind of feels a little bit like the Dunhill Links with three courses, so I didn't want to have a week where I was trying to learn so much in such a condensed period of time. I wanted to adjust to the time change losing time again and not have to work overly hard to learn three courses.
I got to see LaQuinta and got to see Nicklaus, and I just felt like it was a smart way to prep. That might have been a couple elbows in my side from some people who have had some experience on the island to go do that and prepare that way.
But yeah, I don't want to bog myself down and prep when it's just, like, too much to do in three days, to scout three courses.
For us to go spend New Year's in Arizona and then we drove down to the desert and spent two or three days there, it was perfect. I just felt like that was good planning.
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