SEAMUS POWER: It was interesting, the putter last week makes you feel better, and a couple of sloppy mistakes coming up to that on the front. But overall very pleased. A lot of good things out there. And I hit enough fairways, hit enough greens, just maybe a couple of putts there.
I'm pretty pleased all around. A little frustrating on 5 and 8, just kind of bizarre kind of bogeys. But besides that, it was pretty good, pretty sharp. So pretty pleased.
Q. Those two bogeys were a little bit out of that field, weren't they?
SEAMUS POWER: Yeah. It's kind of funny on that because I had two good drives that were in the first -- maybe only two, three yards in the fairway. Got some funny lies. But it's like that out here. As soon as you get off the fairway, it's going to get tricky. You're going to pick up some mud, the rough is thick at the bottom, it's tough to move it, it's tough to control it.
So just made a couple mistakes here, which is disappointing, but that one on the last was a bonus to get me going again.
Q. Just on the 8th hole, looking over your shoulder, were you conscious that Shane was somewhere back there, were you aware?
SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, it was a situation like that because we kind of weren't sure. I just kind of lost focus a little bit. I was kind of disappointed with myself there. But it happens every now and then. But it was nice to bounce back at 9 and pick one up. So that kind of makes you feel a little bit better. But, yeah, I just kind of lost focus for a few minutes.
Q. I know it's home turf for you. I think it's an hour's drive from home, family home. Great support out there for you today.
SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, it was fantastic. It was good. I mean, for 8 o'clock on the Thursday morning, it was great. I mean, I was kind of expecting, but even still it was pretty cool to see them out there, the support. It was a great atmosphere, and it was nice to make a couple of putts for them.
Q. Probably where you want to be, not much further back, the scoring was -- it was a good morning for scoring?
SEAMUS POWER: Yeah, it was. There wasn't a lot of wind, and the greens are soft and the greens are -- I mean, the surface on the greens was great for putting. So, yeah, if you can hit some fairways, you can have some chances. And, yeah, I could see that. I mean, I shot 4-under with a couple 6s there. So it was definitely doable. And I think there's going to be a little bit more breeze tomorrow, so maybe a little bit tougher. But no wind and there's soft greens, guys are going to be able to take advantage.
Q. How do you find the course, you know, where you've come from the last number of weeks?
SEAMUS POWER: It's good. I've played this course before, and it's definitely different from what I've seen before. Fairways are much narrower. The rough is higher. And it's set up very nicely. I mean, today just the wind didn't blow. There's so many good players when the wind doesn't blow, these guys aim at the flags, and the surface of the greens is like 10 feet out -- you know, you feel like you're going to make a lot of putts, which is a nice feeling. I think guys are going to be do that.
But I think the course today was excellent and it was in great shape. I'm sure it will be even better tomorrow.
Q. Do you relax this week?
SEAMUS POWER: I do. Yeah, it was really enjoyable out there today. It was kind of a special experience, as I said, with Shane's crowd and that, it was nice. It's nice to get off to a decent start with that. But a lot of positive stuff going on out there today. And the crowd just felt like they're helping you along the way. So it was very comfortable out there.
Q. Obviously this is a tournament you'd like to win. You're not thinking about it after day one, but it would be a nice feather in the cap.
SEAMUS POWER: Oh, yeah, this would be a huge one. Yeah. And that's -- you know, going out today, you said that someone is shooting 8-under, I mean, you could -- you don't want to play your way out of the tournament the first day, and I was able to avoid doing that. So give you a decent shot going into tomorrow.
Q. How important is it for the Irish fans, you're near the top of the leaderboard, just for the tournament?
SEAMUS POWER: I would imagine it would be nice for -- I mean, I know the tournament is sold out or pretty much sold out for the weekend. So, I mean, I'm sure they'd loved to have some Irish up there for some extra support. But the fans out there, I mean, every time -- the people who come here love watching the golf, and they haven't been able to really come the last few years. So I think everyone's excited. But obviously having an Irish person out there would add a little bit extra excitement.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports