Q. Othman, congratulations on a 2-under round of 69. Just talk us through your thoughts on that, please.
OTHMAN ALMULLA: It was a really great day out there. I didn't have a great tee shot on 1, made bogey, kind of had to settle the nerves a tiny bit. Obviously it's a big moment playing at home.
I've been doing some really, really good work with my sports performance coach and my coach Gio, who's based here. I've been playing some really good golf, so I kind of just wanted to finally play some good golf. So I let myself go a tiny bit, stuck to my process and hit a lot of really good shots. I know we always say it could be a little bit lower, but I had a lot of opportunities to make a lot more birdies.
I'm really happy with where I'm sitting. Obviously it's a big one playing in Saudi, and the first round went really good.
Q. Just that start, an early start obviously, and then just kind of a wee bit early, was it?
OTHMAN ALMULLA: Just a tiny bit. 3:45 a.m. wakeup call is not the greatest. Obviously you don't want to miss right there. So I had to measure the pace a tiny bit through, my hips were a little bit slower, but it's fine. It is what it is. You're going to hit it right and left on the golf course. You're not going to hit a perfect score.
Really, really good overall after settling the nerves. Hit a lot of really nice shots coming in. Left a lot of putts kind of on the edge. So I'm happy with where I am.
Q. Five birdies, and you feel like you left a few out there. Are you confident going into tomorrow?
OTHMAN ALMULLA: I am. I'll stick with what I did today and continue to give myself opportunities. A lot of players make their scores different ways. I feel like, when I play my best golf, I give myself a lot of chances. I putt really well. It's not necessarily hitting it as close as you can but giving yourself opportunities as many times as you can and just let them drop.
One of those days I putted great and just they didn't drop. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more of the same, and we'll see where that leaves us either way.
Q. You're obviously a figurehead for Saudi golf. You're the first out today, and I think that's a great statement for the other Saudi golfers coming after you.
OTHMAN ALMULLA: 100 percent. I said it yesterday in an interview, it's a super individual sport, but I feel like we're trying to break the mold by continuing what we did as a national team together and continue to push each other to get better and kind of be inspired by each other's results.
Khalid and Faisal have had some great results on International Series this year. I've been playing also on ADT. To see them play out there and get some great performances, it's kind of keep going, let's all do it together. Hopefully they can see one of us under par today. Reda and I played in Moroccan Amateur, he also played great.
I think AG Golf Saudi and Saudi Golf Federation is doing a great job of giving Saudi talent the opportunity to tee off against the best in the world. Hopefully we push each other. It's going to be really, really cool.
There's a lot of people from Asia. You see multiple people from Thailand, Australia, UK. Why can't we have people from Saudi competing higher up on the leaderboard as well as Moroccans and Egyptians? There's a lot of really talented people in the Arab world. We're working really hard, and hopefully the results are coming really soon.
Q. The ADT pathway that helps you and the players develop and maybe experience the level of golf that you need to compete on the international scene.
OTHMAN ALMULLA: Of course. It's really competitive on ADT as well. We're playing great golf courses all around Asia. It's great. Just the experience of the travel and the professional life and getting to rub shoulders with people around the world who are on the same journey as us and learn from them. It's really, really impactful to see.
Obviously next week is on Aramco, my home course, somewhere I grew up. To see a lot of guys from ADT that I've been playing with all year, wanting to have a good result to make it to Asian Tour next year gives me a lot of motivation to continue to do the good work I've been doing and reap the benefits of that work really soon.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports