Q. Five birdies on the back nine, how did you find it?
RICHIE RAMSAY: It's obviously a beautiful day. A course that like a lot of guys, I grew up watching on TV. You feel like you know the back nine before you've even played the course for the first time.
The sun came out, and yeah, it's a place that I love coming back to. It's got all the ingredients that make it a great tournament and there's a big incentive for guys to play well, looking at the Race to Dubai and where you want to play next year, and just happy to play well.
But a lot of the credit has got to go to Ian Rae because I was in not a great place a few weeks ago, and we were in a discussion about where I was, what I was doing with my swing. I was kind of a little bit lost if Switzerland, and it was actually good I missed the cut. It gave me a weekend to figure things out, and that's definitely shown from today's performance.
Q. Is it a knock-on effect when parts of your game lose you because it affects your mental side and everything else. How hard is it to bring everything back together because a lot of guys find themselves in that spot.
RICHIE RAMSAY: I've got a lot of experience, and kind of call upon that. You don't quite go to panic stations but it does play in your mind. You do wake up sometimes in the middle of the night thinking about just where I'm at at the top of my backswing, is this the right spot.
But yeah, he's always been right there to help me and support me and someone that I trust. And then I've tried to couple that with trying to be consistent every day, so the viewpoint is that things won't change dramatically, day-to-day, but if I can do something day-to-day over the course of a number of weeks or months or whatever will get it to the place I want it to be, and I find that quite good because it gives you a little bit of a purpose and direction, so every day, you know what you need to do and hopefully if you can smash that over time, you can see the difference and this is a nice little -- a nice little opening.
Q. Do you still get nervous coming to these elevated events? You're an experienced golfer but there's a lot of buzz this week and a lot of crowds.
RICHIE RAMSAY: I love it but there's no doubt I get nervous. I've learned over a number of years to take the viewpoint that when you get butterflies, this is quite cool. This is what you want, and I love like the pressure and even just standing on the first tee, and even just a member, when the bar is full and they are playing a monthly medalist, we get nervous as well. I think sometimes we've got a little bit more experience and know how to deal with it.
Like I say, it's got all the ingredients, and the fact the course the play the way it does and we've got sunshine and at a fantastic place with a great field, there's nothing much more you can ask for.
Q. How would you describe the course this year? It looks like it's tougher, the rough has been brought up, I don't know if that's in preparation for some players for The Ryder Cup.
RICHIE RAMSAY: It is very tough. I think the guys, if you hit a lot of greens this week will do really well. Because once you come off -- once you come off the fairways, first of all, it's really, really tough. The grass is noticeably thicker. The greens are relatively firm. If it just takes a bounce and it runs through, you've got a really tough chip. Max had a couple -- he hit two brilliant chips on 10 and 11, and 10 as close as you can get was about six or seven feet. It's the whole package; driving it well, you've got to be in position, hit a good iron shot into the green and then it's still not over there because the greens can be quite slick.
So it's got everything, and I think that's a testament to them bringing the course back to the way it probably should play, though they have taken a bit of the canopy up, like 17, there's a bit more ground game. So if you hit a good shot on 17 and take it on and try to turn it around the corner, you can run it in there and make a three.
Slowly but surely, the course is playing back to the way it originally was designed to play. And with the sun and a little bit of breeze, it will dry out. Firm and fast is the way courses should play.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports