THE MODERATOR: Let's welcome our clubhouse leader, Carlos Ortiz, who's currently sitting at 5-under. Tell us a little bit about your round.
CARLOS ORTIZ: It was a good round. I played pretty good. I obviously made some really good putts. That always helps here. But I thought it was pretty solid. I kept it in the fairway, pretty much on the greens all day, and I did pretty much everything I needed to do, and obviously some big putts fell, so that's great.
Q. Obviously we're playing at a different time of year. The course is playing differently. Can you speak to that a little bit?
CARLOS ORTIZ: Yeah, it plays pretty much similar. It's not even that hot. Yesterday was hot, but today is fine. Obviously it was windy today, but I don't think it's playing much different than other years. Maybe we're going to see it this week now that the wind picked up, but so far it's just a little more windy than the last few years.
Q. Obviously you've been here before, you've seen the crowds and the excitement of the Watering Hole. This is actually our most record-breaking day that we've had here. Did you notice a different out there with the number of fans, the energy?
CARLOS ORTIZ: Honestly, every year I've come here it's been unbelievable. I'm seeing the guys playing on 18 right now, Cam and those guys, they probably felt it. For me, it's just as good as every other year that it's been fantastic.
Q. Tomorrow you're going to be paired up with Joaquín Niemann, your captain of Torque GC. Is that going to help, hinder?
CARLOS ORTIZ: I mean, it's good. We play practice rounds together when we play at home, so it's just another day, and it's obviously nice that he played awesome, so we're doing a good job as a team, and it's nice when we can get paired together and keep it up together.
Q. Carlos, can you talk about the Watering Hole? You were one of the few guys that made a birdie today. What was it about that hole? Obviously it wasn't as difficult for you as some of the other guys. Can you talk about the conditions there?
CARLOS ORTIZ: Yeah, it's not as easy because there is quite a bit of cross wind and you can't feel it. I honestly didn't hit that great of a shot. I hit it pretty normal, middle of the green, and I just made a bomb of a putt. When you make long putts, it's always easy.
It's just tricky to get the right distances with this much wind. I was just trying to hit the greens every time.
Q. You guys went winless last year. How much of a determination do you have coming into this season to get an early win especially?
CARLOS ORTIZ: I mean, it would be awesome. I think we are working in the right direction. I think all of us in the team worked hard this off-season, and I think it's going to pay off, so it's just a matter of time.
Q. Did you hear the roar when Paddy made the ace on the Watering Hole?
CARLOS ORTIZ: Oh, no I didn't. It's just so much noise going around the golf course, you don't really know what -- I couldn't distinguish. Maybe it was so far that I couldn't hear it, but that's awesome.
Q. The record crowds mentioned; what's the most atmosphere or the most fans you've ever seen in one day at a golf tournament, and how does that compare to today?
CARLOS ORTIZ: I don't want to -- this is awesome. Definitely there's some places, especially in America where I've been, I actually made a hole-in-one on one of those holes. There's a lot of people.
But it's unbelievable. The people here are great. The music is even better. This is probably my favorite tournament I've ever played on.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports