Q. Seven birdies today. Talk us through your round.
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, it was tough. The wind was kind of up and down out there. So distance control was everything, and we did a really good job figuring out early in the week kind of what stock clubs are going up here, and we did a great job all day today of just getting it right around pin high and controlling our distances really well, which is just really important on a golf course like this.
Q. How have you been able to be so consistently good with your irons as it showed today?
RYAN MOORE: That's a great question. I wish I knew. It's just something I work on. I work on distance control, work on shot shape and trajectories to control the distance. That's what we tried to do today. Again, with the wind kind of up and down, flighting it a little bit more and not letting it get up in the air as much, that was I think really important today.
Q. You're in at +14; must be pretty happy with that round.
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I am. For the afternoon obviously it's always a bit calmer in the morning here and it'll play a little bit softer, but it was a really nice day. The wind was pretty consistent. It was a little up and down for a few moments there, but it was pretty consistent all day, so we kind of knew what to expect. Honestly I just controlled the ball nicely, kept it in play and gave myself good chances on the scoring holes, which is -- that was my goal coming in, and that was my plan, and I was able to execute it.
Q. It was a very clean scorecard. You haven't played in this event in 12 years. You've played it once before in 2008. What's it like coming back?
RYAN MOORE: I mean, it's beautiful. I absolutely love it up here. I live not too, too far from here down in Vegas, so it was an easy trip. Honestly, I really liked where my game had been trending over the last two tournaments. This one had been teetering as of a few weeks ago and I wasn't going to be in the PGA next week, and I liked where my game was at, so it just made sense. I checked out this golf course as much as I could kind of online. It looked like a course I would enjoy visually, and it is. It's a great, fun, enjoyable golf course to play. It's very fair, and some good scoring opportunities out there.
Q. You managed your game has been trending, with a T12 last week at 3M. What have you been doing the last few weeks?
RYAN MOORE: Yeah, I haven't been -- it was an okay week at Memorial. It was a lot better than my finish maybe dictated there. But 3M I just -- honestly I've just been working on the same consistency that I've been working on, consistency with my putting and setup and getting my alignment, getting ball position really consistent. I think I'd kind of been wavering a little bit. Just getting back in the rhythm of playing golf.
I thought I was more ready coming out of the quarantine than maybe I was, and I came out and kind of felt a little uncomfortable and just didn't feel like myself for the first few weeks, so I kind of honed in on what I felt like I needed to do, and just been grinding on that for the last few weeks, and it's starting to feel a lot better, which it's a good time of year for it to be feeling better.
Q. An early tee time tomorrow, how do you think you'll approach that in the morning?
RYAN MOORE: Well, it's a little tricky because it's so cold in the morning that the distances, it's very different. Just get a good grasp on how far the ball is going in the morning when it's only 50 or 55 degrees for the first hour, hour and a half we'll be playing, and then adjust as we go. It's a lot trickier than people think because it can change 10 percent throughout a day starting that early in the morning. You know, I'll just have a good game plan, approach the golf course like I did today, and hopefully it works out.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports