THE MODERATOR: 6-under for your opening round. How would you assess your round?
RYAN FOX: Very solid, to be honest. I played decent in patches last week, and I played well here last year, so I kind of had good vibes coming in. I had a lot of good shots and holed some putts in the middle of the round and had a nice save on 18 to make lunch taste a little better. Yeah, really happy with the day.
THE MODERATOR: You mentioned you played well last year, top 5 here. What do you like about the Dunes course?
RYAN FOX: I think everyone probably said the same thing. They're pleasantly surprised. Being an alternate event, you're not quite sure what you are going to get golf course-wise. Most of them are resorty, and this place is pretty strong.
In places you've got to golf your ball well. There's obviously lots of birdies if you hit good shots, but it's firm. It's fast. If they got the rough up around here, this place would be really tricky.
Just had a good vibe around here. Felt comfortable hitting a lot of shots. When I came back on Tuesday and played a few holes, I was, like, Oh, yeah, I know why I like this place. It's always nice coming into an event feeling like that.
THE MODERATOR: Out early with your group. Andrew and Victor played well to help to feed off of each other?
RYAN FOX: Definitely. Two guys I played a lot of golf with, Victor in Europe and Andrew a fair bit out here as well over the years.
Yeah, we all hit a lot of really good shots, and I think we're bogey-free for the day until Victor bogeyed the last. When you have that for a day, it's pretty good. I think all of us could have been a little better if we had got really hot with the putter, but I'm pretty sure most of us -- all three of us will take what we had today.
Q. This is kind of a big week for you because you've had such, I would say, a struggle for the season. Can you talk about coming in this week and what your thoughts were?
RYAN FOX: Yeah, it's been frustrating this year more than anything else. I feel like I've played some really good golf in patches. Just haven't been able to put full rounds together. Outside of Valero, which was a bad week, everything else I've kind of been around the cut line, either missed by one or just kind of made it and then not take advantage of the weekend.
Yeah, this is a week obviously I had good vibes coming in from last year. Just have to go out and be aggressive and focus on trying to win a golf tournament rather than scratching around the cut line and trying to find a game.
As I said to Haley, there were good signs last week. I had a lot of good shots, even though the scores didn't really show it. I kind of just have been waiting for it to click. Hopefully this was the start of it click, but everything else felt pretty good out there today.
Q. What is it you felt like you haven't been doing well that you say today was actually working for you?
RYAN FOX: To be honest it's the scoring part of it more than anything else. I guarantee the last few weeks if I would have made bogey on 18 with the shot I hit -- I didn't feel like I hit a bad shot. It just ran through the green. Didn't hit a great chip, and last week I definitely would have missed that putt.
Today I made that one that keeps the momentum. I did the same on 6 after missing the green there and made an 8-footer for par. That's kind of what I haven't been doing. Not taking advantage of good shots, whether it's missing a putt or whatever or maybe not quite hitting it as close as I feel like I should and then when I miss a green, I kind of make a silly bogey and feel like the whole time I'm treading water.
So it was nice today to feel like I was actually going forward a little bit. I felt like I had a chance of making some birdies.
Q. It's kind of odd because I think we're more than halfway through the season.
RYAN FOX: Yeah, it doesn't feel like it. It's only the start of May.
Q. Knowing everything that's going on and how things are going to be changing and so forth and so on, what is your plan?
RYAN FOX: Just to play as much out here as possible. Obviously I'll be heading back to Europe for the Scottish Open and the Open, which will be nice.
Yeah, look, it's front-loaded, the schedule here obviously. I had a pretty good start to the year in Europe and felt like I was heading in the right direction. Didn't quite translate it to over here, but there's been some positive signs.
It only takes two good weeks out here to kind of make a season. Hopefully my two good weeks are coming pretty soon.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports