Q. How tough was it first thing this morning?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Miserable. It was miserable. Freezing cold, a bit wet, and it wasn't very nice. The ball was going nowhere early on. Difficult to keep the face dry. Pádraig somehow was telling me that it could be worse. I don't know where he's been, but yeah, it was a little bit nasty this morning, but it's great now. We turned on 18 and the weather improved.
Q. So your back nine, which is the front nine, four birdies in seven holes?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yeah, I played really well, really. I don't know, I don't feel like -- I feel like this golf course is kind of generous off the tee, and you've got to hit your approach shots well, and I felt like I did that today. I just didn't take advantage of my shorter birdie putts, shall I say. I putted well on the whole, but yeah, didn't take advantage of those 5- to 12-footers. But yeah, good start.
Q. Cold and miserable, Billy on your bag helps out to keep everything dry, whatever, keep you going?
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: He was cold, wet and miserable, as well. No, yeah, obviously having Billy on the bag is great, but you absolutely need someone else to help you with it when it's like it was this morning.
Q. So there was a quote yesterday, you said, there's nothing like playing golf in the UK --
MATTHEW FITZPATRICK: Yeah, yeah. It's different. You don't see sun. You don't see warm weather. But no, I mean, it's a shame there's no fans obviously these next two weeks. It makes the atmosphere of these events so much better. That's sort of what I meant by it, really, in comparison. So yeah, we're all missing them, and hopefully they'll be back soon.
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