THE MODERATOR: We're here with Charlie Wi, 3-under 67. Can you just talk us through the round out there, nice playing.
CHARLIE WI: Thanks. I hit the ball pretty solid today, made a couple of putts. It was a hot day. I just made sure that I stayed in the ballgame, meaning like mentally, because you could easily lose it out there. Yeah, overall it was just a solid day in the first round.
Q. Five birdies in a row; had you ever done that before in your career?
CHARLIE WI: Yeah, I did that at Regions about a month ago to start out the round. Yeah, actually -- Regions, I didn't know I made five in a row; my caddie reminded me.
Today I was like, wait, did I just run off four in a row? On the fifth one I was thinking about it, come on, get it out of your brain, and I was able to make it.
Q. What's the rest of the afternoon look like for you?
CHARLIE WI: Just hit a few balls and that's it.
Q. You guys play in heat all the time, but it's not always this oppressive. You said you just, with the heat you tried to stay mentally strong. Can you describe that and talk about how you do that and really what gets to you?
CHARLIE WI: On the Champions Tour, we don't really play in heat like this. Also, another thing is that we do get access to carts, which makes a big deal. This golf course, they took out a lot of trees so there are no shades where you can really hide.
When things aren't going well it's easy to lose yourself out there. Luckily I was playing well, so I was able to stay focused the whole way around.
Q. Among those five birdies in a row, was one of them a little less expected. Did you make a long one somewhere?
CHARLIE WI: I hit the ball really well, but the surprising one was number -- I believe 4 or 5, the par-4.
THE MODERATOR: 4.
CHARLIE WI: 4. It was playing 211, and I hit a 5-iron to about a foot. So that was very -- that was nice. I was very pleasantly surprised. I am in the hole-in-one club, and I was hoping to get one of those.
Q. Did you like U.S. Opens when you were playing regular TOUR golf?
CHARLIE WI: For me, to be honest with you, even though I played on TOUR for a long time, I didn't have the ball control. I believe I have a better ball control now than I did when I was younger, even though I stayed on TOUR for a long time.
I remember playing in the U.S. Opens. I thought they were always very, very difficult.
Q. Charlie, how does this course suit your eye and suit your game?
CHARLIE WI: How does it? Well, I thought that when I played the practice round that it was going to be advantageous to the guys that hit the ball far, but USGA did a good job when they moved some of the tees up. So it's not only for the bombers, but it's also for people that hit the ball straight which can score around here.
The pins are really tough. There's a lot of undulation out there, but they made it very fair. The greens aren't crazy hard, so you can really attack some of those pins today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports