Reaction after the first round of the BMW International Open in Pulheim, Germany on Thursday (23rd June).

"I'm very pleased, of course, as you imagine. I played solid pretty much all day long, a bit tough at the end but I managed to save some good pars but for the rest the wind was picking up again so it was not easy at all so I tried to stay focused on the game and the way I was hitting the ball. So yeah, did pretty well, I'm very happy for that. Leading - been a long time so it's a good feeling."

"Yeah you do, first off (early start) is always a good draw as long as it's warm enough and we're all out here, it's a very, very warm humid day, so I think it's only going to get hotter as the day goes on. Anything about the ball going the distance, we were ok from the start, so it was very good conditions this morning and thankfully I took advantage of that."

"Yeah, my patience was good. I was fighting for pars a few times and all of a sudden I started hitting great golf shots and it makes it a lot easier out there. You know it was tricky today, it was very windy, very hot and the course started to firm up and there's some deep, deep rough out there so it was quite tricky today so I'm very pleased with five under (par)."