Q. Wade, it’s great to have you here. We know you finished runner-up at the NZ Open a few years ago in Auckland, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed you made the effort this year.

It’s been a fantastic few days here already. You kind of forget how beautiful it is down here in Queenstown. Mike’s (Hendry) been putting pressure on me for a while to come down here and it was nice to make it happen. I had a great day out there today so I’m pretty happy with the positive start.

Q. Tell us about the round. It was very difficult early.

Exactly, I felt like we could have gotten the wrong side of the draw there pretty quickly so it was just a matter of hanging on early. I made some great up and downs on two and three and it was just a matter of hanging on. I started making some birdies back down wind there on seven, eight, nine or something like that. So that got a bit of momentum going and then I played nice around the back. The game feels pretty good, I putted nicely so I’m happy.

Q. You’ve been playing well as of late, of course the win in Hong Kong, you finished well at the Australian PGA Championship, so your form is in pretty good shape overall isn’t it?

Exactly, I had a nice run at the end of last year. I didn’t finish off that many tournaments but obviously, Hong Kong I had a win there, Aussie PGA, that one stung quite a bit but I feel like I’ve got a bit to prove to myself and I’m working pretty hard at the moment even though the last few weeks haven’t been great. I had two weeks off, I’ve rebooted, worked hard last week and it’s nice to come back here and punch out a number in round one.