What they said: Chopra

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JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Daniel Chopra, thanks for joining us after a round of 67. Nice start to the Buick Open for you. Maybe some opening comments on a good couple of days for you.

DANIEL CHOPRA: Yeah, well, I wanted to -- well, the game plan was to try to get off to a good start this morning and take advantage of the calm conditions. It was cool and it was just as benign as it could be with the fresh greens. I nearly holed my second shot on the 10th, my first hole of the day. Then I 2-putted on 12 for birdie, and then nearly chipped in on 13 for another birdie.

And then 2-putted on 16 for another birdie and then birdied No. 6, which I nearly holed another wedge. So my first five birdies were all inside of a foot, which is a stark contrast to yesterday where every birthday I made was outside of ten feet.

Today I didn't even have to Mark them, and just tapped them in and made a 7-footer or something like that on No. 7, and that was my last birdie. It was one of those rounds of golf where all of my birdies were tap-ins.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You had an interesting bunker shot on No. 8.

CHOPRA: Yeah, it was one of the more memorable shots I hit this year. It was extremely difficult. I rolled right up against the back face of the bunker. It was a downhill left-to-right bunker shot and just couldn't get my feet in the bunker. And I figured, well, if I get on both knees, I can get at it. And so I got down on both knees, and it's a shot that I used to play and practice as a kid. We used to have little chipping games around the greens and used to find the most difficult spots.

So we would do that, and it kind of reminded me of that. I said, well, I hit this shot before, years ago, but I've hit it so let's go ahead and try it. I nearly holed it, so it worked out just perfect.

Q. Where was the ball in the bunker?

CHOPRA: My ball was in the sand about two feet below the edge of the lip and I knelt down on the bunker inside the grass to hit it.

Q. You said it was a stress-free round; was it fun?

CHOPRA: Yeah, I was making birdies and climbing up the leaderboard and getting quite a few under par, and so that was fun.

You still try to -- you're not just out there, you know, laughing away, but you're still trying and you're focused. Yes, it was stress-free and there was no worries really. Only time it really got slightly stressful was when I missed the fairway on the last and pitched it out and managed to get up-and-down from 120 yards.

Q. What do you do now with yourself in you played early, great conditions, played well, no stress; do you work on anything?

CHOPRA: Well, yesterday I worked a little bit on my wedges; (chuckling) a good thing I did that, because it worked out today.

I only did maybe 30 minutes of work on the range yesterday in the afternoon, or in the evening, rather, and I had hit a few poor wedges from the middle of the fairway, little three-quarter wedges and I worked on that and hit every one of them perfect today.

This afternoon, I need to go and work and drive town to the TPC of Michigan and take a look at that golf course. That's where I'm qualifying for the Open Championship on Monday. I've never seen it before, so I'm going to take this afternoon, the time that I have to get to know that place and come back later in the evening. Should provide a good distraction, as well, and get away from the tournament a little bit.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you.