WM PHOENIX OPEN

February 5, 2026

Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

Q. Rasmus, good opening round. How would you characterize the day.

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Really solid. Played good pretty much the whole way through. Really good off the tee. Had a lot of good chances to hit my approach shot in there somewhat close and was happy enough to make a couple putts as well.

Q. One of those putts being a birdie on 16. How cool was that, first tournament here to do that in front of this crowd?

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Yeah, it was amazing. From the tee it looked like it was really close. No, super happy to get that one there. That one I was kind of telling myself walking up there, again, first time being here, it's a pretty cool opportunity I had and super happy I capitalized.

Q. Second week on TOUR this season. I know you played some in the U.S. last year. What's the transition been like now that you are a member?

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: It's been kind of -- well, it's still kind of going on. I've been living kind of out a suitcase the last two weeks since I played the first two weeks in Dubai on the DP World Tour.

Looking forward to a little bit of a break here coming up at some point and kind of settle things down.

No, it's been really good.

Q. Looked like the greens have gotten firmer. I've seen balls bouncing through.

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Uh-huh.

Q. True? Correct?

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Yeah, they're starting to firm up, especially 12, the par-3 there. You got to be careful there. You can't really fly much past hole high. If you're any right of it at all, all of a sudden it's just going to kind of get close to running out there on the right.

Yeah, they're certainly firming up, and with the forecast we have I'm sure they'll be even firmer throughout the week.

Q. You talk about setting yourself up. How did you approach those? As something you have to hit the ball higher or just being in the fairway?

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Well, being in the fairway helps, and then it's more about knowing kind of which pins you have to play away from a little bit. Especially I think it seemed like the afternoon 4 was another one where it's kind of front right there and you're really not trying to pitch it -- you're trying to pitch it kind of hole high.

If it gets a firm bounce there all of a sudden you're looking at a 40, 50-footer coming back. But that's just kind of how sometimes you got to just play away from the pins and stay out of trouble and attack the pins that you can.

Q. Do you like this wave where you can go right back out in the morning?

RASMUS NEERGAARD-PETERSEN: Yeah, I generally like a quick turnaround. Hopefully I can get out there tomorrow morning and build off the momentum I got going now, especially with the nice finish that I had.

Yeah, right now it's all about just having a good recovery and getting ready for tomorrow.