Murray (22), the defending champion at the New Zealand Open, is not putting any more pressure on himself to go back to back at Millbrook this weekend.
He flew in yesterday from Mexico, where he played in the rich WGC event.
"It was an amazing week last week in Mexico and the last 12 months has been a bit of a blur, really. Starting here last year, that really kick-started me. I played quite well in Asia in the co-sanctioned stuff and was able to finish the year decent at the PGA and got my European Tour card."
He performed well in Mexico overcoming vomiting in the lead-up.
"I got food poisoning on the Tuesday so my expectations got considerably lowered. I battled around the first couple of days and relied on my caddie. I played quite well on the Saturday and was sitting 15th. The last day I didn’t really do anything wrong but just ran out of gas and made a few soft errors."
He ended up inside the top 50 and said he was confident he would be right this week as jet lag did not have a big impact on him.
"Last week gave me a lot of confidence. This [Queenstown] is one of my favourite places in the world and coming in was very exciting."
He is super excited about playing where he won the title last year at The Hills.
He felt no more pressure as the defending champion, despite arriving at his hotel yesterday and seeing a big picture of himself on the wall.
"The expectation is to come back and play well. My game is in good shape. I have got a lot of family and friends over here this week so it will be nice to get out and play."
"I’m playing here [Millbrook] first-up and I played first-up last year. I didn’t warm up last year because it was too cold so I might just go and knuckle down somewhere. But I’m not a superstitious person and will just get out and play."
Murray left Mexico late on Monday and spent a day and a-half travelling to get to Queenstown.
"But I have just had a pie from the Arrowtown bakery and that has fixed me up good."
