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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 5, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Augusta, Georgia

RORY McILROY: I made one mistake, the bogey on 7. But apart from that, even when I missed a couple of birdie chances early on, and I just told myself to stay patient out there. I think anything around 60 out there is a pretty good score.

Q. You said earlier this week that you wanted to take advantage getting off to a fast start.
RORY McILROY: I think so, you look at not anyone is getting away. Jordan had a pretty strong finish there. But this is the best start in a few years. And, yeah, it's such a hard golf course to play catch up on. If you start to play catch up here, that's when you start to make mistakes. It will be right up there and have the ability to stay patient, because of the position I'm in. That's a nice luxury I have over the next few days.

Q. What do you make of Team Jordan at 6‑under par?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was right there. I'm not surprised that someone shot that, especially the back nine. You've got 13, 15, where the pin is on 16. And obviously it was very benign for us coming in the last few holes. So, yeah, look, I'm not surprised about it at all. He loves this golf course. He plays well around here, he always has. And he's going to be tough to beat this week.

Q. You mentioned wanting to get off to a fast start. How much does this sort of relax you or take some of the pressure off?
RORY McILROY: Again, it relaxes you, because you can play more relaxed, you don't have to chase, you don't have to‑‑ you might miss a couple of chances and really there's‑‑ I don't know, there's just a different mindset. I don't know, there's more‑‑ I don't know what the word is you're looking for. But you feel like you need it a little bit more. That putt had to go in. Rather than if it goes in, great, if it doesn't, I have a chance on the next one. I feel that's the way you have to play this place. It's just tick holes off as you go along, take your pars, whenever you get a birdie putt, try and hole it and move on. Stay patient. I feel getting off to a good start today will allow me to keep that mindset the next few days.

Q. The greens were really firm today, obviously, but you handled them very well. Comment on that?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was a much different golf course today than what we've seen in practice. And the SubAir must have been running nearly all night last night. That's Augusta. That's what we sign up to whenever we come here. You know it's going to be firm and fast. And even talking to Harry out there, we played 54 holes Wednesday, Thursday last week, so just a week ago. And he said this place is at least five or six shots tougher today than it was when we played. And five shots, anyway. Five shots when we played Thursday last week. It's amazing what they can do in the space of a week here. And there's no rain forecast for tomorrow, so it will be one where you need to control your distance and be very aware on the greens.

Q. The putt on 17?
RORY McILROY: The one on 16 and the one on 17, they were both big. And then the up‑and‑down at the last, as well. Those three holes. Big for momentum. I don't feel like I'm going out trying to get those two shots or whatever back tomorrow morning. I can just be relaxed going on to the first tee, not being too concerned about trying to get those birdies back. So, yeah, they were huge.

Q. What was the highlight of the round for you?
RORY McILROY: Probably those last three holes. It's not always the birdies that stick out in your mind. That downhill left‑to‑right that I had on 17 was nice to see that go in. But I drove it well. Everything was really solid. And if I can continue to play like that over the next three days I'll be pretty close.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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