PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 23, 2021

Rory McIlroy

The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island

Quick Quotes

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JULIUS MASON: Just some thoughts on your round, then we'll go to questions.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, more of the same, very average, sort of can't really guess anything going and it was a day where you had to get off to a fast start. The first few holes were playing a lot easier than they have done, and I didn't do that, and yeah, just sort of stuck in neutral.

Q. You played the first two days in a group with Brooks. I was just wondering what you saw from his game, and was it hard to watch as he tries to fish the ball out of the hole and stuff?

RORY McILROY: No, I mean, he's very capable of hitting the golf shots and getting himself around the golf course.

But no, he played well. He hung in there. I don't think he had his best stuff the first couple days, but he hung in there, and he sort of took advantage of his good shots when he hit them.

Yeah, just sort of hanging around, I guess, and that's what you need to do in major championships, just keep hanging around. I guess he probably hit it better yesterday than the first couple days. I don't think he putted as well as he probably did, but yeah, that's all you need to do in these things is just keep hanging around, and he did that for the first two days and seemed like he did it again yesterday.

Q. You've played a lot of golf with him. Just pretty much the same ol', same ol' Brooks, nothing really different?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I've definitely seen him playing better, so I think that's a testament to how good he is. I don't really think he's got his best stuff with him this week, but he obviously still has a great chance to win.

Q. As frustrated as you obviously were on the greens and with your driving and with the way you played the par-5s, what was the most frustrating aspect?

RORY McILROY: Just all of it. The par-5s were a killer. I made six bogeys on the par-5s in the first two days, I think. Especially on a par-72, those are the holes that you have to birdie. Even walking off there with pars is a disappointment, so to walk off there with bogeys is obviously even worse.

Yeah, I really put myself behind the 8-ball with that.

Yeah, and then I actually felt like I putted okay the first couple days and then just over the weekend I started to miss a few. I started to over-read them a little bit and was sort of questioning my reads, a little bit of indecisiveness crept in.

Q. There were such high expectations based on your success here in the past and having just won. Were you feeling -- did you have high expectations for yourself this week or did you feel like you were still working on the swing?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, not really. I didn't understand those high expectations. It was good to get a win at Quail Hollow, a course that I've always played well on and am comfortable on.

But I said to you guys whenever I was up here on Tuesday, I didn't remember much of 2012. For whatever reason it just wasn't a very memorable week in many ways.

I didn't feel like playing well here nine years ago was going to automatically make me play well again, and I felt like my game was -- I felt like coming in here there was still parts of my game that I needed to sharpen up, and obviously those parts were exposed this week in the wind and on a tough course.

Q. Is winning a major at 50 something you can even imagine, and what do you make of what Phil has done so far?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, if I fast-forward 20 years, I can see it, and I can certainly see it with someone like Phil who feeds off the energy of the crowd and gets going. I mean, that front nine he played yesterday was flawless. He played really, really well.

But yeah, I don't know what 20 years down the line is going to look like for me, but hopefully I'm in Phil's position and still contending in these things.

Q. Are you going to watch today?

RORY McILROY: As much as I can, yeah. I'm going to fly home here in a little bit and then try to catch the back nine.

Q. You mentioned that you were still in the middle of the process of trying to get where you want to be. What did this week tell you about where you are in that process?

RORY McILROY: Still have a ways to go with everything. And again, it's different here. Like I was saying, you go to somewhere like a Quail Hollow or where I'm going to play next, at Memorial, you can hit bad shots and still go find your ball and play it and hit great recovery shots. Here is so penal that you can't.

I feel like you've got a little more freedom on those golf courses, and that's really all it is. It's a trust and a freedom thing. Once I have that, like I had that at Quail Hollow because you can do that, you can hit it in trees and get it out. You sort of can't really do that here. You see hazard on one side and six-foot-high on the other side, it's sort of hard to bail out anywhere. That was sort of -- it was a good test this week to see where I was, and I still have a ways to go.

I just need to figure out a driver, as well. Like I just haven't driven the ball as well as I know that I can for a long time, and that's really the -- that's where the foundation of my game, I guess, and once I'm driving it well, everything becomes so much easier.

I just haven't driven the ball like myself for a while. Probably haven't driven the ball like myself since 2019, so I need to figure it out.

Q. Is that figuring out equipment or just your swing?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think a little bit of both. Yeah, a little bit of both.

Q. What was your earliest memory of watching Phil play in a professional tournament?

RORY McILROY: I can't remember because I was probably so focused on Tiger. (Laughter.)

JULIUS MASON: Rory, thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it.