TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 20, 2025

Rory McIlroy

TPC River Highlands

Quick Quotes

Q. Could you talk about your day, the wind, the conditions, and talk about the ball skipping out of the water.

RORY McILROY: Yes, all of the above. I felt like I battled back pretty well. Got off to a rough start, 3-over through 4, 3-over through 7. To get it back somewhat close to even par for the day was good.

Yeah, I battled well. I hit some good shots and held it together when it could have got away from me early in the round.

The ball on 17, I was on the downslope in the bunker and I was afraid of hitting it fat and just hitting it straight into the water in front of me. I caught it a little skinny, and thankfully it skipped through, and I still made a bogey, but it probably saved me a shot by skipping out.

It was a little fortunate, but it was a -- 17, those holes -- even 15 was playing sort of tricky, but 17 from that high tee box, it was a tough tee shot. You saw mine -- I felt like the wind didn't hit mine, goes in the left trap. Wind gets Keegan's too much, goes in the water, and the wind was so gusty that sometimes the wind got the ball and sometimes it didn't.

Q. What did you tell yourself when you were 3-over through 4, the wind is whipping around? Did you have a little self-talk there?

RORY McILROY: No, I got fortunate with my putt on 5 for par. It felt like that was going to miss left, and it ended up going in.

Then I knew there was some gettable holes. Two par-5s, a couple of short par-4s. I sort of tried to stay as patient as possible. When I dropped back to 3, I saw Scottie had got to 11. I was like, oh, felt like a long way to sort of climb my way back up. But then I made a birdie to get to 4 and I saw Scottie dropped back to 9 and I was like, oh, I don't feel like I'm too far away again.

The conditions today definitely bunched the entire field together, and should make for an exciting weekend.