BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

August 20, 2026

Rory McIlroy

Bellerive Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. What was different today?

RORY McILROY: Golf course, climate. Yeah, as I said yesterday, I went home and I worked on a few things and at least got myself back in a frame of mind where like I felt like I'm at least back on the right path of what I'm doing with my game and with my swing. It's certainly a work in progress. Days like this are encouraging, obviously. There's still a lot of work to be done. But for, you know, first round with what I'm trying to do, middle rehearsal on the takeaway, all that sort of stuff, it went as well as it could have today, for sure.

Q. You joked about climate. How much of a factor is that? You were anticipating an oven here and an oven in Atlanta and you come here and you don't get that heat. How much does that contribute to this rebound?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I didn't grow up in that. I live in Florida now, but this is sort of -- it's still pretty hot and pretty humid, but it's nowhere near what it was last week in Memphis. I like this a lot more.

Q. You said last week you were playing more golf swing than golf. Today were you playing a little less?

RORY McILROY: I would say still a lot of golf swing, but at least I feel like with this rehearsal that I'm doing I can then get into feeling what shot I'm trying to hit and at least give myself the opportunity to see a shot or to feel what I'm trying to do. So, still thinking about the swing a lot, but at the same time just trying to blend the two together, so at least I'm seeing shots and being a little bit more visual than I was last week.

Q. What did you think of the course, they did a lot of different things over the years? And how about the crowd following you as well?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's the one thing I remember from 2018 was just the support that this the local community gives us here. A lot of people come out and watch the tournament, which is great.

The golf course is, you know, it's my style of golf course. I do well on these golf courses. They're big, they're long. You can get away with missing some tee shots at times. Yeah, definitely a course that sets up better for me than the one we played last week.

Q. There's a car on property that you supposedly designed. What exactly did you do with that?

RORY McILROY: I think there's an initiative this week where, if you get a hole-in-one, you sort of had the choice between two cars and maybe three different colors of each car. So it wasn't, I mean, I picked the car and I picked the color. And I probably won't get it because it's a green X5. Might get it. Who knows.

Q. Why green?

RORY McILROY: Sort of become my favorite color recently.

Q. Have you ever had a hole-in-one prize?

RORY McILROY: No. I've had hole-in-ones, I've never gotten anything for them though. Usually they have cost me.

Q. Did the course dry at all?

RORY McILROY: A little bit. Yeah, the greens are still quite soft. But there's a little bit of run in the fairways. The balls running out a little bit off the tee. Doesn't, it looks like the forecast has improved over the last couple days, so hopefully by the time we get to the weekend the greens have dried out a little bit and there's a little more bounce to them.

Q. Is it going to be a long session on the range tonight?

RORY McILROY: No, I'll probably just go to the truck and recover. Do some sauna and red light and cold plunge and call it a night.