THE 149TH OPEN

July 17, 2021

Rory McIlroy

Mixed Zone

Q. How would you assess today's performance?

RORY MCILROY: Sort of a tale of two nines. I played great on the front nine, hit some really good iron shots and converted some putts and really got it going.

Then the back nine played tough. They're sort of tucking the pins away. They've stretched the golf course out to as long as it can play. I was hitting 2-iron into the 11th hole, that par-3, and that was sort of -- I missed a short putt there for par and it kind of killed the momentum I had. Not birdieing the par-5 and making another couple bogeys on the way in, certainly it felt like a better round than 1-under par, but it was encouraging to see some of the golf that I played on that front nine.

It's just a matter of trying to keep that going and try to turn those nine-hole stretches into 18-hole stretches, and then those 18-hole stretches into whole tournaments. It's getting there.