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WELLS FARGO CHAMPIONSHIPMay 15, 2015Rory McIlroyCHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Rory, 5-under, 67. Solid round of golf. I thought you drove it beautifully today. Might have been lower if some of those second shots would have been a little closer. RORY MCILROY: Definitely. I really find a good grove with the driver. I drove it beautifully last week at Sawgrass and I've continued to do that this week and if you can put your ball in play and put it well up the fairway here you're going to have a good chance. As you said, my iron play wasn't at sharp as I could have been but you still have a good score and puts me right there for the weekend. Q. I can't think of a hole where you had to struggle to make par except 16. Tell me about that flop shot. That was a beauty. RORY MCILROY: That was. I sort of in between clubs on 16, between 6 and 7-iron and tried to hit a little soft 6 with the iron in there and came straight out of it. Yeah, the shot was -- I had a lot of things going for me. It was a good lie, it was on the uphill slope so I knew I could throw it up there and I probably had about a 3, 4-yard window to land it. Land it in there and trickle down close and it was nice to see a par there. Q. Your thoughts going into the weekend. RORY MCILROY: Just more of the same, to be honest. I feel good out there mentally. I feel very sharp. You know, I'm not putting myself under that much stress out there in terms of having to save pars or anything. More of the same. If I can hit it in the fairway like I have been doing and maybe just be a little sort of more crisp with my approach play, that will be the key. Q. Clean score card, no bogies, five birdies. Your putting was better today as well. RORY MCILROY: It was. It was pretty much stress-free out there. Anytime you can play a round of golf with no bogies you're doing something right. I had to scramble a couple times out there but, for the most part, put my ball in the places where it needed to be. Drove it in the fairway. Hit a lot of greens and converted a few chances. It was nice. A really solid round of golf and I'll need more of that over the next couple of days. Q. Your match play, you played 229 holes of competitive golf. How have you been able to remain physically and mentally sharp during this stretch? RORY MCILROY: Again, I think because of the way I'm playing out there, I'm not putting myself under that much stress in terms of, you know, missing fairways or missing greens. I'm making it good on myself. If you can play golf like that it really doesn't take much, to be honest. I've been limiting my time on the range in trying to warm up, if I need to go over a few things. More quality over quantity. Trying to conserve energy. Q. You have nearly 24 hours of rest before tomorrow. What do you think you need to cleanup? RORY MCILROY: You know, as I said, I'm driving the ball really well. I give myself a lot of opportunities to hit it close today which sometimes I did but a lot of times I didn't do so if I can -- if my iron play gets a little better over the next couple days, I can drive the ball the same, I feel like my putting is going in the right direction as well, then hopefully it all adds up to be a good tournament. Q. Rory, solid round. If we can get some comments on your day. RORY MCILROY: Yeah. Played very well again today. I felt like I played quite similarly to the way I played yesterday. I just didn't make -- didn't make the mistakes I did yesterday and few times I missed greens I was able to get it up and down but another really solid round of golf. Really happy with the way I'm hitting the ball, especially off the tee. So, just need to do more of the same over the weekend. Q. Rory when you're hitting it as well as you have the last couple weeks, Match Play, last week, this week, does the challenge to be patient? RORY MCILROY: I think I've gotten a lot better at staying patient over -- that's probably one of the strengths of my game now because, you know, it's just knowing from experience what a good score is and if you're putting yourself in positions to score and sometimes it's not happening, you know, you're still -- you're not losing any ground on the field. Yeah, it would be nice to go out there and the way I hit it today I felt like I could have shot 63 or 64 but realizing 67 is still a good score and puts me in a great position going into the weekend. Q. Rory I heard you a couple times talking about playing stress-free. When you played back to back to back, how tough is it? Can you explain when you're not putting yourself in those stressful spots? RORY MCILROY: Yeah. More mentally than physically. You're not -- you're -- your thought processes isn't taking a beating all the time from -- you know, you're not really overthinking out there, just trying to keep it as simple as possible. That's really when you're hitting fairways and hitting greens and all you're thinking about is birdie opportunities, it makes it pretty easy to get on a round and get on a stretch of golf, and physically I was a little tired after the Match Play after playing all those holes. To play a 72 hole tournament every week it really -- hopefully in the shape I'm in it doesn't really do that much to me. I feel good. Feel like I've got plenty of energy and ready to go for the weekend. Q. There were a couple bad spots you were in today, not very many, but seemed like you had a little luck working, too. RORY MCILROY: Yeah. I hit two tee shots left. Tee shot on 12 I hit left and bounced back off the tree on to the fairway. On 3 as well. Same thing, hit it left and bounced back off the tree into the fairway and was able to make par both times. There's always a little bit of luck involved when you're trying to win a golf tournament and thankfully it went my way today and I think it all evens out, though. I have a couple of good breaks and might get a couple of bad ones tomorrow. Feel like it all evens out over the course of 72 holes. Q. Can you walk us through what happened on the flop shot on 17? RORY MCILROY: On 16. I had sort of an awkward yardage for my second shot, in between a 6 and 7-iron. I tried to hit the sort of baby cut 6 and just came out of it and hung it out to the right. I short-sided myself but there was little bit of sort of apron or fairway to work with that I was trying to land the ball. I probably had three, four yards of where I wanted to land it and the lie was good and it was on a little bit of an uphill slope. It allowed me to get the elevation on it so it could come down soft. I probably didn't need to play it as high as I did but, you know, worked out well and was great to see a par there. Q. Can you take us through your first hole of the day, you holed out? Take us through that shot. RORY MCILROY: Yeah. I hit a great drive off the tee. Had a bit of a bad lie in the fairway, 3-wood squirted to the right. Where the pin was on 10 if you're going to miss it anywhere you need to miss it left. I hit a decent chip shot but just landed on a hard spot on the green and ran, I don't know, 30 feet past the hole, and it's always nice to start the day with a putt like that. I did it yesterday, I holed a nice putt on the 1st. Always nice to see the first putt of the day go. Q. How much have you changed mentally since you won it the first time? What's your expectation going into the weekend? RORY MCILROY: I mean everything has changed, you know, from I feel like I'm a much better player. My stature in the game is much higher. I feel like I'm -- when I'm on the leaderboard it carries a little bit more weight. People might look at it a little bit more. So, all those things. I'm much better prepared and equipped to be in contention in these tournaments, week-in, week-out. Better player, more grounded player and mentally just much better as well as I was alluding to earlier, staying patient and realizing what a good score is out there and that's it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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