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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 15, 2015

Rory McIlroy

Kohler, Wisconsin, USA

RORY McILROY: Yeah, got off to a dream start, really. To be 4-under through 5 and not having birdied the first and third hole, to birdie 4, as well, was a bonus.

But, yeah, to give those shots away again on 6 and 8, you really have to battle to shoot 4-under in the end. I guess that probably shows just a lack of competitiveness and considering this is the first week back in a few weeks.

But really positive signs out there. Hitting the ball great. I putted much better today thankfully. So if I keep showing improvement each and every day like I have done, it's a good sign going into the rest of the season.

Q. Nice to hole a nice 65-footer on the par-5 as well?
RORY McILROY: It was. That was a bonus. I told J.P. to leave the pin in and I'm glad I did, it was going six or eight feet past. It was nice to see that one drop. As I said, dream start and a little disappointing that I wasn't able to keep it going from then.

Q. When you get off to that kind of start, having not played in that situation for a month or so, you get off to that start, seeing low numbers out there this week. Is there a difficulty to not getting ahead of yourself or not to try to get ahead of yourself in that situation?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, once being 4-under through 5, I knew 6 was a chance. And 7, the way the wind was on 7 and 8, they weren't playing as tough as they had been earlier in the week. If you get a good tee shot down on the 9, and you got a wedge in your hand there and all of a sudden you're thinking about shooting 30 on the front nine and then you got some chances on the back nine.

In a way it's difficult not to get ahead of yourself because the course was out there to -- it was gettable and it was just as soft as it was on Thursday. With the heat and everything, the ball's going a long way. So the course was playing quite a bit shorter than it played at the start of the week.

Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I was a little bit, that was just a bad decision off the tee. I should have hit 3-wood off the tee. I was hitting driver into the most narrow part of the fairway. It was just a bad mental decision. Again, that's something that wouldn't happen if I had been a little bit more sharp and played a few more competitive rounds. But these things happen and just try to learn from them and move on.

Q. The shot on 6, can you tell us what happened there?
RORY McILROY: It's tough. No matter where you hit your ball in the fairway on 6, you got a blind shot. And it's hard when it's such a narrow target anyway, but to have a narrow target and not be able to see the pin, you really have to commit to your line or your target or whatever you're aiming at, and I just didn't make a committed swing. It's hard to -- it's almost like you're looking up before you hit the ball to see if it's on line or instead of just hitting a committed shot. So it was disappointing, obviously, after the great start to give away a shot there.

Q. That lack of competitiveness, scoring skills, rust or whatever you want to call that, have you felt that at all this week?
RORY McILROY: I think I have. As I said yesterday, with my short game and just being more efficient realizing when you do give yourself chances, being able to take advantage of them and make the birdies and get up-and-down and keep the momentum of the round going. Stuff like that that you sort of have to play your way into a little bit, and obviously first week back it's hard to sort of do that. But as I said, I have shown a lot of good signs this week and a lot of positives that I can take with me on to the next few weeks of the season.

Q. To be as competitive as you are and to go into the final round a long way back, what's that like?
RORY McILROY: It's all about setting a realistic goal and target. I know that the way the back nine's playing there, the leaders could be 14-, 15-under by the time the day ends. So, that would leave me eight shots back. In the back of your mind, you still think you have a chance, because that's what your competitive nature tells you. But if you're looking at it realistically, I want to go out there tomorrow and shoot the best score that I've shot this week.

I've stood still a little on Thursday and Friday, but definitely improved today and you want to improve on that again tomorrow. If I do that, I think that, as a whole, the week would be somewhat of a success. It wouldn't be quite what I wanted, but as I said, I can take positives from it and move on.

Q. How close were you to playing last week?
RORY McILROY: I didn't want to play last week because I didn't want to jeopardize playing this week. There's no point in playing last week and then it flaring up. And then you completely threw this tournament into question. You have to play safe coming back from injury, you have to give yourself enough time.

Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: It could have made a difference, but again, my health's more important than the scores that I'm shooting out there.

Q. What's your upcoming schedule?
RORY McILROY: I'm going to take a couple of weeks off just to sort of reassess everything, and I'll start back in the playoffs at Boston. And then play through the FedExCup. Then I got to play Fry's.com and then I'm playing maybe a couple more after that. Dubai and China.

Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: Again, I think it was more how I've mentally approached it, how I feel like I wasn't tentative coming back. I wasn't -- I was aggressive with my shots, I was committed to most shots and most swings that I took. Just getting back into the rhythm of it, getting back, I thought it might have taken me a few weeks, but I feel like it's right there and feels like I haven't been away for that long, which is nice. I feel like I can be very competitive for the next few weeks.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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