	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

100TH OPEN DE FRANCE

July 2, 2016

Rory McIlroy

Paris, France

Q. Looks like you got something going again.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I knew there was -- not that there was a few chances but at least I could have the possibility of hitting some fairways, hitting some greens and get some momentum that way. I hit a couple of good shots into 10, a good shot into 11, hit the green on 12, two good shots into 13, so I started to get something going then.

Yeah, the last few holes, they maybe aren't playing quite as difficult as they could be with the way the wind direction is. But I just needed something to click and I think the birdie on 11 was big for me today to at least get one back, and then I could go from there.

Q. How excited about the possibilities for tomorrow; French Open is one you'd really like to win, isn't it.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's huge. Obviously every tournament you come to, you want to win. I wasn't quite sure how I would perform this week considering all the stuff I'm trying to work on but at the same time, I'm giving myself a great chance. I was eight behind the lead at one point today and to be only two back, I think going into tomorrow, it's nice.

I really wanted to hole that putt at the last to get into the final group but I'll be one group ahead of the leaders and try and give them something to shoot at.

Q. Just concentrate on the positives, shall we, because it's a nice finish there.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, great finish. Any time you can shoot 5-under on the back nine here at Le Golf National, it's a really good score. It was a shame I had to do that to get myself back into the tournament, but I guess it just shows you the toughness of this golf course at times, and especially combine that with just missing a few fairways and not really getting any momentum; to come back the way I did on the back nine, I think it was just more resilience than anything else.

I knew over the last couple of days, I've hit enough good shots to know that I can give myself chances for birdies and I can make some birdies, so I knew it was possible. I just needed to find a spark or get something going, and I think the birdie on 11 was big. I missed one on 10, so birdie on 11 and I felt like I played some really good golf after that.

Q. Yesterday you said nothing is quite fluid but there seems to be a fluency thereafter.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, sort of you saw two ends of the spectrum there. There was the front nine where there was nothing fluid at all about what I was doing, and then the back nine when I started to get some confidence is when the opposite way it went; it went the best way it could.

I guess it just shows a little bit of the fragile state of my game at the minute. The good's really good and the bad's -- you know, it's pretty bad. If I can just concentrate on the good stuff tonight and try and replicate that back nine through the whole 18 tomorrow, I should be okay.

Q. And finally, 18 was good today, wasn't it.
RORY McILROY: 18, I wasn't going left, that's for sure. I said coming off the tee, there was one place the ball was not going. I actually drew a decent lie. And to make four there -- I wanted to hole that putt at the last to try to get into the final group tomorrow, but being in the second to last group is still a good position to be in. I'll give it a good go tomorrow.

Q. Do you recall having a ten-shot difference between two nines before?
RORY McILROY: I'm sure it's happened before. In all honesty, it's probably happened this year. It's sort of been the nature of my game. There's been, the good's been very good and the bad's been not so good. But it's good, as Gibbo pointed out to me there in the scoring hut, he said, "We're not at Wimbledon here, 40-30."

And I said, "Well, at least it's not deuce." Yeah, I just couldn't get anything going on the front nine, and I think it just shows with what I'm working on when it started to go bad, it was very hard to get out of it. But when it started to go good, you get confidence and you go from there. Just two different ends of the spectrum.

Q. You did mention you were aware that you went from sort of level to eight shots behind in eight holes.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly. I knew what was going on. Especially when Wang was 4-under through the first seven holes. I was like, he's playing a different golf course than I am.

I thought if I could get back to even par for the day; that was my goal after nine holes, and I did one better than that, so I'm obviously very pleased.

Q. Outside of the fact that you said that's what you wanted to do, is there something you can tell yourself, anything that you can do after nine holes, to try to get yourself turned around?
RORY McILROY: I just concentrate on hitting fairways and hitting greens. I mean, I didn't really do either on the front nine. I knew if I could just concentrate on trying to hit some fairways, hit some greens, give myself looks, just give myself looks at birdies, hopefully I can hole a few coming in.

Thankfully I was able to. I hit some quality shots coming down the stretch, the 9-iron into 15, the 7-iron into 16 and then the 9-iron into 17, as well, was really good. So there was some really good shots that hopefully I can draw on going into tomorrow, as well.

Q. How awkward was that stance on the first? Looked like you got lucky it hadn't gone in the water.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I couldn't of -- I just had to chip it out. That was as good as I could have done. It wasn't a great way to start obviously, and then combine that with hitting it in the water at the third when I'm thinking of maybe getting a shot back there, end up making bogey, wasn't an ideal start.

But hopefully I can get off to a faster start tomorrow. I think I'm in second place, two shots behind, so a lot can happen, especially on this golf course.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297