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THE 145TH OPEN

July 17, 2016

Rory McIlroy

Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played good. I knew I needed something like this to get myself up the leaderboard. It would have been nice to birdie that 18th hole. Not really to try to move up the leaderboard anymore, but I was just determined to play that back nine in 1-under par at least once this week. So didn't quite manage to do that, but played well.

I feel like with the conditions that I faced this week I played pretty good. There were a few mistakes in there, and if I could take back anything it would probably be the first nine holes yesterday. I didn't get off to the greatest of starts. But with what I sort of had to play in, there's no way I would have gotten the scores that those guys are on. So I feel like I've done pretty well this week considering everything.

Q. What do you go away with thinking, "I need to do better"?
RORY McILROY: Not a whole lot. I mean, obviously I've missed a few short putts this week, but I'm not really putting that down to anything. I think I just need to do a little bit of work in and just maybe just be a bit more confident over them. But tee to green was good, and I can only be positive going into Baltusrol, really. I'm playing well. I'm driving the ball great. I think that's a big thing, especially with the PGA coming up. The PGAs are usually if you can drive the ball well, you'll do well, and I've had success in that tournament before, so I'm really happy with that.

I'll go there feeling pretty good about myself.

Q. The elements of your game all seem to be there. There seems to be a momentum element that you generate birdies and then it stalls. Is there something you can work on even mentally to sort that and have a sustained challenge all the way through?
RORY McILROY: Don't make bogeys, I guess. It's hard. You play the first ten holes in 4-under and I think the 11th hole this week has probably played one of the toughest holes ever in an Open Championship. So to bogey that, I played that hole I think 1-over this week, which isn't too bad.

But, yeah, I had a little bit of momentum and halted, but I got it back again with birdies on 13 and 16. So, again, 4-under out there is a good score.

Q. Just how desperately, I suppose is the right way of putting it, do you want to win at Baltusrol, the U.S. PGA, to put that marker down?
RORY McILROY: Look, I want to win. I want to play well. I think you guys are more desperate for it to happen than I am. But I'm happy with everything. I'm happy with where my game's at. All I can do is keep plugging away. I feel like it's definitely heading in the right direction. Bar the missed cut at the U.S. Open, my results have been decent the last few times I've played. I mean, win at the Irish Open, fourth at Memorial, I had the missed cut but then third in France and it's going to be a top 5 here. So it's not that much wrong. Well, top 5, top 10, we'll see what happens.

It's really close. I'm staying positive about it. I feel like good things are happening and just need to -- if I can drive the ball, like I did this week, at Baltusrol and sharpen up a few bits and pieces, I think I'll be right there.

Q. (Inaudible).
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, look, what's keeping the faith? Standing up here on a Friday night saying I need to keep the faith because I'm missing cuts, or keep the faith because I'm -- you know, after the second day I was never going to win this golf tournament. Look what the guys have done. There's no chance of me getting to that score.

So to finish as high -- that was the goal, to finish as high up as I could this week. I was going out there today with the goal of trying to get world ranking points, trying to get Race to Dubai points, FedExCup points. That was my goal this weekend. I sort of forgot about the Claret Jug and just tried to focus on finishing as high as I can, and felt like I did that pretty well today. As I said, I can be positive about my game going into the last major of the year.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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