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September 23, 2016
Atlanta, Georgia
Q. Can you talk to the difficulty of the course.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, like any golf course, if you hit fairways and you hit greens, it's not that difficult, but when you start to get yourself out of position, especially they've let this Bermuda rough just get up a little bit, and it just takes all control out of your hands with your second shot.
So I've only hit basically half of the fairways this week. When you do that, you're going to struggle. But I have been aggressive off the tee. I've been hitting driver quite a lot. There was some holes where I was hitting drivers where Paul was just hitting a 3 wood. But I feel like I've been driving the ball really well the last couple of weeks and feel confident with that club. So I'm going to keep hitting it.
It's been difficult. I feel like I've left a lot of shots out there this week. I'm still up there in terms of position, six shots off the leader, but I feel like I can go out there and shoot a good one tomorrow and at least give myself a chance for Sunday.
Q. Is there something about you and the front nine?
RORY McILROY: Must be, yeah. It's not my best round, that's for sure. It's a tough start. Especially I didn't have a great warmup today on the range, and I let that sort of filter into my game when I got out on the course and was thinking about it.
Q. Do you know the Irish are going to go against the All Blacks in Chicago? Just wonder if it heats up.
RORY McILROY: If they keep it within two scores, they'll be doing well.
Where was I? Yeah, the front nine. I let a bad warmup filter into the rest of my game, and I was thinking about it but then started to hit some better shots sort of around the middle of the round which gave me a little bit of confidence.
Q. Are the fairways [ indiscernible ] at all?
RORY McILROY: Where I'm hitting it, sometimes they are, yes. If I can get up there like 300 yards. I may need to alter my game plan a little bit off the tee.
Q. Are you aware of the scenario if you catch Dustin and he finishes second --
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I need to win, and I just need someone to play as good as Dustin this week. That's what I need to happen. Yeah, I'm aware of the scenario.
Q. What part of your game are you most happy with, and what part are you most frustrated with going into Saturday?
RORY McILROY: I'm pretty happy with how I putted it the last couple of days. That was good. Iron play, I needed to work on. I need to go and figure out -- I've sort of got it going both ways with the irons. It's okay if you've got it going one way, but if you've got it going both, there's a few things in your head. So I just need to work on that.
Q. How much of what you do this week is important for next week? Not so much in terms of finish and things like that, but just playing?
RORY McILROY: It's been a long stretch. This is my fourth week in five and my fifth week in six next week. So I think it's a balance of, obviously, trying to get ready and making sure your game is sharp, but at the same time, trying to save yourself. I'm more than likely going to play five matches next week, which is going to be a long week. I'm going to have to reserve as much energy as I can for that.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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