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DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, DUBAI

November 19, 2016

Rory McIlroy

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Q. It was all looking so good, wasn't it?
RORY McILROY: It was, yeah. Just said there, I think I turned a 62 into a 68 somehow. Yeah, one of those days. I hit a lot of good shots and didn't really hole many putts and sort of was the story of the day with what happened on 18.

Yeah, it could have been a lot better than it was and I could have got myself back into it but it wasn't meant to be.

Q. Tell us in your own words, what did happen on 18.
RORY McILROY: Great drive. Second shot, had 207 into the pin into the wind. Maybe just was a little too aggressive with it and pulled it slightly. Anything left of that pin is going to go in the water, unless you hit it way past the pin.

Yeah, just got punished for a bad shot.

Q. How do you regroup after that with one round to go?
RORY McILROY: It's okay. I've got a great afternoon of sport coming up, so I'm going to go home and sit myself on the couch and watch a couple of football matches and a rugby match and all will be well.

Q. I'm quite sure that you're quite glad that little Billy isn't waiting to interview you today.
RORY McILROY: Yes, that was probably the -- I feel like it was a struggle out there at times this afternoon, but nothing like the struggle I felt on Wednesday, or Tuesday, whatever it was, whenever Billy interviewed me.

Yeah, it was great, it was great fun. I had a lot of fun doing it, even though a nine-year-old was taking the whatever out of me. It was good fun.

Q. How would you assess the third round?
RORY McILROY: It was okay. I played much better than the score suggested. I gave myself so many chances out there, and I had a look at birdie most holes and couldn't really take advantage of it and ^ posted a low score but just wasn't meant to be. So, yeah, one of those things, a 68, but it was quite a disappointing one of those in the end.

Q. So obvious early on how well you were traveling, so were you thinking of other possibilities? You were charging for the Top-10 at the time.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, for sure. After I birdied 10, I knew I had a few chances coming up. I had a chance on 11, a chance on 13. Didn't birdie the par 5, 14. I had a lob-wedge in my hand on 16 and then had a 4-iron into the last, so it could have been -- and I missed a bunch of chances on the front nine.

Yeah, it could have been much better than it was, and just have to go out tomorrow and shoot a good one and try to end the season on a positive note.

Q. There's still so much to be gained, isn't there, from a final round here.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly. I want to go out and play well tomorrow. You know, try and post a good score and feel good about myself going into the next couple of months before I tee it up again.

Q. You're used to these questions day in, day out. What's it like being asked a question by a nine-year-old?
RORY McILROY: Much tougher than this. It was good, though. It was a lot of fun. Gibbo gave me a call the week before and said, "How close to the bone can we go." And I said, "Look, I don't mind, you can go as close as you want." I wasn't quite expecting some of the questions that came up, but it was all in good fun.

Q. You had to think quite a few times there.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I definitely had to put my thinking hat on a couple of times and try to wiggle out of a couple of them as best I could (laughing).

I had said, it's fine, I'll take it well and I don't mind laughing at myself. And it was going nicely at the start, whenever the couple of hairstyles, that wasn't too bad. And get on to some other stuff, and I was like, oh, Christ. (Laughter). It was good fun. I stayed -- we were supposed to do it in half an hour and we were there for an hour and a bit. It was all good fun. I had a great time. It's great to do things like that. It's nice to be able to show people I can still laugh at myself.

Q. We're back in the good books, aren't we, compared to Billy?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you're getting there (laughter).

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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