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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 13, 2017

Rory McIlroy

Charlotte, North Carolina

Q. What are your thoughts on your round today?
RORY McILROY: Nice to finish the week off on a positive note. I started better today. That was the real key to the round. If you can start and be under par through the first six, I was saying over there, you are not really putting yourself under pressure to birdie the 7th, to birdie the 8th, to birdie the 10th. If you can get off to at that good start, it's really the key to this golf course.

I didn't get off to that good start for a couple of days and that sort of -- that's why I'm not on that putting green warming up to go out and play now.

Q. How different is the course playing today?
RORY McILROY: I don't know what's happened overnight but it's very receptive out there. More receptive than it was yesterday. I got a couple fliers out of the rough, telling the ball to sit, and it really just dug into the greens.

The course might dry out as the day goes on, but I felt like it was a bit more receptive than it was yesterday.

Q. You made some indications that maybe you might need to take some time off because you can't practice as much. Can you address where you are physically right now?
RORY McILROY: Right now I can feel my left rhomboid going into spasm. It's sort of the way it has been the last few weeks. I have upped my practice coming into these two events because I wanted to feel like I was in a good place in my game. But, yeah, right now it's a tough one because I go out there and play and shoot decent scores, but when I come off the course, I feel my left rhomboid going into spasm. Inside of my left arm goes numb.

So I don't know what to do. I have got this next week off to assess what I need to go forward.

Q. Are you wrestling with what to do about the FedExCup?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, yeah, I am. I feel like I'm capable and playing well enough to give myself a chance in it. At the same time, April is a long way away. That's the next big thing on my radar.

Q. How much of a letdown is it to go majorless for another season?
RORY McILROY: It's tough. I want to get back into that winner's circle. You don't want to be teeing off at 9:45 on the final rounds of a major on a Sunday. That is not where you want to be.

As I said, I have a good bit of time to get healthy and address a few things going forward. As I said, the next big thing is April and that's really what my focus will be on from now until then.

Q. How is the pain right now compared to the spring?
RORY McILROY: It's not as bad. Nor near as bad as THE PLAYERS when it really sort of flared up on me. It's there. I can feel it. So it's there and I can play 18 holes, as I said, I warm it up, it's okay. But once I get done, having to go through the whole routine of getting it ready to go again the next day, you shouldn't have to do that. If I was injury-free, that wouldn't happen.

Q. What is the doctor's advice?
RORY McILROY: I haven't spoken to anyone the last couple of weeks. I just wanted to put my head where it needed to be which was trying to focus on the golf.

Q. Are you going to the Race to Dubai events?
RORY McILROY: Look, I don't know what I'm going to do. You might not see me until next year. You might see me in a couple of weeks time. It really depends.

Q. There have been quite a few stats on that three-year run. Is that a question of maybe pushing too much?
RORY McILROY: Really I got off to a decent start this tournament, I was 2-under through 13 holes. I wasn't like I got off to a bad start here. Definitely put myself under too much pressure. I was a little too on the edge at Birkdale for the first two holes. Here I went in pretty relaxed. Just wasn't my week.

Q. Who will you lean on in terms of what to do? Physically you are going to feel how you feel. Will you talk to doctors, will you talk to family?
RORY McILROY: I'm flying home to northern Ireland tonight. I'll catch up with Steve McGregor this week. Not tomorrow, but the middle of next week. Just sort of have a chat with him about it and see what we need to go going forward. But the more I play, it's just not allowing that time to heal 100 percent.

Q. You mentioned the possibility of taking considerable amount of time off. From your talks with the medics so far, has that been raised as a serious possibility?
RORY McILROY: An injury like this, it's eight full weeks of rest before you start to rehab it and then you go again. I mean, yeah, there's been -- I felt like we took as much time as we needed to at the start of the year. That was basically seven or eight weeks. Got back and playing it felt okay through the Masters.

I switched it off for a couple of weeks because I was getting married, going on honeymoon. Then once I started practicing again, I didn't build up the volume gradually. I went from zero to hitting balls from three or four hours a day. That aggravated it a little bit.

I just haven't it allowed it the time to fully heal. I wanted to play the season. I feel like I'm capable of playing well and winning and putting rounds together. If I want to challenge on a more consistent basis, I need to get 100 healthy.

Q. What is the update on the caddie?
RORY McILROY: I don't have one. You know, again, everything is up in the air because I don't know when I'm going to play next, where I'm going to play next. I wish I had more to tell you guys.

Q. Why would you play in a few weeks?
RORY McILROY: I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like a sense of not duty, but I've missed a lot of time already. If I'm capable of playing, I feel like why shouldn't you. But then at the same time, if you are not capable of playing at your best, why should you play. So, again, it's a Catch 22. We'll see what happens. Assess my options in the next few days and see where we go from there.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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