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THE NORTHERN TRUST

August 26, 2017

Rory McIlroy

Old Westbury, New York

Q. Did you find a little something out there today?
RORY McILROY: Sort of. It's just been a bit in and out, the game, the last few weeks, really. Actually it's a tough start today. Holes 1 and 2, if you can get through those holes in even par, you've done really well. Just where the pins are, and the first hole is playing long, back into the wind.

So you can sort of -- they moved the tee up on 3, but you get out in under par, you feel like you have a chance to shoot something, 65, 66. But it's tricky out there. The course is firming up. If you miss greens, it is difficult. If you miss fairways, it's hard to hit greens. You're sort of compounding every mistake that you make out there. So anything in the 60s today is a decent score.

Q. You talked about yesterday, your driving was just a little off. Anything a little bit better today?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, driving was better today. Just timed it a little bit better. Just worked sort of -- thought of rhythm more than anything else.

Iron play was still not very good. I think I've probably lost about four shots on the field with my iron play over the course of the last three days. But scrambling was good. Putting was good. Held some nice putts for pars to sort of keep the momentum going.

The battling qualities of my game are there. It's just trying to piece everything together and give myself a few more birdie chances.

Q. You're not maybe in contention right now, but do you have any goals for tomorrow to keep yourself going towards next week?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, just try to shoot my lowest score of the week. That would be a nice way to sign off. If I could shoot 67 or better tomorrow, head to Boston feeling a little bit better about myself. It looked like after day one, I was just battling to get here for the weekend.

So if I could hold my position or move up a few spots tomorrow, that would be nice.

Q. You talked about being a little scrappy right now. Is that good, the fight and the drive and the determination's there, and when the game does come around, everything's going to kind of come together?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm sort of waiting on. And whether the whole game comes around over the course of these next four weeks, we'll just have to wait and see.

At least even though my game isn't where I want it to be, to be able to get it up-and-down, my bunker play, my putting, and all those areas that you need to just keep rounds going; that's good.

So as you say, once I get the iron play to match up with that, I feel like there's a few low scores in there.

Q. How do you find the course? What difference did you find?
RORY McILROY: Thursday it was very soft. There was a lot of rain on Wednesday night, which was pretty -- you saw a couple of guys go low.

But then yesterday, even overnight, it felt like it got much firmer. And then again today, it's getting pretty -- there's a few greens out there that are getting pretty shiny. The greens are getting a little bit quicker, as well, and the fairways are getting firmer.

So some of the doglegs, you're sort of running through and maybe need to take less club off the tee. It's getting tricky out there, but as I said, I think anything under par today is going to be a good score.

Q. Was it as hard a course as you thought it was going to be when you originally started out?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I thought the scoring would have been a little bit better. But you're playing a practice round, you're not hitting that many balls out of the rough. But once you start to play and you hit a few errant tee shots, it's tough. If you miss the fairway, it's very hard to hit the green, and whenever you miss a green, it's pretty hard to get it up-and-down. So yeah, it is, it's been a bit tougher than I thought it would be.

Q. How do you find the crowds overall?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's good. I think it's been a bit quiet this week. I don't know if it's because it's a new venue, but it's always going to be quiet at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning.

Looks like the place has filled up a little bit, so I'm sure the leaders will get a good following.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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