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MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Augusta, Georgia

MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Rory, welcome back to the interview room.
RORY MCILROY: Thank you.
MODERATOR: So 4‑under par, four birdies, leader in the clubhouse, our joint leader in the clubhouse. Tell us a little bit about today.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, the conditions today were a little more difficult than they were yesterday. You know, the breeze was up a little bit. I felt like the pin positions were a little tougher. It was tough to get it close to some of those pins.
So, yeah, I'm pretty happy with how I started. There was a few birdies and a few bogeys thrown in there, but I steadied the ship after the sixth hole. Didn't make a bogey after that. Made a couple of birdies. I feel like I could have shot another round in the 60s.
A little disappointed walking off the 18th green. I had two good chances on 17 and 18 that I didn't convert, but overall, 71 out there today was a pretty good score and obviously in a nice position going into the weekend.

Q. You've been here long enough now that younger players come to you asking you for advice on how to play this course. What advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know about this place going into the weekend?
RORY MCILROY: Stay patient. Birdie the par 5s. Keep your putts on the high side of the hole. Hope for the best.

Q. Are you aware of the stat that says every time you've ended day one in the top 5, you've gone on to win. I just wonder, is that an indication of how comfortable you are near the top of a major leaderboard?
RORY MCILROY: I guess so. I think once you get yourself up there, you're playing well enough after day one that if you continue that good play, you should be up there for the rest of the tournament.
I've always felt comfortable being up around the lead. It's a place that I'm thankfully quite familiar with and know how to deal with.

Q. Were you aware of the stat?
RORY MCILROY: No. No.

Q. How early into your round today do you get the sense that just holding your ground is going to be a really good day?
RORY MCILROY: Probably after the first four or five holes. You know, the way the wind was in some of those hole locations, on the fourth, on the fifth, on the sixth; I played the first six holes in 1‑over par, and had two birdies in those six holes.
So I think after that, I just said to Harry, you know, let's just try and hit fairways and greens here, and if we do that, we're going to be okay.
I got through Amen Corner unscathed and just, you know, I felt like I could have‑‑ I said to myself on the 13th tee, "Let's make four in the next six," sort of do what Jordan did yesterday. I didn't quite, birdied the 13th and 14th, gave myself a few more chances coming in and didn't quite convert.
Anything under par today was pretty good, and you know, as I said, after the sixth hole, I just said to myself, "Fairways and greens will be good today."

Q. What was the strategy going out there today? Did you have a particular strategy, and how quickly did you have to kind of change it, or what was the thought that came into your head in those early stages?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, I think the strategy around this golf course is always the same. You play‑‑ there's certain clubs you hit off certain tees. For example, where the pin was today on 3, you can hit driver up there and give yourself just a nice chip along the green into that hole location.
You know, I did say to myself, if it was into the wind on the second, I hit 3‑wood and not reach the bunker, I ended up hitting driver, hit it into it.
I hit a good drive down there yesterday so I was pretty comfortable with the tee shot.
But again, it's take your pars, and you try and take advantage of the par 5s. If you do that every time around here, you're going to be pretty good.

Q. What's your preference on whether No. 13 is lengthened, and if it is, how would it change your strategy off the tee?
RORY MCILROY: Honestly it would probably play into the longer hitters' hands. It would allow us to not have to manufacture a shot as much as what we have to off that 13th tee right now. So like you can either sink the tee box down or obviously looks like there's plans to extend it.
I get it's not‑‑ I've had an 8‑ and a 9‑iron in there the last two days. You know, it's not‑‑ it's a par 4 1/2. It's not a ‑‑ I think the Chairman said it's not a momentous decision, on Wednesday, to go for the green anymore, and if that's what they are trying to get it back to, I think it's a good idea.

Q. You're obviously not doing cartwheels of celebration here, but if you had been given this position on Wednesday night before you struck a ball, would you have taken this, or would you expect better?
RORY MCILROY: I don't know. I don't know if‑‑ I mean, expectations, I never have expectations of where I'm going to be on a leaderboard. I just want to go out and play well.
I guess how I felt out on the golf course and the shots I've hit and how I felt in general, I would have taken that. But yeah, I mean, being up there around the lead going into the weekend, it's a good position to be in. But I think I'm happier with how I've felt and how I've handled certain things and how my thought process has been. That's been a pleasing thing.

Q. Your patience has served you really well as of late. It's not easy to develop more patience, so how have you been able to do this to exhibit more patience?
RORY MCILROY: Experience. I think just with the amount of times that I've been in contention or around the lead or whether it be a regular PGA TOUR event or a major or whatever it is, you know, every experience that you have in that arena in those situations, you learn a little bit from it each time.
And for me, I don't have to go out there and make a birdie on every hole, especially not on this golf course, and in these conditions, pars are okay. Sometimes pars might be a little bit boring and you might feel as if you want to get a little bit more out of your round, but as you look up the leaderboard and you're still there around the lead, that's taken awhile for me to adjust to.
I think whenever I first came out here on Tour, I thought all these guys birdied every hole and you just had to hit unbelievable shot after unbelievable shot and hold the putt afterwards. It's not quite like that.
You know, golf is a game of making your misses not that bad and taking advantage of your good shots. So far this week, I've been able to do that.

Q. You took an extended break at the end of last year to help your rib injury fully heal. What benefits do you feel you've reaped from that break that you took?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, I'm healthy, but I still have to stay on top of it. It's an area of my body that, you know, I stretch every day. I do my‑‑ I still do the rehab exercises that I was doing in October last year. I'm still doing those and I'm still making sure that that sort of mid part of my back is very stable, but very mobile at the same time.
I think more mentally; it was a grind last year. I was turning up to golf tournaments not feeling 100 percent prepared. Doesn't matter how good you are or how much talent you have or whatever it may be, you're never going to compete out here if you're not prepared.
So it's been nice to put the work in over the last few months and see some results pretty quickly; obviously with the win at Bay Hill a couple weeks ago, but even more so here and how I've played over the last two days.

Q. You look extremely comfortable out there in these conditions, which might not always maybe have suited you, firm conditions like this. But you also holed four or five really important putts from about seven or eight feet. Is that the key to where you are now?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think those two things have been a big key. I think distance control has been a little bit better with either firmness of the greens or the wind conditions. So the distance control has been good.
But yeah, I've held putts that have kept momentum in the round going. The par putt on 7 today, the par putt on 10, the par putt on 11, those are huge putts. They are bigger than some of the birdie putts because that just keeps you going and keeps you in the right frame of mind.
Those two parts of my game have been really good over the last couple days.

Q. You look relaxed out there. How did you feel?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I feel relaxed. I feel good. You know, I'm constantly having a conversation with myself about staying in the present and just one shot at a time and all the cliché stuff that you hear about.
But it's true. You know, that's all I'm doing. I'm trying to get up there and hit the best shot that I can, and after that, I'll go about what's the best way to hit the next shot and the putt.
So it's very much been that way, which is‑‑ as I said, talking about how I've been pleased with how I've felt and my thought process and where I am mentally, I've felt really good about that. I feel like I don't have to swing my best to play my best golf, but if I can think the way I'm thinking right now and stay in that mind‑set, that's when I've been able to produce my best results.

Q. You've played in more windier conditions than this, but can you just give us an appreciation of why this breeze or wind, whatever you're calling it, why it's so different over here? And on which holes does the breeze really affect things?
RORY MCILROY: Walking up the 18th with Adam, and we were laughing, because I think we played‑‑ basically played the last six or seven holes downwind. The angles of the holes are all over the place. It's just the way the wind funnels up and down these fairways with the big, tall trees.
But I was saying on the way here, there's a lot of holes that with where this wind is at the minute, which is basically coming out of the southwest, there's a lot of holes that run‑‑ like 13, 14, 15, for example. 14 plays‑‑ should be dead off the right, and 15 should be dead off the left. But if there's a tiny variance in the wind either way; so say the wind is straight left, right, and there's a tiny variance into or a tiny variance down, that's a massive difference. That's a 20‑yard difference. That's why it's so tricky because a lot of these holes run parallel to each other that should be just a straight‑across wind but if it goes a tiny bit this way or a tiny bit that way, it makes you look stupid. Like I hit 6‑iron on 15 today that went 25 yards over the green just because I got a tiny little bit of this, because I was playing for it to be straight across. If anything, a tiny bit in, you get it a tiny bit the other way, and you're 20 yards out.
So small, small fractions make a big difference.

Q. With the forecast for tomorrow looking like some rain and serious wind, was it a little more important to try to stay up near the top, considering that it could be a very difficult golf course?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, I didn't know what‑‑ I knew it was going to be wet tomorrow. I didn't know about the wind, so thank you.
But yeah, it makes it all the more pleasing that I'm up there near the lead. Again, I said this yesterday; it's such a hard golf course to chase on. You start to go for pins and you start chasing it, that's when you can bring in some trouble and make some mistakes.
Happy with the position I'm in, and whatever weather comes our way tomorrow, I feel like I'll be able to handle it and keep myself near the top of the leaderboard, and it's going to be an exciting weekend.
MODERATOR: Thanks very much, everybody. Thanks very much, Rory.

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