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THE 147TH OPEN

July 19, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. Rory, no shortage of adventure out there.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, didn't see the fairway much, but as I said at the start of the week, it's very playable from not in the fairway. As long as you don't hit it in the fairway bunkers, you're always going to have a shot at the green. That's why I tried to stay as aggressive as I possibly could even though I wasn't hitting the driver maybe as well as I could, and I kept missing -- I think as well I was -- you know, there's a lot of pins that were tucked away either on the left side of the green or the right side. So I was trying so hard to make sure that I was down one side of the fairway, and then like -- I don't know. Whatever hole it may be -- like the 9th hole. I knew the pin was on the right. I was trying to hit it on the left side. I hit it a little too far left. You get away with it, and you have an angle to the pin.

The same thing on 11. The pin is up there on the back right. You've got to make sure, if you hit driver, you miss it left. I got myself in a good position where I could have a straight look up the green at the pin.

You know, it wasn't pretty off the tee, but I got it done, and I took advantage of some unfortunate bounces. I would have taken 69 to start the day.

Q. You've had bad starts, obviously. This time last year at Birkdale and obviously at the U.S. Open. Were you mindful of the fact that adopting this kind of freewheeling approach that you were thinking of doing at the start of the week that this was a risk but this was a risk worth taking?
RORY McILROY: Yeah. Even if you play aggressive around here, you might make more bogeys than playing it safe, but you're going to make more birdies as well. You're going to give yourself more birdie looks. I didn't -- really after the 5th hole, I didn't look like making bogey until 16 when I missed the green. So even though I was in -- obviously, I got away with some tee shots, but at the same time, I think that's what I have to do. That's my game plan this week. I'm convinced that that's the way that I should play it. It's not going to be for everyone, but it worked out pretty well today.

Q. Finally from me, clearly, those birdie chances that you had -- and some went awry -- I think there was three inside six feet. You got a 14-footer and a 25-footer. Are you feeling more comfortable on the greens in the work you've done since the Irish Open?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, even the ones I missed, I had some really good putts. The one I hit for par was a good putt. The one for 6 was basically a horseshoe. The one on 11 was a good putt. I hit the putts exactly where I wanted. I couldn't do anything else.

The one on 11 might have been lack of speed. Maybe it wasn't quite as much conviction in the stroke. But everything else, I felt like I put good strokes on it and held my fair share, which was good to see.

Q. The strength should have been proof (inaudible)?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I definitely think that's the worst I'm going to drive it this week. You know, at least -- the driver's been good. I feel like I have been driving it well. At least the ones that I did miss, it wasn't as if I was coming out of them or I was being tempted. I was fully committed to the swings. They weren't going where I wanted them to go. I was still wheeling away at it, which was a good sign.

Q. You've talked a lot about confidence and/or being fearless, I guess. Just going back to what you were saying a moment ago. Did you feel you had the right amount of each today?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, there was a lot of waiting around. And even on the 3rd tee, the guys -- it was my honour, but the guys hit irons down there, and I'm waiting for about 15 minutes on the tee to let the group in front to finish, and I've got a driver in my hand, and I'm like, I'd better hit a good drive here.

It was nice, even just for me to hit that driver on 3, it got over the back of the green, but to get that up-and-down for birdie, it sort of was validation, like, yes, this is the right way to do it. It was a nice little moment just like almost a little personal victory, I guess.

Q. Can you appreciate the sense of excitement that you got on the 1st tee when everybody saw that you were using a driver? Because Tommy Fleetwood, I think, had been the only player from the previous groups to use a driver as well. It was kind of a buildup.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, everyone likes to see guys hit driver. I got a bit of a cheer when I pulled the driver out on 3 as well. Didn't quite work out on the 1st hole for me. I didn't think I was going to reach those bunkers up on the right. But, yeah, again, different players are going to have a different way to see how they're going to play this golf course. I know Tiger's out there hitting a lot of irons off tees and doing it his own way. No one's going to argue with him. He did it like that at Hoylake, and he was able to win there.

I think Jon Rahm shot a couple under as well. He's probably even more aggressive than I am around here.

Q. Had you made up your mind earlier in the week you were going to use your driver?
RORY McILROY: On any hole? Yeah, I think when I played 18 on Monday, I definitely thought that, you know, it was going to be beneficial to be as aggressive as I possibly could be. Harry came over here last week on Wednesday and walked around the whole day, and even he said, I've never seen a golf course like this. The guys that can carry their drivers over 300 can take all the fairway bunkers out of play, and they should have an advantage.

Q. Are you going to play the same tomorrow, Rory?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, hopefully hit a few more fairways, but I'll adopt the same strategy, yes.

Q. What about at 16?
RORY McILROY: It was massive. Tough hole today. I'd be surprised if over 30 percent of the field hit that green. Yeah, it wasn't my best chip shot, but, I guess one of those ones where, even if you do drop a shot on those last four holes, it's not the end of the world. And I stepped up and just rolled it down there, and it was nice to see a drop. Give me a nice little boost going into the final couple holes.

Q. Rory, what's your story on the shoe?
RORY McILROY: Nike ^ car nasty, I guess. That's the whole thing. No, it's just nasty. All the Nike guys are wearing them.

Q. What did you think of the weather? It wasn't nasty today, though. It was nice for you.
RORY McILROY: It was all right. Three more days of this would be great.

Q. What about tomorrow? You like the late/early draw?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it looks like there could be a bit of rain in the morning. We'll see what comes of it. It won't soften the golf course up any. You just got to plan on playing in wet gear and have an umbrella and all that sort of stuff.

Same thing. Hopefully, get off to a good fast start and try to make a few birdies and get close to the leaders.

Q. (Inaudible) there were comments on Sky yesterday. Do you think that's unnecessary?
RORY McILROY: I don't know. Look, I like Butch. Definitely, I would say I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum than someone that's mechanical and someone that's -- you know, it's easy to make comments when you don't know what's happening. I haven't spoken to Butch in a long time. He doesn't know what I'm working on in my swing. He doesn't know what's in my head. So it's easy to make comments and easy to speculate. But unless you actually know what's happening, I just really don't take any notice of it.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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