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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 21, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Atlanta, Georgia

Q. Just some thoughts on your round today, back in contention at the TOUR Championship.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, maybe not quite as good off the tee today as I was yesterday, but I still gave myself plenty of chances. If I'm disappointed about anything, it's probably the two pars on the par-5s. I had a 6-iron and a 4-iron into them, and I made two 5s. If I can make two 4s there, I'm all of a sudden 7-under instead of 5-under and probably in the last group.

But look, there's still 36 holes to play. I like this golf course. You know, I've played it, I don't know, this is the fourth or fifth time at the TOUR Championship, and I've played it pretty well every time I've come here. I think it suits me. It suits the ball striker. I feel like my game has continuously gotten a little bit better over the last few weeks, and I feel in a good place with it.

Q. Five bogeys and a double this week. You must think if you just tidy it up --
RORY MCILROY: Good for next week. Yeah, look, I've made 12 birdies in 36 holes, which is really good around here, and that's with not birdieing either of the par-5s today. So yeah, just tidy up the mistakes a little bit. It's more the chipping. It's so different, from going -- Bellerive it was sort of -- it wasn't Bermuda, it was -- yeah, I guess it was rye. And then we had -- for me, Boston and Philadelphia, which is both ryegrass, and then you come back to Bermuda, it's so different. Different feelings, different ways to play chip shots, and I haven't quite adjusted yet, so I'm going to go do a little work on that.

Q. You mentioned playing well here, specifically on Ryder Cup years, do you ever take that momentum into the matches?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think so. I guess there was a week in between in '14, but definitely in '12 and '16, coming straight from -- I was on such a high a couple of years ago going into Hazeltine after winning the whole thing, and I felt great about my game that week and played well. I won three matches. I won three matches again at Medinah, three at -- yeah. I guess it doesn't matter whether it's a match play event or whatever. If you're playing well and you've played well the week before, I think most people can carry it into the next week, whatever that is.

Q. What will you take from your 2016 victory here? What will you take from that experience into the weekend?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, probably that I wasn't leading going into the weekend last time. I think I shot 10-under at the weekend to get myself into the playoff, so I'm in a better position now than I was then. I was able to get it done. Again, I think it's -- I just have to stick to my game plan and hit fairways. You hit fairways around here, you can give yourself a chance. You start to miss them -- you know, the holes that I did miss the fairways were the holes that I bogeyed, and just got to put it in play. And if you can get it in play, you've got a chance.

Q. Looking ahead to next week, a lot of veterans on the team. From a leadership perspective, where do you see yourself in that team room?
RORY MCILROY: Up there. I mean, I obviously don't have the experience of, say, a Sergio, but this will be my fifth Ryder Cup. I've become a lot more comfortable with that leadership role, especially the last two Ryder Cups. Paul McGinley was great, and feeling like I was informed the whole way leading up to the matches. I felt that involvement give me a different type of role. And then going out No. 1 in the singles last time at Hazeltine and playing well, I'd say I'm one -- I'm one of the leaders. I wouldn't say the leader, but I'd say I'm one of.

Q. How do you define that?
RORY MCILROY: I don't know. I try to lead by example. I say to the guys, look, it's a -- we're all selfish 51 weeks of the year. Like you have to be selfish this one as well. You have to do what you need to do to win your matches. I don't think about anyone else out there. If I win five points, that's all I can do. That's the best way for me to help my team. So I think about my points. I try to win them. And then I go and cheer like hell for the boys coming in.

Q. If I were to tell you that one of the leaders had hit only two fairways on the front and made one birdie through 11, what would you say?
RORY MCILROY: Not surprising.

Q. Is that a testament to Tiger's grinding or --
RORY MCILROY: I thought you were talking about Justin Rose. (Laughter.)

Yeah, look, he's done it his whole career. It's nothing new.

Q. When you're out on the golf course, how do you handle thinking about just golf and nothing else?
RORY MCILROY: It's hard to be that way. I think it's hard to just think of golf for five or four and a half hours while you're out there. Yeah, I'm talking -- there's a big heavyweight title fight tomorrow night, talking about that with Harry, talking about the McGregor press conference yesterday. Yeah. Talk about a lot of stuff. I don't try to keep it golf the whole time.

Q. Do you think the driving will be easy to fix come the weekend so that you can hit more fairways, get --
RORY MCILROY: I think the driving is there. The couple of loose ones that I hit, they weren't far off. I hit a pretty wide one on the 15th -- or 14th. But apart from that, even the ones that I missed weren't too bad. I feel like I'm swinging well.

Q. Is driver usually the play on 3 if the pin is back?
RORY MCILROY: So Harry and I, they put the little dots on the greens the day before, and we saw where the pin was going to be, so yesterday walking off that green, we said driver could be a good play here tomorrow. I hit the driver well on the range. I hit a good tee shot up 1. So I thought, you know, the wind was off the left, the pin was on the right, so even if I aimed it down the left and it stayed on the left, I still had a good angle to the pin even if I was in the rough. But I hit a perfect tee shot, and it's so much easier. Even where J.T. was he had a great tee shot, but you've got 130 or 140 yards to that pin and you go four yards over the back and you're dead. So to get it down there and have a simple second shot, I took advantage of the good tee shot.

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