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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 22, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Atlanta, Georgia

Q. I've been with you three days now, and it's just awesome from tee to green. Today might have been the best.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, maybe. I definitely think today and the first day were similar. Maybe a little -- maybe the standard went down a little bit yesterday, but I gave myself plenty of chances, and I think the biggest thing today was only just that one bogey, and it was a silly bogey from the middle of the fairway, as well. Five birdies out there, one bogey, it's playing tough. Got to put your ball in the fairway, put yourself in position, and for the most part, I did that today.

Q. You had a lot of putts from 10 feet, but they were tough putts, a lot of putts with at least a foot of break. It was nice to see you play 12 a little better.
RORY MCILROY: It was. If you noticed, I took the 5-wood out of the bag and put the 2-iron in, so that was key to hitting that fairway. And yeah, I hit the ball well. My wedge play has been really good. I've done a lot of work on it the last few weeks, and it seems to have paid off.

Q. Are you happy to be with Tiger in the last group tomorrow?
RORY MCILROY: I hope so. We'll see what happens, but it'll be exciting to be up there and have a chance to win the golf tournament.

Q. Talk more about that last question, the dynamic of playing with Tiger. How do you personally relate to that? Talk about that.
RORY MCILROY: All I can do is worry about myself. It doesn't matter who it is I'm playing with. It's obviously exciting for the golf tournament. It's exciting for golf in general that he's up there. But for me, all I can do is concentrate on myself. The game is hard enough without having to -- without looking at other people. Go out there, take care of my business, and hopefully that's good enough.

Q. Maybe you should have worn the black tomorrow since I think most of the crowd will be rooting for Tiger --
RORY MCILROY: I think I'll wear red. No, geez, I've regretted wearing black out here today. It was hot.

Q. I know you played against him in final rounds, but there's so much seemingly steeped in it tomorrow because he hasn't won in over five years, this improbable comeback. Does that add anything to it from your end of it, or like you said, do you just blinker yourself?
RORY MCILROY: Blinker myself. If I do -- again, all I'm trying to do is worry about myself. That's the biggest thing I can do. If I can -- yeah, like stay in my thought process, if I can stay patient and I can persist, that's all I can do.

Q. You mentioned persistence and patience. You know exactly what it takes to win here. What is going to be most crucial tomorrow?
RORY MCILROY: Again, not looking around. Just focusing on myself. I've been guilty of looking around before, and it hasn't paid off. You know, all I can do -- I'll obviously still watch leaderboards, I'll still look at where I'm at in relation to the field and to the lead, but I can't -- I have to just, first and foremost, focus on what I can do, fairways, greens, hit good putts, and just try and repeat that.

Q. How do you do that?
RORY MCILROY: Just keep telling yourself. Just keep saying that over and over in your head.

Q. Self-talk?
RORY MCILROY: Self-talk, yeah, for sure.

Q. What's so difficult about trying to catch a guy like Tiger in this spot?
RORY MCILROY: It's difficult. I don't -- I mean, I think it's the same regardless of who it is in the lead. You're going out to try and shoot a good score. And whether that score holds up at the end of the day or not, again, it's just about focusing on yourself. Look, he's a notoriously great front-runner, but if I go out and I play similar tomorrow like I did today, I'll have no complaints.

Q. You played with him earlier in the year at Riviera. How much better is he since that first time you saw him?
RORY MCILROY: Just not as much rust. He's not making the mistakes that he might have been at Riviera, short-siding himself. It's just the short game is way better. I thought the first two days at Bellerive was pretty good. There was a couple loose shots in there, but his iron play and stuff is spectacular.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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