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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 9, 2019

Rory McIlroy

Orlando, Florida

Q. Beautiful 66. You didn't get off to a great start on Thursday. Didn't walk off the golf course very happy either. How do you stay patient regarding that as defending champion?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think this golf course has played much tougher from the very beginning of the tournament this year compared to the previous years and knowing that with the wind and the golf course is going to get firmer as the days go on, I stayed patient again yesterday, I felt like 2-under was a decent score and anything in and around 2-, 3-, 4-under par starting today you shoot a good one today you move up like I have. It's so bunched, it's still, 8-under is leading and I would say still 2-, 3-under pars have a chance to win the tournament.

Q. Let's look at the highlights. There were plenty. Tee shot at the difficult par-3 2nd. A lot of guys coming up short here. The wind's a little tricky there.
RORY MCILROY: It is. I've just been playing high cuts into every single pin I can look at. It's the only way I feel like I can stop the ball close to these pins. So that was a high cut 6-iron and it was a nice way to start to make a 2 on the second hole is always a bonus here.

Q. The start here at Bay Hill is very difficult. Greens are rolling beautifully. Almost 14 on the Stimp. Here's your birdie try at 3.
RORY MCILROY: This was nice as well. I knew today that the key for me was to hit fairways and I hit the third fairway and gave myself a wedge and a good look for birdie there. The greens are so pure, whenever you start them on line they always have a good chance.

Q. You don't take advantage of the par-5 4th, but then a little bit of a bonus at 5?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was a nice bounce back after a 3-putt par on the 4th hole. This is probably one of the best shots I played all day.

Q. 6?
RORY MCILROY: I was trying to land it on the fringe there and let it trundle down to the hole. Where they put the pins, all the par-5s are reachable but where they put the hole locations today, they're all playing pretty tricky.

Q. Your second shot had mud on the ball at 9. It landed in a very bizarre spot. How great was this?
RORY MCILROY: This was nice. I actually got to place the ball after a couple of drops so it was a nice lie and I could get a little bit of grab on it. So it was good to get away with a 4 there after probably the worst mud ball I ever had.

Q. Last birdie was on 6. But here you are on 15. Here's your second shot at the par-4?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, honestly I didn't really know how the ball was going to come out of the first cut there, I had a flier on the 8th hole, I thought this could have been similar, but I hit a great shot in there and made birdie.

Q. Your third at 16.
RORY MCILROY: I thought this was going to be 15 feet short of the pin and then it just kept going, kept going, kept going. The greens are so firm and fast out there that anything above the hole you're going to have a tough time to stop.

Q. It hit just on the down side of that slope and it rolled close. Birdie there at the par-5. Now after blistering a drive at 18 how about your second.
RORY MCILROY: 18's playing short. That was a 4-wood off the tee and had 150 yards, a little bit downwind, it was just a good solid wedge for me in there. Again, hitting the fairways here is key and that gave me another good look for birdie and it was really nice for this one to go in. Just to cap off what was a really good round, make birdie at the last and get the could he lead for the time being. We'll see how that holds up.

Q. You told me a couple of years ago you thought it was really important to come here and play this event for Arnold Palmer. Then you get the win last year, we began the show here earlier while you were playing with you talking about what Arnold Palmer meant to the game and to you. Why did you feel like it's so important to get that out in the open?
RORY MCILROY: I didn't play this tournament starting off my career for various reasons. And Arnold was always, I would always get a letter from Arnold every year saying, hoping to see you at Bay Hill. And finally in 2015 I played here and I realized what I was missing all those years. I got to spend some time with Arnold, which was a dream come true for me. He wasn't, he was obviously an American icon, I didn't know too much about him until I came over here to this country and the regard that's held in by so many people and to spend some time with him I realized what such a great man he is, what he's done for the community here in Orlando, how many lives he's touched around the world. I think it is important for everyone to try to come here and pay tribute to one of the legends of the game.

Q. Great round today. Great start. I thought there was two holes those par save at 9 and par save at 17 that were really key. How important were those for you?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, the par save on 9 was big, especially after coming off the bogey on the 8th hole. I would have been -- I felt like I hit a decent shot into that, but there was so much mud on that ball, I've never seen mud do to a golf ball what that did. But it was great to get a par there. Then after birdieing 15 and 16, to get that par save on 17 was massive. That gave me even a little more momentum going to the 18th to go and hit two great shots in there and convert. So overall I played a really good round of golf, exactly what I needed to do and excited to be in the hunt for tomorrow.

Q. Players always feel like they leave shots on the course. You probably feel that as well. But this golf course looks like it's really toughening up out there. What are the challenges out there today?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, the two shots, I 3-putted two par-5s for par, so I felt like I left a couple out there, but, I mean it's still a great round of golf. I think hitting it on the fairway is key. If you can hit it on the fairway, at least you can get some spin on your ball and get it somewhat close to these holes. For the conditions it's firm, it's fast, there's a little bit of wind, they tucked the pins away, so it's tough to get close. So I think hitting it on the fairway is key. If you do hit it out of position, just make sure you're missing it on the right side. Prime example is 17, I missed it on the left-hand side of the green there, where I had more green to work with, got it up-and-down. So just, it's sort of like a game of chess out there and you have to stay patient and pick your spots to be aggressive.

Q. You talked the first two days about finishing off your round, giving yourself a chance going into the weekend. You've done that, you're there, obviously there's a lot of golf left today, but what is it, is it the golf course, defending champion, what is it that gives you the confidence that if you're close enough you think you can get the job done?
RORY MCILROY: I think any time you've had success on a course before that gives you confidence. Honestly, just confidence in my game in general. I've been trending in the right direction, I've come off the back of four Top-5's to start the year, I feel pretty comfortable with everything out there and just the more times I put myself in this position the more I'm going to become comfortable there and sooner or later it's going to happen.

Q. Some comments if we can, please.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, just what I needed. It's really tough out there, difficult conditions, it definitely, I definitely noticed a change in the golf course the last few holes, so with the leaders having to play another nine or 10 holes out there it's going to be interesting to see where 8-under end up at the end of the day. But I was more in control of my golf ball today, I hit more fairways, and because of that I gave myself more birdie chances and I converted a few of them. So I did everything I needed to do today to get myself back in the golf tournament and excited to have another chance tomorrow.

Q. It's a different year and different conditions, but how much do you draw back on what you did last year, particularly down the stretch there?
RORY MCILROY: It feels very similar to last year. I played pretty good the first couple days, I think I was 5-under, I shot a good 67 on Saturday to get myself to 10-under and a couple back and then I went out and obviously played -- it felt like my game just got a little bit better each day. This year it sort of felt that way as well. It was a little scrappy Thursday and Friday, definitely felt a lot better today, hopefully I can continue and bring that into tomorrow as well.

Q. How hard is it that, being scrappy, as you take it, as you say and you're still in this position with 18 holes to go.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, that's what I've been working on. I think the consistency in my game, consistency in my mindset, my thinking, not getting ahead of myself, staying patient, I think by doing that I'll find myself in this position more often, even if I don't have my best stuff out there.

Q. Was there ever a point on the back nine as you're trying to get in that not dropping shots would actually be moving forward was it getting that tough?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it is. I'm going to say from the 13th hole onwards, you've got a pin that's right at the front of the green over water, the 14th the pin's tucked left, the wind's left-to-right, it's a tough one to get to. 15's a tough fairway to hit, if you don't hit the fairway you're getting nowhere near that. In those last six holes you got one realistic birdie opportunity, I think, and that's all -- actually two, I would say, 16 and 18 are probably the two easiest holes coming in. So they're the two chances. So, but, yeah, it was -- even I felt for part of the round today that I was hanging on, just it's, you hit it up to 25, 30 feet, you take your 2-putts, you move on and know you're not going to lose any ground on the field.

Q. On 15, what did you hit?
RORY MCILROY: 160 yards pitching wedge.

Q. How far on 18?
RORY MCILROY: 150 yards. Pitching wedge.

Q. How many mud balls today and how good was your third shot on 9?
RORY MCILROY: Just the one mud ball, yeah. That was the one that was -- there was a couple that didn't really affect what the ball really did -- the third shot on 9 was okay, I got to place it on a pretty tight lie so I could get some good contact on it, it could grab and I knew pretty much how it was going to react once it hit the green, so probably you come here in a couple weeks time without those hospitality units there it would have been a much more difficult shot. So it was okay, I played a couple of better shots around the greens today than that one, but it was still, it was great to walk off of a 4 there.

Q. What was your favorite ride yesterday?
RORY MCILROY: Tower of Terror. Look, it, I think if you don't, if you come to Orlando and you don't go to the parks you're sort of missing out on something. And my wife Erica told me last year the only reason I won this event is because we went to the Magic Kingdom on Friday. So I thought, let's go back to Disney and have a good time again. And it's nice to do it of every once in awhile.

Q. What was the big ride at Magic Kingdom?
RORY MCILROY: Space Mountain? Is that the big ride there?

Q. When was the last time you won an event in back-to-back years and how hard is it to repeat, especially out here?
RORY MCILROY: I don't think I ever have. So it's a great opportunity tomorrow to do something I've never done before. So that's exciting.

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