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ABERDEEN STANDARD INVESTMENTS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 12, 2019

Rory McIlroy

North Berwick, Scotland

Q. A 67, give us assessment of your play.
RORY McILROY: I thought I played pretty well. I've driven the ball well for two days. I feel like my wedge play has been good and my iron play for the most part's been good. 14-under, three guys at 14-under par, I'm struggling to see that.

I've played well. Yes, I've maybe missed some opportunities, but obviously guys are finding the course quite easy. Obviously it's benign conditions. It's still a one or two-club wind out there. It's not very easy, but it is soft. So it is scorable.

I feel like I've done what I wanted to do this week. I've driven the ball well. The things I've been seeing in practice I've been able to put out there on to the course, and I just might need to go a bit more over the weekend.

Q. You talked about the missed opportunities and we've seen you miss some putts. How difficult is the challenge of putting on greens that are obviously slower that you are used to?
RORY McILROY: It's tough. You know, we're used to putting on greens that are 12 or 13 on the Stimpmeter, and these are barely touching 10. So it's different. But you know, I think that's why it's been such a good thing to play this week; obviously with one eye on next week. It's hard to get links greens any -- maybe you can get these greens a little faster; they are scared of the slopes out here and seeing how it plays over the first couple days, but I can't imagine the greens being that much faster that the Portrush next week. So it's been ideal to come here and get used to that.

Q. You've got ground to make up and you've seen how other guys have gone low. How do you approach this weekend?
RORY McILROY: I think you play the par 5s well. I only played them today in 2-under I think. So you know, played the par 5s well. That's four birdies right there, and then with the other 14 holes, you're bound to give yourself at least eight or ten looks at birdies and just try and convert a few and hopefully creep up on them over the weekend.

Q. Back-to-back 67s, but you're also six shots back at this point. How do you make sense of where you stand at this point?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I feel like I've played the way I've wanted to play the last couple days. You know, if I think back on the last two rounds, yes, maybe I could have squeezed another couple of shots out of both of them, been 12-under, something, but the guys at the top of the leaderboard are obviously playing very good golf.

I've played well and I've done what I've wanted to do. Obviously there is low scores out there, and you know, hopefully I can shoot a couple of those over the weekend.

Q. You made a point to mention how much you enjoy winning National Opens and you want to win this one. Why is that important to you?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think I'm a big traditionalist and historian of the game, and I think looking back over the years, the players that have come before us and that have won these big national titles -- I was very proud to win the Australian Open. Not a lot of people play the Australian Open anymore, but you look at the names on that trophy; the same as the Canadian a few weeks ago.

Obviously I've won my home Open in Ireland. It's a cool thing to do. A lot of these Opens, Scottish Open, whatever, they are over a hundred years old, so to put your name on trophies like that is a pretty cool thing.

Q. This is going to be a milestone year, you turned 30, the home Open next week. How do you handle the emotion and hullabaloo that's gone on this year?
RORY McILROY: I think I've handled it well. It's been successful so far, a couple of wins, and I've given myself a lot of opportunities to win some more. I think I started the year around 10th in the world and I'm up to third. I'm slowly getting back to where I want to be. Yeah, I'm very pleased with my year and there's still a little bit left to go, but I feel like my game's in good shape to finish the season off the right way.

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