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THE 148TH OPEN

July 18, 2019

Rory McIlroy

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

RORY McILROY: I guess when you play your first and last holes in a combined 7-over par, you're sort of starting on the back foot.

Yeah, obviously I got off to a rough start, the ball sort of went left on the first hole with the wind. Actually hit the ball out of bounds right yesterday on the practice round. That might have been in my head a little bit, not sort of wanting to leak it out to the right.

But then after the first hole was the first hole. It was a rough start. But I felt like I showed some good resilience after that. I think I played the next 13 or 14 holes at 2-under par.

And then really what I'm disappointed about is I undid all that great work the last few holes. I lost concentration after the missed par-putt on 16, I missed a short one there. And then on 18, I hit a tee shot that I knew wasn't going to be in the fairway, but I didn't think it was going to be quite as bad as it was. Tried to hack it out back to the fairway. It didn't come out of the lie. And then got it back out and sort of -- it was a pretty tough hole anyway.

But, look, it was obviously a disappointing day. I didn't put it in the fairway enough to play. I kept saying that in the press conference yesterday, you need to put the ball in the fairway here if you want to do well. I didn't do that enough today to create enough scoring opportunities.

Q. Off the first hole, the feeling you had, does the blood drain from your face, your fingers?
RORY McILROY: It almost settled me down. It was almost like, well, that's sort of the worst that can happen. Put your head down and keep going.

I'm not saying that it was the ideal start. But at that point you've nothing else to really -- what else can go wrong? So I just put my head down and tried to keep hitting good shots. And I did that for the next 13 or 14 holes. And then again, as I said, I just let it go a little bit at the end.

Q. Is there a way back from 79 do you think, the cut mark?
RORY McILROY: Definitely a way back to Florida.

Look, I definitely think if I can put the ball in the fairway tomorrow I can shoot a good enough score to be around for the weekend. Obviously I'm pretty sure anyone starting with a 79 in this golf tournament doesn't think about winning at this point. But I think I can go out there and shoot something in the mid-60s, be around for the weekend, and then try to play good from there.

Q. Any issue with internal out of bounds at 1. Sort of unusual.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's the way it's always been. No, not really. That didn't really come into my thinking. If anything, I sort of leaked one right yesterday in the practice round and hit it OB right. So I was trying to guard against that a little bit, and a little bit too much right hand and got the ball going left.

Q. With the symbolism of this tournament, the excitement of having it here, does it make it more disappointing?
RORY McILROY: I don't think so. Look, it's disappointing. I'd be disappointed regardless, whether it was here or St. Andrews or Birkdale or any of the other tournaments or majors.

So, yeah, I'm disappointed, but at the end of the day I'm still the same person. I'm going to go back and see my family, see my friends, and hopefully they don't think any less of me after a performance like that today. And I'll dust myself off and come back out tomorrow and try to do better.

Q. Are you determined to relax?
RORY McILROY: Definitely the tournament. I didn't get a very good account of myself out there. And I can definitely play better, as all of you know.

So it's just a matter, as I said, it's simple stuff; getting the ball in the fairway, missing it in the right spots if you do miss it. I didn't do that. Taking advantage of the par-5s. I only birdied one of those today.

The things I usually do pretty well I didn't do today. And it made for a tough start.

Q. Most disappointed with the first tee shot or 16?
RORY McILROY: The one that I'm disappointed about most is the little short putt on 16. That was inexcusable. Tee shots like the first happen, you can get one riding on the wind a little too much, that's fine.

But lapses of concentration like that, I feel like I've done a really good job over the last few years of being more with it and realizing, Okay, just keep a cool head. And there I didn't. I sort of hit it on the run and missed it.

And if I look back at today, it's probably the shot I'm disappointed about the most.

Q. (Inaudible.)
RORY McILROY: Yeah, so the putt was a 6-foot putt. And in normal conditions with not a lot of wind it was probably like a ball on the left. But the wind was hard off the right. I'm thinking, is the wind going to affect this or not? I still played it a ball on the left, and I missed it left. So as I'm walking up to hit the next one, I should have trusted the wind. I'm sort of talking to myself about the last putt. It's not like my head is going to Kelly's tonight or something (laughter). But I'm berating myself about the putt I just hit and went to tap it in and didn't.

Q. The expectation factor in?
RORY McILROY: I don't think so. I'm pretty truthful with you guys. Look, I was nervous on the first tee. But not nervous because of that. Nervous because it's an Open Championship. I usually get nervous on the first tee anyway, regardless of where it is. So maybe a little more so today than other places.

But I don't think it was that. It was a bit of a tentative golf swing with a hard wind off to the right and the ball just got going left on me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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