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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 7, 2020

Rory McIlroy

Orlando, Florida

Q. You said yesterday Arnie would have loved the conditions you guys had to play in round 2. How about today, how difficult was it and how would you rate your 1-over 73?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean I, you know, I was standing up here yesterday and I said the weekend's just going to be about hanging around, hang around the lead, make pars, pick off your birdies when you can, and that's sort of what I did today.

I bogeyed the second hole and then I made, whatever it was, 13 pars in a row, and then finally made a birdie on 16. But it was a day where you just had to grind. You weren't going to hit a lot of greens. You had to salvage pars when you could. I made a few good par saves out there. And looking at the scores it's just, you know, it felt like a U.S. Open out there. So it was, yeah, it's a good test. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can and as I said, just hanging around and it looks like I'll be one off the lead going into tomorrow.

Q. Thoughts on tomorrow? How confident are you in your game? And I guess it's going to be a little bit warmer but the wind are still going to be there.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think it's going to be a similar day. So I'm confident in my game. I think my ball striking's been good. I was pretty good off the tee today. I'm thinking well around the course. I feel like my distance control's been pretty good. The greens are getting firm, so really having to land the ball on your numbers. So, yeah, I feel good with my game. I mean, it's, I holed some nice putts today, holed some better putts and hit some better putts than I did the first couple days. So everything, everything's pretty good. I just, I think tomorrow it's all about keeping the big numbers off your card and just trying to play as conservative as possible and pick up some birdies on the par-5s if you can, and if you can get it in the red for the day you're going to have a good chance.

Q. Is that any different than what you were trying to do today?
RORY MCILROY: I guess going out I sort of, I saw some of the scores this morning and saw it was tough, but I guess I thought I could still go out there and shoot something sub-70. And then once I got out there I was like, Oh, maybe not (Laughing.) So, yeah, I mean, I guess, the par putt on 3 was huge and then from there I could have birdied 6, probably should have birdied 6. It was probably, I mean, I would say there's two holes today that I let get away, the 6th and the 12th hole where I was in the middle, I had mid-irons in my hand going into par-5s and didn't make birdies there. But apart from that, pretty happy with today.

Q. What's making it so tough?
RORY MCILROY: The greens are firm. Fairways are getting firm so the ball's running out, so even the layups are getting sorts of tricky and the angles, like the, like you have to hit a really precise tee shot on 15 just to hold the fairway. And then if you do hold the fairway the pin's tucked on left with the wind down off -- you know, it's hard to get close to that pin. And it's just very tricky to -- even if you do hit the fairways to get it within sort of 20 feet or a putt that you're even thinking about holing, you're sort of hitting it to 30, 40 feet all day, being defensive, just trying to lag it up there, tap it in, move on. So it is, it's pretty tough.

Q. Was there a shot out there today that people watching at home can't possibly fathom how difficult it is to pull off?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, even like the tee shot that I hit on 17, like, I hit my 4-iron 230 yards in normal conditions, flat, calm, sort of 75 degrees. And I think that one today pitched like 185 on 17. It's just, the wind is -- it's gusting as well. So I had a putt on the 6th green today that should have probably broke a cup right-to-left and it broke the other way just because it got a gust of wind. And so it's almost like you got to time when you hit it as well and by the time you've done your pre-shot routine and you're over the ball and going to take it back the wind could have completely switched or gusted or did something and the shot that you're trying to hit isn't the appropriate shot anymore because of that.

Q. Is that what happened on 18, that second shot on 18?
RORY MCILROY: No. I got, it was a pretty bad lie. I got a little on my left side and was trying to chop it out there. I hit a really good shot, it just came out a little bit right on me. I was trying to just hit it up the gap of the green and it just came out sort of 3 or 4 yards right.

Q. Curious, with the conditions tough like this, is it more physically demanding or more mentally or which or both?
RORY MCILROY: Mentally. I wouldn't say golf's physically demanding at all. I guess some people would argue that. But I -- it's a mental grind. It's about just trying to stay as patients as possible out there.

Q. You say you want to enjoy it, is the plan for tomorrow. Is it enjoyable when it's like this?
RORY MCILROY: It is. It's a nice change from the norm. Yeah, I, mean, I've sort of talked about trying to really embrace challenge these days when I would have shied away from it in the past. So really trying to embrace the tough conditions.

Q. How crazy is it when like no one shot in the 60s in a PGA TOUR event?
RORY MCILROY: I mean, it's not -- I mean, you think someone, but I guess it sort of leveled out because even if the wind was down this morning it was freezing cold and the golf course played so long. So I don't think it's that crazy. It's, the conditions are really tough and even par was a really good score today and some weeks that is just the way it is.

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