PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 6, 2020

Rory McIlroy

Harding Park Golf Club

Flash Quotes

JOHN DEVER: Welcome to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

Pleased to be joined by Rory McIlroy, two-time PGA Champion. Rory opened with 70 today and a little bit of a rough start but then you kind of got your steady groove, and talk about that transition that did happen on that back nine there.

RORY McILROY: Actually got off a nice start, birdieing the first hole of the day, the 10th hole for us, and then, yeah, I made three bogeys in a row. Ended up being a pretty good bogey on 14. And then after that, was happy, I birdied three holes in a four-hole stretch to get back to under par for the day which was nice. That was good.

Then on our second nine, the front nine, I didn't hit fairways, and then from there, the way that the pins were tucked, I was just trying to play to the front of the greens and two-putt from 40 feet and move on to the next hole.

Need to hit a few more fairways tomorrow to try to attack some pins and get it closer, and not leave myself 4- and 5-footers for par all day.

Q. How would you summarize the conditions versus the practice rounds, and is it hard at all when it's playing easier than it did the first couple days?

RORY McILROY: Condition-wise, the wind wasn't up and it was a little warmer, so that was nice. I felt like the course was there for the taking. Obviously Jason Day shot 5-under. There's been a few 4-unders.

The pins were tucked a little bit. The greens are getting a touch firmer. A lot of wind directions. For example, there's a few holes where the wind was -- or the pin was on the right side of the green and the wind blowing right-to-left, so it's hard to get yourself to get close to those. You're sort of hitting to the middle of the greens a lot.

Yeah, you know, it was there for the taking today. I mean, I feel like I definitely could have been a few shots lower, but you know, I sort of grinded it out and with how I hit it on the back nine, even par actually wasn't too bad.

Q. You want to be as stress-free as possible at the majors but doesn't always happen. When you battle back like that, what did you pull out of that going forward?

RORY McILROY: Just that you've got plenty of time left. You're 2-over for the tournament after whatever it is, six holes, and there's plenty of time and I knew there was some chances coming up. I had another par 5 and those two short par 4s that are very good chances.

The way the conditions were, if you hit it well today, every hole was nearly a birdie chance. Didn't quite materialize like that for me but it was good to get it back to even par.

Yeah, just got to go work on it and tidy up for tomorrow.

Q. Curious what happened on 14 and then just the idea of three in a row and settling yourself down?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, so the wind direction has been the same all week. The wind is sort of off the left on that hole, and I tried to hit the same drive I've hit every day there. Aim it up the middle of the fairway and hit a little draw and just hold it against the wind. I just smothered it. My bad shot this week with a driver has been right, so I was probably just guarding against that a little bit, and smothered it left into the hazard. But ended up making a decent 5 from there. I was happy enough to walk away with a 5. As I said there, was some chances coming up and I actually started to play some good golf after that.

Q. You've sort of gotten used to this during the restart, but still you start a major championship on 10, all three of you are introduced. There are some people out there; complete silence. Then you all three birdie it, too, and nothing. Is it weird or are you used to it?

RORY McILROY: At this point, not really. It's still funny, you know, '99, 2000, 2006, 2007, PGA Champion, Tiger Woods, and then there's nothing. That's pretty interesting. That's definitely different. We've got used to it. That's the way it's going to be for the foreseeable future, unfortunately, and yeah, at this point, everyone I think has adapted and got used to the environment that we are playing in.

Q. You guys are all fast players and sound like you had a lot of nice conversation, really relaxed. Because it's a major championship, do you ever need to remind yourself, because you're all pretty quick, to sometimes slow down a little bit?

RORY McILROY: Certainly I have to remind myself all the time to slow down whether it's a major or not. I think most people would say they play their best golf when they are slightly relaxed, not too, and not on the other side and too intense.

We all know each other and play a lot when we are at home, so that makes it a comfortable grouping, as well. Yeah, definitely, I think that's one of the things that's come out of not having fans is the rounds have been a little faster. You don't have to wait for people to settle down, and especially when you're hitting it in the rough all day like I was.

So that's been a nice thing. But yeah, it's a good observation. You probably do need to just tell yourself to slow down a little bit.

Q. Speaking of relaxed, Brooks talked about how he's more relaxed at majors. Can you relate to that at all or are you more amped up? Where does it fall for you?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'd probably be -- not amped up, but there's a -- in the back of your mind, you want to play well. You want to, like every week, but yeah, maybe take -- you know, there's four opportunities a year, and you want to make sure that you get yourself -- but you should be -- you know, I think when Brooks talks about being relaxed, I think anyone that's done the preparation and feels like they are in a good spot with their game, you can enter these tournaments relaxed and go out there and play your game and play with freedom and he's got his thought process in why he's relaxed and he says: Well, half the guys can't win, and then the half that can win, half of them can't play well; so I only have to beat 30 players.

Q. Which half are you on?

RORY McILROY: We'll see tomorrow.

Q. As somebody who has a roughly of majors yourself, if you were to make three in a row at the PGA, as a fellow player, how would you categorize that as a level of accomplishment?

RORY McILROY: To win two majors in a row, to defend a title is impressive. So to win three major championships back-to-back, and the run of golf he's played in the majors has been incredible. He seems to, as he said, find his comfort zone in these tournaments, in these environments, for whatever reason that is. I think we are all just lucky that he doesn't find it every other week.

JOHN DEVER: Thanks for stopping by. Best of luck to you tomorrow.