U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

September 20, 2020

Rory McIlroy

Winged Foot Golf Club

Flash Interview

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was really difficult. Wind was up again like it was on Friday. Yeah, it was hard to give yourself enough chances and leave yourself in the right spots where you could make a run at putts and birdie putts and just sort of being real defensive on the greens, trying to sort of think about your next putt and where the best place to leave it is.

Yeah, looks like everyone found it pretty tough out there. Just a tough day.

Q. If I had told you on Wednesday that the winner of the Open would hit 4 of the last 21 fairways, what would have been your reaction?

RORY McILROY: No chance. No chance. I don't really know what to say because that's just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. Open champion does. Look, he's found a way to do it. Whether that's good or bad for the game, I don't know, but it's just -- it's not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played. It's kind of hard to really wrap my head around it.

Q. When you first saw Bryson come back with the wait and the approach he was going to take, were you skeptical? Did you think, like what's he doing?

RORY McILROY: I thought I can see it for week in and week out, PGA TOUR setups that are a little more benign. I played with him at Colonial the first week back out, but I sort of said, okay, wait until he gets to a proper golf course, he'll have to rein it back in.

This is as proper as they come, and look what's happened. Yeah, he's got full belief in what he's doing, and it's pretty impressive.

Q. This would not seem to be set up perfectly for his type of game, but Augusta National would be sort of. Do you shudder to think what might happen there?

RORY McILROY: No, not particularly. I don't shudder, but if he can do it around here, and I'm thinking of Augusta and thinking of the way you sort of play there, yeah, it's -- as I said, I stood up here a few weeks ago and said the game's moved on a lot in the last 14 years since the U.S. Open's been played here, and you're seeing what the game has become, what he's doing out there.

Q. Your golf followed from Tiger's and Tiger's followed from Faldo, Watson, and back to Nicklaus, very kind of straight line. Then you see this guy doing it completely in his own way, and I'm wondering what that says to you about the guy and about the game.

RORY McILROY: So I think -- about the guy, I think it's brilliant, but I think he's taken advantage of where the game is at the minute. Look, again, whether that's good or bad, but it's just the way it is. With the way he approaches it, with the arm-lock putting, with everything, it's just where the game's at right now.

I'm not saying that's right or wrong. He's just taking advantage of what we have right now.

Q. You nearly won a Masters at a young age. What do you make of Matt Wolff's performance this week, and what advice would you give him on dealing with today's setback?

RORY McILROY: Look, I don't know what he is for the round. I know he was 3 over par playing the 16th there. That's not that bad. It's not as if he blew up like I did and was going to shoot 80, like what I did at Augusta.

You know what, I probably thought that, if he went out there in today's conditions and shot a couple over par, that he'd win the tournament, but that's not what's going to happen. Look, it's a tough one. He's a good kid. He's resilient. He'll have plenty of more chances.