WASTE MANAGEMENT PHOENIX OPEN

February 7, 2021

Rory McIlroy

TPC Scottsdale

Quick Quotes

RORY McILROY: It's been -- yeah, it's sorts of been disappointing. You know, two very pedestrian runs. Played a little better on Friday. Then I played better today. I putted better. I really struggled on these greens to read them more than anything else.

And today I just sort of went a little bit more -- with greens that I haven't seen before, I'll use the green book a bit, and I did that for three days and didn't really work, so I just sort of went with my eyes and my gut today and it helped.

Yeah, sort of maybe trusted it a little better and holed some putts, which was nice.

Q. I know you're going to a different course, different greens and all that, but anything that can help you going forward?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I hit some putts today on the putting green with the mirror, and then I actually used the line on the ball for the first time in a while, and then I used the line on the ball out there today.

Again, just more so a trust thing. Once you put the line down on the ball you're committed to, Okay, this is where I'm going to start it. Just that a little bit of extra trust helped.

Q. First time in while you've done the line, or...

RORY McILROY: Yeah, first time in a while. No, I did it -- actually, the last time I used it regularly was leading up -- I did it from -- I remember this -- from the 6th hole on the final day at Augusta 2014 until the last day of the Scottish Open 2014. So sort of April to July.

I won a tournament with it. I won Wentworth during that stretch. I had my best-ever strokes gained putting round at Memorial using the line. It's something I've sort of went back and forth with over the years. Sometimes I feel comfortable with it; sometimes not. I always seem to go back to it when I'm struggling to start it on my line or trust it.

So I'll practice with it a bit next week and see if it travels back to Riviera.

Q. You're a big fan of the game. What does it do for the TOUR and the game to have Jordan back in the mix? I don't know what's going to happen today, but to have him back doing the crazy things he does?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think from a viewership point of view and it definitely gets everyone excited. And the way he plays. I mean, I watched the back nine yesterday. Absolutely insane what he was doing. It's typical Jordan.

But once he feels it and once he gets that -- I think once crowds come back, and if he starts to play a little better, it'll help him, because he needs -- he feeds off that energy.

Yeah, everyone is excited to see him up there again. He works so hard and he just hasn't really gotten anything out of to the last few -- the last 18 months really. So it's good to see him back in the mix.

Q. Give us some perspective. How hard is it to go back that up the next day?

RORY McILROY: I mean, you're never going to back up what he did yesterday. I mean, the putts and the chip-ins and the up and downs, I mean, you're not. I thought today if he went out there and broke 70 today would've been a really good day for him.

It's hard to win golf tournaments and hard to be in that position and trust what you're doing. Today is a really good test for him. He hasn't got off to the greatest of starts, but I guess that's what he said when he was speaking to you guys yesterday.

Stick to his process, and today will be a good learning curve for him. It was awesome to see him back to sort of the -- not the old Jordan because he's only like 27 or something -- but back to showing us what he can do.

Q. Anything that you'll go home and work on?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm going to get the plan perfecter out, that little machine I have, and work on that. I'm getting way too steep in the downswing, and hitting a lot of pulls and a lot of sort of weak cuts.

So I'll work on that, try to get the club more out in front of me on the way back and try to shallow it a little bit on the way down. And then just a bunch of putting.

Yeah, I'll work hard next week. Got a week off and four in a row coming up, so it was nice to end, go into a week off playing like I did today, but I still got a lot of work to do.