MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2021

Rory McIlroy

Quick Quotes

Q. Can you just talk about how much more difficult that golf course is maybe compared to November if you can?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, it's pretty obvious on TV with how crusty the greens are getting. The wind got up a little bit around the middle of the round for us. It seems to have died down a little bit now. But yeah, it was tricky, tricky to leave the ball below the pin and give yourself a lot of looks for birdies.

Q. The approach on 7, did you hit your target there?

RORY MCILROY: In fairness I was trying to turn it off. It was a perfect shot; it was dead straight. But I think he was okay. He didn't limp away. He walked away pretty swiftly, so that was all right.

Q. You told us on Tuesday that this was just the start of a journey. With all you're working on, was the realistic goal this week to win the tournament? Was that the goal when you turned up?

RORY MCILROY: I mean, my goal is to play well and at least give myself a chance. I mean, honestly I'm quite encouraged with how I hit it on the way in. I hit some loose shots out there, but after hitting the 6-iron in the water on 13, I hit some really good shots coming in, so I'm encouraged by that. Going to go to the range here and work on it a little bit more, but it was just one of those days where I wasn't very efficient with my scoring. I was saying to Jon there, like open before pars and then you're going through that stretch and it's like, okay, it's just sort of if you make bogey then you're sort of -- you're sort of fighting against momentum, but if you make a birdie then you can sort of get going, and just one of those days. But I hung in there, hit some good shots coming in. Could have made a couple more birdies, but it's not as if anyone is going really low out there. Do a little bit of practice and hopefully feel a little more comfortable tomorrow, go out there and shoot a good one.

Q. With the way the golf course is, do you feel like -- how much offense can you play, or do you feel like you're playing defense?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, you just have to be -- obviously the par-5s you can birdie but then you have to be happy with giving yourself 25-, 30-footers every time. If you can do that, you've played a really good round of golf.

Q. Are the feels way different or slightly different?

RORY MCILROY: I think any time you're working on things with your swing, it's going to feel very different, but it's not as if I haven't done these things before. I think that's the thing. It's like you get into these bad habits and that feels normal, and then you get it back into position where I've been a million times before and it just feels a little different, right.

I think more than anything else around here, it's trusting that on these side slopes and having these balls that are two feet above you. That was sort of what happened on 13. So it's that part of it where I'm on the range off a flat lie, yeah, perfect, I can do it every time, but then once you get on the golf course and you get these different lies and different shots and different winds, that's the litmus test right there, and it still didn't feel quite 100 percent, but as I said, I was encouraged by some of the stuff I saw out there.

Q. What is it like to play in a major and your game is in transition?

RORY MCILROY: I mean, it's the same as -- it doesn't feel any different than it's felt the last few weeks. It's just me trying to work through things, and even if it's a major or not, it's a golf tournament and you approach it the same and you just try to go out there and play the best round that you can.

Q. What's the shot you hit down the stretch that you said, that's the one I'm looking for?

RORY MCILROY: There was a few. The wedge shot on 14 -- the drive on 14, wedge shot on 14, drive on 15, 7-iron on 15, 9-iron on 16, drive on 18, second shot into 18. So there was some -- I was starting to get into a rhythm. I wish I could have kept going. Might have given myself a few more chances. But there were some good shots coming down the stretch there.

Q. When did you find out it was your dad?

RORY MCILROY: As soon as -- I knew it was my dad when I was aiming at him, so probably 30 seconds before I hit it.

Q. You told a reporter nearby that he was going to demand an autographed glove. How might you have some fun with that as a follow-up?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I don't know. He's seen me sign plenty of stuff over the years, so I think that's the least of his worries. I think he just needs to go and put some ice on -- maybe I'll autograph a bag of frozen peas for him.