DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN

July 3, 2021

Rory McIlroy

Mount Juliet Estate

Quick Quotes

Q. 5-under at the halfway stage, obviously looking to make a good start but wasn't to be unfortunately?

RORY McILROY: No, I got off to a rough start, bogeying 3 and doubling 4 and did well to claw myself back into it and made four birdies.

And then, yeah, I just hit one out-of-bounds on 16, just two bad tee shots, one on 4 and one on 16 cost me four shots today. So that wasn't ideal but apart from that, the rest of the round was actually okay. Hit good putts but they just weren't going in. So just one of those days.

Q. I suppose golf is full of what ifs, and you gave yourself a good chance on the first and unfortunately just lipped-out.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, would have been a nice way to start and had a chance on 2 and didn't take that. Made a couple of bad swings on 3 and 4 for those dropped shot but as I said, I stayed patient. Played the next, whatever it was, ten holes in 4-under. But then just sort of let them go again at the end with a poor swing on 16.

Q. One of those days where you sat over a putt on the first and you think this could be another fast start and a run gets going and it doesn't.

RORY McILROY: Pretty much. Yeah, I mean, hit a great drive off 1. A good pitch shot, and then, yeah, I guess missing that putt, yeah, I struggled on the greens this week. It's so hard to get myself to not read as much break into them as I'm seeing just because of the surfaces and because of the speed of them, they just don't take the breaks as much as what I'm maybe used to.

So it's very hard to see a putt that I would maybe usually hit outside the hole and then having to keep it inside the hole. My instinct is, geez, I feel like I'm low here but I have to trust -- I should have it figured out by St. George's.

Q. I talked to Shane about coming across from States and the different conditions.

RORY McILROY: It is really different and it just takes you awhile to get used to it. Even though this is the sort of golf we grew up on, Shane and I haven't made a lot of this sort of style of golf in a decade, basically. So coming back, it just takes a week or two to get used to some of the lies around the greens. You know, getting used to how flat the greens are and not reading too much into it.

I talked to Shane a little bit about that, as well. Just trying to get my eye in again, I guess.

Q. In the general scheme of feeling comfortable again, the feeling that you can turn up at Royal St. George's with that feeling of being able to flow, that close?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is. Hopefully I'll have a good day tomorrow and shoot a good score. My iron play is pretty good. I hit a couple of bad tee shot today that cost me four shots. Lost ball right on 4 and then out-of-bounds left on 16. The out-of-bounds left was a reaction to missing the previous three drives right.

So I need to sort of just try to figure that out. I mean, that was at least on 16, I committed to what I was trying to do. I just didn't do what I wanted to, I guess.

I'm looking forward to next week, as well. It's good I added that in and it's another competitive start.