THE 149TH OPEN

July 18, 2021

Rory McIlroy

Mixed Zone

Q. Rory, this is probably a little better than unfair enquiry, but obviously you hear, What's wrong with Rory? Just won at Quail, but obviously also not the results you want at majors. How did you find that balance to get back to the level you want to get at? Combatting pressure, you know, I've heard you say maybe be a little bit more indifferent, and then other weeks it's maybe be a little bit more aggressive. How difficult is it to find that equilibrium for you to play your best?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's certainly a balance. I think you have to go by how you're feeling on the week as well. Some weeks you might need a little bit more indifference and some weeks you might need to be a little bit more aggressive.

For me at the minute it's just the process of trying to work my way back to the sort of form and the sort of the level that I know I can play at.

Obviously I haven't played at that for -- not going to say all the majors. Felt like I was close at Torrey Pines. But it's been one of those sort of I'm the best -- if you want someone to shoot even par for you for a week I'm your man.

That's sort of -- there is a lot of birdies in there but a lot of bogeys, too. I think it's just more the bogey avoidance and the mental errors, because I've made 17 birdies this week, which is more than enough to challenge to win this golf tournament. It's just I make too many mistakes, and that's the part that I need to try to get right.

Whether that's trying to be a little too aggressive from bad spots or putting myself in bad spots to begin with, but it's just a matter of just trying to iron out the mistakes.

There is enough good stuff in there to contend at these golf tournaments, but I'm just not allowing myself to do that with some the mistakes I'm making.

Q. From your 72 holes, if you were to look at it with the even par 280, it would look kind of standard enough. As you were saying there yourself, there weren't many pars in that round, so you were going from really good to slight mistakes and you were being punished for them. In a transitional period of your swing, is it important to just sort of take lessons from it and take the positives, especially moving on to the rest of the year with the Olympics, Ryder Cup, and other big tournaments to be won and moving into next year?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think so. You hit the nail on the head there. I need to look at the positives, and the positives are I made enough birdies this week to contend in the golf tournament.

I made too many mistakes. I think that's going to happen a little bit when you're trying to do some things a little bit differently. Yeah, there is certainly I think as well like I -- there is certainly times when there was mistakes and those bogeys don't come from a bad swing just a bad decision or your trying to do something you shouldn't do.

I could probably pick two or three things today that I made more bad decisions and mental errors. Hitting clubs that I was barely going to -- it's fine margins at the end of the day, and I just need to do a better job of when I do have those sort of in-between shots and when I have situations where it's like, Okay, try to put this in the middle of the green and make par. I need to do a better job of just maybe being a little bit more disciplined out there.

I think if I did that, I probably avoid a few of the bogeys that I made this week.

Q. Just Shane is having a good week. Looks like he might make his way onto the Ryder Cup team on the points after this week. What do you make as Shane as a possible Ryder Cup player and what he might bring to that team.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, obviously great player, Open champion, major champion. I think even if he didn't play his way into the points this week or the next few weeks, pretty sure he'd still be on the team going to Whistling Straits of fiery, competitive, doesn't like it lose, all the things that you would want in a person to go and play a Ryder Cup, especially in America when you need personalities that are going to go up against not just the American team but the American crowd. I think he's tailor made for that.

Q. Just related to that, do you think obviously the major season is over, but you got the Olympics and the Ryder Cup coming up. Do you think that might help you in a way that the team environment, you've done well in the Ryder Cup before, might help you with the game generally?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I think there is a few things to concentrate on before the Ryder Cup. FedExCup in the States is a huge goal of everyone's. I guess that's the real next big thing for me.

Obviously the Olympics in a week's time. You know, I want to just try to get on a good stretch of golf. I've get probably four tournaments between now and the Ryder Cup, and I sort of just want to focus on them first before I turn my attention to that.