TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

September 2, 2021

Rory McIlroy

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you characterize your round out there today?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it could have been really good. I was 4-under through 10, missed a good opportunity on 12 to get to 5, and then from there I just sort of went on a little bit of a bogey run, bogeyed three of the next four, and it was nice to birdie the last.

But yeah, I'm going to go to the range here and work at it. I didn't drive the ball particularly well and when you do that, I actually got quite lucky a couple of spots that I hit it off line, I was able to make birdies from a couple of those, so just need to try to put it in play a little more tomorrow.

Q. With how thick the rough is, is this one of those courses where if you're not driving it well, it's kind of difficult?

RORY MCILROY: It can, yeah, certainly. I don't think you're going to make big numbers here, but it's just going to be hard to make birdies. You can try to play it out to the front of the green, try to get it up-and-down. And then move on to the next. But, yeah, you're certainly not going to go forwards or go up the leaderboard if you're hitting it off line.

Q. I'm sure this applies to most courses you guys play, but if you drive it well, it seems like that's the key to this golf course. Can you compare that to somewhere else? Because it seems to be the key to your success.

RORY MCILROY: I think when the greens are firm, I think there's more of a premium on hitting it on the fairway. Like this week the greens are pretty firm and if you hit it in the rough it's, if you get one of those flier lies you're just going to bound through the green. No matter if you have a wedge in your hand, you're still going to struggle to hold it on the green.

So I like the setup the way it is. The greens are a little firm and it just, it makes you think a little bit. I feel like the last couple of golf courses you haven't really had to think that much, and this makes you think a little bit more, which is good.

Q. Wanted to get your thoughts on the Ryder Cup and Hovland and your thoughts on having him as a teammate, obviously a very young guy, but very talented guy.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, he's a wonderful player and I think there's a few guys lining up to have the chance to play with him in the team formats the first couple of days. So he'll probably have his pick of who he wants to play with. But, yeah, he's a great kid, great player, obviously, and he's going to bring a lot of energy and a lot of fun to the team.

Q. Would you like to play with him?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, sure.