MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 7, 2022

Rory McIlroy

Quick Quotes

Q. I know you're probably not thrilled with the round. How big was the up-and-down on 18?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was good. I played really well. I think I hit like 12 fairways and 14 greens and just didn't really get a lot out of the round. I had a putt on 14 to go to 2-under for the day with the par-5 to play, and I three-putt that, and that sort of halted any momentum I had.

Didn't birdie 15 and hit it in that right bunker on 16 and didn't get it up and down. I feel like it was the worst I could have shot today. I feel like I played really, really well. I pulled a couple of putts, so I want to go on the putting green now and work on that a bit.

I'm encouraged with how I played, so I've just got to try to get more out of the round tomorrow.

Q. A lot's been made about of your starts in majors. With that in mind, how pleased are you to have made a solid enough start today?

RORY MCILROY: I'm just pleased that I played well. I don't really care where I'm at on the leaderboard or it doesn't matter. I played well. I hit the ball great from tee to green for the most part. So I'm pleased with that.

Q. Did it play tricky out there today?

RORY MCILROY: It did. You know, the wind was up a little bit. But still the course was receptive enough that there were scores out there obviously. You saw that even the afternoon guys, Sungjae with 5-under, and D.J. with 3 or 4, whatever he was. There's certainly scores out there.

Q. In normal conditions, will 15 be a hole that guys go for more than not?

RORY MCILROY: I think it is. With the fairway more countered from right to left, you're going to get stuck behind those trees more. It just makes the -- I could have went for it today, but just that decision is touch and go.

Q. That happened to you when the ball went left?

RORY MCILROY: Exactly, yeah.

Q. It will dry out quite a bit?

RORY MCILROY: I'm looking forward to that. That will be really good. The course is in incredible shape with the amount of rain we've had the last couple of days, so looking forward to dry conditions over the next three days.

Q. With all the years you've played here, how do you find your zen place as you approach that 1st tee on Thursday?

RORY MCILROY: I think once you get the first tee shot out of the way, it's just business as usual. The hour or two leading up to that first tee shot, there's nerves and anxiety and all that sort of stuff.

Q. What do you do to eliminate that?

RORY MCILROY: Honestly, I envision where's the worst place I could hit it off the 1st tee, and then I'm like, well, that's actually okay. I could probably make a 4 from there, and that's sort of how I settle myself down.

Q. Rory, you said beforehand that you were going to play negative golf. How do you feel that decision helped?

RORY MCILROY: I did. I thought I did really well. I hit it to a lot of the middle of the greens and made a lot of easy pars. It was very stress free for the most part. Hit a couple of loose iron shots at the end that I needed to try to get it up and down.

Overall, again, I wish I could have gotten more out of the round, but it was pretty stress free out there.