RBC CANADIAN OPEN

June 11, 2022

Rory McIlroy

St. George's Golf & Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Excellent round, obviously. Co-leader right now. How does that set you up for tomorrow maybe repeating?

RORY MCILROY: I hope so. Yeah, that would be really nice. I'm just happy to give myself a chance, be in the final group. Once I saw, I think Tony had got to 10 or maybe 11, I think I was on like 8 or 9 at the time. I just said to myself, let's just try to get yourself in the final group.

Sort of feels pretty similar to last time at Hamilton, I was just trying to get myself in that final group with Webb and I was able to, tied for the lead there.

So, yeah, just sets me up well for tomorrow. Feel like all aspects of my game are in pretty good shape, so just go out there and try and post a number and see if that's good enough.

Q. That birdie on 15 was especially impressive. Especially with the chip. What did you see trying to get on to that green?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so I was just saying there, the wind was, it should have been out of the south, which would have been like off the left mostly with maybe a touch of hurt if anything. And it was a perfect 5-wood number for me. And I just, I just flushed it and the wind never really hit it.

So, if anything, as far as it went, it must have went a little down on me instead of just straight across. So just got a gust of wind, but I still had some green to work with over the green there. So it was just one of those chips I just sort of tried to land it on the green and let it trundle down close to the hole and try to hole a putt. Thankfully holed a nice putt there to get myself to 11-under.

Obviously had some chances coming in after that and would have been nice to take possession of the solo lead, but, again, I'm in a good spot heading into tomorrow.

Q. Justin Thomas compared the atmosphere today similar to a major. How special was it to be part of something like that where it's an electric atmosphere, so many of the top guys near the top of the leaderboard and it's a close tournament.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it's unbelievable, the atmosphere out there today was, I mean I can't remember the last time I played in an atmosphere like that. It was really special.

Walking on to the 16th tee there, the Rink, my ears were ringing hitting that tee shot.

So, no, it's going to be loud again tomorrow and that's really good fun for us to play in. Just really appreciate everyone coming out and supporting this event.

Q. You mentioned it's very similar to 2019 but can you take the same approach tomorrow that you did at Hamilton on the Sunday?

RORY MCILROY: I think so. Maybe you can't take this course on off the tee as much as Hamilton, but then at Hamilton there's a lot of forced sort of lay-ups into spots as well.

So yeah, I need to set myself a number and be super aggressive. I know I'm going to have to make some birdies out there to win this thing tomorrow. And you see Tony shoot a 26, JT shoot a 63, so you know there are numbers out there to be had. I can't worry too much about what the other guys around me are doing, I just have to go out there, set a target number in my head and just try to go for that.

Q. With everything that's gone on in the golf world this week is there anything in that that would make a win tomorrow feel sweeter or perhaps more significant?

RORY MCILROY: Not necessarily. Every win is sweet and every win's significant. I don't even think personally for me like it would be great to win, but I think what a success this tournament is anyway. You look at it out there today. I mean it's certainly the best atmosphere of any golf tournament going on this week. Yeah, the crowd support is incredible and yeah, I'm pretty sure what's going to happen over the final 18 holes here is going to be more entertaining than what other golf was played this week anywhere else.

Q. If I can jog your memory a bit back to the 9th hole, your second shot out of the rough. Absolutely incredible. Can you take us through that.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, that was probably low key one of the best shots I've hit all year. The lie wasn't great in the rough, it was good enough for me to at least think I had a chance. I opened the face on a 5-iron and I went down the grip a little bit. And out of the rough like that all I think is just try to get your hands as high as possible at the top of the swing and then just hit it as hard as you can. It came out perfectly. I think sometimes with those shots there's a little bit of luck involved as well, but I felt like I had a decent path into the back of the ball to be able to at least get it -- I was trying to, honestly I was trying to get it into that front left bunker. And it came out just a little right of where I thought it was going to and ended up on the green, which was a nice bonus.