ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL

March 4, 2023

Rory McIlroy

Bay Hill Club and Lodge

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you characterize your round today?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was good. I think any time you can go bogey-free on the weekend at Bay Hill you're doing something right. A little frustrated I missed that opportunity at the last. But all in all played really well. I got myself right into the tournament, into the thick of things for tomorrow.

Q. How did you find the conditions today compared to yesterday? Find a lot of similarities to them?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, a little similar. The gusts were similar strength. I don't think the wind was quite as strong overall. But still gusty and tricky out there, yeah.

Q. You're plus 2 on Thursday. Didn't get a whole lot out of that round. What's the key to stage the course?

RORY MCILROY: Limit the mistakes out here. If you can hit fairways and greens and take advantage of the par-5s that's basically what I did today. And then have a really good short game. I up-and-downed it really well this week, chipped it well, bunker play has been good. Holed out well for the most part. So just do sort of everything well and then when one aspect of your game since firing on all cylinders you have to rely on other things.

Q. Victor said this course has sort of a European feel or challenge to it, with cross winds and things like that. Do you see similarities like that?

RORY MCILROY: I see it it's more like a U.S. Open. I think that's sort of how it feels with the thick rough and the firm greens and just the real sort of tricky conditions. Feels a bit more like that to me than anything in Europe.

Q. It's kind of the same players year after year here. Tyrell, Viktor, at least in the past couple of seasons. You. Why do you think that is? Why do you think those players in particular are always up at the top here, even with a tougher field this year?

RORY MCILROY: Good ball strikers. Control their flight well. Have a pretty neutral ball flight, I would say. Like I played with Tyrell the first two days and he's probably the player out here that hits it the straightest out of anyone. He doesn't hit the ball with a lot of curve. Viktor's sort of similar in a way. I don't know. I think you find a knack for playing this place if you come back year after year.

Q. Do you pay much attention to a guy like Pierceson Coody and what he's done?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, this is sort of, you know, don't want to get all back into what was announced a few days ago, but giving guys a faster opportunity to get out here and prove themselves. The fact that Pierceson's here and made the cut and then goes out and shoots 66 this morning and all of a sudden he finds himself in the golf tournament. But he's obviously been playing well on the Korn Ferry Tour and it's great to see guys like that get an opportunity.

Q. Is that one drawback though that next year he wouldn't be in this field? Is that one drawback to it?

RORY MCILROY: I mean, you never know. I mean, he's going to -- he might be. I mean, depends on how he plays tomorrow and how he goes the rest of the year. So this, it's a great opportunity. It's a massive opportunity for him. So, again, it's not a drawback when you know that Pierceson Coody could be in this field next year if he just shoots the scores.

Q. (No Microphone.)

RORY MCILROY: A little better. I hit some balls on Thursday night and sort of, yeah, my alignment was getting a little bit off. Especially I feel like when you play in the wind like this it can do that. But I noticed it in L.A. as well, my lines were getting crossed, my feet were getting closed, my shoulders were getting open. So just sort of trying to work on my alignment a little bit. But definitely hit it better the last couple days.

Q. (No Microphone.)

RORY MCILROY: That's what we're trying to do here. It's great. You have Scottie Scheffler and Rahmbo in Phoenix. You had Rahmbo and Max Homa in L.A. You've got a ton of big names up here. It's great to see the big names playing well and playing well all at the same golf courses in the same tournaments. I think, for a player, for us to get that thrill of getting up, going up against each other like week after week, that's really cool.

Q. What do you think Tyrell would do with 3.6 million dollars?

RORY MCILROY: He's fond of a nice bottle of Bordeaux. So he would probably buy a few bottles of wine.