THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2023

Rory McIlroy

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes - Round 2

Q. Rory, can you sum up your week? Is it easy to sum up?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, just very blah. Yeah, I guess the course, you just have to be really on to play well here. If you're a little off, it definitely magnifies where you are off. It is, it's a bit of an enigma. Some years I come here, and like it feels easier than others.

It's just a tricky golf course, and you don't hit fairways and you've got your work cut out for you.

Q. Do you just try to forget this as quick as you can and move on, and also take us through the new haircut.

RORY McILROY: Needed.

Yeah, pretty much. Just it is what it is. I actually don't feel like I'm playing that badly at all. A few miscues here and there, putted it off the 6th green yesterday, and just stuff that -- just a little untidy here and there. But hit the ball okay. Just, as I said, this course if you're a little off definitely just magnifies where you are.

Then the haircut, yeah, I needed one. That's all there is to it.

Q. There's a theory that everything else on schedules, board meetings, talking about all this stuff is taking quite a lot out of you. What do you make of that? Is that fair?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is fair. I'd love to get back to being a golfer, yeah. Look, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and it's been -- honestly it's been a busy sort of six or eight months.

But as I said at the start of the week, everything has sort of been announced now, and the wheels have been put in motion, so it should obviously quieten down from here.

Q. How hard has it been to just focus on being a golfer?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's just the time management. The golf out here, that's fine, but it's just more the time at home to make sure you're getting prepared, to make sure that you're doing everything you can to be ready once you show up to these weeks. That's where I've maybe sacrificed a little bit of time with some of this other stuff.

As I said, I'm ready to get back to being purely a golfer.

Q. Can we kind of presume that you might have had more time to, for example, to set in the new driver and get to work with that had you not got so much else on your plate?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I wish I didn't have to bet on a new driver, I wish I could just use the old one, but yeah, it is what it is.

Q. Going into Augusta what's atop your priority list?

RORY McILROY: Just making sure my game is in shape for Augusta. Making sure that I've got all the shots. Making sure that I familiarize myself with the golf course again and go up there for a couple of days.

But yeah, from now all the way until the start of April, it's really just all about getting ready for Augusta.

Q. When are you going up there?

RORY McILROY: Next week.

Q. When will you make a trip up to Augusta --

RORY McILROY: Next week.

Q. Is the driver as big a concern there like it is place like here?

RORY McILROY: No, it's not. That's the thing as well, there's a little bit more room off the tee, and in fairness I've been maybe trying to push the driver a bit too much up the fairway here rather than just taking a couple of clubs less and hitting 5-wood or 3-wood or 2-iron or whatever it is. No, but it's still -- you don't want a big mis-hit in the bag. You look at the drive I hit on 18 there, and that's way too wide for a miss.

Just sort of things like that that I just need to work on.

Q. Are you definitely just playing Match Play between now and Augusta or do you possibly add Valero?

RORY McILROY: No, no, I wasn't particularly fond of that last year, so no, it's just Match Play.