TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 23, 2023

Rory McIlroy

TPC River Highlands

Quick Quotes

Q. For the second day in a row we would like to ask you about the 8th hole, but let's talk about 17 that went really, really good. You made over 120 feet of putts today, rolling along. That was a really good round of golf.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was much better. Way better on the greens as well. I think when you can get out in the morning here the greens are so much better. They haven't started to seed yet and they're not quite as bumpy as the afternoon.

So feel like you can -- there was a lot of 20-footers in the afternoon and you're just trying to finish by the hole because you don't want to have the three- and four-footers on way back. You can be a little more aggressive with your putts, and that paid off for me this morning and held quite a few.

Everything was just a little bit better today. I played more solid, gave myself more opportunities, you know, eradicated most of the mistakes I made yesterday.

Q. Take us through 8. Hole in one yesterday; 17th hole today. It played 177. What happened?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, so most of the day we've been playing the wind out of the sort of southeast. I felt if anything, it might have just moved to the east, which would've been straight off the right. I hit my 8-iron 175 yards for the most part, so I thought if I just hit a rally good 8-iron I would get it to pitch pretty much between the front edge of the green and the hole, sort of like what Victor's did.

It just got hit by a little bit of wind. The wind just sort of switched on us. Hit a pretty good shot. I just misjudged the wind a little bit and it came up short -- the one place you couldn't miss today on that hole.

Other than that, it was a really good round of golf.

Q. On the last hole, pretty aggressive line. Is that dictated by the way the hole location was or...

RORY McILROY: Yeah, with that hole over on the left I was making sure to be sort of right, because I think if you hit it into that left rough you didn't really have much of a shot.

I felt like the approach shot from where Tom was hitting it from was tricky as well. Hit a good tee shot and then obviously the ball is in the lap of the gods depending on if you get a good bounce or hit a tree or whatever.

I just felt with that pin, the hole location on the left-hand side, I just had to keep it up the right a little bit.

Q. Wasn't anything, oh, my God you're walking off so angry...

RORY McILROY: No, not at all. It was just sort of where the hole was. I laid up yesterday. It was a bit more back into the wind yesterday anyway.

Laid up to a back right hole location yesterday and -- no, I felt like it was a pin where you could be aggressive with the tee shot and get it up there.

Q. Given what the scores are around here, is it less likely to ease into a round or is it go-time right out of the gate?

RORY McILROY: It's sort of go-time right out of gate, especially how both nines set up. The front nine you've got 1, 2, 3 are good birdie looks; 4 and 5 are tough. Then on the back nine at least the first two days, 10 is a tough hole, but then you have 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

So you have to get off to a fast start here. That's pretty important.

Q. On 9 looked like you landed right on a cable there.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, so they sort of dug a trench to put the cables into. Yeah, I sort of felt like I was right on it. I didn't want to touch the cables so I let the rules official do that.

Yeah, got relief which was decent because I was able to get away from the tree. It still didn't really leave me with much of a shot.

Q. Then you hit the limb but still landed -- could have gone anywhere.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, could have. I got lucky for it to -- you know, where the ball finished from the second shot is probably what I would've done if I hadn't got relief anyway, so it worked out okay.

Q. Assuming you take the next couple weeks after this off before heading over and getting ready to play to Liverpool, how are your energy levels at this point? Played a lot and a lot of things going on.

RORY McILROY: I actually feel okay. You know, I think two days at home in between LA and here was nice to not really do anything.

Yeah, I actually for my fourth week in a row feel okay, which is a pleasant surprise.

Fastscripts by ASAP Sports...