TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 25, 2023

Rory McIlroy

TPC River Highlands

Quick Quotes

Q. Gave it a great run today, 6-under. Just take us through the day.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, got off to a hot start, which was nice and what I felt like I needed. Then, yeah, hit a drive on nine that I didn't think was that bad. Ended up against the boundary fence and made a bogey there which halted the momentum that I had.

Bounced back well with a birdie on 11.

But then missed a chance on 12.

Birdied 13.

Then just couldn't get anything to drop over those last few holes.

I mean, I knew I was never going to win with the way Keegan was playing, but I felt like I probably needed a couple more birdies to finish Top 5.

I'll probably still sneak into the Top 10 by the end of the day, but would've been nice to finish a little higher. Still, it's another good week and solid performance after a long run, and looking forward it a couple weeks off.

Q. Speaking of the long run, you arrived late, you played just nine holes of the pro-am, you don't go through your usual preparation. Is there any level of satisfaction you can take from how well you played this week with that in mind?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think so. I mean, coming last Sunday feels like a month ago at this point, but coming off the disappointment of the U.S. Open, coming straight here and sort of trying to refocus and forget about what happened in LA and tee it up here and play well, I thought was pretty good.

I could have sort of went through the motions this week and mailed it in a little bit. I tried hard until the end and put in a decent performance.

Q. Rory, how impressive is the performance Keegan is putting on today and all week?

RORY McILROY: It's amazing, especially when it's sort of like his home tournament. You know, I know what that pressure feels like when I go back to Ireland and play the Irish Open.

So for him to be doing what he's doing is really impressive.

Q. So many 62-and-below rounds here this week. Is this course getting too easy for you guys? Do they need to tweak something here or do you guys just like this?

RORY McILROY: I don't particularly like when a tournament is like this. Unfortunately technology has passed this course by, right? It sort of has made it obsolete, especially as soft as it has been with a little bit of rain that we had.

So, again, like the conversations going back to, you know, limiting the golf ball and stuff like that, when we come to courses like this they just don't present the challenge that they used to.

Q. There is not much they can do to lengthen it. Anything else they can do in terms of rough?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, you can grow the rough up and hope you get some firm conditions so it gets tricky. I think the blueprint for a really good golf course isn't growing the rough up and making the fairways tight. That bunches everyone together.

The blueprint is something like LACC where you have wide targets, but if you miss it's penal. This isn't that sort of golf course. It's not that sort of layout. It doesn't have the land to do that.

So, you know, unfortunately when you get soft conditions like this and you've got the best players in the world, this is what's going to happen.

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