FEDEX ST. JUDE CHAMPIONSHIP

August 12, 2023

Rory McIlroy

TPC Southwind

Quick Quotes

Q. Bit of an up-and-down day today. Can you talk us through the cadence of the day.

RORY McILROY: Yeah. It sort of felt a little bit like one step forward, one step back, especially after those two bogeys on 9 and 10. But felt like I responded well. That chip-in for par on 14 was big for me. Then to birdie the next three holes was huge.

18 is a tough drive for me. It's like driver is too much and 3-wood is not quite enough to cover on the water line on the left.

I hit driver and just sort of bailed out of it a little bit and put myself in trouble there.

Disappointing after the good work that I did on 15, 16 and 17 to get those shots back to give one back at the end.

But overall I feel like I've sort of been stuck in neutral a little bit this week, and I'm still in a decent position. Depending on what the leaders do coming in, five back going into tomorrow, I feel like I could catch fire and hopefully make a run.

Q. Can you pinpoint something that might be leading to that stuck-in-neutral position?

RORY McILROY: I think just sloppy mistakes, like the three-putt on 9, wrong club on 6, leaving myself in the wrong spot. Just sort of sloppy mistakes. First week back in a couple of weeks, and I guess hopefully getting them all out of the system before next week and the TOUR Championship.

Q. What do you think it'll take to catch Lucas, the way he's playing?

RORY McILROY: He's playing great. Obviously played great last week. He's a new man with that new putter.

I'm going to need to go out tomorrow and shoot something like Justin Rose shot this morning, like a 61, 62 to have a chance. But I feel like you break it down, 4-under a nine, I feel with the way I'm hitting it, the way I'm playing, it's doable. Not saying that that's what's going to happen, but it's not out of the realms of possibility.

Q. Just a course record, that's all.

RORY McILROY: Exactly.

Q. You cut the putter down an inch?

RORY McILROY: Like half an inch. It's funny, I didn't really notice it in practice, and then once I got into competitive play, I always put my right hand on my putter first to go in and out. I just felt like where my right hand was at the top, it just felt a little too up. So I compared it to my Spider last night, it was like half an inch. It wasn't like a huge difference.

But Harry took it to a local golf shop and got it cut down last night for me.

Q. With the trucks gone, how do you get that done?

RORY McILROY: Harry took it to Edwin Watts, I guess, and got someone to do it.

But then he got in touch with Paul from Scotty Cameron, and Paul was sort of like, it probably moved a swing weight or two, so just added a bit of weight to it this morning to try to balance it out. But felt better.

Q. Where do you add the weight?

RORY McILROY: There's weights in the bottom of the putter, so like tungsten weights. Just a couple of heavier ones.