BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

September 17, 2023

Rory McIlroy

Wentworth Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How good is the game?

RORY McILROY: It feels much better. It was nice to see the play better yesterday and again today, really happy with where my wedge play and iron play is. Over the weekend started to hole some more putts. The weekend was great. I struggled a little bit Thursday and Friday but I've been saying it's not too far away. I was 16th in Ireland last week, not a fair reflection of how I actually played. I played well. Just a couple of water balls on the back nine on Sunday.

But yeah, it's been two solid weeks and definitely things to improve and to work on. But everything's headed in the right direction.

Q. What's the plan the next two weeks?

RORY McILROY: I don't want to get too excited, there's still nearly two weeks to go before we tee it up on the Friday of The Ryder Cup. Still got plenty of time. I'll hang around here for the next week and get some really good work in Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday before heading to Rome, which will be great, and you know, once we get there, we still have four days of practice to do. So I'll certainly be chomping at the bit to get started.

Q. When you think back to Friday night, putting in the darkness to make the cut, how pleased are you with how you performed over the weekend?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, just to give myself the opportunity to go out and shoot a couple good scores, it's something nice to build off. If I had went home on Friday night here, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to feel better about my game.

Yeah, to shoot the scores I've done over the last two days, it's been nice, and I saw some improvements from Thursday and Friday which has been great. Now it's just all about looking forward to Rome and getting the game in the best shape possible.

Q. We don't often see frustration from you but we did on 17 today. Is that because you knew there was a real chance of getting your hands back on this trophy but also ending strong?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, 17 has been my nemesis hole over the years. I've never felt comfortable with that second shot. Where the ball, it was sort of more -- it was frustration of the lie, where the ball finished; it was an awkward shot. So it was more frustration at that, and then yeah, you know, in the middle of the fairway on 18 again, not being able to make birdie.

A little disappointed with how finished but still I'll look back on the first 16 holes and think about all the good that I did.

Q. You shot 12-under over the weekend, what was the difference in your play?

RORY McILROY: It was much better. I think I just got the ball in play off the tee, a bit more on Saturday and Sunday, and then I was able to sort of let my approach play and my iron play shine through. I've been hitting my irons and my wedges pretty well over the last couple weeks but when you're hitting it out of the rough, it sort of hard to let that shine through. Yeah, got it in play bait more. I had loads of opportunities from the fairways and hit a lot of approach shots close. I held some putts over the last couple days, too, which was nice. So yeah, certainly some good improvements over the weekend, and still some things to probably work on but definitely in a better spot with where everything is.

Q. By the time you got to 15 and birdied that, 7-under for the day and nearly two of the new leader, Tyrrell Hatton, what were you thinking with two par 5s to come?

RORY McILROY: Again, I thought I did the hard work birdieing 15, one of the tougher holes on the course. I think trying to birdie the last three was probably asking a bit much, but at least hitting the ball in the fairway on 17 and on 18 and not birdieing either of those holes was pretty disappointing, so yeah, look, I wish I had of birdied those last two and got to 15 and at least made the guys that are coming in work for it a bit more. But it wasn't meant to be.

But still a really good day.

Q. How confident are you going to Rome with this sort of form to feed off?

RORY McILROY: I'm not far away. There's a couple things, more so my misses. My good swings are good swings and I can hit good shots. Just managing the misses and just making sure that there's not a lot of them in there. We are all going to hit bad shots from time to time. That's natural and inevitable. But if I can eradicate them a little bit and be a little bit more consistent, at least it's the same pattern which is nice.

I think what I did well over the weekend, as well, was playing away from those misses and knowing if I was going to miss it, I was going to miss it in the right spot. Managed my game better but it would be nice to go to Rome without those misses.