DUBAI INVITATIONAL

January 12, 2024

Rory McIlroy

Dubai Creek Resort

Quick Quotes

Q. You're still at the top, you had a nice, solid start and unexpected double-bogey. How would you assess your round?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think if I look at the other 17 holes that I played, I played very, very well again. Hit some good iron shots.

Played not too dissimilarly to the way I played yesterday. I may be held a couple more putts yesterday. But the condition were getting a little trickier. Wind was up. Greens were firm and a couple miscues on the 8th hole.

I felt like I did well just to get my head back into it and play some solid golf on the way in, and everyone seemed to find it a little more difficult today than yesterday. So it's nice to go into the weekend still with the lead.

Q. A phenomenal 62 yesterday. I imagine a sense of calm with the birdie, but how important was that bounce-back birdie on 10?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, 10 was big. I had a chance to bounce back on 9 that I missed but 10 was big. The two shots into 13 were big, too.

And to make two relatively easy birdies, and then I give myself chances most of the back nine, which was nice, and I was able to convert a couple before that tough finishing stretch there on 17 and 18.

Q. It was announced this morning that Keith Pelley is stepping down; your thoughts on that?

RORY McILROY: First, I'm happy for him. I think the job he's going to is one that he's probably wanted for a long, long time, being from Canada, especially Toronto and be able to run two major sports in Toronto, the hockey team and the basketball team, I think is a wonderful opportunity for Keith. So I'm happy for him in that regard.

Obviously in terms of where the DP World Tour, Guy is going to step into that role, and Guy has been around the Tour in different capacities for quite a while, especially with everything going on in the game, Guy has been in pretty much all those rooms the last couple years.

So it's a pretty natural transition to go from Keith to Guy, and I'm confident Guy will do a good job.