MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 14, 2024

Rory McIlroy

Quick Quotes

Q. Rory, can you give us your reflections on today and your Masters week?

RORY McILROY: Yeah. I mean, I don't really know what to say. Just sort of felt like my game was okay and managed it pretty well, but obviously Friday was a really tough day, and losing five shots sort of put me in a pretty difficult position going into the weekend.

Then the conditions were pretty tough. The greens are crusty and firm and hard to get the ball super close and hard to make a ton of birdies. Once you get seven or eight back going into the weekend here, it's hard to make up that ground.

Q. Can you sum up your disappointment?

RORY McILROY: I guess it's more the same of what I've shown this year. It's not as if it's been a down week in comparison to the way I've been playing. It's just a matter of me trying to get my game in a bit better shape going towards the rest of the season.

Q. Do you feel like you can get that confidence and momentum back with three majors coming up in quick succession?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I need to take a little bit of time and reflect on this week and what I did well, what I didn't do so well, and sort of try to make a plan for the next few months, especially from here going through obviously the end of July. As you say, major season, they're going to come thick and fast here, so hopefully get myself in a bit better form for those last three.

Q. Will you scale back a little bit --

RORY McILROY: No, the next two weeks I'm playing Hilton Head, I'm playing New Orleans. I'll take a week off, playing Quail Hollow, play the PGA, take another week off, then play another four in a row. Loving golf at the moment. Loving it.

Q. Do you feel like you're close?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, because all these disappointing weeks are 20ths, 25ths. They're not terrible weeks by any stretch, but there's a lot of room for improvement.

I'm close in some ways, but then I feel quite far away in others. It's a bit of a -- once I get one thing, sort of put that to bed, then another thing pops up, and it's just one of those at the minute.

Q. (On what's missing in his game).

RORY McILROY: Just a little bit of control, I think, with the ball-striking, especially in those sorts of winds. It really exposes any weaknesses that you may have. That Friday definitely exposed a few things.

As the golf course changes here, you just have to be so precise, and I wasn't quite precise enough this week.

Q. You've been on tears like Scottie is on. We talked about this at the API. What's in his head right now?

RORY McILROY: Nothing. Nothing. Not a lot of clutter. The game feels pretty easy when you're in stretches like this. That's the hard thing whenever you're not quite in form. You are searching and you are thinking about it so much, but then when you are in form, you don't think about it at all. So it's trying to find that balance.

Q. We make a big deal about a first-timer hasn't won here since 1979. When you look at Ludvig, does he strike you as a first-timer?

RORY McILROY: No, I think he showed why at the Ryder Cup. I think every stage throughout his very, very young career, he's shown that he belongs. Gets the win in Europe, plays the Ryder Cup, gets the win in the States, playing in his first Masters, contending on the back nine on Sunday. He's sort of proven at every stage that he's played at that he belongs.

Q. Michael Collins shared that at Bay Hill you had a bit of a longing for Bryson to be there, or at least you would see the value in Bryson being at Bay Hill. When you see what he does this week, a bit of an entertainment factor, does it reiterate the value of him and a few guys back into the pro golf world?

RORY McILROY: Absolutely. The Masters stands alone in terms of every other golf tournament, but I think even in terms of the ratings the first two days on ESPN looked like they were up, which is a sign that when we're all back together, then golf thrives. When we're divided, it doesn't. That's just another example of why we should all try to put our heads together and get back together.

Q. When you talk about reassessing things, is there a way to measure when the time has come for that that's almost analytical as opposed to emotional? How do you determine that?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, probably not the right time to be analytical at the moment, but I think as well if you're really going to make wholesale changes it's hard to play a lot of golf and make them at the same time. I don't feel like I need to make wholesale changes. That's why I'm playing a lot. But if the time comes that I need to make wholesale changes with my golf swing and really try to reassess, it could be a six-month to a year process. Not saying I wouldn't play any tournaments in that time, but the focus would be on the sort of technical side of things and really not result driven at all. I don't think I'm there yet, but there may come a time where I need to address that and really go back to the drawing board.

But I think right now it's little tweaks here and there and managing my game.

I really feel like I can sort of play my way into form here over these next few weeks.

Q. (On what he did to his caddie.)

RORY McILROY: No, I was very apologetic. I didn't mean to do it. The club got stuck, and I just -- anyways, he's resilient. He'll be all right.