THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY WORKDAY

June 7, 2024

Rory McIlroy

Muirfield Village

Quick Quotes

Q. How difficult were the conditions out there today?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, really tricky. Wind is just, yeah, this course is penal enough anyway, just, if you miss it in the wrong spots. Thankfully with the rain on Wednesday the course is still pretty receptive. You get this wind and if it was as fiery as it has been in previous years it would be treacherous, but it's still, the ball's holding on the greens and on the fairways and you still have opportunities to make birdie. Anything under par I think is a good score, but, yeah, very hard to go low.

Q. What did you particularly do well today?

RORY McILROY: Scrambled well. Made a ton of pars. Stayed patient. I made a couple of bogeys after making birdies and, yeah, just stayed as patient as I could, which was important.

Q. Different course than Pinehurst, but maybe similar mindset in terms of par's good score, really difficult. Is it a nice kind of mindset tune-up this week?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think mindset-wise absolutely. As you said, a different style of golf. This is probably more U.S. Open like than the U.S. Open's going to be next week (smiling).

Yeah, I think just that mindset of being patient and making as many pars as possible, I think that's going to, that's sort of going to be the MO for next week as well.

Q. Your short game's looked sharp for quite a long time now, hasn't it?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's been, putting especially has been really good. Chipping has been, it's sort of been a mixed bag for most of the year. The good weeks are really good, but the bad weeks are -- actually, I didn't feel like I chipped particularly well today, there was a couple other shots that were good. But, yeah, I've been scrambling well and I think in conditions like this you need to do that.

Q. Was there wide variance in wind today or was it kind of constant and how difficult was that?

RORY McILROY: It was pretty gusty. I mean, it was gusty, it was coming out of the same direction always, but it would lay down a little bit, then it would get up. Hard to sometimes commit to a club and commit to a shot at times. I think with windy conditions and on a golf course like this it's, a lot of it is to do with timing, making sure you hit the shot at the right time so you get the wind that you want.

Q. Going to be firm and fast next week. Is that something you've really grown to love, isn't it?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I really liked LACC last year. It got fast and firm. Yeah, I do. I said this yesterday, but after The Open Championship in 2019 it had sort of like a disappointing run in the toughest tests and in the majors, and I sort of just tried to change my mindset. I remember writing in the sort of little golf journal that I keep about trying to build my game to suit the toughest venues that we go to. If you look at my results in the U.S. Open and some of the toughest tests from then until now I would say the U.S. Open's arguably been my best major championship in the last few years.