TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 29, 2024

Rory McIlroy

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. It's not getting any cooler.

RORY McILROY: It's not. Yeah, look, August in the south, geez, I've been coming back here for 12 years, so it's to be expected. But yeah, it was hot and humid.

Yeah, this week is all about just trying to conserve as much energy as possible. I think it's going to get a little cooler at the weekend, which is nice.

I'm happy with how I hung in there and had a good finish. When I saw Scottie had gotten to 14, I was like, oh, got to try to just hang on to the coattails a little bit.

Still feel like I've got a chance, and it was nice to finish the way I did.

Q. What are your thoughts on the restoration?

RORY McILROY: I love the restoration. I love the golf course. It's probably six months away from being perfect just because of the firmness of the greens.

But I've always liked Andrew Green's work. I like what he did at Congressional, I like what he did at Oak Hill. I like some of the other things I haven't been there physically but I've seen.

I like that the ball repels off the greens. I like that it gives you options. I think a lot of these aprons, it really gives guys a chance to sort of shine and show how good their short games are because you can play all sorts of different chips and you can putt it, you can bump it, you can fly it and try to spin it. I love that side of it.

I think he's probably made it a little less penal off the tee just by clearing some of the trees, but I think he's made it a little more penal around the greens. I think overall, I don't think the course plays that much differently apart from the par-5, 14th, but I really like what he's done, and I like golf courses that sort of stretch out the playing areas and expand the playing areas a little bit. I think he's done a great job.

Q. The players talked a lot this week about the firmness of the greens. Did you find that to be the case?

RORY McILROY: Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to -- I hit like a little three-quarter gap wedge into the 15th there. You think that a shot like that normally will sort of stop dead, and that one for me, it probably ran out 35, 40 feet.

You have to hit -- just feels like you've got to hit full shots into these greens with as much spin as possible to get the ball to come to rest as soon as you can.

Q. Jay spoke to us yesterday and obviously he got asked about the negotiations and we were not going to get a whole lot. But one of his comments is the goal is to bring the best players back together more often, and yet here we are seems like from the outside with no end in sight. Are you frustrated it's taking this long?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. I think anyone that cares about golf, I think has to be frustrated. I think anyone that cares about the PGA TOUR has to be frustrated because we're -- we, the royal we, we're not putting forward the absolute best product that we can because -- I get the argument that these guys left and that was their choice and whatever.

I just think that it's gone on long enough. We've got to try to -- I mean, I think everyone is trying to find a solution. It's just a solution is hard to get to.

I go back to -- even though I was on the wrong side of things, like the U.S. Open with Bryson and I, you're only really going to get that four times a year at most. I think the game of golf deserves having those sort of things happen more than just four times a year.

Q. Do you think if it doesn't happen soon, something doesn't happen soon, we run the risk of -- knowing that it's not that easy to make this all happen, that 2026 is going to pass us by?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think if it doesn't happen soon, then honestly, I think PIF and the Saudis are going to have to look at alternative options, right? I think that's probably the -- I'd say that's the next step in all this if something doesn't get done.