TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

August 25, 2023

Rory McIlroy

East Lake Golf Club

Quick Quotes

Q. How are you feeling?

RORY McILROY: I'm limited in what I can do, but I'm here grinding away, battling away. So happy to be through 36 holes.

Q. Was it better today? Did you feel better today?

RORY McILROY: I felt like I had a little more speed. I was probably half a club off my numbers than maybe a full club yesterday. But still it's just hard to sort of get my right side through the ball. It actually feels better with the longer clubs because I'm more upright in my posture. When I sort of get down to the shorter stuff trying to stay in my posture is a struggle.

So I'm sort of just coming out of it and swinging my arms at it and I'm missing a lot of iron shots left. But, yeah, just trying to manage it and do the best I can.

Q. What can't you do? What are you limited? Like, are there specific shots you can't pull off right now?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I can't hit the ball left-to-right and -- yeah, I can't swing my irons the way I want to. I can't turn my right side through the ball. So from the top of the swing I'm just sort of throwing my arms at it and it's a lot of face rotation and I can only really hit it one way with the irons.

I can't hit the driver the way I usually do. Like, teeing it up I'm teeing it down and just hitting a sort of flat little runner down there. So, yeah, look, a little limited to the shots that I can hit, but I'm getting by.

Q. How frustrated are you that this has popped up at this time?

RORY McILROY: I mean, I would rather it pop up now than in three or four weeks' time. Yeah, again, I've managed it well and I think I did well to get through yesterday. I've got through another day. Hopefully it feels a bit better over the weekend.

But not great timing, but at the same time, it could be worse as well --

Q. Given what is coming up, any thoughts of not playing this weekend?

RORY McILROY: No, I still wanted to give it a go. As I said, I felt like if I could get through yesterday I was just hoping that each day it would get progressively better. I would say it got a touch better today in terms of being able to just put a little bit more speed into the swing. Still limited what I could do. But I played yesterday -- it certainly doesn't feel any worse today, so at least I know I'm not doing any damage or I don't necessarily think that by me playing it's going to get worse. It's just a matter of doing the right things away from the golf course to make sure that it gradually gets a little better.

Q. Is there any risk, either physical or bad habits?

RORY McILROY: -- maybe -- I wouldn't say physical. I would say maybe bad habits. But again that's, you know, hopefully it starts to feel better and maybe by the end of next week I'll be able to hit some balls again and get out of those bad habits.

Q. Does it bother you putting?

RORY McILROY: No, putting's fine.

Q. You're off for two weeks, right?

RORY McILROY: Just one. And then Irish Open and Wentworth.