Date: November 30, 2013
Author: Golf Australia

Rory McIlroy Round 3 Press Conference Transcript

RORY McILROY OLIVIA McMILLAN: Thanks so much for joining us Rory. It was a bit of a difficult start for you but you managed to turn it around on the back nine. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it wasn&apost the best of starts. I let Adam get a few shots ahead after the first third of the round. He made some birdies around the turn and I just tried to stay as patient as possible and played a good back nine. It probably should have been a couple of shots better. I feel like I left a couple out there on the back nine, so that means I&aposm four back going into tomorrow. I&aposve obviously got a tough job on my hands to try and catch Adam. Q. How much of a blow was that putt on the last? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was big. Obviously I expected Adam to make his and I actually hit a good putt, I just misread it slightly. It would have been nice to birdie that and obviously have the gap from four to three, but I&aposll still have to play really well tomorrow and just try and close that gap as fast as I can. Q. Four shots is not insuperable, is it on 18 holes on a final day? RORY McILROY: No, definitely not and definitely not on this golf course where there can be a lot of two shot swings, even the first couple of holes, if someone makes a couple of pars and somebody gets off to a flying start and makes a birdie and an eagle, you&aposre right back in it. There are plenty of chances out there, it&aposs just a matter of taking the opportunities when they come. Q. What were the galleries like compared to other places you&aposve played around the world? RORY McILROY: Fantastic. There was a great atmosphere out there. It&aposs great, even though we play in front of a big gallery all the time, we still get excited when we play in front of galleries like this. It&aposs been great all week and I feel like the support I&aposve got down here has been incredible. I feel like everyone&aposs been really welcoming and given me a good reception. Q. Trailing by four instead of maybe two or three shots, how much does that change your mindset and your approach in your final round tomorrow? RORY McILROY: Yeah, trailing by two and trailing by four is a little bit different but I don&apost think I should really be doing anything different. I don&apost think I should be changing my game plan in any way. Everyone knows what the birdie-able holes are out there and it&aposs just about trying to take your chances on those and hopefully he doesn&apost take all his chances on those ones too [LAUGHS]. Q What did you make of the way Adam played today? RORY McILROY: Yeah, he probably didn&apost play his best but he scrambled well and he putted nicely and got a few key up and downs, which were important. But he&aposs a quality player and his good shots are very good. I hit it in close there on 14 and he follows me afterwards and said, that&aposs impressive to do that. Q. How difficult is it getting out of the trees there, was that the second hole? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was tough. I didn&apost know if I could stand to – I just sort of took a wild swipe at it and got it out there, which was nice. It was big for me to make par there. It sort of kept the momentum going a little bit. You don&apost want to make a bogey early on in the round and it was nice not too. Q. Just playing with Scott, it seemed early on on the holes there wasn&apost too much talk between each other and towards the back nine you had a few conversations and walked with each other. Was it just the mood of going into the third round or what was it like? RORY McILROY: I think I was hitting it down the left side on most of the holes and he was hitting it down the right, so I think that&aposs why we didn&apost talk much on the first few holes [LAUGHS] but I get on great with Scotty, we&aposre pretty close. We had some nice chats walking around there, so it was good.