Q. What's the overwhelming emotion? Obviously would have liked to win, but you played well.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I did. I felt like most of my game held up today. Obviously going out in the final group and you're working on some stuff, you know, you're just hoping that everything stays the way it is. But, yeah, I hit it well on the back nine. I gave myself plenty of chances. I just couldn't get a putt to drop there those final few holes. Yeah, I felt, I always felt like I needed to just get my nose ahead to really try to put the pressure on Wyndham, and I couldn't. We were tied there for a few holes, and then when he made that putt on 16 for 2 and I couldn't answer, that was obviously a huge moment in the round and in the tournament. But overall encouraged with how I played this week compared to what it was last week, and certainly something to build ongoing into East Lake.
Q. The two putts you missed when you had a chance to take the lead, were those misreads?
RORY McILROY: I mean, you could call them misreads, but they just didn't really do much at all. They were good putts. Yeah, the putt on 14, the putt on 15, even the putt on 16, they were good putts. They just all stayed or well the one on 15 just went low. But, yeah, good putts that just didn't go in.
Q. 17, just kind of in the rough it looked like did you ever think about going?
RORY McILROY: We talked about it earlier in the week, I tried to get it up a bit too far. I should have been taking that left bunker out of play. If you're going to lay it up, lay it up. So just another stupid decision with a layup on a par-5 that cost me.
Q. Did you think about in the rough, could you feel like you could try to get there?
RORY McILROY: I couldn't because it was like 230 over that cross bunker, and I couldn't get a club on it to carry that far.
Q. You said on Thursday it was too early after your round to make comments about how close you were. Now going into East Lake how close are you?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I'm closer than I was at the start of the week. But I'm still, I'm not in a spot where I'm super happy with where my game is or where my swing is. So I just have to keep working on it. But it's nice to know even when I'm not super happy with everything I can still, you know, piece it together and get it around and still give myself a chance to win tournaments.
Q. And you could tell how much the St. Louis fans loved it?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, no, I talked about it all week, the atmosphere, being out there and playing in front of these crowds, it's been an absolute pleasure.
Q. I know you said earlier this week felt like Scottie was the Player of the Year, Wyndham winning obviously adds another notch to his tally. Just wondering if that calculus would change for you at all?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, it's sort of all to play for it next week. You know, Wyndham doing what he did today, yeah, next week will make things interesting.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports