Q. A little better day today, I guess.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, much better.
Q. What was better?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I got off to a good start, but I hit the ball better. I started to hit it left yesterday with everything. I spent a good bit of time on the range last night just trying to straighten it out. The range this week, the wind is predominantly been off the left, so I think when you hit a lot of balls in a left-to-right wind you start to aim a little bit left, your club face can get a little bit closed at impact just to try to counteract that wind. So hitting balls the last five or six days in that left-to-right wind on the range I just started to miss some left on the course. So I was trying to figure it out a little bit on the range last night, which I felt like I did and I hit the ball much better today.
Q. Are you limping?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've got a blister on my pinky toe on my right foot. But it's underneath my nail. So I can't really get to it or so it's a little sore, but I'll be all right.
Q. When did that pop up?
RORY McILROY: Started to feel it like Friday afternoon.
Q. How much do you think it contributed to things to the play Saturday?
RORY McILROY: No, not at all. No, that was -- I wish that was an excuse, but absolutely not (laughing).
Q. How much do you know about Alex Fitzpatrick, how much time have you spent with him?
RORY McILROY: I spent a good bit of time with Alex. He spends a bit of time with his brother down in Jupiter and I see them a bit there. But, yeah, I've spent a for a good bit of time with him on the European Tour over the last couple years as well. So obviously a wonderful opportunity for him. I got my first one here. I know this wouldn't be his first PGA TOUR win, it would be his first individual win, but, yeah, I'm pulling for him today. It would be great to see him get it done.
Q. What does it say about him that he looks so comfortable almost immediately out here.
RORY McILROY: I think, look, he spends a lot of time with his brother, his brother is one of the best players in the world. He probably beats his brother quite regularly whenever they practice, so I think that has to give him a lot of confidence. I said to Nick over there, you know, having a few guys that he knows that are up around the top of the leaderboard, Kris Reitan, Nicolai Hojgaard, that should give him a little bit of comfort as well. But he's a great player, fearless. He actually played with my dad a couple weeks ago at Seminole, he played Walker Cup at Seminole as well. So we've gotten to know all the Fitzpatricks well. Yeah, cheering for him this afternoon.
Q. Was he your dad's guest?
RORY McILROY: He was my dad's guest, yes.
Q. How are a pair of brothers so different it feels like the two of them?
RORY McILROY: That's a good question, nature versus nurture, right. They are, they're very different in how they play, how they approach the game. Alex is very much a sort of feel and intuition player. I've never seen anyone be so into stats like Matt is, so yeah, they're very, very different. But they're both amazing players, they get it done in a different way. But I think it's really cool that Alex has sort of forged his own path and not really followed as much in his brother's footsteps and done it his own way, which sort of speaks to the fact that he's confident in himself and in his game. Obviously it shows the last few weeks winning in India, then winning at Zurich with his brother, and having a great chance today.
Q. Looking ahead to next week, what do you leave here feeling like you need to work on?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think the range session last night was good. Figured out a couple of things. As I said, I feel like I got into a couple of bad habits just because of that left-to-right wind on the range all week. So straightened that out. I'm going to go home tonight, which will be nice, spend a night in my own bed and practice at home tomorrow. Try to get a, you know, just sort of continue that feel and bring that up to Philadelphia for the rest of the week.
Q. Obviously your preparation for the Masters was well chronicled, you were at Aronimink last week was that your only trip there and what did you I did you think of it?
RORY McILROY: No, I lived there for a week. Just played it every day. (Smiling.) No, I went up and back in the same day. It was good to get -- we played the BMW there in 2018, but the course played a lot differently. It was wet in 2018 and the greens didn't play as fast or as severe as what I felt like they played last week when I played. So it's not a long golf course, but the big defense is the greens and they can tuck the pins away if they want to. But yeah it was nice to get an early look at it. It just means that the week of the tournament you're not under pressure to play a lot of holes and historically the practice rounds at the PGA can be excruciatingly long, so it's probably going to just be nine holes Tuesday, nine holes Wednesday.
Q. So you have zero concern about the blister?
RORY McILROY: No, it's fine. I'll be okay.
Q. Did you play one ball? Did you post a score?
RORY McILROY: I didn't. I played -- if I had have been playing a few more rounds I probably would have got into playing one ball. But, no, it was just lying figuring out clubs off tee, lines off tees, and putting to where I think the hole locations are going to be. So, yeah, it was more of like a traditional practice round.
Q. Left miss, was it the similar tendency that you kind of overcame at Augusta on Saturday?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, exact same thing. So just have to straighten that out. Seems like that's my, that's sort of my bad habit at the minute and I just have to be aware of it and I was much more aware of it and did a better job of managing it today. I think just hitting, trying to find a right-to-left wind at the Bear's Club and hit a few balls and that usually straightens it out for me.
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