Q. Tough conditions out here at your National Open. What do you make of it so far?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was. I think there was a couple of things that were tough today. Obviously the wind and the strength of the wind was one thing, and then the pace of play. This course isn't conducive to sort of letting you get in a flow. Especially the first two days with so many people in the field, there's a lot of stopping and starting. Yeah, I think, look, it's hard when you have to, when you're playing a round of golf and it takes six hours mit's hard to get into the rhythm of things. But felt like I did a good job. After making the double bogey on 13 I was just trying to get those two shots back by the end of the day. Didn't quite do that, but I think finishing under par for the day was a reasonable effort.
Q. You mentioned that double bogey on 13. We're so used to you make the game look so easy all the time, but you are human after all.
RORY McILROY: (Laughing). Absolutely. So, fairway bunker play wouldn't be my forte. But, yeah, I tried to take too much club and get it out of there and that sort of, yeah, that backfired on me. But apart from that, I felt like I struck the ball pretty well today and hit some good shots coming down the stretch. The putting's always hard in the wind as well. Look, I hung in there, shot under par, and at least don't feel like I'm out of the tournament. A good day tomorrow gets me right back in it.
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