Q. Rory, how would you rate round 3?
RORY McILROY: A little bit similar to the last -- well, maybe not Thursday, but yesterday, where I feel like I left a few out there.
Played okay for the most part. It was a little scrappy in areas. I feel like I could have probably shot 67 or 66 and got myself -- I think if I'm three back of Foxy going into tomorrow, I feel like I have a legitimate chance. But I'm three back of that. I probably feel like I'm a little too far behind.
Q. Do you think winning this tournament is not possible from where you are?
RORY McILROY: Never say never. I think that was the fourth 62 of the week -- or third -- yeah, whatever. There's been a few of them. If I go out tomorrow and get to double digits, you never know, but yeah, I certainly am not going out tomorrow thinking like I've got a great chance to win.
Q. The way that the greens, your relationship with the greens this week, the first round you couldn't see the ball going in the hole, it seemed. Did that kind of have an effect on the way the other two rounds have gone?
RORY McILROY: Not really. I feel like I putted better yesterday and I putted okay today. I've just really struggled with the speed. They're still, they're very green and very like -- I feel like you look at the rest of the course and it's so baked out and so brown, and then you get to the greens and they're so green and lush.
You have a lot of these putts that are uphill but then up and over, just like a lot of the holes are cut on the back of slopes. I feel like I'm either going to leave it two feet short or hit it five feet by.
I feel like my speed has just never quite been right for the entire week, and when your speed's not right, it's obviously hard to hole putts.
Q. You've seen 62 shot here. Obviously it's been a very low scoring week. You've had moments in your round -- you had the chip-in on 9 today, you drove the 9th green the first two days, when it looked like your round was going to ignite. Could you have that tomorrow? Do you feel like you have it in you to do it tomorrow?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I feel like I can. It's just a matter of doing it. Yeah, it's difficult. Where they've cut some of these pins today, I'm even thinking, like after 9, 10, 11, 12, like even where 14 is, where 15 is, they're very hard pins to access. Then if you keep leaving yourself 25, 30 feet, it's really hard to hole those putts.
Q. Can I ask your opinion on the Bryson ruling last night. A few different players have been in with different interpretations of it. What were you seeing?
RORY McILROY: I was watching it live. I was up in the players lounge watching it with a few other players, and as soon as he made the step into the ball, we all sort of looked at each other, and we were like, that didn't seem right.
Then when I heard that he was called in by the rules officials, I think we all -- it was pretty obvious for why.
Yeah, I think there's no doubt that he improved the line of his backswing. Again, it's like, whether it was careless or whether it was intentional, I don't think it matters. Hopefully it was careless, but I think the two-shot penalty was justified for sure.
Q. What did you think of the scenes after? Obviously you guys were delayed getting your tee times as well because of all of that going on.
RORY McILROY: Late night for everyone. Yeah, look, I won't pretend to be up here and defend Bryson. I'm not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it's performative. I think a lot of it's for attention.
To hold the tournament hostage like that, and to have all of us, players, volunteers, everyone waiting on him to depart, I didn't feel like it was a great look.
Q. Do you think he knew what he was doing?
RORY McILROY: Look, he's going to say -- like, again, I'm not in his mind. I'm not in his -- but it didn't look good.
Q. Something like that, does it happen more often than we know and it just isn't viewed or seen?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's hard. Every shot is on camera. There's a lot of guys that play this week and the shots aren't on camera. So you can say that that's unfair or whatever, or it might happen more than it does. It's obviously impossible to police everyone, and that's why it is, for the most part, a self-policing game.
I think when there is obvious evidence like there was last night, then obviously that's a different story.
Q. Ryan Fox's round today, you mentioned some of the hole locations, can you just put in perspective what he did? Xander was very complimentary, who played with him, about where the pins were.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, Xander had a good round today as well. I think he shot 66.
Yeah, you have to -- I think the first thing is you have to be in the fairway to then be able to impart enough spin on the ball to access the pins, but then you have to hit the ball with the right trajectory, whether it's hitting it high into some holes or maybe hitting wedge shots that sort of skip up the green for you.
I think with the approach shots this week, you've definitely had to show a lot of variety in your game and in your approach shots. Foxy flights the ball as well as anyone out here. Yeah, 62, he got -- the wind wasn't up and the conditions were quite benign this morning, but it was still a hell of a round. He's got himself in the lead on his own, which we'll see where it stands at the end of the day, but really impressive.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports