Q. Rory, give us your reflection on day 1, Genesis Scottish Open.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I definitely finished the round better than I started it. Felt like it was a bit of a slow start. I think when you come back over here, links greens, they're a lot slower than what we're used to.
So 3-putt on 1, and then did well, but then 3-putt 2nd as well. So that got me off and running. Then I felt like I played some good golf after that.
Obviously finished great. I was saying to the guys over there, I struggled a bit in left-to-right wind. Right-to-left winds I was okay with. But seemed like the holes I got myself in trouble was when the wind was to the left. Something to try to work on over the next three days.
Q. You talk about the challenge of slower greens. What adaptations can you make when you're putting on greens that don't run as fast?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you could argue and say it's a little bit easier because you don't have to read as much break into them and you can be more aggressive. But I think when you're so used to putting on greens that are two or three feet quicker, you even see a downhill putt, and just you're so in the mind frame of, oh, well, I can't hit this too hard. You just have to remind yourself that you can be pretty assertive with the putting.
Q. Beautiful conditions; it feels like there's barely any wind now. I know there was more maybe earlier on. How aggressive can you be with your strategy around a golf course like this, bearing in mind where we're headed next as well? Do you feel like you're having to hold yourself back, or are you wanting to go after everything?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, the wind definitely did drop for the last few holes, which made the back nine really, really nice to play.
No, I mean, all you can do is play the conditions that are there and that are put in front of you. And if there's an opportunity this week to be aggressive, you have to be. We're still trying to win the golf tournament. You're trying to shoot the lowest score possible. At Portrush, there's opportunities to be aggressive too.
It's not as if you play a certain strategy for this tournament, then you play like really tentative and cagey for a major. You just have to play the course and the conditions that are in front of you and go from there.
Q. Opening 68, off to a bit of a scrappy start. Birdie, birdie, birdie finish. How rewarding was that?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was nice to finish that way. The bogey on 15 felt like a birdie as well from off the green.
But, yeah, it was -- yeah, it was a scrappy start, a bit of a -- I think just getting used to the green speeds and the conditions, and it's a little bit of an adjustment when you've played so much golf over in the States when the greens are that much quicker and conditions are just a little bit different.
But I felt like as the round went on I was getting a little more comfortable and a little more used to what we're going to face this week and next week as well.
Q. You've had a couple weeks off. Have you seen progress over the last few days?
RORY McILROY: I have. I would say I'm very comfortable with a lot of things. I would say where I got myself in trouble today was the left-to-right wind. It seemed like when I missed fairways or when I missed greens, it was in that wind direction.
So that's something to work on over the next few days. 16, 17, 18, the wind was off to the right, and I felt a lot more comfortable hitting the ball into that wind. So a little bit of practice and just a little bit of trying to get a bit more comfortable in those left-to-right winds will -- if I can feel like I've done that coming out of this week, I'll feel good going into next week.
Q. Mike was here this week working with you. How much does that help?
RORY McILROY: It's good. We talked about him maybe coming to London last week while I was there. But sometimes I feel like it's better if I do some stuff on my own first, and then he puts his eyes on it after I've done a few days of work.
Yeah, it's been good to have him here. Me sort of describing to him what I am feeling and what I want to do, and then he just tells me whether he thinks I'm completely wrong or not, and then we meet somewhere in the middle and go from there.
It's great to have him here, a second set of eyes. Everything feels pretty good.
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