Q. What did you think of how you played?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played okay. I played better than okay. I felt like I played pretty well, for the most part. Especially after making that double on the 3rd hole, to play the rest of the round in 3-under was good. Yeah, it's a tough course. Yeah, you have to concentrate on every shot. The greens are very firm already, very fast. Get yourself above the hole, it's very tricky.
So, yeah, I felt like I did well again. Like, I would like to hit a few more fairways, give myself a few more chances from the short grass, but overall, not a bad score to build from.
Q. Do you feel like you drove it -- with the changes you made to your driver, how do you feel like you drove it?
RORY McILROY: I feel like I drove it pretty well. Again, anytime I hit driver here I'm still feeling like I'm hitting into the narrowest part of the fairway. So I hit some good drives that didn't end up being in the fairway, but they were -- I felt like they were pretty good drives. I had a couple of bad ones. I think just with the way -- some of the lines you have to take with driver here, whether it's hitting up over trees or trying to cut corners, it's much easier just hitting into a nice, like, straight strip on the range.
So, yeah, just some of the looks out there are a bit different. But overall, I felt like it was an improvement from what I've been seeing with the driver over the past few weeks.
Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: I birdied it. I hit a 5-iron and a wedge. Thank you very much. Yeah, I hit a 5-iron off the tee and then I hit a wedge. I think I had 146 to the pin, 141 to cover that little right side. So I hit a wedge to a tap-in really.
Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: No, not today. Not the wind wasn't in the right direction to do it, I don't think. If anything it was in off the right. So, yeah, you could cover that little stream that runs across at 290 or 300, but just, yeah.
Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: No, not today. But again, that was the pin to do it if you were ever going to do it. But if you get a wind switch and -- I think they have moved the tee up here a couple of times in the past.
Q. (No Microphone.)
RORY McILROY: Yeah, so...
Q. What helps you stay calm under pressure? How do you maintain your focus throughout the day even after like hole 3, how did you adjust through that?
RORY McILROY: I think just understanding that there's 69 more holes to go in the golf tournament and there's a long way to go and a lot of things can happen. I've made plenty of double bogeys in my career, and I've made plenty of double bogeys in tournaments that I've won. So you play enough events, you learn to ride the highs and the lows and not get too excited or too down either way.
Q. Was there anything you were looking to, are looking to get out of this week as you kind of turn focus to after?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I would like to just see good signs in my game. I think if anything the sort of long lag putting with a lot of break is something that is quite similar to Shinnecock. It's not similar around the greens because there's no thick ryegrass around the greens there. So I think if I can -- if I'm happy with my ball striking, and then just seeing big breaking putts and getting comfortable with that, and obviously getting myself into contention and giving myself a chance to win the tournament.
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