Q. Talk about just how difficult the golf course is getting and the importance of quality shots today.
RORY McILROY: Very important. Yeah, it's such a benign day, as well. It's a perfect day to play golf. Like not much breeze. It was ideal.
Yeah, it's getting a little bit tricky. You've got to land it on your spots with your iron shots and you've got to put it in the fairway to get chances to get it close. Greens are getting fast, so having to play a little more break.
It's hard to keep the ball below the hole, so you're -- there's a lot of putts out there that are a little bit defensive.
Yeah, overall just getting a little trickier, but it's good. I think it's the way the golf course should play. It's perfect. I mean, it's so -- it's tough, but it's fair, and obviously you see someone like Billy go out and you're still able to do that if you hit the shots and hole the putts.
Q. Today going through the round, not yourself necessarily, but do you see this course as hard but still gettable?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you've got four par-5s. They put the tee up on 14 if you want to have a go for it. There's a few holes out there where you just hit iron into position and then hit an iron shot in from there.
Yeah, it's still gettable. You can certainly see someone shoot what Billy is shooting today, but at the same time anything below 70 is a really good score.
Q. Somebody say something to you at 15?
RORY McILROY: No, someone dropped a bottle or something right in the middle of one my back stroke, so sort of put me off a little bit.
Q. I'm glad it wasn't somebody being rude.
RORY McILROY: No, I don't think so.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports