Q. You didn't want the full Faldo?
RORY McILROY: I didn't. Yeah, I was thinking more like I knew that I made so many pars, but I was thinking I can't remember the last time I played a round of golf and didn't have a birdie. I think I was like just try to make one. I knew, I felt like I didn't make birdie at 7, didn't make birdie at 8, so then I thought my chance had passed me by, but nice to see one putt go in there at the last.
Q. What did the delay do if anything to you today?
RORY McILROY: Not too much. It was fine. It was okay. Spent a little bit of extra time at the house. I try to get to the course pretty early anyway, so it was just more because of so much rainfall last night and this morning the golf course played a lot different than it's played the last couple days. So just a little bit of an adjustment.
Q. Did it play any different than you were expecting? I know coming into Tuesday at least you were kind of expecting the greens to be a bit different and all these things?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think the rain actually helped the greens. They're a little more receptive. I think they were rolling a little bit better as well. I think it helped the greens. But, yeah, everywhere else the fairways are pretty wet and golf course is playing very, very long. So which should play into my hands. I felt like I hit the ball well and hit enough good shots to be a little better than what I was, but I got three more days to try to catch up to everyone.
Q. Can you go through the second shot on your last, at least on TV it looked a little daunting.
RORY McILROY: When I was up there, I was walking up to the ball, I was just hoping that the ball was far enough back that I could get it up over that tree. Yeah, actually it was fine. It was a bit of a flier lie so I hit 9-iron. I think I had like 190-something, but I just hit a really hard 9-iron. I had to get it, you know, I had to get it up over a tree on the third hole as well. But I've always been pretty comfortable trying to launch it high and get it up there. So it wasn't as, probably wasn't as difficult as what it looked on TV.
Q. How frustrated were you with your putting and is it something that's easily fixable?
RORY McILROY: I wasn't frustrated, I was hitting good putts. Some days they just don't want to go in. No, I wasn't, I was just trying to stay patient because felt like I was hitting good putts, I over read a couple on the front side. Then I under read a couple as a reaction to the over reads. I was just sort of trying to -- it was more of a read thing than -- I was starting the ball on my line and hitting good putts. I just needed to figure out the reads a little bit better. But sort of felt like I got into it by the end of the round.
Q. How did the celebration and the birdie compare to all your other celebrations you've had lately?
RORY McILROY: (Laughing). Not quite. It was just more, it was just nice to see one go in at the end, something to build off.
Q. Did you plan it? Did you know, hey, if I'm going to sink this putt?
RORY McILROY: No, no. I don't want to be that presumptuous.
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