McIlroy insists 72 is not disastrous: “I can shoot something in the mid-60s and get myself back in it”

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a stroke from the No. 12 tee during practice round 3 at Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

Rory McIlroy insisted his opening 72 was not “disastrous” and admitted it was hard to stay patient as 36 players broke par on the opening day at the Masters.

The Holywood star will have to become just the second player after Tiger Woods over the past 18 to come from outside the top 10 to win after a round featuring five birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey left him tied for 37th.

He’s seven shots behind four-time Major winner Brooks Koepka, Norway’s Viktor Hovland and world number three Jon Rahm, whose 65s gave them a two-shot lead over Cameron Young and Jason Day.

“Yeah, just a little untidy in places,” said McIlroy, who is targeting a round in the mid-sixties today. “I missed a couple of tee shots left on seven and 17 that I sort of got penalised for, like an untidy bogey on three, a three-putt on 11. So just stuff like that. It's not disastrous, but I just need to sort of tidy it all up.

“I didn't feel like I was too far away today. I made five birdies but just a couple of too many mistakes on the card.”

Having vowed to be patient before the start, McIlroy admitted that was a difficult task as he saw low numbers on the leaderboard and playing partners Sam Burns and Tom Kim shoot 68 and 70.

“Yeah, it was in a way,” he said. “Obviously you see Sam playing beside me goes 4-under for the first four. You've got three guys at 7-under on the leaderboard. So, yeah, it's hard to stay patient when you just want to try to get yourself in there.”

Due to potential inclement weather on Friday, all starting times have been moved up 30 minutes with McIlroy now off at 10:10 am (3:10pm Irish time) in the second round.

“I've got a quick turnaround overnight and looking forward to getting back on the course pretty quickly and obviously trying to get myself back in the thick of things,” McIlroy added.

“I'm probably two or three shots behind how I'd like to be, considering how I played today.  “I think, if I had gotten the most out of my round, I would have shot 68 or 69. So a few shots back, but nothing that's not insurmountable.  “I think I can go out there and give myself plenty of chances and play a great round of golf tomorrow and get myself back on that big white scoreboard.”

McIlroy reckons the rain and wind forecast for today gives him a better chance of moving up.

“The more difficult the course is, I think that's probably favourable conditions for chasing a little bit or trying to catch up,” he said.

“Look, I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Hopefully we don't get affected by it too much, and we can get out there and play 18 holes uninterrupted. I can shoot something in the mid-60s and get myself back in it.”

He surprised many by doing a live walk and talk with CBS on the ninth hole and played down any controversy.

“Yeah, so the club reached out to us last week and just inquired if I would be interested in doing it,” he said.” I did it a couple weeks ago at the Match Play. It definitely feels a little less intrusive with the ear piece rather than someone right up next to you with the microphone like they've been doing it in Europe for a couple of years.

“I thought it would be a cool thing to do. I did it in Austin and didn't feel like it took me out of my rhythm in any way or made me think about things too much. So it's nice to provide the audience at home a little bit more insight into what's going on out here.

“I thought Max's was great at Torrey. I thought Keith Mitchell's was good at Pebble. I think they're the only two that I've watched, but I really enjoyed them.

“I thought Max provided some great insight into the hole he was playing, and I thought Keith did a really good job as well.”

Asked if he’d have agreed to speak on TV had he not birdied the eighth, he joked: “No, it's fine. I'm temperamental. I'm not that temperamental.

“No, I was wondering what they were going to ask me more so that what I was going to say.

“I think on the 9th tee they saw me put the earpiece in, and they're like what's he doing? But it's fine.”

Quizzed about who he’d like to see interviewed next, he quipped:” “Tiger. There's only one answer there.”
Asked the chances of that happening, he said: “Zero.”