Rory McIlroy reacts to Irish Open disappointment at Royal County Down

Transcript

00:00It's tough because it's just happened, but how emotional an experience is this for you coming so close in your hometown?

00:08Yeah, I must say I've never... that roar when I hit that second shot on 18 was pretty cool.

00:17Yeah, the support I got out there this week was absolutely amazing.

00:22I've had a great time being home. It's been too long.

00:26I need to keep coming back more often.

00:34From where I was at the start of the week and what I wanted to do, it's a step in the right direction.

00:43If anything, it just whets my appetite even more for Port Russia next year.

00:46Rory, on 17, obviously, the misjudgment of the pace of the putt.

00:50And yet you came out on 18, hit probably the drive of the week, hit probably the orange of the week and maybe even the putt of the week.

00:56Talk me through just that period.

00:59Yeah, I saw when I missed the second putt on 17, I saw that Raz missed on 30 and got to 30 and got to 9.

01:10So I knew what I needed to do on the 18th tee.

01:13Driver probably wasn't the shot that was in play because it brought those three bunkers into play.

01:17But I needed to try to make eagle, so I had to try to thread it through those bunkers, which I did.

01:24And then, yeah, the 7-iron was... yeah, they're probably two of the best shots I've hit all week.

01:31I thought I hit the putt with good enough speed for it to sort of come down the hill a little more.

01:37It just hung up there. Maybe the wind had a little bit to do with that coming out of the left.

01:41But, you know, I guess I can take the positives. I hit the shots when I needed to, knowing that I needed to make a three.

01:49And, you know, unfortunately, the putt just hung.