Rory McIlroy dismissed Amanda Balionis question – | Golf News

Rory McIlroy told Amanda Balionis there was no chance of him giving up at the PGA Championship despite his disappointing start to the match.

The six-time major winner, coming off the profitable protection of his Masters title, endured a troublesome start, posting a four-over-par opening spherical, which prompted a blunt one-phrase evaluation for reporters. And it comes as PGA Championship followers angrily demand one participant receives a punishment.

McIlroy sat down with CBS reporter Balionis after signing his card, and she requested the Northern Irishman if he believed his match was completed after 18 holes.

“I go back to your mentality after that opening round, how easy would it have been for you to just mail it in the rest of the week? ‘This isn’t my week,'” Balionis requested. “And how mentally do you come back out of that? And now you put yourself in contention with 18 to play.”, reviews The Mirror US.

McIlroy made his place crystal clear, responding, “That’s not me. I think that’s not me. Maybe earlier in my career, I might’ve felt or thought that way, but do I have 40 chances at these majors the rest of my career, like realistic chances?”

“So I don’t want to let any of those pass me by. Even after a bad start on Thursday, I knew if I could just get myself back in it yesterday, which I did, [it would] enable me to just keep climbing up the leaderboard.

“I’m not going to be in the lead going into tomorrow, but I’m going to be close enough. I really feel like I’ve obtained another likelihood to win a major.”

McIlroy faced the prospect of missing the weekend after his opening round, but he bounced back with a bogey-free 67 to earn a Saturday tee time. He’s currently tied for seventh at three under, three shots adrift of Alex Smalley, who leads by two.

The standings are tightly packed, with 30 competitors within five strokes of the leader entering Sunday’s final round, and McIlroy recognized he was still competitive before his third-round performance.

“We’re all getting a little more comfy with the golf course,” McIlroy stated. “Whether or not it’s traces off tees, or whether or not or not it’s understanding where to miss, or getting to know the greens better as the week goes on. I said it last evening, I really feel like anybody who made the cut last evening ought to have felt like they’d a likelihood, and I went on the market today with that feeling and capitalized on perhaps calmer circumstances going out.”