2019 U.S. Open: Rory McIlroy has a mic-drop response for people who think the course is ‘too easy’

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. —  Rory McIlroy is never afraid to speak his mind. That’s why he’s such a fan favorite. When he has an opinion, he shares it and stands by it.

On Saturday, after grinding out a one-under par round of 70 during his third round, he had another one of those takes — and it was something of a mic-drop moment.

There may be a lot of red on the U.S. Open leaderboard, but the course is certainly getting tougher. It started Friday, when the greens started drying out and continued throughout the day on Saturday.

The lowest score of the day was a 67 and it was shot by just one player, Danny Willett. Three players inside the top 10 shot 68, seven players shot one under, and Matt Wallace rounded-out the group with an even-par 71.

But nevertheless, there were still golf fans who said the course was playing too easy, and that there shouldn’t be this much red on the leaderboard. And what were McIlroy’s thoughts?

Bravo, Rory. He then elaborated.

“I think the greens are so small, and when it gets a little firm like this and they start to tuck pins in little corners, it’s angles, it’s all angles,” he said. “You’re trying to think and move ahead. It’s a little bit like chess where you’re crossing paths, going from the third green to the fourth tee and seeing a group tee off 17 and watching their balls land on the right side and kicking in. You have to anticipate what your ball is going to do along the ground as well. It just takes a little bit of concentration because there’s some shots where you need to land the ball 10 yards short of the pin and some holes, like back into the wind, it might only be three or four yards.”

“But you can’t go firing at pins because you’re going to one-hop it over the back all day,” he continued. “It’s playing to the front edge of the greens. Hitting the right trajectory, so the ball does what you think it’s going to do when it hits the ground, basically.”