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June 15, 2014
PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA
Q. Can I ask, you were the last guy with wire-to-wire, what's it like playing that last round with a big lead? Do you lose concentration at all or do you have to play the same game?
RORY McILROY: I don't think you can allow yourself to lose concentration. You need to think as if you've still got a lot of golf left and you haven't won the tournament yet. I'm sure that's the way Martin's thinking out there. And obviously by the scores that he shot the front nine, he's staying in the present and he's keeping his head in the right place.
Q. He said when you shot your rounds, he was wondering how you did it. Now you know?
RORY McILROY: I'm wondering how he did it, yeah. It's tough. I think I've made a total of nine birdies this week. It's like -- it's just, I don't see anymore out there. It's tough. Obviously, if you limit the mistakes, you might end up a couple under par for the week, because you're always going to make a few mistakes. But to do what he's doing is -- I think it's nearly more impressive than what I did at Congressional.
Q. Did you see this as far back as Medinah with him that his game was --
RORY McILROY: Not particularly. I think this year he had been trending in the right direction, and then broke through at the PLAYERS again, which I think was huge for him, huge for his confidence. Because he's a hard worker and it's always great to see your work paying off. He saw that and then he sort of continued it since. He played well, I guess, the next week at Dallas as well and has kept it going. So good to see him back where he belongs. He's a really talented guy and a really good guy and obviously a great player.
Q. The Ryder Cup, Martin missed several of the four-balls in that event and obviously made the clinching putt, but were you in those team rooms? What was his confidence like then compared to now?
RORY McILROY: I think in the Ryder Cup guys are just, whenever the captain comes and tells you to play, you play. I don't know when or how people are thinking or confidence-wise, you just -- whenever the captain calls upon you, you just try to go out there and do your best. I think his confidence was, it wasn't as high as it probably could have been at that point, because he was going through a few struggles. But he's still a good enough player to hole the winning putt.
Q. What, if anything, do you take out of this round this week? Or I'm sorry, not this round, but this week. And I know obviously not your best result you were looking for?
RORY McILROY: Course management. Strategy-wise, just need to be a little bit better and a little -- I'm looking forward to coming back and playing a U.S. Open in tough conditions again and firm conditions, because that's the only way that you're going to learn how to play it is experience. So hopefully we get similar conditions next year up in Wisconsin, I guess. No, no. Washington. Wisconsin the next year.
Q. Can you put your finger on anything in terms of the nine-hole stretches? You talked about that before. Is there anything you can do about that?
RORY McILROY: No, not particularly, not really. It's just a matter of, just putting your ball in the right places here and not letting one hole turn into two, turn into three, that sort of thing
Q. Yani Tseng said she was really thrilled to see you at the reception and exchange a few words with you. Can you talk to what it means for you guys to have the women here? Could you see it being like tennis eventually where at least one of the Majors it's both?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you could do it. Obviously logistics-wise, it's a little bit harder. Like tennis tournaments, you've got 20 courts to choose from; you only got one golf course here, one driving range, one putting green. So it's a little bit more difficult. But it's great. I saw Yani this morning, I saw a few girls that I grew up playing junior golf with. Bumped into Michelle earlier, obviously a neighbor of mine down in Palm Beach. So it's cool to run into the girls. I would like to see it happen more often. I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing for women's golf to give them a little bit more exposure. And they get to play -- even though they get to play some of the best courses in the world anyway, I'm going to be interested to see, I'm going to tune in on and watch next week just to see how they get on around here and see how they fare.
Q. Do you play with Michelle?
RORY McILROY: I see her a little bit at the Bear's Club and, yeah, so --
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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