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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICJanuary 30, 2015Rory McIlroyDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Q. Excited where you find yourself in this championship? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely in a great position going into the weekend. Felt like I played very nicely today. Couldn't ask for much more, bogey‑free, made birdies and set myself up for a good run over the next couple days. Q. Stepped up from the first round? RORY McILROY: Yes, definitely. I felt like I played okay yesterday. I didn't play my best but I definitely improved from tee‑to‑green out there and was able to make some putts. Yeah, it was a great round and I'm going to need something similar over the next couple of days to stay in the position that I'm in. Q. Have you enjoyed the sense of occasion of Pink Friday? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's nice to see so many people turn out in pink for a great cause. When they sent me this hat to wear I was a bit apprehensive about it, but I like it; finished it off nicely. Maybe have to wear it a bit more often. Q. We can't tell who anybody is out there but at the same time it looks good? RORY McILROY: Yeah, everyone in sort of uniform, it is quite nice. Q. What are your feelings into the weekend? RORY McILROY: I'm in a great position obviously. But there's so many people that are close to the lead and it's so bunched up there. Even though I'm in the lead, there's so many people still in with a chance if they shoot a good round tomorrow. Just got to go out there, stay aggressive, stick to the game plan and try to make as many birdies as I can. You can't play defensively on this golf course, especially with the conditions. The conditions are absolutely perfect. Guys are going to make birdies and going to hole putts and I'm going to have to do the same. Q. Well done, that was a pretty perfect round, wasn't it? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was nice. Felt like I hit the ball very well from tee‑to‑green. There was a couple of loose shots, but overall, yeah, very happy. No bogeys. I think that might even be my first bogey‑free round of the year. I don't know if I went bogey‑free at any point last week in Abu Dhabi or the week before. Played really well. Missed a few chances on the back nine, 12, 13, 14, but I can't really complain. 64 is a nice score out there and obviously sets me up really well for the weekend. Q. Is it possible to draw comparisons with the standard of your play at the heights of last year to how you're playing now, or is it too different? RORY McILROY: I feel very comfortable. I feel similar. Even the run of golf that I have produced since that summer has been very good, very consistent, shooting really good scores. I saw a stat yesterday from the first round of The Open, I've played 45 rounds and a third of them were 66 or better. So just shows you the level that I am sort of at and just very comfortable with my game. I've put the work in and I've worked hard. I continue to work hard and this is the result, which is nice. Q. How do you achieve that? How do you achieve the momentum kind of thing rather than reinventing the wheel, just maintaining the status quo, or is it a case of trying to find progression? RORY McILROY: I think there's always a case of trying to find progression, but I know when I hit a 6‑iron as good as I can, there's no‑‑ I can't hit it any better than that. It's just about being able to do it instead of seven or eight times out of ten, nine times out of ten and just finding that consistency. If you look back even four or five years ago, I was a good player but I wasn't No. 1 in the world and the only reason for that was I was able to produce round like this. I just feel like I'm able to produce them more often, so it's that consistency that I'm finding which is nice. Q. Heading into a weekend at the top of the leaderboard where the prerequisite is for aggressive golf, you couldn't ask for a better scenario. RORY McILROY: No, not at all. It's a very bunched leaderboard. I know I'm going to have to go out there and make a bunch of birdies over the weekend like I have the first two days. Yeah, this course, it does suit my game style: Aggressive, go at pins. The greens, even though it got a little bit crusty out there, it's still quite receptive. You can fire at pins and get aggressive, and with the high ball flight that I have, it sort of plays into my hands. Q. Saturday last year, you were tailing Stephen Gallacher and now Marc Warren. What do you know about his game? RORY McILROY: I actually played with him the last day at the DP World in November I think I played with him, Saturday or Sunday. Marc was on The European Tour sort of at the same time as we were both coming up in 2008. I remember playing like U.S. Open qualifier with him at Walton Heath and Open Qualifier at Sunningdale. Good player. Talking about consistency, he seems like he's become a lot more consistent. He's obviously had wins but there's been times where he has sort of struggled a little bit, so it's good to see that he's playing well. Yeah, it will be a fun weekend. Q. Three seconds to follow the three wins on The European Tour. For most people, that would be acceptable; for you, do you get impatient‑‑ RORY McILROY: Of course, especially with how I'm playing, I want to take advantage of that and I know I'm playing well enough to win. So there's no point in being satisfied with second, when you know you're playing well enough to lift trophies. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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