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THE HONDA CLASSICFebruary 25, 2015Rory McIlroyPALM BEACH GARDENS, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: Rory McIlroy, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at The Honda Classic, making your seventh start here at The Honda Classic, 2012 champion here, and runner‑up last year. First tournament on American soil this week, so just some comments on being back here at The Honda Classic. RORY McILROY: Yeah, excited to be back here. You know, as you said, this is my seventh start since 2009, so I haven't missed a year. Always enjoyed it here. I feel the golf course is a course that sets up well for me and sort of like a hometown event these days, being in this area for the last couple years. So it's been really nice. I've spent three weeks here and been practicing and playing away; it feels like quite a long time since I've teed it up in competition a few weeks ago. So excited to get back out there tomorrow and get a scorecard in hand and feel what it's like to compete again. Happy to be here and obviously excited for the week. Q. How do you maintain momentum in the natural breaks and runs of a season, especially when you're off to such a great start? RORY McILROY: I think it's just a matter of‑‑ I think you can't burn yourself out. I think that's one of the big things is you have to, like a took a complete week off after Dubai. I've had a couple weeks to practice and prepare leading up to this event, Doral next week, Bay Hill in a few weeks' time. So I think that those sort of natural rest periods are very important. But then you can start to build back up and get ready for these events. I think the biggest thing is just to prepare as best you can for each and every event. People talk about momentum and talk about sort of riding it, but I think momentum and confidence are two very similar things in golf. If you're confident and you've had good performances, that confidence seems to carry on; and if you're happy with how practice goes, then you're obviously going to be confident going into tournaments. So that's sort of how I'm feeling right now, and try to keep that feeling for as long as I can. Q. 4‑under through six holes today, it would appear you had no stress. I'm wondering if being No. 1 and with Tiger struggling, do you feel any more expectations, obligations, pressure to be the face of the game? RORY McILROY: No, not necessarily. I'm in a great position and I feel like I handle the position I'm in a lot better than I did a couple of years ago. I've got more experience at it. I think this is‑‑ I've spent well over a year of my career at world No. 1, so I'm pretty used to it by now. I don't feel any extra pressure to be the face of the game. I think the game's in great hands, not just with people like myself but some of the young stars that are starting to come through and play well; and even though there's a few guys that have been at the top for a number of years that are struggling a little bit, I feel like the next generation coming through can definitely keep golf where it is, and it is in very good hands. With the likes of Jordan and Rickie and myself and Hideki, and, you know, Brooks won a couple weeks ago in Phoenix; a lot of young guys coming through and playing well, Jason Day obviously at Torrey Pines. So golf's in good hands. I don't feel like there's any extra pressure on me or from anyone else to carry the game forward. I think it's going to be just fine. Q. I know you just said what you said, but golf's always been star‑driven in a way, the Tiger era and Greg Norman before, and there's always good players but there's always one that stands out. Do you feel that you are comfortable being that guy? RORY McILROY: Yes. Q. And why? RORY McILROY: Because it's what I've always wanted to do. You know, it would be pretty‑‑ I would be wasting my time if I was out there practicing as much as I do and putting as much into it if I didn't want to be in this position, and wasting the people's time around me, as well, that helped me get to this point. Of course I want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that‑‑ I said it last year, golf is waiting for someone like that to step forward, put their hand up and win the big tournaments and sort of become‑‑ I think it's harder to become as dominant these days with technology and course conditions and the depth of the fields. Everyone's got a lot more knowledge and knows a lot more good the game, and everyone just works harder and are more professional at what they do. Yeah, this is the position want to be in and I want to be in it as long as I can. Q. Obviously a lot of anticipation, you going to Augusta, chance to complete the career Grand Slam. How much do you think about the Masters? How do you try to make sure you're going to peak to be in the perfect position and will you do anything differently this year at Augusta? RORY McILROY: I feel like I've got a nice schedule going into Augusta. I'm not playing too much, but I'm playing just enough that I should be as sharp as possible going in there. I haven't thought about it. What I really thought about over the past couple of weeks is getting ready for these events coming up, which is going to be here, Doral and Bay Hill, and trying to play as well as I possibly can in those; so that gives me a little confidence going into a little break to prepare as well as I can for Augusta. From what I've heard, they haven't made any changes this year up there. I'll make one visit up before the start of the week and play a couple of practice rounds, but I sort of do that every year. So that's nothing that's out of the ordinary. I guess not put too much emphasis on it; treat it like I have done every other Masters and go there. You can prepare as much as you want, but if you get there on the week and you don't execute the game plan or what you're trying to do‑‑ so it's a matter of going there and being prepared but not over thinking it. Q. You touched a little bit on this already, but you've had an interesting history, if you will, here, over the past few years. Just curious, what's different for you coming into this year's event compared to previous years, and secondly, what is sort of the hardest part for you about the position that you're in now? RORY McILROY: I really haven't felt as settled since coming in here, 2011, 2012, I guess. I feel like everything that's happened at the start of this year, it's sort of like a clear road ahead. It's so nice just to be able to focus on golf and put all my time and effort into that. And I guess the hardest thing is for me, anyway, is being motivated enough to stay in the position that you're in, resetting goals all the time and keep trying to set the bar higher for yourself. That's what it is for me, anyway. You know, I don't feel any of the external pressure, really, but it's the pressure that I put on myself to play to the best of my ability and motivating myself to go out and practice every day and work hard to try and get better. Q. What motivates you this year? RORY McILROY: I've got a few goals in mind. But, I mean, I've got nine PGA TOUR wins, which in two or three years, isn't too bad; it's pretty good. But I want to make that a lot more. I want to get myself into contention a lot more. I have, but I want to‑‑ I've been on a good run over the past sort of six months, especially, you know, finishing off on The European Tour last year and into this year where I've been first or second, seven events in a row or whatever it is. Just try to keep that consistency up, and then challenge for the bigger events. I was pretty pleased with my performances in the majors, obviously with the two wins, but even the couple that, an eighth in Augusta, which was my best finish to date; and I felt like I was close at the U.S. Open but just didn't quite have it that week, but it was still a reasonable performance. And just carrying on from there and giving yourself a chance to win basically every time you tee it up. Q. Your upcoming schedule includes Bay Hill. What was your decision‑making on adding that this year? RORY McILROY: I've never played it before. I was always‑‑ you know, priorities have changed, and it's a big event. What Arnold Palmer has done for our game and what he's done for the PGA TOUR, it was about time that I showed up there and played in his tournament. So I'm looking forward to getting up there and seeing it. I've never played Bay Hill before, so hopefully ‑‑ I'm sure I will like it but I've watched a lot of it on TV over the years and looking forward to it. Q. You mentioned Mr.Palmer. What do you feel like his kind of ultimate impact has been on your career even? RORY McILROY: For a European, it was always Seve. Seve is for The European Tour what Arnold is for the PGA TOUR I guess. He brought it to the masses. We wouldn't play in front of as many people or in front of as many TV cameras or play for as much‑‑ you know, obviously the money thing's been a lot to do with Tiger over the recent years. But especially getting golf as a product out there, it all happened in the 50s and 60s, Arnold, Mark McCormack, all that sort of started happening around then. If it wasn't for that, who knows where our game would be. So I think we owe a lot to Arnold for that. Q. You talk about how you played this course pretty well, and you have almost from the first day you set foot on it. Other courses are a little bit slower learning curve, and I'm speaking specifically of the Stadium Course at THE PLAYERS. What have you learned the last couple years you played well there, as opposed to the first couple years when you had some difficulties? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I have a love/hate relationship with Pete Dye golf courses. I either love them. Sometimes I'll hate them at first and then I'll learn to love them. I've done well on Pete Dye golf courses before. So I guess going into THE PLAYERS in '13, I don't think I had ever made a cut before that at THE PLAYERS. I was like, well, you play a lot of other Dye courses, well, why can't you just figure this one out. So I adopted a more conservative approach, which you need to. It's a real thinker's golf course. You've just got to plot your way around, especially when the players is now in May. The course gets firm, gets tricky. You've just got to keep it out of that bermudarough. I guess I just figured out how to play it a little bit better, play the angles. A lot of tee boxes there, they line you up in directions you don't really want to go. So it's just about learning all that, and I feel like I've got it figured out pretty well by now. A couple of top tens there the last couple of years have proved that. Q. Do you enjoy any course where you have to think a little bit, as opposed to kind of just let fly? RORY McILROY: I'm a let‑fly kind of guy, yeah. If you give me a course like that, I'll take that any day (laughing). Q. Saturday at Augusta last year, it could have potentially been maybe an uncomfortable or embarrassing situation to be in, and yet you turned it into a positive. So do you recall what you were thinking going into that day? Did you have any idea that there might be some great lesson to come out of that? RORY McILROY: I mean, I was just happy we were going to get around in under three hours, that's perfect. Get out first, get done. You know, playing with Jeff, it was a treat for me to see how he played the golf course and see someone that plays it, you know, not really week‑in, week‑out but has played it a lot, a lot more than me. You know, I did pretty well. I think I shot 71 maybe to Jeff's 70. So even though everyone said, owe, you got beat by an amateur, not many amateurs can shoot 71 off the Masters tee at Augusta. A lot did come out of it. I picked his brain a little bit on the way around, and I'm sure I'll catch up with him when I make a visit up there in a few week's time. So for being not quite a nice position to be in going off first at the weekend at Augusta, it did turn into quite a positive for me, which was nice. Q. Just to confirm, you said something earlier about the issues you were having earlier in the year. Are you talking about the legal issues that were on your mind; is that what you're talking about? RORY McILROY: Correct. Q. And secondly, being world No. 1, we all think that everything is going swimmingly with your swing and your game. What is it that you're working on right now that you're concerned about? RORY McILROY: I wouldn't say I have too many concerns right now. I guess just getting sharp after a two or three‑week layoff. There's that element of sharpness that sometimes goes away. So spend a lot of time around the short game area, hitting a lot of putts inside six feet; all the stuff that you need to do in tournament play to help you shoot a score to help you turn 68s into 65s, stuff like that. It's all about sharpness, wedge play around the greens. I'm really happy with how I'm striking the golf ball, so it's been more to do with sort of inside a hundred yards. Q. If I can follow on the Jeff Knox question; you mentioned that you thought he had putted better there than anyone you had seen. Do you think that's the missing piece that he can help you with? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm very comfortable at Augusta from tee‑to‑green. It sets up pretty‑‑ it sets up very well for me. And yeah, I probably haven't taken advantage of the opportunities that I have given myself over the past few years, even in 2011 I was leading by four going into the last day and I felt like I missed everything. If I can have another ball‑striking week like that, but just be a little better on the greens, you know, sooner or later it's going to all fall into place for me. Yeah, the more you play it, the more you get comfortable around the greens, and as I said, I don't think they have made any changes this year. So it's going to be a similar setup to what we've played the last couple years, and the more times you go back there, the more comfortable you become. DOUG MILNE: Rory, thanks for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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