|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 18, 2015Rory McIlroyORLANDO, FLORIDA DOUG MILNE: Rory McIlroy, thanks for joining us for a few minutes here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. Making your first start here at Bay Hill. You've had a chance to be out and see the course. Just some comments on the decision to be here and thoughts on being here this week. RORY MCILROY: Yeah. Obviously delighted to be here. It's been a long time coming. I haven't played this tournament for a few reasons over the past few years but it's nice that it was able to fit into the schedule and I'm sort of rued the decision I haven't come sooner. The golf course yesterday and today, I really like it. I feel like it sets up really well for me. You're quite generous off the tee. You can -- if you're a long hitter I feel like you've got a pretty big advantage on some of the holes. So, just excited to be here. It's Arnold's tournament so it's nice to come here and honor him and all that he's done for our game and this Tour. So, yeah, you know, as I said, it's a long time coming but delighted to finally be here. DOUG MILNE: We'll take questions. Q. Welcome to Orlando. RORY MCILROY: Thank you. Q. Why did it work out better this year, kind of a match play thing, that falling off gave you an extra week of prep and why not Houston this year? You kind of made a few little fluidity changes. RORY MCILROY: Yeah. I guess regarding this tournament, I just always played in Texas and played San Antonio and Houston a couple years ago, played Houston so I thought I just mix it up a little bit this year. Play here and then I'll have a couple weeks off to get ready for Augusta. Just -- I just wanted to mix this is up. Back in '11 I took three years off before the Masters. It worked pretty well for 63 holes, not quite 72 (laughter). So, just trying to adopt a similar approach. Q. Just wondered about your trip to Augusta last week. Fun obviously given the people you were with. How much of it was getting ready? RORY MCILROY: Hundred percent fun. Zero percent serious. I didn't hit any extra balls. I played one ball the whole time. Really wanted to go and enjoy it with my dad. That was what the whole thing was about. There's four father and sons and we had a great time. I spent two days, one night and it was just about going and enjoying ourselves and that's really what we did. Q. What did you score? RORY MCILROY: First day, I played pretty well. Second day it was cold, really cold. Hit driver 3-iron into the last and didn't reach the green. But it was good fun. Dad had a great time and that was one of the reasons that we really wanted to go up and at least now he appreciates what I go through one week a year whenever I come off the course and he says, "Why did you do that on 6" or, "Why did you go there on 14?" It's not that easy. Now he appreciates what it's like. Q. Just adding to that, is it a point you felt you didn't need to do extra work? RORY MCILROY: Tee to green I know what I'm doing there and it's just about being comfortable on the greens and around the greens. I think they've got their member tournament, The Jamboree this week. They got the course in very similar shape to what it might be come the tournament. It was a little softer, played a little longer. The green speeds were up there. The more you go back to that place the more comfortable you become with the surroundings and golf course. That's sort of how I feel about it. Q. The rest of the part of the week did you put in some good work and is it better with the draw that you were especially concerned about? RORY MCILROY: It is. Michael Bannon came over on Friday evening. So we worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday at home and then he's still here yesterday, today, goes back tomorrow. That was sort of an unplanned visit. Hadn't really scheduled that in. The last five days have been really good work with him just one-on-one, no one else around. It's been really good. So, feeling much better about my game now than I was walking off Doral ten days ago. Q. Talk about growing up and hearing about Arnold Palmer and what he means to you and getting involved. RORY MCILROY: I think being a European, it's a little different. I was always -- Arnie was sort of our Seve in a way, the one that brought golf to the masses just like Seve did for European golf. So, growing up I didn't know that much about him and just because I didn't grow up in this country but when you come over here and understand what he did for the game, what he did for the Tour, you know, if it wasn't for Arnold Palmer, you know, I don't know where the game would be right now but it might not be in as good a place as it is. Yeah. As I said, just really delighted to be here, excited to get to spend sometime with him. I'm going to sit down and have dinner with him tomorrow night. It's going to be a nice week for that. Q. Rory, you were 9 the last time a player from Europe won the Masters. Since then, Europe has dominated the Ryder Cup, players from Europe have won all the other Majors. What do you think it is about Augusta, the time of year or how do you account for that? RORY MCILROY: Tiger Woods has been one of the reasons (laughter). I don't know if it's anything necessarily to do with European players, you know, I feel a few of us had had a chance, Lee had a chance in '10, I think. I had the chance in '11. Luke Donald was up there '11, '12. I don't know. I don't think there's any reason. You look at in the early '90s you had a lot of Europeans win, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Ian Woosnam. Maybe that will change and it will start to happen again. I don't see any, you know, reason that I can think of of why that is. Q. Crazy to you, you were 9 the last time that happened? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I guess, in a way. Jose Maria? Yeah. It's been a long time. Q. You probably don't watch that much golf on TV but there was quite a playoff on Sunday. Do you raise an eyebrow when you look at a result hike that of two guys who are in your peer group who are obviously ascendant and playing quite well like Spieth and Reed? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, definitely. I didn't get to see much of it. The only thing I really saw was Jordan's winning putt. Actually I think -- I was having lunch on Sunday and golf was on in the background. I saw Vijay chip-in. That was the only two shots I saw all week. It is great to see. Patrick has already won this year in Hawaii. Jordan had a phenomenal year last year, wins again. It's great. It's more youth for sport than it used to be. You'll see younger guys coming up and coming through. They went on Tour and become more confident and feel like they can do it each and every week. So, it's great to see. Q. Rory, two tough turns you come off, Honda, Doral. Where do you feel the state of your game is right now? How do you feel you're playing now coming into Bay Hill this week? RORY MCILROY: I feel good. I really do. As I said, I got some good work in with my coach Michael Bannon over the last five, six days, something that I hadn't really planned on doing so it was nice to spend one-on-one time with him and work on a couple things. I'm excited the direction it's going and happy to be here and get one more competitive outing and I guess really trying to get myself into contention and try and win a golf tournament before I turn my attention elsewhere. Q. Rory, are there shots at Augusta now that you've been there around long enough there's a typical pause where you're standing there, certain shots, certain locations you are concerned about over the four days? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, there is. There's obviously a lot of pin positions there that you don't attack and pin positions where you need to leave the ball below the pin. I had a little conversation with Jack Nicklaus on Sunday about it, he was having lunch just across from us, and we had a chat and he was saying the middle -- if you hit the ball in the middle of the green at Augusta you're going to be okay. Even if there isn't a pin that you want to take on, you try and put your ball in the middle of the green, you're going to have a relatively straightforward putt. But, yeah, there's still, Augusta, it's intimidating. It is. I feel like it's quite generous off the tee and definitely a second shot golf course when. Whenever they put pins in positions where you feel there's only a three, four yard area to land the ball in, you can become quite tentative and that's how I felt the first couple of years I was there. I didn't -- I wasn't aggressive enough and that's what you really need to be. You need to be aggressive. You can't start to guide the ball around there. The minute you start doing that you'll start to miss it on the wrong side. You put yourself in a lot of trouble and it's hard to get out of that sort of mindset if you slip into it. Q. Rory, just a couple of quick things about the Augusta trip last week. Can you tell us who else played with you in your groups each day? Did everybody play all the way back and was there a story about going to the gym or something and running into Peyton Manning or Brady? RORY MCILROY: The Mannings were on property. Obviously I played with my dad both days and I played with Jimmy Dunn and his son, CY first day and Ed Hurley, who is a Augusta member and his son the second day. The Dunns beat us over 27 holes one up on Thursday. The winners of both matches played on Friday. So, we were playing for the consolation prize on Friday, the McIlroys and Hurleys (laughter). It was good fun. Yeah, Friday morning we were -- I got in the gym about 6. Brady walked in at 6:15 and the Mannings walked in at 6:30. That was my time to leave (laughter). Q. Rory, you talked to Tom about feeling rusty being off three weeks going into that tournament. If Tiger does play in the Masters he's going to be coming off a ten week break. Can you imagine the challenge of trying to play Augusta coming off that many weeks with no competitive golf? RORY MCILROY: Back in '10, '11 he finished 4th coming off whatever it was, Thanksgiving to then, I guess. He knows his way around the Augusta. If he feels ready to play and he does play then he knows what to do when there. Yes, someone that's won the Masters four times, whatever, yeah. I think he's pretty comfortable in that place. Q. First of all, what did you shoot that first day? You never really gave us a number. RORY MCILROY: I didn't, no (laughter). Q. When a guy bows his head --       RORY MCILROY: It wasn't the course record (laughter). Q. Anyway, moving on, for those who say that the Masters doesn't really start until the back-9 Sunday I wonder if you can talk about what it's like going from 9th green to 10 tee and just knowing that or feeling it and just what it's like when you get there. Maybe not from your own personal experience but the whole idea. You can mention that if you want to. RORY MCILROY: I guess for me it's the only thing I have to go off is my personal experience. Even though I was one ahead going into the back-9 there was a lot of guys coming after me. It was the first time I had ever been in that situation in a Major and at Augusta. It all got a little too much. But it's different. You hear roars, whether it's 15 or 13 or 16 and you're wondering who they're coming from, what have this done, was it an eagle roar or birdie roar. There's so many different story lines in those 9 holes of golf. So, you really just got to focus on yourself and try to block all of it out. That's the thing I learned, especially there because you can start to watch the leaderboards and start to listen to where the roars are coming from and start to wonder who that was, what they did, what score does that get them to instead of just solely focusing on yourself and trying to play the best golf that you can and hopefully that's good enough. It was in the 60s. Q. Are you going to play the par 3 tournament? RORY MCILROY: Yes. Q. Hope to win that? RORY MCILROY: No. I usually don't even finish. I usually hit a couple in the water and --       Q. Couple years ago did you sleep well that Saturday night that you were leading? RORY MCILROY: No. Got up the next morning, Allister playing North Hampton, the quarterfinal. Watched that. They got beat. Q. What time was that? RORY MCILROY: Maybe at like 9. Yeah. I would have been up from maybe 8:00. I didn't -- it's hard to sleep. I don't sleep well at the best of times so whenever you're sleeping on the lead going into the final round of a Major, if you get five, six hours you're doing well. Q. When did you actually get to the golf course? RORY MCILROY: An hour and a half before my tee time. I don't try and get there too early. Q. Try to keep yourself busy? RORY MCILROY: Yeah. Yeah. I just kept myself busy the wrong way. Q. Rory, without a final tune-up the week before Augusta, how imperative is it for you to work this week and how will you spend the next two weeks preparing for the Masters? RORY MCILROY: For me it's important to play well here, to get into contention and just feel what it's like, final event going into Augusta, just feeling something on the last day and the back-9 in contention, having a chance to win all that stuff. I don't think there's any better way to prepare for a tournament is to get into contention, you know, pretty closely enough to the event. The next couple of weeks I'll just go home and practice and just get ready and think about the shots that I'll need, try and get the superintendent at the Bears Club to get the greens as fast as possible, tight aprons and all that sort of stuff. Just practice and play a little bit. Might go over to Seminole a couple times and play. Greens are quite undulating and can get quite fast. That's really it. Yeah, just go about it the way that I always do and not try and put too much pressure on myself. I'll head up there at the start of the week of the Masters and prepare like I would always prepare any other tournament. Q. When did you decide to get Michael over? RORY MCILROY: I think he took it upon himself. When was it? I think probably like Tuesday or Wednesday after Doral. We were talking about a few things. Thought it would be good to get a little bit of one-on-one time and work for a few days sort of unhindered. No one else around so it was good. Q. Had he seen something that was happening? RORY MCILROY: Just -- not really. It was more just my feelings and what -- because on camera it actually didn't look too bad so it was more we got the TrackMan out and worked a couple days on that analyzing some numbers as well and what it could be. Just figured a couple little things out over the few days and it feels much better. Q. Rory, did you see the sign on 18 on the house and did it make you chuckle? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was very nice. It's hard to miss it. It's really nice to think that people appreciate you being here and I felt the reception I got out there today was incredible. I know it's my first time here but it feels like the people of the community here in Orlando really support this event for a number of reasons and it's great that I could be here finally and it's nice to have a lot of support out there. Q. Rory, a couple different questions. First, there's so much anticipation leading up to the Masters, sort of. I'm curious for you, do you feel any of that and if so why or why not and I'll ask the second question after that? RORY MCILROY: I think every year there's always such buildup and hype towards Augusta. I think that hasn't changed. I just think that this year at least for now I'm the buildup, the center of that hype. Whether Tiger decides to play or not, that could change things a little bit and I could not fly under the radar. There would be a lot of attention on that as well. But I don't feel like it's any different. I've got a chance to go to Augusta and do something very few players in this game have done before so that adds a little bit of spice to it but I don't feel any extra pressure, any extra, you know -- I feel the extra attention but no extra pressure on this side going to Augusta this year. Q. Secondly, trip to Augusta that you just had, what do you get out of something like that? Obviously not the same conditions or so forth that you're playing. I'm curious if there's something specific you take from it. RORY MCILROY: Just the enjoyment of going and playing a golf course like that with my dad, being in good company with all the good people for a couple days and drinking some good wine out of their wine cellar (laughter). That's really what it was. Much more for enjoyment rather than anything else. I had a really good time and it's nice to feel relaxed in there for a change and not feel on edge the whole time. It was a good couple of days. Q. Rory, when you're in the weight room and Tom Brady walks in, which one of you did the bigger double take? RORY MCILROY: I was just surprised he was in there. It's their off-season. The Mannings, too. The day earlier in the afternoon -- I was in there with Peyton so -- but I guess for me it was to see all those guys in the gym before their season starts and they're so dedicated and committed to what they do, especially those two guys, Peyton and Tom, they're both in their mid 30s and they want to prolong their careers as much as they can. To see them putting so much into it even after 15 successful years as a career and they're still keep doing is -- it was great for me to see and to see, it was inspirational in some ways. I'm a long way off from that. I still got another 13, 14 years to get to that point. But just great the see the dedication that they have and how seriously they take their career. Q. Were any words exchanged, do you just say like nice Super Bowl or what (laughter)? RORY MCILROY: I mean yeah, we talked a little bit. The guys got into some football talk. Obviously the trades were happening and what is this player doing, what is that player, where is he going, where is he going, all that sort of stuff. I was just -- it was nice to be in that little world for a couple of days and experience it. DOUG MILNE: Rory, we're good. Thanks for your time and best of luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|