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WGC CADILLAC MATCH PLAYApril 29, 2015Rory McIlroySAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA MICHAEL GIBBONS: Nice day for you. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I did what I needed to do out there. Jason didn't have his best stuff, obviously. So just tried to put him under pressure from the start, tried to hit fairways, hit greens, and try and make him force a little bit. Match play, you just need to beat the person that's in front of you and did that today. Q. Still off to a good start, must be very happy? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, it's good to win that first match. Luckily I've done that. And mindset going into tomorrow, have to win, you have to win every match. No point in thinking you can't win matches and progress here. Maybe hole a few more putts. Q. Under what circumstances would you make an opponent putt from inside three feet like Jason did you? RORY McILROY: Inside three feet I still feel is miss‑able. I've missed them before. I'm sure he has. I think there's a certain length that it's more courteous or polite. Sometimes if there's a little bit of gamesmanship, you might make them putt something just to get under their skin a little bit, get into their head. Q. How do you figure out when you want to do that, when you want to play that? RORY McILROY: You know, you could be quite generous at the start, and then when he's not expecting it, just say, just putt that one for me. So there's a little gamesmanship going on. There wasn't much of it today. It was pretty friendly out there. Q. You talked about the importance, was the urgency different today than it's been on Wednesday in past match play championships? It's not automatic elimination, but some of the big names that lost acted as if they were done? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I don't know. I think that the previous format, it really is you win or you go home. At least here these guys that lost today, they still have a chance. So I'm not sure the urgency on this Wednesday is quite there. But it is, it's very important to win any match, but obviously your first match, you're facing a bit of an uphill struggle if you don't win that one today. Q. Along those same lines, with the Volvo having the pool play the last few years, is there sort of a point that if you win that first match that suddenly you can take that momentum, and if you lose it you feel like you're running uphill the rest of the day? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely. You're definitely swimming upstream if you lose that first match. I think I played the Volvo a couple of times, I'm not sure of my record. But you lose that first one, and it is tough because all of a sudden you're not in control of your own destiny. You're looking at the other guys in your pool and seeing what they're doing, and you're not fully focused on yourself. If you win every match, at least you're in control of what you're doing, and you don't need to rely on anyone else to win or lose for you to progress. Q. You say you adjust to your opponent. Is there any difficulty sometimes when you have to throttle back? RORY McILROY: In a way. I didn't feel like I throttled back from tee to green. There were some holes where you put it out of position and it was pretty likely that it wasn't going to make a par, so I hit it in the middle of the green and played quite conservatively which is sort of different than what I would usually do in match play. But I adjusted to what he was doing and I really just did what I had to do. If things were different and I had to be a little bit more aggressive, I would have played that way. But the situation just dictated that I hit fairways, hit greens, and put him under pressure, and that was going to be enough. Q. Under the circumstances would you have played more aggressively in the situation if it was Saturday night and you had a plane to catch (laughter)? RORY McILROY: Let's put it this way, if that was Saturday night and I finished on the 14th, I'd be pretty happy (laughter). Could finish on 12, but finish on 14, I'd be okay. Q. What do you think about how the course played as a match play venue? RORY McILROY: Yeah, as a match play venue, it's very fair. You get rewarded for good shots and you get punished for bad ones. The greens are getting very firm. That will separate the longer guys and guys that can hit it quite high, which isn't a bad thing for me. But the course played well. I think these greens are relatively new, so a few of the green speeds were a little inconsistent. And I struggled a little bit with that early on. I felt like I got them‑‑ you have to be really aggressive with them and I started to get that a little bit towards the end. Q. What was your favorite hole? RORY McILROY: I think 14. 14 is a good hole. It's the best hole on the course. Q. Obviously this doesn't come anywhere near being a factor in your match today. A couple of guys said they were not aware of what happened if they were all square after 18. Were you aware of what that format was with the change? RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. You have to play everything to completion. I was very much aware of that. I find it quite surprising, actually, that guys didn't know. Q. I can name names? RORY McILROY: No. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, thanks. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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