|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WGC CADILLAC MATCH PLAYApril 30, 2015Rory McIlroySAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Q. Congratulations on your win over Brandt Snedeker. Tomorrow you'll face Billy Horschel. You're both 2 and 0.  RORY McILROY: It's going to be good. Billy seems like he's playing well. And I did what I needed to do against Brandt today. I felt like I played very solid tee to green and made a few birdies. That's nice. But, yeah, the match tomorrow, it's win or go home. So it's back to the usual format. Q. Congratulations. Better play today I think from you. The match with Jason yesterday you kind of plodded along, making a lot of pars. You a bit more birdies today to pull this out with Brandt? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I really feel like I played quite similar yesterday in terms of ball‑striking tee to green. I hit plenty of fairways, plenty of greens, made a couple of putts that I needed to and that was really the difference. Brandt played pretty solid and I made that birdie on 15 which that sort of decided the game. Q. Getting the feel for these greens? A lot of guys are thinking, boy, they look a lot quicker than they are. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's tough to get yourself to hit them that hard, especially with some of the greens we've been putting on the last few weeks. It's a little bit of an adjustment. But each and every day we're getting a little bit more accustomed to them. Q. Finally, you know what you have to do tomorrow. It's you and Billy Horschel to win group No.1. Your thoughts on playing Billy? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Billy seems like he's playing well. So it's basically a chance, we've won our first couple of matches, a chance to get into the last 16. If you don't win you go home. So it's do or die tomorrow. And looking forward to it. Q. Talk about today. RORY McILROY: Yeah, another really solid round. Tee to green was very good. I think that's the key for me in match play. If I hit the fairways and the greens and just put pressure on my opponent all day sooner or later I'll make a couple of birdies. And I was able to do that today. Q. (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: Just more of the same. Give myself chances for birdies. And sooner or later they're going to drop. I just needed to keep doing what I was doing. I made a big par save on 14 for a halve. Q. You and Billy Horschel play tomorrow. You have a bit of history? RORY McILROY: The Walker Cup we played two matches against each other. He won the first one, I won the second. I don't know, it just seemed very‑‑ we're good mates. But back then we were a little bit younger and a little more emotional. So it was pretty heated. I don't think tomorrow will be quite so much like that, but still you need to win or you go home. So it's an important game. Q. You won your match 2‑up today, but it was a lot tighter than it showed. Talk about that. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was pretty tight. I felt like I had a comfortable lead after nine holes or ten holes. And then he made two good birdies on 11 and 12 and we're back to all square. I felt like the big key for me was the up and down on 14 for par, which was what helped me keep some momentum. Q. You play Billy Horschel tomorrow. You win and go on or lose and go home. Talk about your mindset. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it's just back to the mindset you have when you're playing the match play as we knew it the last few years. I win tomorrow or I'm not playing on the weekend. So it's an important day. And I feel like I'm playing well enough to get there on the weekend. Q. (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: A little bit. You know, it's back to the mindset that we usually have in this tournament, the format as we once knew it. I've played pretty well the first couple of days and tomorrow I'll need to play well again to advance. So I just try and win every match you can, and try and move up. Q. A lot of people have been leaving putts short on 18. Was that getting a feel for that green? RORY McILROY: Not just 18, every green. Every green is pretty slow out there. And I think the guys are all slowly getting adjusted to it. It's tough when you play on fast greens the last few weeks, and you come here, it is a bit of an adjustment. We're getting more accustomed to it as the days go by. Q. The save on 14? RORY McILROY: Yeah, that was really important. Especially Brandt won two of the last three holes, he won 11 and 12 to get back to even. It was just important that I didn't want to go down in the match at all, especially with four holes to play. That was big. That was important. It gave me some momentum going into the last few holes. And it was nice to make birdie on 15. That was really good at the end of the day. Q. Do you feel an intensity or sense of urgency over the past couple of days? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean I think I'll feel a little bit more intensity tomorrow, just because you want to win every match, even if I had of lost today, I could still potentially go through tomorrow with a win. But tomorrow it's‑‑ with Billy playing his two matches and me being able to come through, the intensity is up a little bit. Q. You've talked about the fight the last couple of days. Is that a distraction at all trying to get out of here tomorrow? RORY McILROY: No, it's a good problem to have. Hopefully I'll have that problem, being as I planned pretty well. Q. Going up against Billy really looked like it could be a great match. And that's the way it has turned out. Billy finished the season so strong last year. Talk about playing Billy. RORY McILROY: It will be good. Billy has been playing really good golf. He had a great end of the year last year. And we've played a couple of times before in the Walker Cup and had a couple of good matches there. So we play a similar style of golf. We hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens. It will be a good match. I'm sure it will be a big challenge and one that I feel like I'm playing well enough to rise to. Q. You feel your game was a little sharper today? RORY McILROY: A little bit, yeah, a little sharper. But everything was pretty good. The irons were a little closer, felt a little more comfortable on the greens. Very similar to yesterday but probably just a little bit sharper. Q. You and Billy have a similar fire? RORY McILROY: I don't know. I'm probably not quite as emotional on the golf course as he is. But it depends on the circumstances. Tomorrow you might see more emotions. 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
|