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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 7, 2015Rory McIlroyPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA Q. I thought that you were perhaps the most consistent player at the Olympic Club and that consistency shows here this afternoon just a single bogey on the card. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think that's what this course is all about, it's about staying patient. There's a lot of pars on my card, but I was able to pick off a couple of birdie and a nice eagle on 16, so pleased with the start. I felt conditions got quite tricky out there at the end with the wind, it swirls a lot around here, and made club selection a little bit more difficult. But happy with that, yeah, I'm happy with the start, for sure. Q. (No Microphone.) RORY MCILROY: That's why I played the front nine yesterday. I feel comfortable around it. You got a couple of chances on the par-5s. You got a short par-4 on 12. So there's a lot of chances on that back nine. I just feel comfortable on it, feel comfortable on the closing stretch, so if I can keep up my good play on back nine like I have and be a little bit more consistent like I was on the front nine, then hopefully that bodes well for the week. Q. You had a couple of chances early on that got away. Is it more difficult to show the patience then? RORY MCILROY: No, not really. Because as I said, I've learned now what a good score is around this golf course, and, honestly, the greens were tricky. Tricky to read, there's a really good pace on them. They're different than last week, a lot grainier than last week as well. So there's a couple of times when the grain sort of threw me off a little bit. But if I keep giving myself opportunities, then sooner or later a few putts are going to drop. Q. What is a good score around here? RORY MCILROY: Today? I think anything in the 60s is a decent score today. Anything under par, really. This isn't really the normal wind for this course either. Playing 17 dead into the wind, which was a little bit trickier as well, so. Q. Jordan was clearly struggling, it looked like you were almost trying to cheer him up, is that the case? RORY MCILROY: It's funny we were talking about hair styles. (Laughter.) It's funny -- sort of hair styles or something like that. But anyway, I sort of said to him, you have a green jacket, your hair can be whatever you want it to be. Q. Last week was such a different venue and setup, obviously with match play, do you take anything from that to this week? Is there any translation, anything you took out? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think I was really happy with how I didn't let anyone -- I didn't give any holes away last week. I made a few bogeys, but I didn't -- like out there I only made one bogey. Being able to limit your mistakes and make pars and not make many mistakes, that's something that I need to do around this golf course and I've got off to a decent start doing that today. Q. I know you spent the last few days really trying to be careful about being mentally fresh. Did you feel sharp today? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I did. I did feel sharp. This is sort of the middle of a long stretch here. I got three events in a row after this, so it's all about trying to conserve as much energy as possible and putting all that energy into the 18 holes that I'm going to play that day. So, I probably won't do much this afternoon in terms of practice. I'll go back to the hotel, I'll do a light gym session, and that's really it. So just really try and focus all my energy into the rounds that I'm playing. Q. Jordan said today that he felt like he forced things a couple times out there. Could you talk about how difficult sometimes that is to kind of pull the reins back a little bit? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it is, especially when you get off to not a great start like Jordan did. You're 2-over through 2 and you're sort of -- it's hard not to push, it's hard to stay patient at times. But again, he could as easily come out tomorrow and be 3-under through 4 and you're back in the tournament. So, it doesn't take much either way to get back in. Q. When you make birdie on 8, do you feel like that's a little bit of a bonus? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, on the 8th tee I would have expected to play the last two holes in 1-under par, with the 9th. I just did it the wrong way around. I would have made 3 on 8 and make birdie at 9. But it was nice to sneak that putt in at the 8th hole and would have been nice to make the birdie on 9, but didn't quite convert. But, yeah, standing on that 8th tee box, 2-under par, if I someone would have given me a 69, I would have taken it. Q. Back to your comment about your schedule and looking to conserve yourself, do you have any reservations then about playing five events in a row? RORY MCILROY: Not at all. I feel like I'm playing well, so I wanted to get on a stretch of golf. I was sitting with my parents at their place in Palm Beach the week before the Match Play and I was we were just -- I think we might have been watching a little bit of the coverage of New Orleans and I saw like I was in the hundreds in the FedExCup. And I was like, I'm not -- I haven't played much, I only played four events, I want to get myself up there. So that's what I'm doing. I've got last week, here, and next week to really, before I go back to Europe again. I wanted to sort of improve my ranking in the FedExCup and really get it up there and it was a good start last week and going to try and keep doing that. Q. (No Microphone.) RORY MCILROY: Yeah, two weeks off after Ireland, so I'll have plenty of time to recover and get ready for Chambers Bay. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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