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DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN HOSTED BY THE RORY FOUNDATIONMay 28, 2015Rory McIlroyNEWCASTLE, NORTHERN IRELAND Q. Rory, can you talk about some of your disappointment on this day one for us. RORY McILROY: Yeah. Actually, I felt like I put myself in good positions off the tee, and my iron play, I was sort of caught in between trying to play two ways. You know, I hit it really well on the range and was keeping the ball down and I was hitting like lovely little half shots the whole time, and I got out on the golf course, and the wind wasn't up that much at the start and I felt like I didn't need to hit those shots so much, so I was sort of caught in between what shot to play out there a little bit. And then you know, my poor iron play led to missed greens, which led to giving myself a lot of sort of 8 to 12‑footers for pars and that led to missing all of them. So it just‑‑ it was pretty good off the tee and it just got worse as I got closer to the green. Q. Just how much more frustrating is it being the tournament host here this week and having such big galleries out there supporting you today? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I know it is. It's disappointing in that way. You know, I want to go out there and play well, not just for myself as I said yesterday, but for a lot of other people. Yeah, it's disappointing, but you know, just need to pick myself back up and get out there tomorrow and try and shoot a good one. I'm not sure what I'm going to need to make it into the weekend, but obviously I would love to be here for that. So just gotta get out there and play a bit better. Q. Do you think it is salvageable to be here for the weekend? RORY McILROY: I hope so. That'll be my goal starting off tomorrow is to try and make some birdies, make my first birdie of the tournament at some point and try and just claw my way back up towards the cut line and see what I can do. I mean I really put myself behind the eight ball today because the Back 9 is the more scorable nine here, and to go out there and shoot five over on that nine, you know, I couldn't really do much on the front nine, the front nine was playing so tough. As I said, try and shoot a decent front nine tomorrow, and there's a few birdie chances on the Back 9 to hopefully try and make it for the weekend. Q. You've played here many, many times. Just how tough is Royal County Downs playing today? RORY McILROY: It is. It's tough. It's not quite as tough as I made it look out there, but you know, once‑‑ you just gotta put your ball in the right position. As I said, I felt like, you know, off the tee it was fine. I just if you start to miss greens, you can make it very difficult for yourself. So just missed it in the wrong spots, and struggled from there. Q. At what point did you realize it wasn't going to be your day today out there? RORY McILROY: I don't know. I mean you know, I didn't‑‑ you know, I bogeyed 11, didn't birdie 12. Parred 13 and 14, and then probably those four bogeys in a row to finish off the Back 9. That was‑‑ again, that really‑‑ you know, when you've got 16 and 18 as realistic birdie opportunities and you bogey both of those, you're not doing yourself any favors. Q. How was the crowd out there? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I know. The crowd is phenomenal. It's great that everyone comes out and shows so much support. Every Irish Open is like that regardless of where it is. As I said, I just want to go out there tomorrow and give them something to cheer about and not just have sympathy claps as I did coming off the 9th green. Nothing went well at all, Tim. You know, I felt off the tee it was okay. You know, I put myself in decent positions, and then as I got closer to the green, the worse it got. You know, I didn't hit very many good iron shots. And then from there, I mean my putting and my speed was off. I wasn't reading them properly. I sort of just lost confidence in the greens as the round went on. So as you said, nothing went right. I was really trying to birdie the last to try and break even, but it didn't quite happen. But I just gotta go out there tomorrow and play my best and try to claw my way back towards the cut line and see what happens. Q. Talking to Gmac and Poulter yesterday, and they were saying that you feel tremendous pressure when playing an Irish Open to perform for the crowds, obviously put on a show for them. Was that a factor today just trying too hard almost? RORY McILROY: No. I don't think so. I don't think I was trying too hard. If anything, it was almost I don't want to say the other way. It's my fifth week in a row, and I'm not saying I felt flat out there, but just sort of trying to muster something up to get myself going and get some sort of momentum was sort of difficult. You know what to expect when you come to an Irish Open, and I've said for the last couple of years I want to try and embrace it and relish the fact that you're here and everyone wants to see you do well. So you should be able to use that to your advantage. I just haven't been able to do that as of yet. Q. We never say never with you, but you have a huge mountain to climb now. Do you still think it's a possibility to make that cut? RORY McILROY: I think so, yeah. I mean depending on what the weather is like. But you know, from the scoring, you know, it's going to be in the region of four or five over I think is going to be the cut line. Again, I need to go out and just make some birdies and try to get something happening and get some sort of momentum, and the Back 9, we're playing the Back 9 last tomorrow. There's a few chances on there where you can make birdies and get some sort of round going. So hopefully. Q. Here with remorseful. Rory, Darren was just here, and he said you got a lot going on this week. Is it that or is it more so the conditions and kind of the condition of your game right now? RORY McILROY: I think it's a little bit of everything. You know, I don't want to blame (indiscernible). I just didn't play good enough today. I played well off the tee, and I felt like I drove the ball pretty well. But the closer I got to the green, the worse it sort of got for me. Q. So what's going on in your head right now? Do you hit balls this afternoon, work out, have a couple of pints and forget about it? What do you do? RORY McILROY: I'll go get a bit of lunch. I'll try and analyze what just happened out there, and I'll probably just hit the gym. It's sort of hard with these (indiscernible) to get any sort of productive work done on the range. So I'll go to the gym and just sort of mentally regroup and get ready for tomorrow. Q. So the goal I guess would be then to make the cut first and see what happens? RORY McILROY: Yeah. Just to make the cut. I've missed the cut the last two years at the Irish Open, so I don't want to make it three in a row. So I want to at least go out there tomorrow and fight for it, try and claw my way back up towards the cut line, and if I can sneak in there, that'll be great. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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