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ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 20, 2016Rory McIlroyAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates STEVE TODD: Rory, many thanks for joining us today, and a warm welcome back to Abu Dhabi. You had a nice, long break over the winter, so are you fit, raring to go for the new season, and what a place to start it with, a place you've finished runner-up four times. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's been great. It was a nice break over Christmas and new year. I felt like I needed it mentally and physically a little bit. So it was nice to take that extended break and come back feeling really refreshed and excited to go. I've said this before: I don't think there's any better place to start the year than here in Abu Dhabi with the weather, the golf course, the field that HSBC is able to put together. It's a real competitive start to the year, and I feel like it's really helped me start the year quickly and well over the past few years, and hopefully that's the same case this year. STEVE TODD: You're playing with Jordan and Rickie, it's great for the fans of golf, but how much do you enjoy that as a player, as well? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is. Teeing off on Thursday morning, it's your first competitive shot in a couple of months. To tee up alongside those guys, the excitement. There's a buzz about it. Like I said, every year coming back here to Abu Dhabi, it was sort of the same last year with Rickie and the previous couple of years it was with Tiger. You're teeing off the first round of your season and it feels like you're right into the thick of things at the start. So I think that's really beneficial for a lot of guys to start the year like that. Q. Do you actually need a boarding pass or a private jet, and if so, what have you written on it this year? RORY McILROY: Well, I need some way to get here, either/or. Yeah, boarding pass: Flew from Dublin to Dubai on the 7th of January. Yeah, same thing. Just have a few hours to pass the time and write down a few goals and a few things that I want to achieve on and off the golf course this year. No different than how I've started every year of my professional career. Q. Can you give us an insight into those, which ones you're prepared to tell us? RORY McILROY: Again, there's not a lot of -- there's always obvious ones and result-based goals. But I never really write those down because they are always there. They are always obvious. They are always in the forefront of your mind. You want to win tournaments and you want to achieve things, but it's about how to go about that on your off-weeks, what you need to do, preparing technically, physically, mentally. So a lot of the goals are about preparation and about doing as much as I possibly can so that when I turn up to events, I'm ready to go and I don't have to think about anything. I know that I'm as well prepared as I can be. So a lot of the stuff is to do with that, the preparation, and making sure that I'm fully ready to go every week of the year. Q. So it's not a case of writing down, obviously win the Masters -- RORY McILROY: Yeah, that's obvious. So it's not -- yeah, I don't need to write that down (laughs). Q. A lot of people, mainly on this side of the remote, will view this as yourself and Jordan potentially laying down a marker against each other for the year here this week. Are you conscious about that or is it something you deliberately avoid and stay away from? RORY McILROY: I don't play the game on markers at all. I want to play my best, and I don't have to just beat Jordan Spieth this week. I have to beat another 142 guys. So it would be foolish of me to think that that's all that my competition was, because -- and I think it would be an injustice to every other player that's in the field because there's so much talent on Tour and there's so much depth that if you forget about everyone else that could win the tournament, it doesn't -- it's not really smart to do that. I want to play well this week, and if that means laying down a marker to someone or to the rest of the field, then that's great. But I just want to try to play my best and hopefully win this thing. I've had four runners-up and I've been close a couple times. Hopefully I can change that this week. Q. About the eye surgery, you've played a few rounds of golf after that. How much difference you can now see in your perception of the greens and reading the greens and things like that? RORY McILROY: Yeah, you know, it really -- I feel like the surgery hasn't made a huge difference from my contact lenses for like far away. But it's definitely made things just that little bit sharper, maybe within 50 metres or so. Like even, like reading signs on the road or whatever. I've obviously practised now for the last couple weeks and I've practised pretty well, and you know, I feel like I've always been a decent green reader, but maybe not quite as good as I could be. So that was one of the reasons why I took this step to have the eye surgery. But it's been great so far. I mean, there's no complications, no infections. And I think, as well, with how much we travel, it's just so much easier not having to worry about contact lenses, putting them in, taking them out at night. And I was wearing my contact lenses for so long during the day that I was actually doing the surface of my eye damage by wearing them so much. So to be able to not have to worry about that is great, and hopefully -- it obviously can't hurt at all. So if anything, it can only help, so we'll see how that goes this week. Q. It was this time last year we started talking about the buildup to you trying to win the Grand Slam at Augusta, and it seemed that getting closer to the week, that weight on your shoulders kept getting heavier and heavier. Are you dealing with that better this year, have you thought about how you could cope a little bit better with all that weight of extra pressure? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think seeing that was my first year of having to deal with that pressure, and I feel I'm better equipped now to, I've got a little bit of experience in how to deal with it and approach it. Like I know it's going to be there, but there's still, there's a whole bunch of other story lines that are going on with golf right now. I felt at that time it was actually a good thing, Tiger was sort of coming back, because I felt like it took a little bit of pressure off me last year. But there is other story lines in golf, so maybe not all the attention will be focused on me going into Augusta. Jordan is obviously defending and that's so many other guys that have a chance going in there. I think it will be a little different this year for sure. Q. When you look at the schedule this year, there's so much crammed into so many few months. What are your thoughts in terms of the majors, The Ryder Cup, the FedEx series, and of course the Olympic Games? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's all -- well, from basically the U.S. Open until The Ryder Cup, it's week on, week off, week on, week off, week on, week off, and you've got the FedExCup and The Ryder Cup after that. So I'd say it will be a fairly quiet October in golf at the highest level. I think a lot of guys will take some time off after that. (Laughter). Q. We've seen the images from the GolfBoarding challenge yesterday. Wonder if you can tell us a little bit more about what it was like to be involved? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was good. Obviously when we knew when HSBC get us together, they put little fun things together at the start of the week, and it was fun. It was good. It was actually quite competitive. There was two settings on the GolfBoards. There's a high and a low. The low is six miles an hour and the high was at 14. So at the start, they were saying, okay, just put it on the low setting at six, and obviously didn't want us to go too fast. And when we actually needed to race, we all put it to high. Actually Jordan nearly took me out. We collided halfway down the fairway. Thankfully I didn't fall off. It was really good fun. It was a nice way to start the week. Q. Looked a lot safer than messing around with chainsaws. Is this your part of your determination where you said you're going to have fun without taking any unnecessary risks? RORY McILROY: Yeah, you still have to have that balance in life and you have to live your life. You can't wrap yourself up in cotton wool all the time. That doesn't mean I'm going to step foot on a football pitch anytime soon, but at the same time, you can still do things and still enjoy your life. Q. You're going to get this question a lot this year, but might as well start early. A Gold Medal or a major championship? RORY McILROY: Major championship. Q. Do you mind explaining why? RORY McILROY: I think a major championship is the pinnacle of our sport. I think I'll be remembered for my major championships. So all I've dreamed of from a little kid is winning majors. I never dreamed of competing in the Olympics or winning an Olympic medal. So in my mind, a major will always be more important. Q. Did you watch any of Jordan in Hawai'i and what did you think of the second season-itis, coming out that strongly? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I watched a little bit of it. I didn't watch much just because of the time difference. Obviously Hawai'i is a lot behind here. I watched a little bit. I didn't watch much. But obviously every year in Kapalua, the scoring is very good. Yeah, I mean, I think the thing that always impresses me any time I do watch Jordan or I get to play with Jordan is obviously his putting is exceptional, but his speed on the greens. Obviously the greens at Kapalua are so big, but any time he left himself 35, 40 feet, the speed at which his ball approaches the hole is always so consistent and so good. I think that's the thing that always impresses me about it. So even if he doesn't hit it, you know, very close, the ball is always traveling at a speed towards the hole that either has a chance to go in or if it doesn't go in, is going to only go two or three feet past. I think his speed and the pace at which he putts is very impressive. Q. I notice you're not wearing your shorts. Did you not pack any? RORY McILROY: I did. I was practising in shorts all last week. I don't know, I like it. I think it's a good idea to let guys wear shorts in practise rounds. I probably just need a couple more weeks in the sun to get my legs out in public, that's what it is (laughter) sort of pale Irish skin doesn't go so well with -- yeah, I think it's a good idea. I think all the guys enjoy wearing shorts, especially in practise, and especially if it gets hot, I think it's a good idea. You saw the guys in Malaysia last week wearing them. A couple of the guys were wearing them yesterday. I think it's -- I don't think it should be too big a deal. You look at every other sport and people are allowed to expose their legs, so I don't see why we're not allowed to do that either. Q. For rounds, too -- RORY McILROY: Maybe; why not. It really depends if guys are comfortable or not. I don't think it takes anything away from the tradition of the game or etiquette or how guys look on the course. I don't think it takes anything away from that, so I don't see why not. If the conditions -- obviously we are not going to go out in shorts at the British Open or The Open Championship if it's ten degrees and raining. But at the same time, if we're playing in a hot country and it's more comfortable for guys to wear shorts, then there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to. Q. Last year after you won the Match Play, we asked you what you were doing on Monday, and you talked about looking at the World Ranking first thing in the morning. You got motivation seeing how much your lead was. The opposite of that, do you look at the World Ranking at all now, and does that motivate you to catch up with Jordan? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I still like to look at it and see where I'm at. Especially strength of field for this week and how many points you would get for a win, so it's always there. I know I need to play well this week to leapfrog Jason. I think if I can finish second, I can get up above him. But I've made no secret about I want to get back to that position, and I'd like to do it as quick as possible. So it's definitely a motivation. Q. Can you ask you: Is The Scottish Open on your schedule this year? RORY McILROY: No, it's not. Q. It's not? RORY McILROY: No. STEVE TODD: Rory, thanks for joining us and wish you all the best this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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