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WGC DELL MATCH PLAYMarch 21, 2016Rory McIlroyAustin, Texas . JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome the defending champion of the Dell Match Play. Rory, congratulations, you're coming off good form with a 65 last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Obviously, great memories from last year at this event, different golf course, but talk about your memories from last year winning. RORY McILROY: Yeah, always good to come back to a tournament where you've won and had success before. This tournament has went through a few different venues with San Francisco last year. It doesn't change the fact that it is match play, and you have to beat the person that's there in front of you. I feel like that's been the best approach for me in match play is the golf course is almost irrelevant, in a way. It's about playing the player that's in front of you there on the first tee. It's a sprint. It's 18 holes. You don't really have time to find your rhythm. You need to try to make birdies from the get-go. And that's the approach I've adopted the last few years. And I feel like my match play record for the most part speaks for itself. I've had a pretty good record since I've turned pro in this tournament and in the Ryder Cup, as well. Looking forward to the week. Looking forward to seeing the golf course tomorrow. Excited to get going. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: General observations about your teammates? RORY McILROY: Kevin I've played before in this event, back in Arizona, maybe 2010, I think. And, yeah, he's playing very well. He's had a great year. I was actually just looking through the stats on the PGA Tour, sort of just looking for my stats a little bit. But then there was a couple of areas that I'm focusing on, and Kevin is right at the top of those. So it was quite interesting that I drew his name today. Thorbjorn is a good friend of mine. I've known him for a long time playing the European Tour. Actually, the first time I played with Thorbjorn was in Egypt in 2010. We've got a little bit of history. Smylie, I really don't know that much about. I know that he got off to a great start in his PGA Tour career. As I said, no matter who you draw in this event you know you're going to get a tough match. I need to be on my game from the start and try to win those three matches and progress to the weekend. Q. If you got to the championship match, would you rather have easy sailing all the way through or had a few tough ones like you did with Billy and with Paul? RORY McILROY: I think definitely it prepares you more for the final. It makes the final that little bit easier, because you've faced scenarios. Because whether you've had to birdied the last two holes to win or win in extra holes, I think those experiences serve you well. It's a bit like in the early stages of Grand Slam of a tennis tournament, if you see a Roger Federer or Ralph Nadal or Novak, taken to four or five sets, it's almost like it's good for them to take that experience and be challenged. Obviously you have to win your matches, but I see no problem with having a tight match there, because I feel like that it does prepare you better for the latter stages of the tournament. Q. If you get to the final, can we count on your Saturday night in the media center again this year? RORY McILROY: Yeah, for sure. I don't know if there's a fight on. But if you want pizza and beer, I'm your man. Q. Looking ahead, are you thinking if I get through this group, this is the group I play next? Will you look at that at all? RORY McILROY: No, I don't think you can. I have to focus on my three matches, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Hopefully if I can navigate my way through them, then I'll start to look at who my potential opponents will be for the weekend. Right now it's just about concentrating on Kevin, Smylie and Thorbjorn, and trying to get past them. Q. When you play in a match play event like this, the atmosphere is way different than the Ryder Cup. Is there anything about an event like this that applies at all to the Ryder Cup or is it two totally different animals? RORY McILROY: You know, they're two different animals. But at the same time, I feel if there is a head-to-head between a European and an American, whoever gets the upper hand in this event, maybe just some psychological advantage going into the Ryder Cup. Maybe that will happen this week. I faced a few Americans last year and was able to get through those. As you said, the atmosphere is much different. But I'd say, if I were to play Jordan Spieth at any point this week, I'm sure the atmosphere out there would be just as hostile as the Ryder Cup, seeing where he's from, and he's obviously very popular here. But, yeah, it's match play, it's the same format. People really get into it. I feel like you either have to choose one guy or the other. You don't really get a chance to do that too much in golf. You've got a handful of guys that people usually root for, but in this tournament you pick one or the other. Q. As someone who's been in Jordan's position, what do you make of the narrative that he's struggling and that it's worrisome, his recent form? RORY McILROY: I've been in that position. Just because he hasn't won in five events or six events, he's 22 years old, he's a double major champion. He has more money than he's ever going to need. I think he's going to be okay. But people -- I think you have to take into account, as well, that this is all new for him, being a major champion. Traveling so much at the end of the year, going to Australia, going to the Bahamas, going to Singapore, going to Abu Dhabi, that has to take its toll. It's good that he's learned from that already. At the age of 22, he's got so much experience and he's going to learn very quickly what works for him and didn't. But Jordan Spieth will be just fine, I can tell you that. Q. Just to piggyback on the Jordan Spieth thing, is it almost always mental? And I wonder if you might come to regret playing in those tournaments? RORY McILROY: I think when you're talking about the players like him that are at that level, I think it is all mental rather than anything else because your confidence is a huge part of our game and he was riding a huge wave of confidence and momentum all the way through last year. And even into this year. But any time that sort of gets knocked you have to build yourself back up again and I feel like that's what he's doing. That's what he's in the stage of doing. He hasn't quite had his best stuff. But you look at Tampa, the last competitive start he had, he had a rough start but bounced back well with two good runs Friday and Saturday. And going into the final round had a chance to win. He'll be just fine. And as I said, I think he's learned from that experience at the end of last year and the start of this year with the travel and he's learned what's going to work for him. And to have that experience behind you at 22 is invaluable. Q. Do you approach match play events any different than a regular stroke play event? RORY McILROY: I do. I do approach them differently. A regular stroke play event is 72 holes. It is more like a marathon. You can sort of play your way into rhythm. And you can be more conservative from time to time and know that pars are good. But in match play you have to be aggressive from the start. You have to react to what your opponent does. So I do, I approach it very differently. They're two completely different formats of the game. I know some guys try to treat it the same, they just try to play the golf course and play the same way. But I've tried that and it doesn't quite work for me. I feel like I play my best whenever I react to what the other person does. And if they make birdie, I know I need to make birdie. But, again, it's the same way. If they hit it in trouble, you might play a little more conservatively. It's all about just beating the guy that's in front of you. Q. You just arrived a couple of hours ago and I assume you've not had a chance to play the course. So you've got a caddie and some sort of group that's doing some scouting, I would assume. But only with a day to prepare, have you heard any comments about the course or green complexes or anything of that nature? RORY McILROY: I haven't heard anything. I'm going to get up to the golf course early tomorrow. I'm going to spend the day there and play a practice round and get a feel for it. But I feel with the match play tournament, as I was just saying previously, it's about beating the person that's in front of you. I feel like of course knowledge is important and you need to know where to hit it and where to leave your ball on the green and below the hole or what's a good miss and what's not. I'll try to figure that all out tomorrow. But at the same time, whenever we tee it up on Wednesday, I just need to beat the person that's in front of me. No matter what way I do that, I feel like course knowledge and course preparation is more beneficial in a four round stroke play event, where in match play, as I was saying, you turn up and you beat the guy. Obviously you need to know the golf course, know lines off tees and everything, but I feel like I'll get a good feel for it tomorrow and be ready to go Wednesday. Q. Jordan, Jason, Adam, Charl, Bubba, have all sort of won heading into Augusta this year, making it a very big group of people we're talking about. How important is it for you to get into that conversation and get momentum going forward? RORY McILROY: It is important. I've been saying all along since the start of the year, I'd love to win before Augusta and this is my last chance to do that. And seeing the guys that have won, with Bubba in LA, Adam in those two starts in Florida, Charl in Tampa and Jason last week, everyone is running in good form. And they're all good champions, a few of them are Masters champions. Everyone is playing well, and that's really what you want to do. You want your game rounding into form and playing to the best of your abilities this time of year. I feel like I'm close. I'm probably not quite where they are, and I haven't had the confidence of getting a win this year, but I feel like it's close. And this would obviously be a great week to get that win or at least get close to that win, if I can get a few really good matches under my belt and progress to the weekend and play some good golf, I feel that's all I need confidence-wise going into Augusta. Q. Just curious how much the World Rankings motivate you and is that a lot of motivation for earlier in your career, maybe less so now? How does that play into who you are as a golfer? RORY McILROY: I still feel that the World Rankings motivate me quite a lot. Even yesterday, Jason winning in Orlando and overtaking me in the second spot and putting me down to three, and knowing that even this week if I win, I can't get back up to that second spot. I want to be up there and I want to have a chance to get back to No. 1 in the world at some point, you know, obviously, sooner rather than later. I've been used to being in that position or around the top of the World Rankings and I want to stay there. It's quite a motivating factor. But at the same time, I know that winning golf tournaments and playing good golf takes care of that. I win tournaments and I play well and my ranking will go up. It's almost you have to put it to the side and know that it's just a byproduct of playing good golf and right now that's what I'm trying to do, just play the best that I can. Q. Never having seen Smylie, is there any difficulty playing against a guy that you've never played before and don't know much about? RORY McILROY: Yeah. In a way, yes. You don't know what to expect. And again, that's why you can sort of get a sense of what his game is like over the first couple of holes. There's guys that you play in match play that will hit it all over, they'll miss fairways, they'll miss greens, but they'll get it up and down and it will be very frustrating. But other guys will hit fairways and hit greens and maybe hole a few, but miss quite a lot. So you'll get a feel of what type of player they are. That's what I'll have to do with that. I really don't know anything about Smylie's game or what his strengths are or weaknesses are. But the other two guys, I know what they do well and what they don't do so well. Out of the three, that's the one that I'm going to have to sort of just figure out as the round progresses. Q. Everybody refers to the big four now. And I was curious, of the next young guns, who jumps out at you, Smylie or Danny Berger, Patrick or whoever? RORY McILROY: As you said, there's a bunch of them there. There's a lot of guys that are down in South Florida that practice at the same place that I do. You've got Patrick Rodgers, Daniel Berger, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka. There's so many, so many that are just coming out of college or been out of college a few years and either have been on Tour a few years and have continued to improve or I feel like the trend now is guys are coming straight out of college that are ready to play on Tour, 21, 22 years old. It's great for the game. It's great to see -- it's a great demographic. It's a great image for the game to see thighs young guys coming through, and with them being athletic and hitting the ball far. It's the sort of image that we want to be portrayed in golf. I think golf is in a great place right now and it will only continue to get stronger. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Rory McIlroy, thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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