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WGC DELL MATCH PLAY

March 26, 2016

Rory McIlroy

Austin, Texas

CANDACE REINHEIMER: You finished a little early today at 4 and 3-over Jordan Spieth. Tell us about your round.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was nice not to have to play the 16th hole. Yeah, it's been a long week. I played 55 holes in three days coming into today, and then to go all the way with Zach, it was nice to get a couple of holes off.

I played very well this afternoon. I think it's the best I've played all week, and obviously the score reflects that.

I feel like each and every day I've improved a little bit. I think I made six or seven birdies out there this afternoon. I made a couple of mistakes and gave a couple of holes away, but for the most part I was very pleased with how I played.

Q. Do you get a sense of momentum as this goes on?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, for sure, especially the way I've done it this week, where it wasn't so good the first day, it might have been a little bit better the second day, a little bit better again. I feel like I've improved each and every day. And getting wins, as well, you do get momentum with every single round that you get through. You can feel it build and you can go with it and that's what I've been able to do.

Q. You were saying after your match this morning with Zach, you're always at your best when you're down on yourself, this match seemed more free flowing and more relaxed?
RORY McILROY: Yes, I said to myself I needed to be a little more aggressive, take a few more pins on, not be quite as conservative. It's sometimes hard to do that on this course because of where the pin positions are and because there's quite a bit of trouble around the greens. But I took a few more shots on and I was a little more aggressive and it definitely paid off.

Q. Was 13 a sign of the aggressiveness? If you take that shot on, how difficult are all the greenside shots at 13?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, like I could sit up here and lie and say I was going straight at the pin or tell you the truth, and I was aiming about 15 or 20 yards right of the pin and pulled it. I pulled it on line with the pin. I was lucky that I hit it good enough. I really struck it well. I think it was 290, 292 yards to that pin. And, yeah, if I didn't hit that right up the middle, it was going in the water. Thankfully it carried. All I was trying to do there was give myself an angle with my second shot, because it was sort of a black left pin, and it was tricky. Even the chip shot I had after that drive was pretty tricky. But seeing Chris' ball go in the water with the second shot, I played the percentage and just sort of got it ten feet away and that was good enough.

Q. What do you think the difference would be going to Augusta having won this tournament as opposed to only the improvement and the progress you've seen this week?
RORY McILROY: I don't know. Even if tomorrow doesn't quite go the way I want it to, I feel like I've still made a lot of great strides forward this week. I've kept saying I want to go to Augusta with a win under my belt and this is my last chance. I've obviously got a great chance to do that tomorrow. But I think even if it doesn't quite go that way, I'll still walk away from here very confident going to Augusta, knowing where my game is and knowing that I'm right where I need to be with a week to go.

Q. (Inaudible.)
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely for momentum it will be great, but just for where my game is, if things don't quite go the way I want them to tomorrow I'll still be very happy with what I've done this week.

Q. Two straight trips into the semifinals, what's the hardest part about that? How much skill and how much luck?
RORY McILROY: No luck at all. I think there's a bit of both. With match play both have to be with you. You do need a little bit of luck here and there. Like on 13, that ball could have easily dropped in the water and it didn't and it would have been a big momentum killer after winning the 10th and 121th hole.

But I think it's definitely just approaching each and every match as if it's a different day, especially when you get to the weekend. You get through in the morning and then you need to go straight again in the afternoon and just trying to separate those two matches and not think about what you've just done this morning and treat it as a completely new match and a new round. I think that's the hardest thing.

I think just playing 18 holes the first three days is pretty easy enough, you just have to get by and get through. But once it gets into this stage and this format and having to go from hopefully winning your match in the morning straight to an afternoon game, that's when it can be a little bit difficult.

Like, for example, today if I hit a shot in the morning, a bad shot on a certain hole, not to let that affect you for your shot in the afternoon. I think that's one of the most difficult things.

Q. What's the best advice about how to play match play? Did you ever get advice?
RORY McILROY: Not really. I think the big thing for a lot of Europeans and a lot of guys coming from the same part of the world as me, we grew up playing match play. We played a lot of match play. So you grew up with it and you learn how to play it. You learn the nuances of it, the ebbs and flows. Whereas I feel a lot of the American guys, they don't grow up with match play as much. A lot of their tournaments are stroke play events. And obviously that's great because the majority of the time we do play stroke play. But that's why I think sometimes the Europeans have a little bit of an advantage in this tournament, and obviously you've seen it in the Ryder Cup. We grew up with match play and maybe are just a little more comfortable playing it.

Q. The last guy to beat you in match play?
RORY McILROY: Harris English.

Q. Where at?
RORY McILROY: Dove Mountain. Beat me on the 19th, I think.

Q. Secondly, it's a bit of a hypothetical, but how much would you relish a chance to play Jason in the semis?
RORY McILROY: Obviously their match is still going on, but I'd love to play Jason. I'd really relish it. He's playing really well at the minute, coming off a win last week. I'd be really up for it. It's a big match. He's two in the world, I'm three. Yeah, I'd look forward to that a lot and maybe that will happen, maybe not.

But no matter who I play, I think I was sitting in here yesterday, or I said out there, I've got to the final day in this tournament three times and I've never had to play in a consolation match. So hopefully it's the same case tomorrow.

Q. If you play Jason, he's a guy who's played a lot less holes than you have so far, any thought about that?
RORY McILROY: No, not really. I should know the golf course a little bit better than he does, just because I've played so many holes. But, no, I feel walking 18 holes or 36 holes today isn't that big a challenge. If I do go all 36 tomorrow, I'll be tired at the end of the week but I don't think that's going to give him an advantage, no.

Q. Is it possible to pace yourself through these kind of matches, through these kind of tournaments?
RORY McILROY: It's hard to because anything can happen in 18 holes. And it is more of a sprint. You want to try to get up as early as you can. I haven't really been able to do that this week. It's hard to try to just play your way into some sort of rhythm in a match play format because you need to be on from the very first shot. It's not like you have 72 holes to sort of navigate your way through a tournament. You've got 18 holes to beat the guy that's in front of you. So it's very hard to pace yourself in this format.

Q. What's the most holes you've ever played in one day?
RORY McILROY: In my life? 54. That's probably when I was 10 or 11 years old. It stays so light in Northern Ireland in the summertime, you can play until 10:00 or 11:00 at night. I'd be dropped off at the golf course at 8:00 in the morning and stay there until it got dark.

Q. With Jordan out of the tournament now, could you feel a difference out there? Were people rooting for you instead of them rooting for the chance of Jordan winning it, could you tell?
RORY McILROY: I don't know if that's why, or if it's just the afternoon and people have had more beers. It could be both.

It's a little disappointing for the tournament. Jordan obviously went to school here and is a Texas boy. But if that means that I get a little bit more support because of that, then I don't mind. I feel like anywhere I go, I get great support and I'm always very appreciative of that and feel like I have a good rapport with the fans that come out there.

The atmosphere was good out there, it was a little rowdy. It was quite funny with everyone out on their boats at the left of 13 and 14. Everyone was having a good time.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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