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BMW CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 7, 2016Rory McIlroyCarmel, Indiana DOUG MILNE: We'll go ahead and get started. Like to welcome Rory McIlroy defending championship of the BMW the last time it was held here at Crooked Stick in 2012 and winner of last week's Deutsche Bank Championship. A few comments on being back here at Crooked Stick this week, please. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it's always nice to come back to venues where you have done well at before, I guess. Sort of, it feels sort of similar to 2012, the fact that I sort of struggled throughout the summer and then not quite like 2012 where I won the PGA, but I struggled a little bit through the summer, but got through it and started to play really well in the FedExCup playoffs leading into the Ryder Cup. So, hopefully I can continue the form that I showed last week on to this week and ultimately on to the Ryder Cup in a few weeks time. So, feeling good about my game, feeling good to come back to a place where I have had good memories and good feelings before, so it would be obviously very nice to emulate what I did in 2012 by doing it again this year. DOUG MILNE: Questions? Q. You have the advantage of playing here previously, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, they have not played this course yet. How much of an advantage is that and how much does that not matter at all? RORY MCILROY: I think it matters a little bit. I definitely, playing the six rounds of golf that I've played here with the two pro-am and the four competitive rounds, and it's a golf course that I remember pretty well. Some courses you don't come back to in a few years, you struggle to remember a few holes or you lose a few holes in the middle of the course, but every time I stepped on to a tee box this morning, every single hole came back to me. So that can only be of benefit. But you look at the leaderboard four years ago and you had Adam was up there, Phil was up there, Dustin was up there. So there's a lot of guys that have played this course and have played it well. So, and I'm in that group and I feel like having experience on it will definitely help. Q. It's been a big summer, the win is mentally taxing, you got a big stretch of golf upcoming. Speak of staying emotionally and mentally fresh through this stretch of golf. RORY MCILROY: I think for me it's not been as hard as any as some of the other guys. I had three weeks off in the summer after the PGA Championship. A lot of guys played a long stretch of golf through, from basically the U.S. Open right up until the Ryder Cup, I mean it's been a lot of golf tournaments to be played. It was nice to have that three week break after Baltusrol to work on a few things in my game, but definitely get refreshed and get ready for this run that I've got coming up. This is going to be five and six weeks with the Ryder Cup and it's also going to be nine and 12 with the Race to Dubai after that. So, I needed that three week break just to try and get myself ready for this run of golf and I feel that pretty, pretty fresh going into this week and it's nice to have a few days off next week and get back at it and then concentrate on the TOUR Championship and then obviously the Ryder Cup as well. But I think some guys are probably feeling a little more tired than I am right now. Q. How surprised are you to hear that Tiger is hoping to come back next month and what is your reaction? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, obviously I have sort of known that for awhile that he was trying to come back for Napa. That was his goal. I had a good chat with Mark Steinberg at the Open Championship and he was sort of saying that to me. So, not that surprised, obviously, but he seems to be doing better. I think he was probably pretty close to making a comeback earlier on this year, but I think he's learned from previous years that you have to really take time to let things heal and really be a hundred percent before getting back out here. So it will be great to see him back again. I think that's the big thing, to see him back on the course and once I heard, I sort of got my phone out of my bag just on the 18th and I had a sort of one of those little notifications from PGA TOUR saying Tiger's announced he hopes to play. So I'm sort of glad I'm not there that week. It's going to be a nice week off for me, it's going to be a bit of a circus. But good to see him back and healthy and it will be exciting to see him back on the course again. Q. A little Ryder Cup question, can you tell me what difference your level of comfort was 2010 and 2012 and what kind of advice will you give the six rookies? RORY MCILROY: I was really uncomfortable in 2010, I was just uncomfortable in 2012, and I was somewhat comfortable in 2014. It's a tournament where you get feelings that you've never had before. I think that's the thing. No matter if -- even someone like Danny Willett on our team, who has won the Masters, and I'm going to say, Danny, look, that final round was great, but you were playing with Lee Westwood who is a buddy of yours, you weren't really in contention until the last sort of five or six holes, first round or first match in the Ryder Cup is going to be playing a final round of a Major for all 18 holes. That's what it's like. So there's going to be, the rookies are going to experience things that they have probably never experienced before on a golf course. It's just to make them aware of that and sort of try to help them embrace that in some way. I think that's the thing. I really didn't embrace that at Celtic Manor, I got tentative and I sort of struggled the first couple of days and sort of got into my stride at the end of the week, but it's a tough environment to come to, especially in an away Ryder Cup. There's going to be things said, there's going to be -- it's tough. It's a tough environment. I just have to make sure that the guys know that. That they're ready for that. Q. Talking about Tiger returning in October, you and him have had some good struggles head to head particularly in China, have you missed him on the TOUR and second part is, how difficult could it be for Tiger to get back to that sort of level of competition where he's in contention, week in, week out? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think that you miss the, I think you miss the buzz that he creates at tournaments. Have I missed him? I sort of concentrate on myself and it's not as if I'm playing a tournament where Tiger's not in the field and thinking about him. But I think I missed the buzz that he creates at tournaments. He brings an aura and an atmosphere to a tournament that no one else in golf can bring. So I missed that part of it for sure. And this rehab and his injury, it's different trying to get back from an injury at 40 years old than it is when you're in your 20s or early 30's. I think that's why it's been over a year since we have seen him on a golf course and he's really taken the conservative approach and I think that's the right approach and it would be great to see him give it one last shot for the next sort of half a decade or whatever it's going to be and go from there. But yeah, I think everyone's excited to have him back and hopefully he can get back on the course and stay healthy for a prolonged period of time and give it one last go. Q. You came into the media rooms in July and August describing your season then as fairly middling. What will it mean to you and the European team if you can take what you found last week, build on it, and bring it to Hazeltine? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think it would be obviously a great season then to be, if I can play the way I am playing through the next two events of this FedExCup playoffs and into the Ryder Cup. I still won't have achieved what I wanted to achieve this season, but it's a nice way to finish the season off, I guess. Any time you're part of a Ryder Cup team and a winning Ryder Cup team, it's a pretty special moment and I'm looking forward to trying to help the team as much as I can to try and do that, try to regain the trophy, retain the trophy, sorry in a few weeks time. So, again, I still won't have achieved what I wanted to achieve in 2016, but it's not a bad way to finish the year. Q. With Paul and Russell not being on the team, how regrettable is that to you and does it suggest that there is a different solution for putting together teams in the future? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I've always said it should be the best 12 Europeans regardless of whether they're a member of a TOUR or not. I think that's the hard thing. If the points qualifications or sorry if Russell had been a member of the TOUR when he won in China, he makes the team. Paul's obviously playing well. But it's a personal decision on Paul's part. He wants to spend more time in the States and doesn't feel like he can play both tours and play two schedules. And that's very understandable. I can see where he's coming from. With a young family in the States, it's hard to do that much travel every year and still see your family as much as you want to see them. So, I completely understand Paul's point of view. Again, some tournaments and some things are more important to people than they are to others. I wouldn't want to miss the Ryder Cup because it's very important to me, but if it's not that important to Paul Casey, then so be it, that's his opinion and his decision and he should stand by that. Q. What is the best way to describe good putting for you based on your own experiences, your awareness? RORY MCILROY: I think two things about putting is speed and line. If you can -- I think first if you can start the ball where you're aiming it, if you can start the ball on line and then hit it at the right speed, that's all you can really do. There's line and speed and then if you can match the line and speed up to the right read, you're set. So you try to make it as simple as you possibly can, but I still feel like there's certain ways to help you do that with your mechanics and with making, trying to make a consistent stroke each and every time, so but it really, it should be the simplest part of golf. You're only advancing a ball a few feet at some times and it should be the simplest part of golf and I feel like if I can make it the simplest part of golf again and start the ball on line, it will make it much easier to hole putts and get confident and get momentum. Q. Another putting question, before you started working with Phil a couple weeks ago had you sought out any other advice over the past year if only just to get an extra set of eyes? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I was still in regular contact with Dave Stockton, just, but we didn't spend any physical time together. He would texted me every now and again and texted me stuff that he might have seen on TV coverage. But then I definitely had a few texted messages on my phone once I finished that second round at Baltusrol there was a few people offering their advice. But people that know me know I'm not one to seek out advice, I always try to figure it out on my own. I'm sort of stubborn that way. I like to, if I can get a feeling and feel like I really own it, instead of seeking other advice and I'm sort of too proud to do that in a way. I like to try and figure things out on my own. But it got to the point where that wasn't really working, so I had to go and do something about it. I talked to the people that were closest to me, the people that are within my team and there was a few names being floated around, but I felt like Phil was definitely the guy I needed to go to, first of all, just for, just to measure what I was doing. Because I use Trackman for my long game, my golf swing, ball striking, so there's no reason why I shouldn't use similar technology for my putting. So that's why I went there first, just to see where I was and what I needed to do differently and then go from there. Q. You must be able to relate on some level with the expectations that Tiger faces, no matter what he's been through. Coming back from an injury, even like yourself, and what you've even been through this year, just the constant, "why haven't you won" or what have you. Can you imagine at all on any level what he deals with and is it fair? RORY MCILROY: It's definitely not fair. He's definitely a victim of his own success, that's for sure. There's been a handful of great athletes in the world in my lifetime or in any of our lifetimes that have put up numbers and consistent years like Tiger did from 19 -- basically a 10-year period. That's usually an athlete's career is 10 years. It's a 10-year span where you try to make the most of it and in that 10-year span he won 14 Major Championships and 80 PGA TOUR events, so whenever he doesn't do that people are going to say, what's wrong. But again, I go back to this point all the time, it's, we're a culture now where it's so, everything is, what have you done for me now, what have you done for me lately type of stuff. And people forget how good he was. He was, that 10-year stretch of golf is the best stretch of golf we have ever seen on the planet by anyone. I don't care what anyone says about Jack Nicklaus's record or anyone else, that 10-year stretch of golf was the best. And I don't know if anyone's going to emulate that at all, but I think people need to remember that. Because he has been and is the greatest player that has ever played this game, maybe not by records, but just by that 10-year stretch of golf that he did. No one, I think, played a 10-year stretch of golf remotely like he did, so I can somewhat relate to the expectations, not as much as obviously him, because my numbers don't even start to match what his are. But it's hard. People are going to expect him to go out at Napa and play well and it's going to take time. It's a process and sometimes you have to take the bigger picture and take the longer view of things and I think that's what Tiger started to do with his injury and I'm sure he's sort of thinking play at Napa, but the long-term goal is if he can get himself ready for the Masters next year, that's where he wants to be. Q. To pick up on the Ryder Cup again, do you not think if the European Tour didn't have the rule of needing to be a member to make the team that it would weaken the TOUR, we probably wouldn't see you guys play both sides of the pond. Russell Knox, for example, hasn't supported a European Tour event for years before he won the HSBC Champions. RORY MCILROY: No, I completely agree, I understand with that, and you're right, the Ryder Cup is a huge, a huge reason and a huge carrot for guys to go back to European play on the European Tour. But and that has been the reason, but I think with Keith Pelley in charge now and what he's doing and what you're going to see from the European Tour going forward, hopefully the Ryder Cup isn't the only reason why guys are going to go back and play. I think that's what they're trying to do and trying to change. But, yeah, look, I totally agree, the Ryder Cup is a huge incentive for guys to join the TOUR and to try to make the team and you look at Russell Knox and David Lingmerth and these guys that did join this year to try and do just that, so, but there has to be, it should be the USA versus Europe not the European Tour versus -- well not, obviously, the PGA TOUR aren't really involved, but it's a -- what do you do? It's hard. I'm sure Russell feels very hard done by it, because he's had such a great year and but I still feel like the 12 guys that we have on the team are very capable and we have a great chance of winning it. Q. Do you think you have to putt great to have chances to win tournaments or do you have to not putt poorly? RORY MCILROY: You have to not putt poorly. I was looking at the stats from my win here in 2012 and I think I finished out of 70 players, I finished 49th in strokes gained putting and won by two. Shot 20-under par. So, you don't have to putt great, but you can't putt poorly either. You sort of, if you have a great ball striking week, if you're sort of just average in putting, you can have a great chance to win. But putting's a great equalizer, it can definitely, if you're not quite on top of your game or you're missing fairways or missing greens, you put up putting stats like even what I did last week, then you're going to have a great chance, regardless of how you're hitting it. But it has to be a blend of everything, you can't drive it terribly and putt well and expect to win, you have to sort of do everything pretty well. Q. Sticking with the putting, would you just clarify when you made the decision to that you needed to work with somebody and do you regret not doing it earlier in the season? RORY MCILROY: So I rang Phil on the Saturday of the PGA Championship. So, took a night to sort of think about it, reflect, and then, yeah, I rang him on the Saturday and just wanted, again, as I alluded to earlier, I wanted to go to his studio in England just to get some numbers, first and foremost. Just wanted to see what I was doing, why the putts were missing where they were and from there start to work on things. So, at the time when I was going to England I wasn't set on working with Phil, it was just one session, just to see where I was. And then over those last couple of weeks I felt like we worked well together and I feel like we gelled pretty well, so it was an easy decision to make after that. DOUG MILNE: Okay, Rory, thanks for your time and best of luck this week. RORY MCILROY: Thank you. 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