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BRITISH MASTERS SUPPORTED BY SKY SPORTS

September 27, 2017

Rory McIlroy

Newcastle upon Tyne, England

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Welcome, Rory, thanks for joining us, as always. Welcome home, I suppose.

RORY McILROY: Thank you.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Looking forward to the week.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, bit of an unexpected addition but happy to be here. Yeah, I haven't played obviously the British Masters as it's sort of come back on the scene the last few years. I haven't played it since 2008, I guess, when it was at The Belfry. It's been a while since I've played this tournament.

Yeah, happy to be back. Sort of got this week, next week, and then taking a few weeks off to try and get a bit better and a bit healthier. Going to try to give it my all the next couple of weeks and see how we go.

Q. How did you find the course this morning?
RORY McILROY: Good. It's a course where you sort of have to know it. There's a lot of tee shots where I'm going to have to go in tonight and look at the yardage book a bit and sort of get familiar. There are quite a few tee shots that you don't see much and they all sort of look the same. You're just trying to figure out what to do and what clubs to hit off tees and stuff. A bit hilly and quite a few elevation changes that you have to get used to, as well.

But it's in great shape. I mean, for the time of year it is and with the weather that this part of the world gets, to have a golf course in shape at the end of September, start of October, is really good.

I think it's good. I thought it played pretty tough today, a bit of wind, and there was only two par 5s. There's not that many opportunities to score on the front nine; there's a few shorter holes on the back. Overall, I think it will be a decent test.

Q. Overall, you want to find some form in these last tournaments before the end of the season to give yourself something to work on in these six weeks off?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I feel like I've highlighted areas I've needed to work on anyway. If I play well these next two weeks, that's just a bonus, basically.

But yeah, hopefully I can show something these next two weeks and play okay, and go into my off-season, I guess, knowing what I need to work on and being excited about that and excited about getting into the process, and coming out next year and playing better than I have this year.

Q. How did Lee Westwood react to your call when you said you were coming to play?
RORY McILROY: Actually I haven't seen Lee this week. He actually asked me at Sergio's wedding back in July if I was thinking of playing, and at that point, I wasn't thinking of playing. I was hoping to be in THE TOUR Championship last week and sort of taking this week off and then playing the Dunhill next week. But obviously I didn't make THE TOUR Championship, so needed to add one more in, and this was the obvious one.

I'm happy to be here and happy to support Lee. He's been a good friend of mine on TOUR for a lot of years.

It's great to see the turnout, not just for this tournament, but for him, as well. It sort of shows the place that we all hold Lee in and the regard that we hold him in. He's been a great addition for European golf over the years, and I think to see Sergio here and myself and a lot of the other guys show up, it speaks volumes about Lee.

Q. Do you plan to get some rest, as well, is that part of it?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, rest. I'm taking a ten-day holiday after the Dunhill. Then once I get back, doing quite a bit of testing, sort of 19th and 20th of October. Then it's sort of, I'll start to execute the plan that we have going forward.

So I'll take a few days off and rest. Sort of enjoy myself a little bit, and then I'll get back inside. I don't anticipate hitting golf balls until the end of November, but depending on how I feel, it could be earlier than that.

But yeah, I'm looking forward to just getting myself right, getting myself healthy, and then being able to practise as much as I want and feel prepared going into each and every tournament, instead of feeling like I'm playing catch-up all the time.

Q. We saw you at the U.S. PGA and you said you might not play the FedEx and then you did play the FedEx and obviously you've added this one in and playing next week. What's been the motivating factor to keep playing when you were thinking about shutting it down all together?
RORY McILROY: I want to play Ryder Cup next year. So obviously got to play my five events in Europe. So that was a big decision into that.

Yeah, that's really -- obviously there's minimums and stuff like that, and I've sort of been quite close to the edge on minimums and stuff the last few years. Didn't really want to put The European Tour in another sticky position. So I thought, yeah, I'll play an extra one and not have to make them make the hard decision and have to answer to the membership about why I didn't play the minimum when I could have and all that sort of stuff.

Yeah, I want to play Ryder Cup next year.

Q. Presuming you'd like to try and avoid ending a winless, without a win, sort of a season.
RORY McILROY: I mean, it doesn't really matter. I'm playing the next two weeks. I hope to play well. But yeah, it would be lovely to be -- it would be great. Obviously I'm here to try and win and I'm here to try and play well, but if it doesn't happen, I'm okay with that.

Q. More pressure from your dad for next week?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, there's more pressure on that for sure. Just got to make sure he makes the cut and we can both play on Sunday next week.

Q. You used that phrase, "answering to the membership." Have you had to answer to the membership since you've been here in terms of the comments that came out last week regarding the prospect of the PGA TOUR buying The European Tour and world tour and all that kind of thing?
RORY McILROY: No. I only got here yesterday, so I haven't really seen anyone. No, not at all. Look, that was a very general remark. I wasn't saying it was going to happen next year, in five years or even ten years' time, but I think at some point, there may -- something may happen.

But it was a very -- it was sort of just thinking out loud and seeing where this game was going; if I was to try to see ten years into the future, where would the game be.

I just think with where golf is and how the world is so much smaller now, I don't see why there shouldn't be event in Europe and why there shouldn't be events in the States, but for everyone to maybe try to work together a little bit more. Maybe still having two separate entities, that's totally fine. Because at the end of the day, The European Tour has to do what's right for them, the PGA TOUR has to do what's right for them and they have to do what's right for their members, and you have to give everyone playing opportunities on both sides of the world.

Look, I don't know how it would work. It was just me throwing an idea out there and me throwing a thought out there. It's not something I would like -- there's so many moving parts to it and it's so complicated; but maybe one day, that's all I was really saying.

Q. Just in terms of your fitness, how close are you to full fitness and how much rest do you need to get to that point?
RORY McILROY: It's hard to put it -- it's hard to put a percentage on it. I feel actually okay after a week off. I feel okay. I've done a good bit of practise. I did a bit of practise over the weekend in the Bahamas and then I flew in here yesterday and did a full day's work and felt okay this morning.

So I feel okay. But it's the week off and then I know I'll feel it a bit more after the Dunhill, so then it's just I haven't given it that time. Since I came back after the U.S. Open, I haven't given myself time to fully settle down.

So it's always been just a bit of managing it; does it feel okay, yeah, it feels okay and I can do a little bit, and then I have to take a bit of time off and then I can do a little bit again. But I think just a four- to six-week break without really doing anything and really concentrating on rehab exercises and doing all that stuff, I'll be fine.

I just haven't given myself that little more prolonged length of time to let it fully heal and let it feel 100 per cent. I actually don't feel that far away. I feel better now than I did starting the FedExCup Playoffs, so that's a good thing, and that hopefully bodes well for these next few weeks in terms of rehab.

You know, I was saying at the start, I mightn't hit balls until the end of November. That might bring that a few weeks forward and I can start to practise a bit earlier, which would be great. It's just about giving it that adequate length of time.

Q. But do you still feel inhibited in the amount of practise that you can put in?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I do. I don't feel like I can go out there all day and practise. I feel at some point, I'd have to take a bit of time to let it rest, and I can feel it sort of stiffening up and getting a little bit sore. It's not as if I can go full bore at it like I want to.

But hopefully by giving it that six-week or eight-week rest, I'll be able to fully practise and prepare, and as I said at the start, not feel like I'm playing catch-up at every tournament, because I feel like I haven't been able to do the preparation that will allow me to play my best golf.

Q. Having these sort of events in this part of the country and the northeast, I appreciate you haven't been here long, but what have you made of the course and the welcome and the enthusiasm here?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've definitely felt the enthusiasm. You can tell that a big golf tournament hasn't been here for a long time. I don't think a golf tournament this size has maybe ever been in this part of the country. You can definitely feel that people are -- it's a big deal and it's a big event, and it's great to see the locals are getting into it and embracing it.

As I say, I haven't been here. We landed about ten o'clock yesterday morning. Ate at a very nice Thai restaurant in Newcastle, food seems good so far. But everything has been great.

You know that obviously European Tour and SKY Sports are going to put on a great event. It seems like even just from playing in the morning Pro-Am that the crowds are going to be pretty good this week. Hopefully we have a good winner before four o'clock on Sunday afternoon and hopefully Newcastle can beat Liverpool, so it's all good.

Q. Have you had any experience with the Geordie culture yet?
RORY McILROY: No, I haven't. Actually a few of my mates from high school went to university here and they tell me it's a good night out. But I don't know, I'll give that a miss this week. Yeah, it's supposed to be good.

We've heard of some good restaurants and some good places to go, so we'll try and check those out this week.

Q. And can I just ask, as well, we haven't had top-level golf in the northeast for a long time. What do the players think about it? Have you spoken to the other players? What do they think about it?
RORY McILROY: Again, I haven't been here for that long. I've only been here for over 24 hours. I haven't had a chance to speak to many people, but Close House is beautiful. You know, Lee's association and him telling us about it; beautiful golf course, beautiful grounds. It's a lovely place.

I actually just got a text from my wife before coming in here and she said she was out shopping and loved it and felt like it was home for her but slightly better. Yeah, it's a lovely town, lovely city. So hopefully we can -- obviously want to have a good time on the golf course and try to play well, but obviously there's a lot to offer off it, as well.

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