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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 18, 2018Rory McIlroyOrlando, Florida JOHN BUSH: We would like to welcome the 2018 champion, Rory McIlroy to the interview room here at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. What a Sunday, what a week. If we can just get some comments, you shot an 8-under par 64 today, welcome back to the winner's circle. RORY MCILROY: Thank you. Yeah, it's been awhile. Oh, what a day. It looked like it was going to be a bit of a shoot-out out there, it was a stacked leaderboard going into today. Honestly, I thought if I shot 67 I would have had a good chance and obviously that would have been not nearly good enough. So I just went out with the mindset today of being patient. I was even par through five holes and four behind Henrik at that point. I hit it into the bunker off the tee on 6, so I just really tried to stay patient out there and after that I just played a perfect round of golf. I gave myself birdie chances on basically every hole. Just executed shots the way I wanted to when I needed to. Yeah, 64 in those conditions out there, with it being firm and fast, to get into the winner's circle again, it feels really good. So yeah, really proud of myself, how I hung in there over the pass sort of year, with injuries and taking a little bit of time off at the end of last year to sort of get myself right coming into this year and all that work, hard work has finally paid off. I kept telling everyone, even when I was missing cuts and finishing 60th, it wasn't that far away, so just a couple little tweaks here and there and it's nice to be in this position again. JOHN BUSH: Before questions I know it's not lost on you that your last PGA TOUR win at the TOUR Championship came on the same date that Mr. Palmer passed away. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, someone told me that earlier and it's a little ironic and, yeah, 25th of September, 2016, the last time I won a PGA TOUR event and obviously it was bittersweet because we lost an absolute legend, an icon of the game, so and for me to get my next win here is, it means a lot. I've had quite a connection with Arnold Palmer over the past few years and I've been very fortunate to spend some time with him here and he was always so nice to me. I've got so many letters from him from wins and all sorts of stuff. I wish he would have been at the top of the hill to shake my hand when I came off the 18th green there, but hopefully he's proud of me with the way I played that back nine and tried to be as aggressive as I could and tried to take on shots when I needed to, just like he would have. So yeah, it's sort of come full circle since that day in September in 2016 and just proud to be sitting up here and have my name on that trophy. JOHN BUSH: Questions, please. Q. You didn't leave room for any questions you talked so much. RORY MCILROY: Sorry. Q. Well done. RORY MCILROY: Thank you. Q. Talk about -- just the back nine, I'm just curious what the noise was out there, was like out there as you could probably hear a lot for Tiger ahead of you and how much you felt it everything shift in your direction, especially with the chip on 15. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so I hit it to the back of the green on 11, Tiger had just made birdie on 13 and on his way from 13 green to 14 tee a Tiger chant started. And then people around the green on 11 retaliated with a Rory chant. Wasn't quite as loud. But I had to back off my putt on 11. So I knew at that point he was making a bit of a run. I guess he got to 5-under for the day at that point maybe. Was he 12-under? So I knew what was going on. But then, yeah, not birdieing the par-5 12th, but then coming back with the birdie on 13 was huge. At that point it still looked as if I was in a tussle with Bryson and Henrik and Justin and then I just sort of caught fire those next few holes. Q. Do you remember the last time you caught fire on a stretch like that over six holes to win a tournament? RORY MCILROY: To win a tournament? No. TOUR Championship I holed that second shot, but, no, yeah, I'm not sure. It was nice. It was needed and it was timely, for sure. Q. Was the last time in Dubai a few years ago? RORY MCILROY: Yes, 2012 I did that, birdied the last five to beat Justin actually by a couple of shots but, yeah, yeah, I can't remember when I got on a run like that before. Q. How difficult was the last year and a half and what kept your spirits going forward? RORY MCILROY: Look, I've always believed in myself and I know that me being 100 percent healthy is good enough to not just win on the PGA TOUR but win a lot. And I guess that's what kept me going. I wanted to get back to 100 percent fitness, which I have, and that allows me to practice as much as I want, go about my business, do everything that I need to do to feel 100 percent prepared to play golf tournaments. So I never lost belief. I know that I've got a gift for this game and I know that if I put the time in I can make a lot of it. I guess that's what's kept me going. Q. Over the past couple months you've been asked to assess a lot of people's chances at winning the Masters. Phil, Justin, Tiger. Was it at all motivation for you to try to remind everyone that you can play a little there too or what was that like for you? RORY MCILROY: It's fine. Look, most of these guys are my friends, so I'm happy for them. JT's been on a tear the last 18 months. Phil, it was great for him to get the win in Mexico. Tiger coming back. I'm happy to answer those questions. I just hope they get some questions about me now. (Laughter.) Q. Three years ago you played here for the first time and I believe you shared dinner with Mr. Palmer in the clubhouse. What details can you provide about that and what did it mean to you? RORY MCILROY: I knew that he liked A.1. Sauce on his fish. Which was quite strange. Yeah. There you go. (Laughter.) Q. What kind of fish? RORY MCILROY: I can't remember. But I remember he, I remember him asking the server, "Can I get some A.1. Sauce?" And the server said, "For your fish, Mr. Palmer?" He said, "No, for me." So it was quite funny. But, yeah, that's Arnie, he's so good with people and I was just mesmerized for that two hours that I spent with him. So much time for everyone and I was very fortunate to spend that time with him. Q. Was the putt on 18 kind of, did you see that as icing on the cake or did you kind of maybe feel you needed to make it? RORY MCILROY: Look, I would be lying if I said that I was trying to totally make it. I was trying to just get -- all I was telling myself was just hit it with the right speed. I was just trying to get it somewhere down around the hole. If it dropped in, great. If it didn't, Bryson would have to play a great couple of holes there. But walking over the 18th tee I saw that Bryson had made eagle on 16 and I knew that my job wasn't done. I needed to hit a great second shot in there and I needed to at least 2-putt from there. And so, yeah, I guess it was icing on the cake, but it's amazing how many times you think you just have to 2-putt and you don't need the second putt, the first one goes in. But, yeah, it was great to see it drop and I said just after that I've seen Tiger do it enough times, I know what that putt does. So it was nice to make my own little bit of history. Q. Brad Faxon, much has been made of his help he gave you last week. Freeing up your stroke that way, how much has that freed up just your entire game? RORY MCILROY: Freed up my head more than my stroke, it was more, I was sort of felt like maybe complicating things a bit and thinking a little bit too much about it and maybe a little bogged down by technical or mechanical thoughts. So just being a little bit more -- you look at so many different, you look at so many guys out here, so many different ways to get the ball in the hole, even going back to the likes of Billy Mayfair or someone that is very unorthodox but still got it done. The objective is to get that ball in the hole and that's it. I think I lost sight of that a little bit. That sounds silly, I guess, but just reminded myself that it doesn't matter how you do it as long as that thing goes in and that's sort of the mindset I had this week. Q. You do ride a swing of emotion, you show that on the golf course, but do you think the media really gets into the roller coaster ride with you? I mean it's only been 18 tournaments since you won, I think you were No. 1 six years ago, was it about that time? But do you think the media takes you on that ride and wonders about your career, why up-and-down? RORY MCILROY: I don't know. You don't need to get on it with me if you don't want to. Geez, I don't know. Yeah, like I think golf is so fickle and you're never far away from -- at least I feel I'm never far away from producing golf like what I did today. But on the flip side, I don't think you're ever far away from producing mediocre golf as well. It's such a fine line out here and I might have sounded crazy the last few weeks when I was telling everyone it actually feels pretty close and I'm not that far away and I'm putting up 72s and 73s and all of a sudden it all clicks into place and end up winning a golf tournament by three shots and shooting 8-under on the last day. So it's fine lines out here, I think you have to play the game to really appreciate that. It's not as black and white as some people make it out to be. So, yeah, I don't know if that answers your question or not. Q. What is the fact of actually doing it though on a Sunday even though you think it's coming, to actually do it, what does that do for your confidence heading into Augusta? RORY MCILROY: It's huge. The shots that I was able to hit today under pressure, coming down the stretch, the two 5-irons into the par-3s on the back nine, the wedge shots, the putts, the drive on 16, the 3-wood on 18 after the last 3-wood I hit on that hole I hit it OB left on Thursday. So just stuff that you, all these little barriers that you have to overcome, whether it be physical or mental, yeah, it's huge for my confidence going into the next few weeks and I kept saying I didn't need a win going into Augusta to feel like I had a chance, I just wanted to see signs of good golf, and thankfully I've been able to get both today. Q. My question is about your equipment. I notice you put the 5-wood in this week and last couple weeks you had a that smashing 2-iron. Just wanted to hear your thought process in that and also at this point if you have a, if you know going into Augusta which would be a better fit? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think 5-wood is probably a better fit for Augusta. I also went to four wedges this week instead of three. Took a 3-iron out. Changed shaft in my driver on Tuesday. I went to a the Mitsubishi Tensei Orange, sort of counter balanced shaft. Felt just a little bit better for me. I've been playing the same shaft for like seven years, so I thought it was just time for a change. But, yeah, setup wise, yeah, I think I'm, that's probably what it will be going into Augusta. Sometimes if it's into, into the wind on the 4th hole at Augusta you need to might need to have that 3-iron in the bag, but it worked this week, I hit that 5-wood well off the tee this week, so, yeah. And this is, obviously, it's my first win with TaylorMade as well, so I'm happy to get that one under my belt after that. Hopefully the first of many. Q. September 25th you just won the FedExCup, the Ryder Cup's coming up and you just learned probably an hour after you finished that Arnie had died. Do you remember the emotions of that night and what you were thinking? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was bittersweet. Obviously I had a great win and it was a great day for me, but in the overall picture of the big scheme of things that didn't matter. The game of golf had lost an icon, a legend, an inspiration to so many of us, and yeah, I probably wasn't as ecstatic as maybe I would have been if Arnie hadn't had passed away. So a little bit bittersweet and obviously it's ironic that I come back here 18 months on and win for the first time at Bay Hill and everything that's associated with that. But, geez, I mean, I'm never going to be able to leave a mark on the game like Arnie did, but I'll try to emulate in some way and if I could get halfway close to that, I'll have had a pretty good career. Q. Do you ever see Tiger in your south Florida travels to either maybe play golf with him or ever been to his restaurant or anything like that? RORY MCILROY: I go to his restaurant a lot, actually. Every Wednesday night we go there with my parents. Sort of like a Wednesday thing for us. But I see him from time to time. We'll reach out -- we actually played a quick round the morning of Thanksgiving. But that's the last time we played so, but I see him from time to time. Q. How's the food? RORY MCILROY: It's good. He seems pretty hands on with it. Tuna wontons are good, the lamb lollipops are good. Yeah. I recommend it. Q. Mr. Palmer often said that his greatest regret in golf was never winning a PGA and therefore never having a career Grand Slam. Did he ever talk to you about that and if so what did you ever take from it? RORY MCILROY: No, never. No, we never talked about that. It's amazing to think, all that Arnold did in the game, he never won that Grand Slam. Obviously I'm in a position where I can join that club and I would love to. But, no, never talked about it. It's a great, golf's in a great place, there's three of us that are going for the Grand Slam this year and it's actually I feel like it's exciting times. Obviously I'm glad to be a part of that conversation, get the first shot at it in a few weeks so we'll see how we go. Q. On 18, first of all what club was that? RORY MCILROY: 7-iron. Q. Were you aware at all of Bryson's eagle on 16? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so I saw that Bryson made eagle when I was walking off the 18th tee. So I hit my tee shot, but I knew this isn't over yet, I've only got a one-shot lead. So I knew I needed to hit a good second shot in there and at least make par and make him -- I was still thinking, geez, he could birdie the last two holes here and he could beat me. So I still had a lot to do. I wasn't thinking 3 on 18, I was thinking 4, but it was as I said it was a bonus to see that putt drop. JOHN BUSH: Congratulations once again, Rory McIlroy. RORY MCILROY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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