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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE

May 30, 2018

Rory McIlroy

Dublin, Ohio

MARK WILLIAMS: We would like to welcome Rory McIlroy to the interview room here at the Memorial. You haven't played here since 2016. You've made six starts and I think three top-10s. You got to see the course again today in the pro-am, just some thoughts on the course and coming back to the Memorial.

RORY MCILROY: It's good to be back, it's become one of my favorite stops of the year and I couldn't play last year because of injury. But as you said, I've played some pretty good golf here and just, I've had a couple Top-5s and, yeah, it's been good. The golf course is great, it's, I felt last week at Wentworth they did a good job of getting the golf course in good shape and then you come here and it's like a whole another level. Yeah the rough is, yeah, it's U.S. Open rough out there. You've got to keep it on the fairway. You can't control your ball at all, you can hardly get to the greens out of the rough. So there will be a lot of just put it in the fairway and take your chances from there. But, yeah, it's really good.

MARK WILLIAMS: Questions, please.

Q. When you won earlier this year there was a lot of talk about your putting and you had gotten a little bit of help from Brad Faxon and you came close obviously at the BMW. I'm just wondering where you are with your putting right now and if you're still getting some tutelage from Brad.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, putting feels good. I think I've had three of the top-5 weeks of my career putting-wise have been here at the Memorial. So I seem to like these greens. Yeah, I chat to Brad every so often. I'll probably catch up with him next week up in Long Island for a little bit. But yeah, yeah, I'm still I'm sort of just trying to keep it as free and as loose as possible and that seems to be working. I felt like I putted well last week. I struggled with the speed of the greens at the weekend. I feel like they just got a little bit slower than they were at the start of the week. And I was not necessarily leaving putts short, but more just missing them on the low side just a little weak. But yeah, putting feels good.

Q. You've had a couple of those final rounds and obviously you haven't been happy with, obviously last week and Augusta and whatnot. How do you balance that with the fact that you put yourself there and had those chances on Sundays with the disappointment of not finishing those things off?
RORY MCILROY: You've got to look at the positives. It's a step in the right direction. Look, I should have won from the position I was in last week and I didn't. But you look at everything that comes out of it, I hung in there, I didn't, I really didn't have it over the weekend off the tee or even iron play or, I just, it was all a bit of a struggle and I shot a couple of rounds under par and it wasn't quite good enough. Yeah, it's positives. I've earned more World Ranking points out of anyone this year on TOUR, so that's a positive. There's good finishes and I've put myself up there and I've only converted one of those chances that I've had. I think I've played in four final groups. But it's all going in the right direction. I was listening to Tiger there just about trying to stay patient and trying to sort of seeing it's all there, it's just about letting it happen and maybe not trying too hard. That's sort of the -- if I can just sort of freewheel a little bit like I did that last round at Bay Hill, then I think good results are on their way.

Q. Jack was in here yesterday saying he didn't necessarily enjoy playing with Arnie because they didn't play well. They ended up playing each other instead of the course because of the competition there. With these early rounds, these featured marquee big names, do you enjoy playing with top, the top-ranked guys in the early rounds, or do you have to catch yourself not playing against them?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean for me I had this chat with Jay Monahan a couple weeks ago at THE PLAYERS about how the featured groups at THE PLAYERS sort of backfired a little bit. You put the top guys together and like you're trying to, you know, not as if it you were trying to rig the field, but you want these top guys playing together on a Sunday, not on a Thursday. So whatever the best way is to get those guys to get to that point, it's good for them, it's good for the tournament, it's good for everyone. So I mean I don't mind playing with the top guys in the first two days, but the objective is to get those top guys in contention on Sunday. So we'll see if it works out or not over the next few weeks. But I get why they're doing it and I get why it creates a bit of buzz at the start of the week, but I would rather see Rickie and Phil and Tiger play on a Sunday rather than on a Thursday and two of them going home.

Q. What's the potential downside?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, as you said, they might just start looking at each other and what they're shooting and not, obviously THE PLAYERS is a bit of a bad example because Webb was running away with it so early. But yeah, there's just so much buzz and hype around the group on a Thursday or Friday when there doesn't really need to be. And that could affect some players.

Q. What about putting makes it run sort of hot and cold? I mean not just for you, but for a lot of guys even some of the best putters will go through these hot streaks, down streaks. Does it feel streakier than other parts of the bag?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, there's so many variables. There's slopes, there's different green speeds, there's different grasses there's, I mean you could get a robot on the green and they could hit the exact same putt and the exact same speed and one ball could go in and one ball won't. There's so many tiny variables in play, a tiny little gust of wind. And if a robot can't stand and hole a hundred 6-footers in a row, then a human won't be able to either. And there's just so many variables in it and sometimes your instincts are really good and you can judge those and sometimes they're just a little bit off and you'll hit a lot of edges and you hit good putts but they don't quite go in.

Q. And then on Shinnecock with that coming up, I think you've been out there a few times, just like the last few years. To what extent does that feel like getting ready for sort of a British Open course to you or is that a faulty comparison?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think, I mean, look, I think they would love to get it fast and firm and that would play more like an Open Championship than it does a U.S. Open, but Shinnecock doesn't give you the opportunity too much to run balls into greens. You still have to fly it on to the greens. Where an Open Championship on a links course over there you can run it in. So you still have flight your irons, you still have to be able to stop it pretty quickly, especially if they do get the greens as firm as they want them.

Q. Justin Thomas makes his first start this week as No. 1 in the world. Just wondering if you recall your first, your first time as the, playing as the No. 1 player. Did it feel different to you? Did you feel different trying to play as No. 1?
RORY MCILROY: I think it's really hard to try and play as a world No. 1. I think it's really difficult. I mean you got so much pressure on your shoulders. I mean there's a bulls-eye on your back, it's just really tough.

(Justin Thomas is in the back of the room.)

(Laughter.) No, look, he obviously, there's a reason JT is No. 1 in the world. It's because he's been playing great golf and I think that as long as when you're No. 1 in the world, the demands on your time are a little bit more and as long as you don't forget what got you to that point. And he look, he's great, he practices hard and he does all the right things, so he's not going to forget that, but I can you've just got to manage your time a little bit better and find the time to stay there. It's a great feeling, I mean knowing that you're walking on to the range or walking to a golf tournament that the No. 1 player in the world. It's a life-long dream for all of us out here and to be able to do it is really cool. So I mean I think he should just enjoy it, but at the same time not forget what got him there in the first place.

Q. Very quickly, Congressional aside, what would be your favorite U.S. Open venue? Or is Congressional it?
RORY MCILROY: Well, yeah, I mean obviously that was a good one. Of all the ones I played, I love Bethpage. Bethpage is a great golf course. I haven't played Winged Foot but I'm looking forward to playing a U.S. Open at Winged Foot as well. And, yeah, those -- Oakmont was, Oakmont is awesome, it's just, it was too tough for nearly all of us apart are from D.J. But, yeah, the more traditional style. I mean Shinnecock's a great golf course as well, but any time I think of a U.S. Open I think of like thick rough and small greens and sort of trees and I don't know, I just, Winged Foot seems like a really good U.S. Open venue to me and looking forward to playing there in a couple years.

Q. Jack made the observation yesterday that for all that Tiger's won having been so long he still needs to re-learn how to win. Can you appreciate that, and did you have any sense of that up until Bay Hill?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, winning's a habit. I think once you get into the habit of it becomes a lot easier and you get a knack of knowing when to be aggressive and if you're in contention more and more. And I think it is, it's, you have to, yeah, you put yourself in that position and maybe have to fail a couple of times before you succeed. And I don't think Tiger any different just because he's won 79 times, he hasn't tasted that winning feeling in five years. So I think it does take, it does just take a little bit of time. But I think he's putting himself in position more and more and I don't think it's far away at all.

Q. You've won 20-odd times yourself. Do you remember quickly?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah. I think you do. But again I think you have to, even for me this year I had a third in Abu Dhabi, a second in Dubai, and I got myself into final groups. And then when I got gave myself a chance again at Bay Hill it was like, okay, yes, I know what to do here. It just -- it's a habit and as long as you put yourself in contention more and more and keep knocking on the door, sooner or later you're going to step through and then with that experience will do great things for you going forward.

MARK WILLIAMS: Rory, we appreciate your time as always and thanks for coming in.

RORY MCILROY: Thank you.

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