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TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 25, 2019Rory McIlroyAtlanta, Georgia MICHAEL BALIKER: Ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor to welcome to the interview room 2019 FedExCup Champion Rory McIlroy. You join Tiger Woods as the only players to win the FedExCup more than once. Just to start out, coming down the 18th today under some different circumstances this time around. Just describe what that moment was like with them chanting your name. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was pretty cool. I turned to Harry when we were walking down the hill on 18 after I'd hit my second shot, and I said, well, this walk is a little more pleasant than last year, not running away from a stampede. But yeah, it was cool. To have a moment like that again, I didn't play well at all last year with Tiger in that final group, so to get myself in a final group again this year. And you know, I thought a lot about that. I thought about the final group with Tiger last year, the final group with Brooks in Memphis a few weeks ago, and I really wanted to go out there and play well and really take it to him, and I did that for the most part. I went out, shot 66 on a really tough golf course and got the job done. You know, really cool, really cool to put my name on this trophy for a second time. Any time you can do something that only Tiger has done, you're doing something right. Yeah, it was an awesome day, long day. To come back out in the morning and play 13 holes and then play that full 18, it was -- I'm going to sleep well tonight, put it that way. Q. What was going through your mind facing the putt on 16, and how happy were you with the work you did with the putter this week? RORY MCILROY: So, yeah, the putt on 16 was huge. Bogeying 14 and 15, I really just wanted to stop the bleeding. And when I hit the tee shot into the bunker on 16, it was a really bad lie. Like I did well to get it to where it went to, to the front edge of the green. And then the first putt just jumped a little bit and it didn't really have any momentum to get up and over that hill. But that was a tricky putt. Maybe, I don't know, a couple of cups on the left-hand side and just feed it down the hill. I holed a couple of nice ones today, a couple of birdies to give me the cushion on the back nine. And then to stop the bleeding there on 16, just so I had a two-shot lead going into those last two holes, I could play those holes with maybe a little more freedom. Hit a great tee shot off 17, and then to capitalize on that and make birdie, just to really be able to enjoy that walk down the last was nice. Q. You've spoken a lot this season about not letting the highs get too high or the lows get too low, all the way since Maui. Is there something to the fact that you've had the most consistent year of your career, and you've also kind of reached this point in your career that you want to have these thoughts and make sure you don't get too high or too low? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think some of the work that I've put in on the mental side of the game and some of the things I've been doing, I definitely think you're starting to see the fruition of that, I guess. Even winning THE PLAYERS at the start of the year, THE PLAYERS is a tournament I've never won before, but I just did my job. I went out there and played solid golf and got the job done. Today again, I would have been disappointed if I didn't win because I've given myself so many chances. To get that third win of the year was big for me. But yeah, there's something to just -- just a different approach, a little bit of a different attitude. I think I played 19 times on the PGA TOUR this year, 14 top 10s, three wins, I don't know how many final groups. So just that attitude and that consistency day in, day out, I think that's what you've seen over the course of this year, and hopefully will continue to see going forward. Q. There's a blown-up picture of you in the 18th suites with your arms up, mouth wide open like in full roar, probably from '16. When you look at the displays of your full emotion from previous years, what do you think, given your new -- RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think they've been warranted. It's not -- I guess I showed a little emotion on that last putt on 18. But sometimes it's worked against me, and that's the real reason that I maybe don't show as much emotion out there as I maybe used to, because I know that, as Rex just said, I don't want to get too high and I don't want to get too low. You know, if I needed to get emotional and get really riled up, this isn't the sport to do that. I'm not a football player. It's golf, and you sort of need to try to be pretty even-keeled the whole way through. Even when I made the two birdies on 12 and 13, it was great, but then when I made the two bogeys on 14 and 15, I tried to sort of treat those both the same. And I think if you look at my bounce-back stat this year, it's way up there, and I think that's a good indication of where my mind and my attitude is while I'm out there playing. Q. Brooks looked like he had a brief conversation with you on the 18th green; was he telling you that you have his vote for Player of the Year? RORY MCILROY: No, I just said to him, he's had a great season. He's won another major, he's won three times. And I know it's going to sting because he most likely will win the Player of the Year, but he didn't win the FedExCup. So I know it's going to sting him for a bit, but I just wanted to tell him he's playing so good. He's the No. 1 player in the world, and he's had a great season, and he said something similar to me, just happy for me. But yeah, it was good. Brooks is a great player. He's turned into a heck of a player over the last couple of years, and I definitely expect more Sundays like that between the both of us in the future. Q. What was your most important shot of the season, not necessarily best, but most important? RORY MCILROY: Probably the -- I hit a 6-iron out of the fairway bunker on 15 at THE PLAYERS on Sunday, sort of curved it around a tree, got it up there to 15 feet, and holed the putt for birdie. I think that basically set up me going on and winning THE PLAYERS Championship. And I think when I look back at everything this year, that was a -- because if I don't win THE PLAYERS, I don't know what happens after that and where the season might go. The one that I have to pick out now would probably be that shot. Q. You've talked about the importance of the strokes gained stat. You've had multiple major seasons, but because of the importance of that stat, is this your best season, just playing-wise? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think it is. We talk about consistency. I don't know what my strokes gained number finished at, whether it was 2-point -- Q. 55. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, the Holy Grail is three. I'm not going to stop until I get to three because Tiger has done that multiple seasons, and when you get to three strokes gained, you're just in another league. I mean, that's what I strive towards. One of my goals every year, plus three. I'm getting closer. It's been my best season to date. But all these little goals, like even today, I wanted to win -- so Patrick Cantlay, he went to No. 1 in the stroke average last week because of Medinah, and I a hundred percent knew that coming in this week, and I wanted to end the season with No. 1 stroke average. There's just little motivating factors that don't have to be about the tournament, but keep you where you need to be. Q. You've touched on this, but when you look at all that was on the table this week, the payback as you call it, winning the outright tournament by three from even strokes, $15 million in the FedExCup, what are you most proud of and why? RORY MCILROY: I think honestly, winning the tournament, if everyone started even. Because that was my goal at the start of the week was to just shoot the lowest score of the week. If that happened to work out the right way, then so be it. But I never strayed from that thought process. I was playing a little tournament inside my head. I wasn't necessarily looking at the leaderboard the way it was. I was just trying to look at it from, okay, well, Xander is 9-under for the week and I'm 9-under, 8-under. I was just trying to play the tournament as if there was no staggered start. I think that, and then going out in the final group and shooting 66 alongside the No. 1 player in the world when he got the better of me a few weeks ago in Memphis, I think those two things are probably what I'm most proudest of. Q. You've mentioned the mental stuff. I'm just curious, what was the most important shot you hit today from that standpoint? RORY MCILROY: Probably the 16th tee shot. It's a tee shot that I've never been comfortable with. I changed my game plan this morning. It was my first full shot of the day, and I hit 3-wood and hit a good one. And then I saw Brooks hit one left there before I hit, and I stepped up and made a really good, committed swing and hit a 3-wood right down there, made birdie from there. It's not one that'll get talked about at all, but to stand up and make a good swing like that and fully commit on a tee shot that I've never really been comfortable with after seeing a ball go out of bounds, that was pretty big. Q. You had a cushion going into the 18th hole, but do you still have some nerves, some butterflies knowing everything is on the line at that point? And if someone asked you for advice, like hey, I'm a recreational golfer, I get to the 18th hole and I always choke, what kind of advice would you give them to deal with the situation like you did? RORY MCILROY: I mean, what I kept telling myself today, focus on the process, not the prize. Whether you're playing for five bucks or 15 million or whatever it is, focus on what can you do right now that's going to help you get towards your goal. You know, it takes a lot of mental energy to do that because it's very easy for your mind to wander, and it wants to wander and it wants to look ahead. But you have to be so concentrated on what am I doing and the here and the now that is going to help me get closer to that goal. And that's what I've tried to do all year. I really stuck to that today. Q. How important was it to play with Brooks in the final group today? Being able to kind of stare at him all -- RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it wasn't -- like it wasn't necessarily important. It wasn't as if it was -- I think it just gives me a little bit of an extra incentive. It wasn't that important, but once I saw I was in the final group with Brooks, it just took me back to Memphis a few weeks ago, and I felt like I learned a few lessons that day. You know, maybe just -- not that I wasn't going to focus, but it gave me that little bit of extra -- not motivation, but I wanted to right some of the wrongs that I made that Sunday in Memphis a few weeks ago, and it was a good opportunity to do it. Q. What would be like the primary lesson you would say that you learned? RORY MCILROY: I think one of the biggest things is sometimes I try to treat Sundays the same as a Thursday or Friday, and they're not. I go into them maybe a little too relaxed and a little too -- it's not the same, and it's about trying to get yourself in the right mindset. And Brooks went out there in Memphis and shot 65 and just basically dominated the tournament, dominated me. And I realized if I want to become the dominant player in the world again, I need to be more like that. I need to -- I guess that's the ultimate compliment I can give Brooks is today I wanted to be a little bit more like him. Q. I would imagine that you thought this was going to come down to a last-stroke situation and maybe having to make birdie or maybe an eagle on 18. I wonder, what was your kind of strategy coming into today on how to handle 16, 17, 18 in a situation like that? And did you alter that as you went in with whatever, a two or three-stroke lead? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so for me, there was -- I thought with the last four holes, there's one really tough shot to hit, and that's the tee shot on 15. At that point, I had -- I think I had a three-shot cushion, so it made the tee shot a little bit easier. I still hit it in the bunker, but yeah, going out today, I didn't imagine that I'd win by four shots in the end. I thought it was going to be closer than that. But it's a tough golf course, and to shoot 4-under out there in one of the final groups is a pretty good effort. I give myself a number at the start of the day. When I walked back onto the course, I was 11-under par for the tournament, and I wanted to get to 20 today. I had 31 holes to do that. I didn't quite get there, I got to 18. But I thought 20 was a number that was safe to win, and I ended up two short of that. But didn't matter in the end. Q. When you make that run on the back, do you allow yourself to start thinking: This is possible, I can win this? Or is it kind of one of those, the final putt goes down, that's when you let it out? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, and again, at that point I didn't know -- Xander was -- he was at 14-under, so he was 10-under for the tournament. I started at 5, and I was -- so even though I had a three- or four-shot lead, I still in my mind only had a one- or two-shot lead because I'm just trying to win the tournament from everyone starting even, right? So no, I never felt comfortable enough to let my mind get that far ahead that I was thinking of, oh, won't it be nice when I... I kept playing golf and hitting shots and putting one foot in front of the other and just did that until the very end. Q. I just wanted to clarify something that you answered about the tee shot that was so important. Are you talking about 7? You said 16. RORY MCILROY: Oh, yeah, 7. Sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess. I mean 7, yeah. That's the old 16. Everyone was like, you were in a bunker, what are you talking about? Yeah, 7. Q. If the commissioner asks what you think of the new scoring format here, what are you going to tell him? RORY MCILROY: I think if you look at the way it all played out, you had the No. 1 and 2 in the regular season FedExCup standings playing in the final group this week, so I think it worked out well. I was part of that decision to go with the staggered format. I talked about it in meetings and debated it and all sorts, and it definitely simplifies it for us playing and also for the fans. Yeah, look, it's golf, and I think golf is very adverse to change sometimes, so it'll take a while to get used to, but I think for the first run of it, I think it went well. Q. You get asked so much about mentality and mental stuff. Were there any physical changes game-wise you made that helped you be so consistent this year? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so I made a plan at the start of the year not to really focus or worry about my swing the weeks that I'm playing. I try to do all of my work with my coach Michael Bannon on off weeks. So I think that was the first tournament -- he was here for -- he was doing a couple other things, as well, outside of just doing stuff with me. But this was the first tournament he's been at this year, and we didn't talk about swing, didn't talk about anything. I think you should do your work before the tournament starts, and then once you're there, just go with what you have, and basically that's what I did this year, I just went with what I had every week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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