PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 5, 2020

Rory McIlroy

Harding Park Golf Club

Press Conference

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JOHN DEVER: Welcome back, everybody, to the 2020 PGA Championship here at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco. Pleased to be joined by Rory McIlroy. Rory, welcome to what is your 12th PGA Championship, if you can believe that.

RORY McILROY: Wow.

JOHN DEVER: Pre-COVID, your year was off to a resounding start and then everything kind of came to a halt. I've got to imagine your hopes that the first major in 13 months can kind of spark you back into that peak form a little bit.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely. As you said, before the world sort of shut down, I was playing some really good golf, consistent. And then yeah, having that three-month break, coming back, everything sort of changed. Everything feels different, in the competitive arena, anyway.

But my game doesn't feel that far away. I feel like I've played pretty well. I just haven't got a lot out of my game. Haven't scored as well as I was doing before the lockdown. Wasn't really efficient, or haven't been efficient as I was back then. Short game hasn't quite been as sharp.

Yeah, as you said, it's the first major in over a year, and it would be a great week to get back into some form and give it a good run.

Q. Obviously some great vibes coming to this place for you. How did your strategy change playing a medal-play event, as opposed to how you might attack this course in match play?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, the course is obviously a little different than it was in the Match Play five years ago. The layout and the routing of the course is different. But also they've added some length. There's a few holes that definitely play a lot longer.

I think the fairways are narrower. They've cut them in a little bit, a couple of different looks.

So it is, it's different. I've always liked how PGA Championship setups have been for me. I think they're fair. It's not as if -- you look down a fairway at a PGA Championship and it's sort of the same width the whole way down to the green. A lot of courses, they try to pinch it in at 320 and try to handcuff the longer hitters, whereas here the courses just let you play, which I like.

I think Kerry Haigh and his team do a great job. I think Kerry is one of the best in the business at setting courses up. I've always said that.

Like I said, it's a little different than the Match Play five years ago. I think it's a great setup, and everyone is in for a good week.

Q. I'm curious your take on the importance of holding major championships at true municipal courses like Harding, like Bethpage last year. I think the U.S. Open goes to Torrey next year. That's obviously become kind of a trend, and yet you look into the future, and there's still a lot of private courses obviously in the rotation. What does it mean, though, or what's the significance to the future of the game to having these big events on public courses in your mind?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it's very important. I've always said that golf, everywhere in the world, but I think especially in the United States, it can become more accessible still, and I think bringing the biggest tournaments in the world to public courses is a step in the right direction.

We're always going to go to private courses because some of the private courses are some of the best in the world, and they're courses that test the top players.

But at the same time, it's very refreshing that we do come to places like here, Bethpage, Torrey Pines. It is important to let the public see us on golf courses that they've played before, that are accessible for them, that aren't too expensive to get on.

Look, it's a step in the right direction for golf. I think golf has still got a fair bit to go to be as inclusive and as accessible as it needs to be, but look, it's a step in the right direction.

Q. When is the last time you've paid a greens fee, where was it, and how much?

RORY McILROY: Valderrama, 2005, 250 Euros.

Q. Why?

RORY McILROY: I've always liked the look at Valderrama. I was in Spain. Obviously Ryder Cup course. The Tour Championship of The European Tour was there for a lot of years, and it's one of the -- yeah, I was there and spent a few months' worth of pocket money to go and play.

Q. So the actual question about this tournament, if you don't mind, the history of Harding Park, whether it was you winning here, Tiger when he was No. 1, the Lucky International, six of the seven winners were all Hall-of-Famers for that decade. Is there anything about this golf course that brings out the best players winning, or is it just sheer coincidence? Do you see anything?

RORY McILROY: You know, it tests sort of all aspects of the game, right. You've got to drive it well. You've got to be able to hit it both ways. There's some tee shots that are a little bit right-to-left, a little bit left-to-right. You still just need to do enough with the ball. You need to be able to shape the ball a little bit around here. It's a big golf course, but it's not wide open as such.

I feel like the cypress trees frame the fairways really well, and there's some definition and you can try to shape your shots when you need to shape some shots. But yeah, I think it tests all aspects. It's a fair golf course. It's not tricked up. It's not gimmicky in any way. It's all right there in front of you.

Look, I think it's maybe a little bit of a coincidence that the top players come here and win most of the times that things are played here, but I think it says a lot about the course that it lets guys play and it lets them sort of have the freedom to go out there and play the way they want to.

Q. It's been five years since you won here. I'm just curious how you're different as a player and as a person from last time apart from just shorter hair?

RORY McILROY: It was pretty short back then. I'm hopefully a little wiser, a little more mature, a little more experienced.

Yeah, maybe a little more -- I think back then I was 20 -- had just turned 26. Golf was everything to me, my career, and look, it still is. It's so important, and I want to make the most of my time on Tour and everything, but there's other things in my life that have happened that are important to me.

Maybe I've got a little more balance in there. I enjoy other things. I don't get bogged down as much just by golf. There's other things that give me joy and give me pleasure and fulfill me, and that's probably the biggest difference.

Q. I was just wondering from a perspective of playing a major championship without fans, what's going to be the biggest change for you? We know that you can ignore leaderboards, but you can't ignore the roars of the crowds. How is that going to play? Do you find yourself looking more at leaderboards or just trying to stay in your own little bubble, per se?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, obviously it isn't new to us at this point. We've been back playing on Tour for the last eight or nine weeks or whatever it is.

Yeah, I guess honestly for me, if anything, I've found myself looking at leaderboards a little more just to see where I am on there and see where other people are. As you said, there's no feedback from anywhere else, so the leaderboards are the only thing you have to see how you're doing in a tournament.

There's even no scoreboard holders, so you don't even know how the guys in your group are doing, so you sort of feel like you're looking at the leaderboard a little more.

At this point we should all be used to it. It is what it is. It's going to be like this for the foreseeable future. I've said in the last few weeks that I've struggled to adapt to it, but it is -- as I said, it is what it is. You need to go out there and do the best that you can.

We all wish that we were playing in front of fans and have it feel like a real major championship, but I think we're just lucky that we're able to play golf tournaments at this point and grateful to PGA of America and all the governing bodies for adapting and pivoting and being able to put on these championships.

Q. When was the last time you signed an autograph?

RORY McILROY: Last week, but not -- I guess I stayed in the Southwind community there in Memphis and a couple of kids came to the door and I said, let me just go get a Sharpie out of my own bag, because they came with a Sharpie.

So I guess last week. But even that, you go and you take your own Sharpie and make sure that it's sanitized and all that stuff. But yeah, I've signed a lot less autographs the last few months.

Q. Bryson and Tony were in here the last two days talking about they were thinking to play this aggressive like they have been so far on TOUR. Having played here and won here, is this the kind of golf course you can overpower?

RORY McILROY: I think length is certainly an advantage. It's a long golf course anyway. It's playing even longer because of the conditions. The temperatures are barely going to get into the 60s. They might get a little hotter as the week goes on. But it's a long golf course, especially with the marine layer coming in, the moisture keeps it sort of -- there's not much roll on the fairways. The greens are pretty firm.

I've seen a couple of the interviews. The rough is -- I've had some pretty bad lies in the rough over the last few days. I mean, it's not a guarantee that you can get to the green if you just wheel it around. You still have to hit fairways.

I think there's only -- there's probably only one par-4, two par-4s where you're not going to hit driver. Most of the time you've got driver in your hand off the tee and you are trying to get it down there as far as you can.

Q. I'm just wondering at what point would you feel comfortable having fans back at the golf course, and what would be required for you -- if it wasn't today, what would be required for you to get comfortable?

RORY McILROY: Look, I'm not a public health expert, and I won't pretend to be up here. I guess whenever they say that it's safe to do so. I feel like I'm a rule follower and I'll play by the rules, and so long as they tell us that it's then safe.

I think that's what everyone is doing, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, everyone involved in the game, just following CDC guidelines, and until they say it's safe, that's when I'll feel comfortable that it's safe to do so.

Q. You touched on this already, but in 2015 at the Match Play, you went in there as No. 1 seed, 18-hole match play, notoriously tricky, but you won seven straight matches. How good was your play that week and what does it give you going into this week?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was. It was good. I was playing well that week. Playing well that year. Obviously I'd come into that event, I think I'd won in Dubai earlier in the year, had been playing pretty well.

I remember having a couple of tough matches early on. I think I had to go extra holes with Billy Horschel. I had to go extra holes with Paul Casey. So there was a couple of tight matches that I was able to squeeze through. I think I was 1-down with two to play against Jim Furyk in the semifinals and was able to squeeze out a win there.

My play was good. I think if I remember anything about the week is that I played well when I needed to and I hit good shots at the right times, and that's sort of what you need to do in match play.

Yeah, it's nice to have some memories around a golf course that you're playing a major championship on. It's nice to have those memories and be able to recall some of the shots that you've hit. Hopefully some of that can help me this week and can rekindle that sort of form that helped me win here a few years ago.

Q. Does it weigh on you that you haven't added to your four majors since 2014?

RORY McILROY: I mean, yeah. I wouldn't say it -- it doesn't keep me up at night and I don't think about it every day, but when I play these major championships, it's something that I'm obviously reminded of. Yeah, look, I would have liked to have won a couple more majors in that time frame, and I feel like I've had a couple of decent chance to see do so and I just haven't got the job done.

But the good thing is we have at least three opportunities this year, and then hopefully if things normalize going forward, four opportunities. So we're playing seven major championships in the next 12 months basically.

I've got plenty of opportunities coming my way. Yeah, I think everyone that stands up here wishes they would have won more and would have played better and all that stuff and I've given myself chances, I just haven't been able to capitalize on them.

Q. Since we don't have spectators and traffic and chalets galore and the infrastructure and everything built up around here, what is the one visual that reminds you that we're in a major this week?

RORY McILROY: The white tents. I feel like when you come to especially the PGA and the U.S. Open, those white tents.

Yeah, it is funny, there's no grandstands, there's nothing to really frame the greens. So I think it's just when you're on-site and you see -- there's still a little bit of a buildout. You can tell that there's a golf tournament here at least. Maybe not a major championship.

Yeah, look, it's different, but it's just nice to be here, nice to be playing. The ropes are up. Not as if that's going to make a difference. But there's enough around to make it feel like it's a big tournament.

Q. This is a question unrelated to golf, but you gave an interview with Hodinkee a while back basically, and you mentioned that when you won your first big tournament in Europe, you bought a watch, but you didn't say what watch it was and you didn't say why you wanted that watch. What was that one?

RORY McILROY: It was a nice watch, obviously being partnered with OMEGA, I don't really want to say the other brand. It was a nice watch.

Q. You said that you struggled with the crowds. Can you just expand on that, what struggling without having crowds --

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's just, look, I think we've all had to get used to it, right, and at this point I have got used to it. I've played five golf tournaments since coming back, and obviously there's been no crowds.

For me personally, it's just taken a little while to get used to that. As I said, it's been five tournaments in. I should be pretty much adapted to it now.

But yeah, it's just a different time, and we all have to deal with different things and adapt. If having to play golf without fans, if that's in the forefront of my mind as one of my biggest concerns, then everything is okay.

Q. I have two questions unrelated. One regarding your form in this post-COVID restart thing, I know the results are not where you wanted them to be. I'm wondering what kind of things you see that are coming around a little bit and the fact that this week is a major championship, maybe that can kick-start you a little bit in your mind.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think coming back from sort of post-COVID, there's been good scores in there. Like there's been -- I shot a 63 at Colonial; I shot a 65 to make the cut at Hilton Head; a 63 at Travelers, a couple of good scores last week in Memphis. So the good stuff is in there.

I was just saying earlier, it's just the sharpness and being efficient with my scoring. Turning the 73s that I've shot into 70s. That's the sort of stuff that I think when you're sharp and you're playing a bit and you're sort of in your groove you're able to do that a little better, and that's the stuff that I haven't been able to do since coming back out here.

So it's just the scoring aspect of the game. I feel like everything else is pretty good. I'm driving it well. My iron play is good for the most part. It's just getting that key up-and-down to keep momentum going, holing a putt here or there to keep the round going for the day. Just all that stuff that when you're feeling it and when you're in a good spot, that's when you start to do those things and momentum comes from there.

That's really been the only thing. I feel like my game is really close. Even the mediocre scores that I've shot I've come off the golf course thinking, well, I actually didn't play too badly, I just didn't get a lot out of the round. If I can just keep playing like that and keep being a little bit more efficient with my scoring, I'll be right where I need to be.

JOHN DEVER: Rory, thanks for your time, sir. Best of luck this week.