PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 17, 2022

Rory McIlroy

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

JULIUS MASON: Two-time PGA champion, Rory McIlroy, is joining us at the 104th PGA Championship. Rory, welcome to Southern Hills and your 14th PGA Championship. What are your initial impressions of Southern Hills? You've never played this golf course before, right?

RORY MCILROY: No, yesterday was the first time seeing the golf course. I really liked it. I didn't know what this place was like before Gil got his hands on it, but I think he's done a wonderful job with it. Love the green complexes. I love that he gives you options off the tee.

I think you're going to see a lot of different strategies this week, guys hitting driver where maybe other guys aren't and vice versa. It's a really good track. I really enjoyed playing it yesterday, and I think it's going to be a wonderful test this week.

Q. On that topic, just not knowing the golf course, first time here, what did you do coming into this event to kind of get to know it and know what you need to work on once you got here?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, so Friday I did a little video with Gil that they sent out there. I don't know, was it a week or two? So I watched that. Then I think Golf Digest had like a few flyovers of the golf course, so just tried to get online. I tried to dig up some footage of last year's Senior PGA, but it was pretty limited.

Yeah, I just tried to sort of see -- going back to '07, it's a completely different golf course, so I didn't think that was any use. Just tried to find some stuff online just to get a feel for what the golf course was like and what Gil tried to do with it and what sort of philosophy he was trying to use and what sort of shots he wanted guys to try to play.

Just did a little bit of digging online, and it sort of seemed pretty apparent that this is an approach shot and short game -- like iron play and chipping is going to be really important this week.

And I think getting out there yesterday, one of the things I loved is the way they've cut the runoffs, it's very hard to putt from off the greens. They're trying to get wedges in guys' hands, which I really like. It's forcing you to chip instead of just -- like whenever Pinehurst was, 2014, you could putt from sort of everywhere; where this is actually forcing you to get a wedge in your hand, which is really good. I like that.

Q. The simplest way to put it is what do you make of Phil not being here after everything we've all gone through here, you guys have all been dealing with the last couple of months?

RORY MCILROY: Unfortunate; sad. This should be a celebration, right? He won a major championship at 50 years old. It was possibly his last big, big moment in the game of golf. He should be -- I think he should be here this week and celebrating what a monumental achievement he achieved last year.

It's unfortunate. It's sad. Yeah, I don't know what else I can say.

Q. You said at Augusta that you talked about sort of staying in it early on, in a major, to kind of make your way into potentially winning it, and yet all four of your wins have been kind of from out in front early on. How do you kind of reconcile those two things with getting out to a big lead versus as a more experienced golfer trying to stay in it?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think the four wins, I don't think you can plan -- you can't plan on getting out ahead. That's just something that happens if you play well and you get some momentum. You're sort of feeling it.

It's not as if I went out with the mindset those four tournaments of I'm going to go out and shoot 65 the first two days and let them all come and catch me. It just sort of happened.

I think over the past few years, the things that have stopped me from getting in contention or being able to win these majors is big numbers and shooting myself out of it sort of early.

I can even think back to Augusta, I finished three behind in the end, and I went bogey, double bogey on 10 and 11. On Friday. You go par-par there and all of a sudden there's those three shots. It doesn't take much in major championships to -- it's tiny margins.

And yeah, look, I'd love to go out those weeks and get a lead and build on it, but that unfortunately isn't going to happen all the time.

I think the most consistent way to get yourself to be able to have chances to win these major championships is to sort of adopt that conservative strategy. Tiger did it most of his career, and okay, he had a couple of huge wins in there, but a lot of times being conservative with his strategy, letting other guys make the mistakes -- pars are pretty good in major championships, and that's sort of the philosophy that I believe in going forward.

Q. Just wonder whether you saw Greg Norman's comments last week; we all make mistakes and all that, and what you thought about it.

RORY MCILROY: We do all make mistakes. I think Greg is in a very tough position because he's taken the role of being the leader of something that is very divisive. Greg can sit with the media for five hours and give four hours and 50 minutes of pretty good answers, and the 10 minutes that he maybe drops his guard is what's going to be picked up on.

I just think he's in a no-win situation. He's made that decision himself, and he has to deal with the questions that are being thrown at him. It's certainly not a position that I'd like to be in.

Q. You spent some time around Tiger the last year and a half and seen what he's had to go through. Is any part of you surprised that he's actually here this week?

RORY MCILROY: No, not really. Has it been six weeks or so since Augusta? Six weeks is a long enough time to recover from that week and then build yourself back up again. He certainly hasn't chosen two of the easiest walks in golf to come back to, Augusta and here.

But no, he's stubborn, he's determined. This is what he lives for. He lives for these major championships, and if he believes he can get around 18 holes, he believes he can win.

Q. Just wondering the level of confidence you have in your game right now after the Masters and Wells Fargo; how confident are you going into the week?

RORY MCILROY: I feel good about my game. I've done some good work, and I've -- one of the things I've tried to work on and I've done well, I've led greens in regulation the last two tournaments I've played. That's something that hasn't quite been there, and that's something you need to do, especially around here.

You hit greens here, you're going to give yourself birdie chances. The targets are pretty small, pretty limited with where the hole locations will be, so you hit it into the middle of the greens here, you're going to have decent chances.

I'm feeling pretty good about that part of the game.

Short game has been there, as well.

I focused a lot on iron play and chipping and putting last week in practice because I knew that was basically sort of going to be the key to having a good week this week.

I feel good about it all. I'm certainly in a better place with my game than where I was this time last year going into Kiawah. Happy about that.

Q. We saw the emotion at the Ryder Cup. I'm just curious how big of a motivation that was for you over the off-season and maybe at the start of this year, as well.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was a big turning point. I had an awful week at the -- an awful couple of days anyway at the Ryder Cup, and then I sort of freed my mind up and played better in the singles and got that win against Xander, and that sort of gave me a little bit of confidence, and then I built on that and got the win in Vegas in the fall.

I've played pretty consistently good golf since then. It was a big turning point for me. I went down a path that I thought was going to help make some improvements, and it didn't quite work out that way. Just went back to basics and went back to trying to figure out what I did well and just keep doing that.

It's been good. I've played pretty consistent golf since then. I think I dropped out of the top 10 at some point during that period and then I've gotten myself back up there and sort of working my way back up. So it's been a good few months.

Q. About the iron game and strokes gained approach, what specific things have you been working on technically with your irons?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, flighting it down a little bit, getting comfortable taking a club more and hitting it easy. Left pins is something that hasn't been a strong suit of mine this year. That sort of showed up in the stats, so trying to practice a little more to left pin positions and trying to get comfortable with shots I'm trying to hit in.

That's really it. I sort of -- you just hit a ton of balls and you sort of figure it out.

Q. It's a little while since you made your dead-in-the-water comment about the Saudi series. Do you think that's still the case or do you think it's gathering momentum?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I might have been a little presumptuous at that point. It seems like it's still going. Greg and everyone behind it are very determined. I think we're just going to have to see how it plays out. Guys are going to make decisions.

Honestly it's going to shape the future of professional golf one way or another, so I think we're just going to have to see how it all shakes out.

Q. I'm curious, during a week when the temperature is just really hot, probably losing a bit more weight than usual, do you do anything different to get your body in preparation for a week like this? And if so, what?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I've actually tried to -- I got a little light after Augusta, like I always lose a bit of weight there. But I've tried to put on some weight since there. I've probably put on like 10 pounds since the Masters. Not all muscle. There's probably a little bit of excess fat in there, too. Diet hasn't been quite as disciplined as I've wanted it to be.

But it's decent that when you have -- and I have a long stretch. I'm playing five of the next six weeks, so to have a little bit in reserve and sort of that extra energy stores and stuff is never a bad thing.

I always notice when I do put a bit of weight on my speed goes up, so that's something that I guess is an added benefit.

Q. How much weight do you usually use during a week like this? Do you keep track?

RORY MCILROY: Not really. Not really. I usually have to go up one notch in the belt at the end of the week. No, maybe five pounds.

Q. You mentioned watching the fried egg video of the Digest flyover. This is a geeky process question, but what happens then? Do you call Harry and talk through it? Do you call Michael and say, this is what we're going to work on?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I sent the links to Harry, like here, have a look at these.

It's just trying to get a feel for -- I was maybe going to come up here last week and I had a couple things going on, so I couldn't make it. I just wanted to try to get some info before coming up here just so I had a little idea what was going on.

Actually I said to someone yesterday, the flyovers, the course looked much tighter than when you get out here. I actually feel like it sort of opens up for you off the tee a little bit, and I didn't expect to hit as many drivers as I actually did yesterday.

Q. Not having come here before yesterday, not having seen the course, is it an example of trying to not overthink this stuff?

RORY MCILROY: I think so. I've won a couple of major championships where I've played nine holes on Tuesday, nine holes on Wednesday and sort of teed it up and played really well. Sometimes not knowing where the trouble is, ignorance is bliss in some ways.

For me I'll take execution over preparation any day. If you're executing the shots and you're hitting the ball well and the ball is looking where you're going, that's more than half the battle.

I feel like I'm executing well. But it doesn't mean you're not preparing or looking at things. I think these greens require a little more time spent on them than some others.

But I think strategy off the tee and into the greens is pretty simple, and then it gets a little more nuanced whenever you get on and around the greens.

Q. Keeping on that note, you say ignorance can be bliss. What are some of those elements that you might not really be able to identify until you're out there Thursday, Friday, Saturday?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, you're not going to practice from every bunker around the greens. You're not going to chip balls from every single side of a green. But you have a decent idea of -- for the most part you just can't miss the ball above the hole here because the greens are slopey and there's quite a pitch from back to front on a lot of them.

Even just stuff like that, not getting past pin high on some holes. You have a general idea of where the good miss is or where to leave it. But you're going to encounter some stuff during the four days of play that you haven't prepared for, hitting it -- missing it one side of a green instead of another. Things happen. We're human; we're not going to hit every shot perfectly.

But that's the great thing about our game. You have to adapt to these things and adapt to conditions. I mean, even, look, like the wind forecast this week, we're going to have nearly four different winds for four days. So just stuff like that that you're not going to be able to play the golf course in every single wind direction, so you're just going to have to sometimes adapt on the fly.

Q. You mentioned we're going to have to see how this shakes out and reshapes professional golf. Is there a good clean resolution at this point? Is there something that you're rooting for?

RORY MCILROY: Honestly I'm rooting for it all to be over. I'm just so sick of talking about it. I've made my decision, and I know where I want to play, and I'm not standing in anyone's way, and I'm not saying that they shouldn't go over there and play if that's what they feel is right for them, then 100 percent they should go and do it.

I'm certainly not wanting to stand in anyone's way, but I think the sooner it all happens and the sooner everything shakes out, I think we can all just go back to not talking about it and doing what we want to do.

Q. We saw you out with Brad Faxon yesterday; what were you working on with Brad?

RORY MCILROY: Not much. He's up here doing some stuff for Golf Channel and for SKY. He just walked a few holes. We didn't really talk about much. He watched me hit a couple of putts and sort of gave me the okay on the stroke, and that was really it. It wasn't too much.

Q. With the course having so much changes since the Tour last came here, is there any asking any veterans for any advice or is it pretty much a clean slate because of all those changes?

RORY MCILROY: I think it's a clean slate. I was actually hitting balls beside Tom Gillis at the Bear's Club over the weekend and he played the Senior PGA here last year, so he gave me a couple little things to look out for or maybe a couple of greens to spend extra time on, stuff like that.

I think '07 was a completely different golf course that you'd really just want to talk to the guys that played here last year in the Senior PGA to get a better feel of how the golf course plays.

Q. Regret might be too strong a word, but I was wondering, do you ever wish you weren't involved in the Player Advisory Council, you actually knew a little bit less and could get on with your own career, make your own decisions?

RORY MCILROY: In fairness, the PAC is fine because it's a very high overview of what's going on and there's four or five meetings a year. Being on the board is different, and there's maybe a few more calls that I've been on than I would have expected to be on whenever I took the role up.

Yeah, again, that ignorance is bliss. It's nice to be in the know, but at the same time, it's nice not to know.

Look, I'm trying to do the right thing for the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour members because that's what I was elected to do, so I'm trying to do that to the best of my ability.

But there's people on that board that are a lot smarter than I am that are going to make the ultimate decision.

JULIUS MASON: Welcome to Tulsa.

RORY MCILROY: Thank you.