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IRISH OPEN

May 13, 2008

Rory McIlroy

ADARE, IRELAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, your first time playing here, gives your thoughts on the week and your first Irish Open as a pro?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Obviously this is my first time in the Irish Open as a professional. I played in 2005 as an amateur at Carton House. Looking forward to it. Played this morning and the golf course is really nice and the greens are rolling really well and it's a really nice golf course. I think they have set it up quite fairly, as well. I don't think the rough is as penal as it was last year so the scores should be a little better this year.
Obviously, you know, I'm really looking forward to it.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: We've just been talking about scheduling, did you took the last couple of weeks off with a view to the next couple of months?
RORY McILROY: Well, I mean, I've tried to pace myself a bit this year, knowing this one was going to come up. So I think I've played 11 events on the Tour schedule this year, and I think I'll play probably the next eight out of ten or whatever it is, so it's a busy run coming up. As I said, I tried to pace myself and have my schedule so I was fresh coming into this stretch of events.

Q. What's your evaluation of how you have progressed since winning your card?
RORY McILROY: I think it's just a learning process, a learning curve, getting used to traveling to the Far East. I haven't really been out to the Far East much before.
It's getting used to the different types of grasses and different conditions out there. I've never been to a place as hot or sweaty as Malaysia before, so it's a whole new experience for me and I'm still learning.
I think my progress has been okay. It's been quite steady. Hasn't been anything too spectacular but I feel like I'm coming in feeling quite well and coming into a good run of events. Hopefully I can keep going?

Q. Did you have a greater sense of expectation when you got the card so spectacularly?
RORY McILROY: You really don't know what to expect. Obviously it was a rough first year out on Tour. You see guys like Peter and Damien; they have won in the last few weeks, and they have been on Tour a while and that was their first win, so it is difficult to win on Tour.
I mean, my expectations for the year is try to finish in the top 60 of the Order of Merit. The season is really only starting now with all of the big events coming up. So I feel like I've progressed quite steadily the last three or four months and hopefully I can go on from there and challenge in a couple of events.

Q. Do you feel pressure from the weight of expectation?
RORY McILROY: Well, I'm just trying to do my own thing and keep in control what I can keep control of and that's all I can do.
I think going out last year and getting my Tour card so quickly, probably put a lot of expectation on my shoulders. But I mean, after I played Dubai and took a few weeks off and I came back and played Malaysia and Korea, missed a couple of cuts there, sort of realised that you can't really get complacent. You just have to keep working hard, because then all of the guys are working hard out here to try and beat you.
I've learned a few things this season and hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the months ahead?

Q. Is Michael Bannon still coaching you?
RORY McILROY: Yes

Q.
RORY McILROY: No, not really. I know my swing pretty well and I know what it is and I'm playing well. I keep a little video camera in the bag, anyway, so I get Gordon to video and even I can put it on my computer and e-mail it to Michael, as well.

Q. You've done that?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I have done that. It's not as if Michael can't see the way I'm swinging at an event, and with all of the gadgets and gizmos and everything, I can be at like Japan a couple of weeks ago and Michael can be at home; I'll send him a few swings and have him have a look at them and he'll e-mail me back or ring me and tell me what to do or what to work on.

Q. When did you do that?
RORY McILROY: Over in Japan I was struggling with my driver and it was just because I was getting it too far behind me and body was moving too fast and I moving a bit to the right, so trying to keep the club in front of me.

Q. A player at your level in the game, could probably go to a Butch Harmon or something like that, and yet you stay with Michael?
RORY McILROY: You know, he's taught me everything I know about the golf swing since I was six or seven years old, and it hasn't done too bad so far.

Q. Is there a temptation to go to the gurus?
RORY McILROY: Not really. I don't see how much different they could be from Michael. And Michael, he knows how to play golf. I mean, standing on the range and hitting shots -- if you can't get out on to the golf course and perform your shots when you need to.

Q. ?
RORY McILROY: I think it's great for Irish golf that all of the guys have won already out there.
I think when I see that, I've played practise rounds with them before and I've played with them before, so it makes me think, well, if they can do it, why can't I. I've beat them in practise rounds before and it's just holing a few putts when you need to.
And the way Peter won, I was actually watching in Japan, and it was probably midnight on Sunday, watching him win that. And it was just -- I mean, I felt great for him, and Peter holed that long putt on the first extra hole to halve and then Garrido hits it in the water, so you never know in this game, it's very fickle. You go out and it could be your week. Yeah, you just have to deal with it.

Q. Did you see Graeme in Korea?
RORY McILROY: No. I rang him the night before, just keep doing what you're doing and keep playing well. It's good that I have a relationship with the guys on Tour; that we're close and that I can learn from them and ask them a few questions about whenever they are in the position to win and the experience that they have from it.

Q. How have the established players taken to you as the new kid on the block?
RORY McILROY: Very friendly and open to play practise rounds with me, and everyone has made me feel quite comfortable on Tour. I haven't really had any problems or anything.
You know, everyone's been great, especially all of the Irish guys and all of the guys from ISM have been working after me well. You know, I mean, it's been absolutely great. It's been a great learning experience so far, and I would rather be out here than at university starting my first year.

Q. What are the main lessons you have learned?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, well, one thing was like expecting that there's going to be a few hiccups along the way and learn how to deal with things.
Obviously I missed those few cuts in Malaysia and South Korea and sort of given me a kick up the back side to really say, you have to work really hard out here to keep your position, and you have to work as hard as all of the other guys are in the gym and hitting balls and working on short game and everything. That's one thing I've learned is that you have to work extremely hard out here.
And I think, you know, another thing is trying to plan your schedule and trying to make sure that you play in the right events and the right number of events so that you're not going into tournaments either ill-prepared or you've played too much. You need to find the right balance, which I'm probably still trying to get that balance.
But I feel like I've learned a few things this year, and I think that that can help me this year and in the years to come?

Q. Are going into the next three weeks 'blind' having not played the courses?
RORY McILROY: I've played Wentworth before. I used to go over to the World Match Play every year and watch in October. I did that for a few years. Yeah, obviously everyone is going in to Wales blind!

Q. Wuld you consider doing that?
RORY McILROY: No. the only one I would really think about going to are Sunningdale or Walton Heath for the two qualifying events.

Q. when you said you need to practice harder, does that mean you weren't before hand?
RORY McILROY: I had just come off a three or four-week break and I was on holiday for a couple of weeks, and I mean, I probably went too long without hitting balls or without practising, and that just gave me -- when I came back, I sort of said to myself, probably not good enough. You're going to have to work harder than that, and that's what I've done.

Q. Potential of playing The Irish Open in the North?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I feel wherever it's played in Ireland, it's going to be my home event. But obviously it would be great to see it go up north. But I think there's a lot of courses down around Dublin: You have K Club and you have Carton House; you've got Adare Manor here, and Portmarnock and other courses that can handle big crowds that the Irish Open usually gets. And I don't know if there's any courses in the north with the infrastructure set in place that could handle the amount of people that would sort of -- obviously, you don't just have the golfers and the caddies. You've got the media, you've got the spectators and you've got everyone involved in the tournament. It would be great to see it up north, but I don't see it in the foreseeable future, I don't think?

Q. What about Royal County Down?
RORY McILROY: But the thing about that, in that perspective, you walk on the fairways. If the spectators didn't walk on the fairways, there's just too much bushes and too much hazards on the perimeter. It would probably be too much for the crowd. So I'm not sure I could see a lot of people. They would probably have to limit the spectators.

Q. Lough Erne?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, obviously the course isn't completed yet up at Loch Nairn (phonetic) but the first nine holes look great and the hotel. Obviously it would be a great venue for it. And whenever the course does open in 2009, probably it could host an Irish Open, no problem with the way the course is. But the thing is, it's not very close to the airport.
I mean, it just depends. If there was going to be an Irish Open up north, I would probably say at Loch Nairn (phonetic) or Portrush or somewhere like that, somewhere that is quite accessible, but still -- who knows. I think the Irish Open is here for this year and next year, and I don't know where it's going to be after that.

Q. What did you make of the course here?
RORY McILROY: Obviously every golf course you have to hit fairways. If you want to -- the greens are holding quite well, and you've got to hit fairways around here and that makes it a lot easier for your second shots, and there's some quite long par 4s out there and you're hitting well onto. I think the second is a pretty long hole.

Q. At the end of your amateur career you must have been expecting to win every time you played - do you still have the same thoughts as a touring pro?
RORY McILROY: Tough question. I was expecting to do the best I can and to play well. Obviously with the mind-set that I would love to win, but I mean, as I say, there's so many good players out here that work so hard and it's hard to expect to win all the time.
I was hoping -- hoping is the wrong word, but go out expecting to do my best and I know if I do my best that I'm capable of winning.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory thanks for joining us -- good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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