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DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

January 29, 2009

Rory McIlroy

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

PAUL SYMES: Thanks for coming in, Rory. Great conditions out there, and you took full advantage of them today.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely. It was actually nice to be late because I wanted to do a little work on my putting before I went out. I was able to do that and holed a few nice ones out there. As you said, the conditions were perfect. The greens were soft, the fairways were soft. It was ideal scoring conditions, and I think that's why the scoring is so good.
PAUL SYMES: You must be growing in confidence week-by-week, because your results are getting better and better.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm shooting a few low numbers now, and Abu Dhabi give me a nice boost, first week of the year, and I finished well there and sort of struggled a little bit last week with my distance control. But I worked a little bit on it this week, and you know, I played really nicely out there. Yeah, it was a great day.
PAUL SYMES: Let's go through your birdies and bogeys. You started on the 10th?
RORY McILROY: 10, I hit a great drive. I think I had 254 to the pin and tried to hit a little soft, cut 3-wood and missed it in the left bunker, which wasn't the best lie to leave myself. But I played probably a very good bunker shot and just got it on to the fringe to about eight feet and holed that.
11, I had 171 pin and hit 8-iron pin-high right to ten feet.
13, bogey, I had to take an unplayable. I drove it left into the desert and was in a bush and had to drop it. Hit it back out on to the fairway and hit a 9-iron from about 140 to pin-high left, 20 feet, 2-putted.
Hit a 5-wood off the tee, had 174 pin, hit 7-iron to about eight feet left of the pin and held that.
15, 200 pin, wind was just into off the left. I hit a nice 5-iron in there to about 25 feet, pin-high left, and that was a nice one to hole.
17, I took driver off the tee, cut the corner, and then only had about 40 yards to the pin and was just in the semi-rough and chipped it to about six feet.
3, hit a really good drive up there. That was probably the best drive of the day. Hit a 5-wood from 260 to about 20 feet just below the hole, 2-putted. It was okay.
5, I hit 3-wood down the fairway and had 156 into the wind. I hit 8-iron pin-high right to about 15 feet, held that.
7, I had 170 pin, hit 7-iron to about six feet.
9, I had a 3-wood off the tee. I had 184 pin, hit 6-iron straight over the pin to about 15 feet and held that.

Q. Doesn't seem as though there's anything wrong with your distance control today, so many of your shots ending up pin-high?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, my distance control, I was really pleased about that. I always feel when I play well, I know when I'm playing well, because I usually end up pin-high, which I wasn't able to do that last week, so it was nice to be able to do that today.

Q. How critical were you of yourself last week to go out and work?
RORY McILROY: Very.

Q. Because you're not having that many bad days now.
RORY McILROY: No. Even the first day last week, I shot 76, but it was just two bad shots. So if I would have made par there, I would have finished Top 15 in the tournament. I was 9-under par for the last three days, so it wasn't that bad, or 7-under par for the last three days but it could have been a lot better.

Q. Have you set your targets higher in yourself?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, I want to try and win. I want to try and get into contention every time I go out and play. I've been able to do that quite a lot the last few weeks, and I wasn't able to do it last week, but hopefully with a good start this week, I'll be able to do it again.

Q. How did you enjoy playing with Mark O'Meara today?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was great. Had a nice chat on the way around. It was actually pretty fun, because I was sensing -- I used to go over and watch the World Match Play at Wentworth every year, and I watched him win in '98 when he beat Tiger.
And in '99, Monty beat him in the final, but in the morning he holed a bunker shot out of the trap on 18, and I've got his golf ball from it. He signed it and I've still got it. That was pretty good to tell him that.

Q. What was his reaction to that?
RORY McILROY: We just laughed about it.

Q. Did he ask you for your golf ball today?
RORY McILROY: No. Doesn't play the Titleist Pro V1x.

Q. How important is it to get off and running and get your first tournament win?
RORY McILROY: It is very important, but as I keep saying, as long as I get myself into the position on Sunday, and all of those experiences will become valuable. Sooner or later, I'll be able to win one. But it's not my main priority. My main priority is just to try to get in there in contention on the back nine on Sunday.
If one falls my way, then that's fantastic, and if it doesn't, I'll keep trying and keep trying to put myself in the position to win.

Q. How old were you in '98?
RORY McILROY: I was nine.

Q. Were you playing golf then?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I was playing golf. It was just before in October, and I went to Miami in December and it was just before I won the World Under Tens.

Q. Monty mentioned your name last night as a possible Ryder Cup candidate, one of the younger ones coming through, you and Martin Kaymer and Quiros and one or two others. How much of a goal is that for you, next year's Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor?
RORY McILROY: I view The Ryder Cup as a bonus for playing well throughout the year. It's not a goal. It's not really a target but if you play well enough, you're going to get on the team. So that's the way I sort of view it.
And if Monty, you know, he's going to be a great captain, even if I don't get on; I'll try and be nice to him and he might give me a pick.

Q. Do you know him well?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've only played with him once, but I chat to him quite a bit on the range and stuff. He's made me feel very comfortable on Tour and he's been nothing but nice to me.
So I have a lot of respect for him and obviously to win eight Order of Merit titles and seven in a row is a pretty huge achievement. I think a lot of guys will want to be on his team, and he's done so well in The Ryder Cup in the past, he's quite an inspirational character in The Ryder Cup. I think it will be a great event.

Q. Following that, how important do you think it will be for young guys like yourself to have Monty here for another few years on the Tour?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think that's a huge advantage, to be able to have your captain still playing and still sort of seeing what's going on.
I was think to go myself last night, if he has a good year next year, he could probably get on. He says that every point he earns will probably be nullified, but it's a huge advantage to be able to have a captain that's still sort of in the loop and knows how the players are playing and he's playing with them on a regular basis.

Q. What do you admire most about him in the short time you've been on the Tour?
RORY McILROY: I think the consistency throughout the years. I mean to win one Order of Merit title is a huge achievement in any golfers career, but to win seven in a row is absolutely fantastic. I'm sure he'd say he'd trade all of them for a major. But to keep up that consistency for year-in and year-out, it's incredible, actually, it really, really is.

Q. Did you have a good collection of signed golf balls when you were a young boy?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I still do. I've got pretty much -- Monty's, Sam Torrance, Mark O'Meara's. I have a lot of flags signed, as well, that I have at my house. I have a Masters one signed by Tiger in '02. I've got a Nick Faldo one from St. Andrews in '05.
But yeah, I've got quite a lot of golfing memorabilia.

Q. In your bedrooms?
RORY McILROY: Just sort of dotted throughout the house and I keep all of my signed golf balls in a little drawer.

Q. You're a well known player now, but you're still a teenager, are you still having to pinch yourself that you're now playing among the likes of Monty and O'Meara?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely. Ten years is quite a long time in my lifetime, but ten years ago, I was watching it and I was rolling the fairways at Wentworth watching O'Meara play; and to be able to play with him now, I never thought that -- I always hoped that I works but you know, it's just great to be able to play with these guys.
You know, still for me, it's so cool for me to be able to walk on the range and say hi to Sergio, just people that I've grown up watching. To be able to get to know them, it is very cool.

Q. Just going back to today, even by the standards you've set recently, was that a particularly good round today?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, especially after I only played the par 5s on the back nine at level par and that's where you're really supposed to make your score. So to be able to play those holes level and play the others in 8-under par is a really good effort.

Q. Best since?
RORY McILROY: Best since Sunday at Abu Dhabi. (Laughter).

Q. Last year at the U.S. Open Qualifying, you said that you had found the start to the professional game really tough, and you were almost in despair because you couldn't see where it was going to turn around, and now it's turned around spectacularly. At what point did it just click?
RORY McILROY: Switzerland. I got a lot of confidence -- it was just one good round. First round set me off and running, and ever since then I sort of realised how good I could be and how good I hope I can be. That was probably my turning point in my whole year -- season, not career; season.
And yeah, I think just adjusting to life out here is -- when I say that I found it very difficult, I obviously haven't found it as difficult as some guys. But you know, playing golf week-in, week-out, travelling, I never really played -- it wasn't really the travelling. But it was a the month of golf that you play; when you play four weeks in a row, you just want to get home and forget about it for a week or so.
But I've learned how to schedule properly and what events to play and what events not to play and how to plan my season.

Q. That's presumably helped this year because straightaway you know you have your card, etc., so you don't have to worry about what a lot of people in your position normally do.
RORY McILROY: Exactly, yeah, and it's a very fortunate position that I'm able to just pick and choose where I want to play, so that's good.

Q. And in the lead up to the Masters, will you have a careful schedule, because there is a fear that you could always overdo it?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm going to play the Match Play in Arizona, the Honda Classic and Doral, and then I'm going to come home for a couple of weeks, work on my game and then do the Shell Houston Open, because I think they are trying to set the course up like Augusta that week, and then I'll go to Augusta.
I was saying to Mark, I'll try to treat it like a normal week; I know it won't be, but I'll try to do the same things I usually do. And after Augusta, I'm going to play Hilton Head and then another two weeks at home and back to America for THE PLAYERS and back to Baltray for the Irish Open.
PAUL SYMES: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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