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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 23, 2009Rory McIlroyMARANA, ARIZONA RODDY WILLIAMS: Rory, thanks for coming in and joining us and welcome to Tucson, Arizona for your first tournament as a professional in America. So how are you feeling toward your debut? RORY McILROY: Yeah, obviously I'm coming in here with quite a good bit of form. Yeah, it's great to be over here and it's nice to be able to play a schedule that consists of World Golf Championships and Majors. So it's been great. I got in last Thursday and I spent a couple of days in Carlsbad at TPI. And I have been enjoying myself. I've had two good looks at the golf course now and that's nice. It's interesting. The greens are still pretty tricky. It probably takes a little bit of time to get used to. But the course is in great shape and it looks like it's going to be a good week. RODDY WILLIAMS: Terrific win in Dubai a few weeks ago, what did that mean to you, reflecting on it now a couple weeks on. RORY McILROY: Obviously I have come close a couple of times and I was putting myself in the position to win quite a lot and I wasn't just able to pull it off. But then I got myself into a very nice position in Dubai and nearly let it get away, but somehow I held on to the end and was able to pull it off. So it was great to get the first win as well. It's nice to get it out of the way and try and concentrate on getting a few more. RODDY WILLIAMS: Let's open it up to some questions, please. Q. Congrats on that win. It was fun watching it on TV. RORY McILROY: Thank you. Q. Very eventful down the stretch. RORY McILROY: Yeah. Q. You just had another teenager win a European Tour sanctioned event and the Ishikawa kid is playing over here off and on in the States now. Is there anything you think about teenagers these days, I guess, I sound like an old man putting it that way, but why do you suppose guys are doing so well at such a young age? There always seemed to be kind of a ceiling you had to break through and over here in the States it's always been after college. RORY McILROY: I think that we're playing tournaments since by the time we're eight and nine years of age. So obviously, I've always grown up with golf and I started playing at the age of two. I'm sure that most of the guys that are doing well also are there. They have taken it up at an early age of the. I suppose the technology as well. When you don't have to be a big guy in order to be able to hit it far and to be able to compete with the bigger guys. And I think that's definitely helped. The opportunities that you get at home, you play amateur golf and you're traveling all around the world to play. Danny Lee won the U.S. Amateur last year and he's traveled all around the world. He played in Abu Dhabi on the European Tour. He played and obviously won down at the Johnny Walker there. And Ryo, he's won twice in Japan and I met him once before and I think that -- I mean, I don't know if it's just if we have all just came along at the same time or it will be a reoccurrence in the future, but it seems that golfers are becoming a lot better a lot younger and I think it's great for the game. Q. At a TOUR stop in San Diego, Harrington said that you've had a couple of patches where he wondered, you wonder where, how you'd come out. And then that you've come out stronger. What do you think he was referring to and could you talk about those patches? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think when I first, at the end of 2007 I came out on to the European Tour and I got my card in two starts. And I just played four events that year. And then came out in 2008 and started off pretty well. And then I hit a bit of a bad patch in the middle of the year. I missed a few cuts in a row. And I wasn't playing that great. Then I picked it up again after and I think that at the end of the year I think I finished in the top-10, I think it was seven out of the last nine events or something like that. So yeah, I had a bad patch probably from April through to the end of, the middle of August anyway, and it wasn't half bad but I still was able to finish in the top-10 a couple of times in that patch. But I think that it's obviously nice for Padraig to say those things. And I've got to know him over the last couple of years and he's a great guy. And anything that you need, he comes, and if I need advice or anything he would offer it. But, no, I think getting used to playing on TOUR as well helped. It's a lot different than playing amateur golf. You're playing a lot more golf, you're playing maybe 30, 35 weeks of the year. Where, in amateur golf, all your golf comes in the summer and you're only playing maybe 15 or 20 weeks, so it's a bit different. And I had to get used to that, life on TOUR, living out of a suitcase and being away from home for quite long periods of time. So it was just an adjustment that was something that I had to get used to and once I was able to do that I find my feet and obviously I played well since. Q. The past couple years here people have talked about how match play reminded them of when they were younger and they played match play growing up. With you what was your experience with match play and as a younger guy and do you think that might help you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, all the amateur golf I played growing up was match play. And playing in the -- playing for Ireland in the European Championships and the Home Internationals. And, yeah, it's a game that most of our amateur events in Britain are match play events as well, so it's a format that we have grown up with. And I think that my game suits match play because I make quite a lot of birdies and I'll be able to throw in the odd double bogey here and there. (Laughter.) But, yeah, we have grown up with match play and it's a great game as well. I mean, it's head to head and it gets the juices flowing. So I'm looking forward to it this week. Q. Do you feel like you missed anything by turning pro so early and do you feel like you've had to grow up faster? How do you think that's affected you? RORY McILROY: I try to -- obviously when I'm on TOUR you're hanging around people that are a lot older than you and you have to grow up faster. But when I get home from that maybe I take two or three weeks off I'll try and just chill out with my friends and just be a normal teenager again. And it's something that I really enjoy doing and, but, yeah, it's nice, it's like two completely different lives. You're out here and you're practicing and working hard and trying to win golf tournaments. And then when you get back home you see your friends struggling to try to get results in the exams at university and doing all that. So I'm very fortunate to be where I am at the moment and when I go home I see my friends studying and it puts everything into perspective. Q. Curious, I take it you're going to be in the States here for awhile through Augusta. I guess you'll be playing Doral, Bay Hill, is that pretty much the plan? Any others sprinkled in there? Tampa? RORY McILROY: I'm going to play obviously this week, I'm going to play the Honda Classic next week, and Doral. And then I'm going to head back home for a couple of weeks and then to Shell Houston Open, Masters, Hilton Head. And I'm going to head back for another couple of weeks and then come back out TPC. So that's the plan at the moment. Q. Have you asked for a spot at Wachovia before the TPC? RORY McILROY: I think there would be -- I think I probably would be able to get into it, but I don't -- I've heard that it's a great event and it's run really well and obviously it's a great field. But I feel that I need to -- I would be being in the States maybe 10 out of 13 weeks or something, I think it's just a little much. And I would rather just get home for a couple weeks and chill out and then come back over for TPC, because if I play Wachovia I would have to go Wachovia, TPC and then back home for the Irish Open and PGA at Wentworth and the European Open. So it would be, five in a row would be a little too much, I think. Q. Is there anything in your past memory bank of golf at Royal County Down or elsewhere that prepares you for this out here? RORY McILROY: Well it's actually quite funny, I played Walker Cup last year -- well near, well, about a year and a half ago now, and at Royal County Down. And Dustin Johnson, I played my first foursomes match against Dustin and Colt Knost. And I have seen Dustin today and obviously he won Pebble Beach a couple of weeks ago. So it was nice to congratulate him and say well done. Obviously he's had a good start on TOUR. But, as I said, I've grown up with match play and obviously I'll probably -- Q. I was thinking more of the actual course itself, the actual topography, the greens? RORY McILROY: I don't think I've ever seen greens like this, to be honest. It's quite firm. For a new golf course it is very firm. And you have to -- but I don't think you can run the ball into the greens or anything because they are so undulating, you have to fly it all the way there. So I can't really see any comparisons. Q. Have you at any stage woken up to the thought that it's possible you might meet the great man at some point? RORY McILROY: Whatever happens, happens. We'll have to see how it goes. But, yeah, obviously it would be a dream come true for me to be able to meet Tiger. And just to play with him or play against him, it would be great to do. But I have to focus on my first match and that's all I'm thinking about at the minute. Q. At this age how do you not let all this go to your head or do your friends back home bust on you enough to make sure that you don't get too much ego? RORY McILROY: Yeah, they definitely do. It's nice. I've got my dad up with me this week. And my mom and dad keep me very grounded as well, which is great. But, yeah, I mean I just want to go out and play golf. That's all I want to do. I want to go out and play and see how good I can get and try and win. And if I can keep that mindset for the rest of my career I think I'll do pretty good. Q. As a kid growing up what were your early impressions of American golf? I should say growing up, you're still there, but when you watched golf in the States what were your impressions? RORY McILROY: Actually, I played quite a bit of junior golf in the States. I played, there was always a junior tournament in Doral just before Christmas. I always went over to play in that. I played the Junior Worlds over in the San Diego area. I didn't play Torrey Pines, I played Presidio Hills and the Golf Resort I think. And played the Orange Bowl a couple of times. So I played a bit of junior golf in the States. And it was great. I remember back in the final round of the U.S. golf would always be on a Sunday night for us back home, maybe start at 7 until 10. I was allowed to stay awake to watch it and not have to go to bed too early. So, no, I think the style of golf over here suits my game. I hit it quite high. And I'm able to get the ball to stop pretty quickly. I'm pretty long off the tee. Q. As far as watching the TOUR though what were the attitude of the Europeans, Internationals, versus the Americans, because it seems when you look at a tournament like this there's a lot more international players that are in the field now. I was just curious, it was kind of like a shift there. RORY McILROY: Yeah, a little bit. I'm not sure. Even whenever I was growing up and watching the golf there was still quite a lot of international players Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, there was still a lot of great golfers from outside the states. But then obviously you had Freddie Couples, Davis Love, Tiger, you know. But, yeah, I don't know. I think because a lot of the international guys play an international schedule and split their time between playing over here and playing in Europe, I think that the gap has become a lot closer. Q. You coming to Houston have you had a chance to play Redstone? RORY McILROY: No, I haven't. But I've heard great things. I heard that they're trying to get it in great condition before Augusta the week after, for the week after. So it should be hopefully good preparation for Augusta. Q. From Carnoustie forward what's been the best piece of advice you've received from whom and what did it mean? RORY McILROY: I don't know. I got this, I only got it a couple weeks ago, I got a nice letter from Gary Player after I won Dubai. And he said to me, "The more you practice, the luckier you get." So that's a pretty good piece of advice. Q. Tell you to do any sit-ups? RORY McILROY: No. (Laughter.) RODDY WILLIAMS: Rory, welcome to America and thank you very much. RORY McILROY: Thanks, guys. End of FastScripts |
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