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THE 3 IRISH OPEN

May 13, 2009

Rory McIlroy

BALTRAY, IRELAND

RODDY WILLIAMS: Welcome to the 3 Irish Open at Baltray. I imagine you have experience playing this these type of conditions. What do you think of things so far?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played ten holes yesterday, and I played the course a couple of weeks ago. The course has changed pretty dramatically in the last couple of weeks. The rough has grown up a little bit and the greens have got a lot better. Obviously they can't cut them that short with the wind.
Baltray is a great golf course. And I've played East of Ireland here and never managed to win, but it's a great golf course. It's a great layout and you have to have all of the shots. It should be a great week.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Is this a gentle breeze out at the moment, or is this pretty good for the 3 Irish Open?
RORY McILROY: It's good for me I suppose, in way. Yeah, I mean, we played -- the breeze was quite strong yesterday when we played the practice rounds and the first was a drive and a 4-iron, which is usually a drive and a wedge or a 9-iron.
It was a different wind yesterday. Usually the wind is straight down at the first, off the right at the second and into on the third and it was complete opposite: It was straight down at the third, and instead of struggling to get up in two, you're hitting driver and a 6-iron.
It's an interesting golf course. Got great par 3s. But it also gives you an opportunity to score.
I think even if the wind is like this, that the scoring should be pretty good.

Q. What have you come away with America that you didn't have when you went there?
RORY McILROY: A tan. (Smiling).
The seven weeks that I played over there from Dubai, it was a great experience. I played really good. I played great at the Match Play. Played really well at Honda Classic and played really well at Doral. Just fell away a bit at Doral; I was quite tired.
America was great, don't get me wrong, but I'm really glad to be back in Europe and playing on The European Tour and the first event back in Ireland, it's a great one for myself. This is the start of quite a big summer for me and hopefully I can kick start that with a good week this week.

Q. Is it your intention to spend most part of the summer playing in Europe?
RORY McILROY: Yes, I'm only going to play another three events in America, two majors and the WGCs. I'm playing the next three weeks on The European Tour and then yeah, I'm going to spend the summer in Europe.
I'm looking forward to it. I haven't played on The European Tour for a couple of months now, and I'm really looking forward to get back. It was nice to see all of the guys yesterday and I haven't really kept in touch with anyone and it was nice to see them all. I feel a little more comfortable out here.

Q. By accident or design, you're with Monty for the first two rounds anyway tomorrow. Have you played with him before?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played with him in the European Open last year at The London Club in the third round I think, so yeah.

Q. And on The Ryder Cup points, I know it's a long way away yet, but how focused are you on making sure that the Ryder Cup becomes pretty much a very important part of your career?
RORY McILROY: You know, if you play well enough, you're going to get on the team. That's the simple fact. But it's not a huge goal of mine. If I'm struggling to get on the team, I'm not going to play two more events to try -- if I play well enough, I play well enough, and if I don't, then so be it.
In The Ryder Cup, it's a great spectacle for golf, but an exhibition at the end of the day and it should be there to be enjoyed. I think if I get on it, you know, you enjoy the week, and if you win or lose, it's a great experience and you move on from it. In the big scheme of things, it's not that important of an event for me.

Q. Is that because your goals are set beyond Ryder Cups, so naturally, if you reach those goals, you'll be on The Ryder Cup Team?
RORY McILROY: Exactly. You know, golf is an individual sport at the end of the day. And you have individual goals, and my individual goals are to win tournaments for myself. And if I do that, then I know that I'll have played good enough to get on to the team.
So if you can take care of your own results, then you know, the selection process or if you qualify for it, basically if you play well enough, you'll get on.

Q. Padraig Harrington has frequently referred to the Irish Open as his fifth major. Where would you rank it in importance?
RORY McILROY: Very high. Even yesterday it was own the Tuesday, with you I was getting the feel, there's a bit of a buzz. Every Irish Open, it's a great atmosphere and the crowds come out to see golf.
The Irish golf crowd are very knowledgeable as well, so I suppose apart from the majors and maybe the World Golf Championships, this is high up there.
I mean, everyone said last week that THE PLAYERS Championship is the fifth major, but this field is a lot more important to me than that.

Q. You say you played in three East of Ireland Championships; what do you recall of the golf course and of your experience of playing Baltray in those years, and can you recall how well you did or indeed, how poorly you might have done?
RORY McILROY: It was actually -- the East was my first senior event I played when I was 14. I missed the cut, shot 80-74. So I think I missed by a couple.
The next year I came out, I had just won the west. And I finished fifth. That was -- I think that was my best result here. And I came back the next year and finished eighth.
So I've played quite well around here, and you know, as I haven't -- as the years went on, I got a little longer and I found the course a little easier; I could get up the second in two and get up the third. I have very fond memories. I remember the first year I came with my dad and we stayed upstairs in the clubhouse, and we played snooker every night in the snooker room, and it was great memories. So Baltray is a place that I really love and I would love to be able to win here one day.

Q. I know you've had a lot of success on links courses, Portrush being another, do you think Baltray is suited to your game, given that it might be all links but they are all different, as well?
RORY McILROY: They are. I think the key to this golf course you is need to get off to a really good start. You have three par 5s in the first six holes, and you have to be 2- or 3-under through six, because then you have quite a difficult stretch from 7 to 11 where you sort of hang onto that score and the last few holes gives you a couple of opportunities on 14, which you can get close to, and you've got 18, the par 5.
So there's a few difficult holes in the middle, but if you can start really well around here, it makes a lot of difference.

Q. In the three you played, was the weather as tough or the wind as strong as it's likely to be this week?
RORY McILROY: The first East I played, it was raining and it was like this, so it wasn't very nice.
And then I remember the last one I played, the third one, everyone was burnt. The weather was unbelievable the first week in June.
Yeah, it was great weather then, so hopefully, I don't know what the forecast is like, but hopefully we get a bit of sunshine and hopefully it doesn't rain too much.

Q. The forecast is not good.
RORY McILROY: Oh, really? Well, I suppose it's the same for everyone.

Q. How big is the Open Championship on your radar this year? Have you started thinking about it yet and do you plan to go to Turnberry?
RORY McILROY: I haven't really thought about it yet. I'll probably start thinking about it the week after the BMW in Germany. I've got two weeks, I've got the week off and then the Scottish Open, so probably that's when I'll start thinking about it a little bit.
You know, the British Open, I played one and I did pretty well, and I think it's probably the one that I could probably do the best at in a way. Growing up on links courses, I'm used to it and I love links greens. I feel as if I can hole a lot of putts on links greens.
Obviously maybe down the road, obviously it's a huge goal of mine to win it one day, because it is the biggest championship in the world, and you know, to win it, have your name on the card is incredible. So, one day hopefully. But this year, I'll try and prepare properly for it and prepare the way I normally do, and if I play good enough on the week, then this hopefully that should do it.

Q. Inaudible.
RORY McILROY: A little bit. There's definitely a few shots that you need on links that you don't need maybe on a parkland course. Especially with this wind, you need to keep it down.
But the thing about links, you need a lot of imagination, as well. You can see the humps and holes, and most of this golf course is in front of you, and the same with Turnberry. So you can visualise shots a little better and you can run it off the green and play it off slopes, and that's sort of the way links golf was designed to be played.
So I'll be definitely leading up to the Open, I'll be practicing those shots, and probably the week before the Scottish Open I'll probably try to get over to Turnberry and play.

Q. A lot of players would say the most pressure they ever felt in golf was The Ryder Cup, including some who thought beforehand it was an exhibition; do you think it might suddenly hit you when you get in the team that it's a bit more than that?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I don't think that -- I don't feel as if it is. It's an exhibition and it should be played in the right spirit and obviously everyone wants to win. But you know, it's a great week for golf. I think that's what it should be treated as.
Like I said before, if I can get on the team by my own merit and lucky enough to be there, I'll relish every moment of it. Obviously I'll try my best for the team. But you know, I'm not going to go running around fist-pumping.

Q. You don't expect it to be too much pressure?
RORY McILROY: Obviously there's pressure because you're playing for Europe and you're not just playing for yourself. I don't know. I haven't experienced it yet. So I'll probably be able to tell you better when I'm there. But I think it's just a great tournament for golf and you know, if I can play in it one day and experience it and enjoy it, I think that's the main thing.

Q. Anybody who has ever played it has more or less come away from it saying they don't ever want to miss it; you don't anticipate feeling that way?
RORY McILROY: I probably will, to be honest. I mean, everyone has sort of grown up watching it on TV and you can remember a few of the huge matches: Faldo at Oak Hill and Philip Walton and Monty at Valderrama; you do remember them.
Yeah, I mean, I played the Masters this year thinking I never want to miss one of those again because it was just incredible. If The Ryder Cup does the same for me, then so be it, but I'll have to wait until I get there to see if it feels the same.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks very much for your time and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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