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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 2009

Rory McIlroy

FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK

BETH MURRISON: Good morning, thank you for joining us at the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage. We're very honored today to have Rory McIlroy visiting us in the media center. Rory is playing in his first U.S. Open this year. He's seen a little bit of the golf course which we'll certainly ask him about. He's had a very successful year on the European Tour thus far. He's had six top-five finishes including a win at the Dubai Desert Classic.
Can you talk about your experience of being at your first Open.
RORY McILROY: I got up here on Sunday night. I spent a couple of days in New York City with my sponsors Jumeirah. I got to play 13 holes yesterday before we were called off the golf course.
And the golf course is great. I remember watching it on TV in 2002 and I remember thinking to myself I'd really love to play there one day. And it's nice to have that opportunity this year. So it looks like it's going to be a great week. The golf course is set up really, really well. And hopefully I've got another couple of days to prepare and hopefully I'll be ready to go by Thursday.
BETH MURRISON: Questions?

Q. Rory, 2002, what images do you particularly remember from that Open, watching it on television?
RORY McILROY: I remember it was wet. (Laughter.) And it was extremely long, very difficult. I remember Sergio doing very well. Played with Tiger in the last group, I think.
And then, yeah, obviously there was a bit of a, I think there was a bit of a delay on the Sunday evening. And then went back out to play and I remember Tiger hitting a 2-iron into 13 in the middle of the green, two-putting for birdie. And obviously Phil made a bit of a rally out towards the end as well.
But, yeah, I can remember it was just -- looking on TV it was just looked like an extremely long, extremely difficult golf course. And the rough's probably not as bad as it was in 2002 this year.
I played 13 holes yesterday, and it's very, very fair. If you miss the fairway by a couple of yards you've got a great chance to get it onto the green.

Q. Rory, some people like to play two or three weeks before a major championship. You've opted not to play for the previous two weeks.
RORY McILROY: Yeah.

Q. Do you feel you have prepared the way you would like to for your first U.S. Open?
RORY McILROY: Yeah. I did it a little differently for the Masters this year where I played the week before. And this year I played four on the spin. I played THE PLAYERS Championship, Irish Open, Wentworth and the European open. I felt I needed two weeks off to sort of recover and recharge the batteries because there's a big summer of golf coming up for me, as well.
But I feel as if I've prepared well. Did a lot of good practice at home last week. And I played a couple of rounds at the weekend there and I've done a lot of wedge play. I feel as if I'm driving the ball really well.
Obviously I haven't had a lot of competitive golf in the last couple of weeks. But I feel as if I'm hitting it well. I will have a good chance to shoot some good scores.

Q. Have you even in the 13 holes gotten an idea of what the crowds are like here, or have you heard anything about how the crowds are maybe a little, you're not in your --
RORY McILROY: Yeah, they're quite vocal, which is great. It's great that the crowds get involved a little bit. It's fantastic. Obviously it will be sort of around 15, 16, 17, that little triangle can be a great atmosphere around there. I'm looking forward to the week.
Hopefully the crowds get behind me and give me a little bit of support. So it's nice when the crowds get involved, as well. And it helps this is a public golf course, and most of the guys, I don't know if most of them have played it before but certainly some of them have played it before, and it will make them appreciate how tough it is and how good the pros are that we can shoot the scores that we do around here.

Q. What were your impressions of the 7th hole and the 15th green?
RORY McILROY: I didn't get to the 15th yesterday. But I played the 7th. And I played with Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood and Adam Scott, and I had the best drive out of the four of us and I had 230 to the pin. It's a really, really long hole.
I think if it's as wet as it was yesterday I'm sure they'll push the tee up for us a couple of days. But it's 525 yards. So if you make four 4s out there you're doing pretty well.

Q. First of all, the U.S. Open course setup, is it as hard as you've played?
RORY McILROY: I probably wouldn't be able to tell you that until after Thursday when they've put the pins in for tournament play and we've played a competitive round. But I think they've set the golf course up very fairly.
You can still get -- if you miss the fairway in the second cut, you can still get to the green. So it gives you a chance, if you have a decent lie, you can get it up somewhere on the green and get it up-and-down. But the rough is very thick around the greens, as well.
And it rewards you for playing good shots. But if you don't play good shots, it will punish you. That's the way it should be.

Q. I don't know if you've seen SKY TV's promo buildup of this event. They started off with Tiger, which is about 30 seconds, as one would expect. The only other player they then go to is you, saying, here's the challenger. How do you feel about that billing, since it's only your third major, your first U.S. Open?
RORY McILROY: It's nothing, really.

Q. What do you feel about that?
RORY McILROY: I mean, as I said, I feel as if I'm driving the ball really, really well, and obviously you need to do that for U.S. Open. Ball-striking is probably the strong -- from tee to green, it's probably the strongest part of my game. So if I'm hitting the ball well, I should be able to hit 10 or 12 fairways and hit 13 or 14 greens. I will give myself a few chance for birdies.

Q. Let me put it the way I should have originally. Do you feel ready to challenge Tiger in his own backyard?
RORY McILROY: Um, if he plays the way he did the last round at Memorial, then no. But I can only -- I can't control what he does or what anyone else does in the field. I just have to go out and play my golf. If it's good enough, it's good enough. If it's not, then so be it.
So guys don't go into majors thinking I have to do this to beat Tiger, I have to do that to beat Tiger. They go in and they concentrate on their own game. If their own game at the end of the day isn't good enough, then that's the way it goes?

Q. Would you like to play with him on Sunday?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'd love to.

Q. Do you have more expectations of yourself after your performance in the Masters this year? You did so well there.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, the Masters I felt as if I played well. Masters, I finished 20th. So, yeah, I mean coming into this week it's my first U.S. Open. I've never really experienced anything like this before.
So I could say to myself top-20 finish will be great. But I don't want to just finish in the top 20. I want to try and do better than that. It's all new for me still. So I don't quite know what to expect when Thursday comes or what way the golf course will be set up. But if I can go out and play the way I know I can, I know I'm able to shoot under par on this golf course.

Q. You're playing Padraig Harrington in the Loch Lomond Challenge the week after the Open. I believe you're going to auction a three-ball for charity for a young boy from your golf club?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, there's a green keeper at my golf club whose son is three years old. And he's got quite serious epilepsy. He had it when he was a baby, and he used to have 16 to 20 seizures a day.
And they have to come over to Chicago to get treatment for this young boy, Carter, his name is. And they have to go over to Chicago maybe six or seven times a year.
It costs them a lot of money. And they've got his seizures down to about one to two times a day, which is great. They just want to try and get him, help him to lead a normal life.
I'm playing Padraig on the 22nd of July, but we're auctioning to fly them in to watch the match, stay that night at Lough Erne and play a round of golf the next day. And hopefully that will raise a bit of money for Carter and help him on his way to try to lead a normal life.
It's for a great cause. And I'm very, very happy to do it. And I've known Robert for a long time. He's been a green keeper at Holywood for a while. So I've known him growing up. So anything I could do to help his child, I would.
BETH MURRISON: Thank you very much, Rory.

End of FastScripts

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