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BMW INTERNATIONAL OPENJune 24, 2009Rory McIlroyEICHENRIED, GERMANY SCOTT CROCKETT: Rory, thank you, as always, for coming in and joining us. I'm sure you felt you had left all the rain behind you at Bethpage but obviously not. I suppose that's a good place to start; let's talk about that. It was a very good performance on your behalf. You must be very excited the way you played over there. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I am. There was no fireworks. There was nothing spectacular about it. It was just very solid play. I was sort of in the middle of the pack the whole way through, and I broke through with a 68 on last day to finish 10th which moved me up a few spots. So I was very pleased with the way I played and I stayed very patient the whole week with all of the weather delays and all of the interruptions. So I felt I handled it pretty well and it was a really good effort for my U.S. Open debut. SCOTT CROCKETT: A good spell for you after the BMW in England, and then 12th at The European Open, a consistent run of form just now. RORY McILROY: It is. I think that's been the key this year is I have been very consistent. I've had a lot of Top-10s and I've had a few top 5s with a win in there, as well. So it's been a very consistent year and hopefully I can keep that up until Dubai and the Dubai World Championship. SCOTT CROCKETT: Looking ahead to this week, your thoughts on the BMW International Open? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I only got to play two rounds here last year. I didn't play very well. But I think it's a golf course that should suit me. I know that if you are quite long, you have a bit of an advantage on the par 5s, so hopefully that will work in my favour this week. And yeah, obviously the weather has not cooperated the first couple of days, but it's supposed to improve by the weekend, so hopefully we can get a bit of good weather. Because it's so soft, I'm sure the scoring will be very good. I'm looking forward to the weekend and hopefully I can go out there and make a few birdies. Q. Obviously you heard that Ross had pulled out. Did you give any consideration whether it was right to press on this week, and what's your schedule now? RORY McILROY: It was always a case for me whether I was going to play this or whether I was going to play the French Open. It's been -- I didn't think the course in Paris really suited my game, so I thought this was probably a better week for me. And then obviously hope to have a good week this week and have a week off and play Loch Lomond and The Open. I never thought of pulling out. It was always a case of getting here and then trying to obviously bring the good form that I've had into that week and then have a nice rest next week. Q. Just the arrangements getting from New York to here. RORY McILROY: Well, what I was planning to do, with no interruptions was I was going to go home Sunday night back to Belfast and fly out here to Munich on the Tuesday morning, but obviously that didn't happen. So I went from New York on Monday night, arrived here on Tuesday morning about half ten. And then did a little thing for the kids yesterday and got 12 hours' sleep last night, which is fantastic. Hopefully that should have me ready to go for this week. Q. How sort of tough was it last week with all of the stoppages? RORY McILROY: Mentally when you went out on to the golf course, you didn't have any goals. You didn't know -- you didn't really know what a good score was. Level par usually in a U.S. Open is a good score but you didn't really know. Mentally it was quite tough, especially having to stop and start and maybe only playing three holes here and going out and playing another 12 and going and playing another four, it was quite difficult. And then obviously with all of the rain, the golf course played extremely long and made it a very difficult walk, and it's such a big golf course that after the whole week there, my legs felt like lead. It was nice to get here yesterday and not have to do too much and hopefully I can be fully ready to go tomorrow. Q. Did it any point it did it no longer feel as a major? RORY McILROY: It was a different feeling, you know, because I mean we were -- I played with Anthony Kim in the third round, which was on the Saturday night, was it? I don't know. Our mind-set was, right, let's just go out and try and get as many holes in. We are both good players; let's just try and get as many holes as possible. That way it really didn't feel like a major. But it still was a major championship and had the best players in the world on one of the greatest golf courses I've ever played in one of the best atmospheres, so it was still a very good week. Q. This year has become such a good one for you, do you now feel that any time you enter any competition including majors, you should be a contender? RORY McILROY: I feel as if I should be a contender. I'm not entering an event saying, yeah, well, if I show up, I'm going to finish in the Top-10 because I have the week off work. I have to work very hard at it. I know if I play well, I will -- I do have the game to be up there. I proved that to myself last week. It was my first Top-10 at a major, and, you know, it gives me a lot of confidence to know that I come up to the field on the last day from 33rd to the tenth with a good round. So yeah, I suppose -- I mean, I'm looking to go out and try to win every event that I play, and obviously that's pretty difficult apart from one person on the planet. But I feel as if my game is in really good shape. It's become so consistent that if I play -- I don't need to play my best to finish well. You know, I know that I can play my average to above-average game and still have a good chance to win. Q. Since you've turned pro, what is the difference in your game now? RORY McILROY: Actually I don't feel as if I'm any better ball-striker than I was when I was an amateur. I just feel I have the ability to score and the ability to manage your game around the golf course and to manage your time, as well, and put all your effort into playing rounds of golf. Because no matter how many balls you hit or how much you practise, at the end of the day, it's what number is at the end of your scorecard. So I've sort of had to learn that a little bit in the last few years. But I think I have learned that and I think that's why I've started to play so well because now I realise that the only thing that matters out here is what you shoot at the end of the day. SCOTT CROCKETT: What you said with the youths, a couple of them were good ball-strikers, but you said to them it doesn't matter how well you hit it; it's how well you score on the golf course. RORY McILROY: Yeah, no matter how many balls you hit or how good you hit it on the range, if you can't bring that on to the golf course -- you look at some guys like Christian Cevaer won The European Open, and that's not a course that you would think he could win on because it is quite a long golf course and he's not known for having that much length. You know, he just managed his game so well that week, hit it on the fairways and a lot of the longer hitters didn't hit it on to the fairway and got it onto the green and knew par was a good score on many some holes. And that's what it's all about, managing your game and getting the most out of it. Q. Saw a quote from you about your high-ball flight; how much are you working on your game with Turnberry in mind now? RORY McILROY: Probably will start thinking about Turnberry next week, whenever I have a week off. But it all depends on the conditions, because if it's that calm and it's benign, you can -- basically links golf courses are a little firm and fast, and they are not as long and they can play very short. But saying that, if it's very windy and the conditions are not so good, you have to have good control of your ball flight and be able to hit it high and low and move it both ways. I've already played Turnberry this week and it's in great shape and I really like the look of the golf course. So it should be a good week. Q. (Will you go to Turnberry again before the Open?) RORY McILROY: You know, probably I'm going to play Turnberry again the Monday of Loch Lomond, so that will be it. I do play a lot of links golf when I'm home anyway, I have Portrush and County Down. So I think the major thing on links golf courses is the shots around the greens, because you have so many tight run-offs and you have got so many chip-and-runs and you could be putting from 10 yards off the green. So I think you sort of get a real feel for it the actual week that you're there. Q. What conditions would you prefer, windy or benign? RORY McILROY: I would like it benign. Most links golf courses need a little bit of wind for their protection. I feel if it's that calm, I can shoot a really good score. That means that all the rest of the players will shoot a good score, as well, but I would rather have it that way. And it's good for the fans to see guys making birdies, as well, so it makes it a -- gives it a better atmosphere and makes it a little more fun to watch. The first one I went to was Troon in 2004. I played the British Open in Portmarnock and we went over to watch it after that, and so that was the first one I ever went to. The second one I went to was Carnoustie. SCOTT CROCKETT: Most of the players you play with are experienced, but this week in the draw, you are playing with Bernhard Langer. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've never played with Bernhard before, which will be a great experience obviously in Germany. He's got a lot of support out here and hopefully we'll have a really good crowd following us. I remember in Hong Kong at the end of last year, the start of this season, he was in contention and I got beat in a playoff there. But he obviously still has the game to compete and he's obviously done very well on the Champions Tour in the States. So I'm really looking forward to playing with him, and I think it will be a great experience for me. Hopefully I might pick up something from him and learn something. Q. How surprised are you by Padraig's results so far this year? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think everyone is surprised. A three-time major winner in two years, a two-year span and then to have a run of form like he's had; we were saying last night, it would not surprise me if he turned it around for The Open and put in a really good result. But it has been surprising. I mean, obviously he looked at his game at the end of the year and he seen a few things that he wanted to change or he wanted to improve, and obviously he tried to do that and it has not quite worked. Q. Have you played with him or talked with him at all this season? RORY McILROY: I have played a couple of practise rounds with him. There was nothing -- you don't really know until from a practise round. Whenever you have a card in your hand, it becomes completely different. So he still hits it well. I was watching him on TV last week when we had a few rain delays, and it just seemed that he was not hitting as many fairways as he needed to to give himself chances for birdie. That was my impression. Q. On that note can you spot anything technically when he's not hitting the fairways; are you able to look at the professionals and see why? RORY McILROY: His swing looks the same to me when he on at Carnoustie, and when he won at Birkdale and when he won at Oakland Hills and Carnoustie; it looks the same to me. I'm sure it is. It could be a slight fraction of the clubface at impact. Q. Martin Kaymer listed you' among the favourites; and how much are you familiar with him? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure I'd be -- Martin and myself would be among the favourites to win this golf tournament. Martin obviously did very well last year to win, and you know, as I said earlier, I only got two rounds in last year; I missed the cut. You know, it's a golf course that I think suits my game, especially this week because it's very soft and with my higher ball flight, that should suit the course. And hopefully they give us lift, clean and place; they didn't last week at the U.S. Open. Same for everyone I suppose. But there's a great field this week and Martin and Henrik Stenson and Miguel Angel Jiménez, Bernhard Langer, Luke Donald. There's a lot of really good players here. It will be tough to win as it always is but hopefully I can get myself in the mix on Sunday. Q. (Regarding club off tees). RORY McILROY: I can't hit the driver much. I can't hit the driver much. Q. Do you ever hold back? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I give it 100 per cent. If I'm not comfortable with a driver I'll give it 100 per cent with a 3-wood. I think this year I'm averaging 303 or something like that. SCOTT CROCKETT: All right, Rory, thank you very much. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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