|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ABU DHABI GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 19, 2010Rory McIlroyABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks, as always, for coming in and joining us. Welcome to the Abu Dhabi Championship, and happy new year to you. It was a great year for you last year, and it almost seems like last week we were in Dubai and all the drama there. Just give us your thoughts on last year and the break and looking ahead to this year. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was a great year for me all around, getting my first win early on in the season in Dubai, and then kicking on from there and putting in a lot of really solid performances. You know, I had a great chance going into the Dubai World Championship to take the first Race to Dubai title, but there was another guy that was just a little too good that week. But you know, it was a great season, and it was a long season, as well. It was nice to get home and have a bit of a break over the Christmas period. But lovely to be back out in the sunshine and practising again and getting ready for the 2010 season. SCOTT CROCKETT: And it was a break at home, as we know, you suffered along with everybody in Northern Ireland; there wasn't a lot of time to do anything else but snowmen. RORY McILROY: There was a lot of snowmen and snowball fights. It was nice to get a break. I didn't hit a ball for five weeks, which was good for me. To get away from it for awhile and sort of refreshes your -- interest isn't the right word, but you are really looking forward to getting back into it. So it's great as I said to be back out and hitting golf balls again. Being back home it makes you realise how lucky you are to be playing a wonderful game and wonderful weather. A lot of people would be like to be doing that back home in Northern Ireland. SCOTT CROCKETT: Looking ahead to this week, fifth last year, you played well here last year, and, in fact, 11th the year before. You obviously enjoy the course and the championship. RORY McILROY: I do. It's a great golf course. I think it's a golf course that sets up really well for me. You have got to drive it great, and you know, you look at the list of winners, short list of winners that have won here, they are all been great players, Chris DiMarco, and then you have Casey has won it twice and Kaymer, and all of those guys are great players. So I think it suits the guy that can sort of hit a lot of fairways and greens. They set the course up with firm greens and pretty long rough, so it rewards accurate driving and good second shots. Q. You mentioned your Race to Dubai, and Lee being that much better. You were well fancied to get a double out of some sort, of winning the race; making up for it here by finishing even higher, would that help compensate for that? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, love to start the season with a win, either here or defending my title in Dubai at the other tournament. I thought finishing second might have been good enough and on another week it might have been. Lee was fantastic that week and I don't think anyone could have done anything about it. Yeah, I t would be very nice to get my season off to a great start like I did last year with an early win, because it sort of -- it takes the pressure off you a little bit and you can go and just free-wheel it and you'll play with freedom and go out and try to get more wins after that. Definitely looking to try and win either this or Dubai, definitely. Q. Is there any sense because of everything you achieved last year, that there may be more pressure on you this year, and if there is, can you handle it? RORY McILROY: Yeah, there probably will be more pressure. I got myself into the Top-10 in the world, which sort of brings a few pressures in itself, trying to stay there and trying to move higher than that, which it's a lot more difficult to move from 10th to fifth than it is from 40th to 20th, you know. So I've still got to keep playing well. One of my big goals this year is to win more. I felt as if I put myself in a lot of good positions last year to win, and to be able to only win once was slightly disappointing. So I would like to get more wins this year and try and capitalise on the good positions that I put myself in. Q. Considering you are taking up your U.S. Tour card, would anything less than what you achieved last year be a disappointment this year? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I want to try and improve every year, and the last, I suppose, three years, well, two years on Tour, it's been a steady progression. So, yeah, I'd be very disappointed if I didn't achieve what I did last year, and obviously I want to surpass that and try and achieve -- I've set my goals pretty high this year and I want to try and achieve those. Hopefully I can practise hard enough and play well enough to achieve them. Q. Are they goals you can share with us? RORY McILROY: As I said, I want to try and win more. Multiple wins anywhere in the world would be nice. Top-5 in the world is a big goal of mine, and then trying to get into contention in the majors again, I got a taste of it at the PGA last year, but you know, I feel as if I'm a more experienced player than I was, and those experiences should help me this year in majors. And hopefully if I can get my game in good shape for those four weeks, hopefully I'll have a good chance. Q. Have you written off a realistic objective of the European Money List, European Race to Dubai? RORY McILROY: No, because even though I'll play less, maybe two or three less European Tour events, if I can turn some of those top 5s or top threes into a win, you know, that makes a huge difference, as well. Then obviously you have got all of the majors and the World Golf Championships that are big purses that can help you towards that, as well. So it is still a big goal of mine, but winning the money title is a result of playing well throughout the year. If I can concentrate on trying to playing well in all of those tournaments and trying to get a few more wins, then hopefully that can take care of itself, but obviously the closer you get to that, the more it becomes a goal in your mind, and that's what happened last year, the last four or five events, giving myself the best opportunity going into Dubai to be able to win it. So hopefully I can put myself in that position again. Q. In the four or five, six weeks you've had off, have you thought of any weaknesses that you may have or that we haven't seen that you want to improve on? RORY McILROY: Yeah, my putting is the biggest factor. I suppose it's -- I do hit quite a lot of greens, which means that, you know, that sometimes makes my putting look, you know, maybe a lot worse than it sometimes is. But you know, actually I played the last three or four events of the season, not really having -- I was hitting the ball a lot right-to-left, not really -- I was in control but I knew what I was going to do with the golf ball but it wasn't the shape or the shot that I wanted to see. But I played with it for four weeks and was able to manage it and put in a few really good performances with it. I've worked the last ten days in Dubai trying to neutralise my ball flight a little bit and working on my swing plane a little bit with Michael, and it seemed to have been -- I still need probably a few more days to groove it all in, but it's getting in. Q. 2008 the South African Open the final day, you came in to move into the Top-50 in the world, did you ever think at that point in time on that day that one year later you would be inside the Top-10 in the world? And what did you do during that period that you may not have done or may have done something differently -- RORY McILROY: Well, I suppose I set myself a goal at the start of last year to get into the top 20, really, but then I got into the top 20 after the win in Dubai. So I had to reset my goals a little bit and try to get into the Top-10, which I did. I don't know, I didn't have that much of a break after South Africa. You know, I was sort of riding on the crest of a wave after getting into the Top-50 in the world, and I just wanted to try to keep it going. I came out here and finished fifth, which sort of kept my momentum going a bit. Then a couple of weeks later, I won in Dubai. I suppose I never really had a chance to sit down and think about it, which is probably a good thing. You know, I just kept it going and kept going with it and it seemed to work out okay. Q. You talked about wanting to get into contention more in the majors; how did it feel different when you got into contention at the PGA compared to other tournaments? RORY McILROY: It didn't. I was just trying to -- I suppose you would probably -- yeah, it's different in the way that it's -- I don't know, trying to go out and you're trying to win a golf tournament I suppose. It's hard to sort of put your finger on it. I suppose I had a couple of putts on 11 and 12 in that final round to really get myself into the mix to actually winning. But I missed those putts. But I came back well and I suppose because it was my first time, really up there in a major, it was -- I suppose it was a different feeling. I probably was oblivious and I was just trying to go along and play and grind out pars and make a birdie here and there on the par 5s. I suppose I sort of stuck to my game plan and I just tried to execute that as best I can. I think that's what I've always tried to do whenever I'm under pressure in tournaments is just really try and stick to what I wanted to do and try and execute every shot as best I could. Yeah, it's hard to sort of put your finger on it, but I knew I had a putt on the last green at the PGA to finish third. And I suppose to me at that time, it felt like a putt to win the tournament and it was nice to see it go in. Q. (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: I suppose I wasn't in contention at Augusta so I wouldn't really know. No, the thing is, the more I play with the likes of Phil Mickelson and Tiger and Sergio and all of the top players, you know, the more you realise that you're trying to beat the same guys on any given week. It's just a different golf course and for a different trophy. Q. You're the sort of player who would be targeted by the change in grooves as a guy who goes for it all the time; are you going to change your philosophy in view of the grooves, can you afford to miss fairways? RORY McILROY: You can afford to miss fairways if you're going in, with, say, an 8- or a 9-iron. But yeah, you don't get -- I haven't found any flyers or anything, or anything like that. I think the biggest difference is say you're going for a green at a par 5 and you come up 30 yards short in the rough, and it's not -- sometimes you get a lie in the rough with the old grooves and you can spin it. You can really spin it, and with this one, you can't, you have to land at the front edge of the green and let it run up. I suppose stuff like that, and the drivable par 4s, you would think twice about -- well, some people would. Q. Are you going to modify your approach? RORY McILROY: Yeah, maybe a little bit. But I suppose it depends on the situation you're in, and where you are in the tournament, and all that. You have to weigh everything up. But definitely it does make a bit of a difference out of the rough. Off the fairway, they are fine. I'm definitely not going to get negative off the tee if I'm worried about hitting it in the rough just because of the new grooves. Q. You've already expressed your liking for the way this course is set up, but with the strong possibility that the tournament will be moved -- (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: Actually I'm going to visit Saadiyat next Thursday. I've heard great things about it, so I think -- to be honest, out of the three courses that we play on The Desert Swing, this is probably my favourite. Just the way it's set up, and the -- I think this year, the scoring won't be quite as low as it was last year, looking at the greens and the rough and everything. And I think they put a new tee on 17, as well. They set it up great, and you know, everything, the greens this year, are great, as well. They roll so true and there's not as much grain on them as there was the previous years. So yeah, it would be sad to see it leave here, but in a way, you know, I suppose Abu Dhabi as an Emirate wants to move their big championships to the newest place and the place that they could advertise the region as best they can. It just depends. Buts this a great golf course and more than worthy to host this event. Q. You are obviously heading off to America in a few weeks time; have there been any commercial approaches by big American companies? RORY McILROY: No. I'm pretty much tied up with everything I have now until a couple years down the line. Q. And happen tee to have that? RORY McILROY: Definitely. Q. So you can concentrate on the golf? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I don't want to be doing more company days that are not necessary and taking time away from practise and trying to play the best I can. I'm just happy with where everything is at the minute. Q. Did you play the FIRE Course? What do you think? RORY McILROY: It's a lot more straightforward off the tee and it's a lot more playable for amateurs and stuff. You know, you have pretty wide landing areas off the tee, and then it becomes a little more tricky around the green. But it looks like a great -- aesthetically it looks really nice with the long grass and the reddish sort of coloured bunkers. Yeah, it's hard to compare obviously the design by the same person, but they are two completely different golf courses. But you know, I think the FIRE course, if they can tighten it up a little bit and make the rough a little thicker and stuff, it would be a very good challenge. I think they are both very good courses. SCOTT CROCKETT: Rory, thanks, as always for that. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|