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ABU DHABI GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 21, 2010Sergio GarciaRory McIlroyABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Q. 66s today with your afternoon tee time, Sergio, are you happy 2-over after four to shoot 6-under? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it was definitely a good come back. It didn't look great for the first four holes, but played fairly well, not great. Still a couple of shots that we have to fix. There's obviously a little bit of rust still in my body, but overall, I think it was a good come back and a good, solid round to are the is it a with. Q. Rory, your game today, happy? RORY McILROY: Yeah, very happy, apart from that one loose tee shot on 11, it was really good. I made a lot of birdies and converted a lot of my chances. So any time you open up a tournament with a 66, you've got to be happy. Q. You guys know an afternoon tee time, a little bit of breeze out there, you know you're going to get it easier tomorrow, we hope, unless a gale comes in that doesn't usually happen in the desert; if you hit it in the rough, it's tough. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it's a good mix, with the new grooves and everything, because today, even if you miss some fairways, there were a good amount of back pins so you could still fly it on the front of the green and roll it up. If you start having to carry bunkers from out of the rough, then it's going to be a bit more of a struggle to make birdie. So you know, hopefully we can go out there tomorrow and have another good round, both of us. RORY McILROY: I don't know, I think we both took our chances when they came to us. I had a double in there. So if I can play like that and sort of cut out the mistakes, I'm sure there's a 64, 63 out there. So that's what I'll be trying to do tomorrow and hopefully we can play pretty similarly and just try and get it going. Q. Sergio, you have held the mantle before as the best young player in the world; what do you think of the young balm buy know right beside you? SERGIO GARCIA: Who, him? No, he's pretty good. He's very impressive, too, to watch him play. He swings so nicely, and you know, there's really not many things that you can say he could get better. Obviously you can improve all sorts of parts of the game, but he doesn't need to do a lot of work on it. So he's a great guy, and to me, that's the most important thing and great fun to play with. Q. What can Sergio do to improve, Rory? RORY McILROY: You know, I remember watching Sergio win the Irish Open in '99, and then at Medinah and then The Ryder Cup and stuff. Just to be able to play with him now as one of my heroes growing up and to actually play with him now, just to be able to hang around him is pretty cool. So yeah, I'm sure we'll have a lot of games together over the next few years and hopefully I can just keep up with him. Q. Fine round of golf, wonder if your own mind if you feel it might have been even better. RORY McILROY: It could have been better, yeah, definitely. I've made a mental error on the 11th. Probably didn't hit the right club off the tee, and then you know, tried to take too much on with the second shot. But apart from that, it was really solid golf. To open up my first round much the year not having a bogey for ten holes was pretty good I thought. If I can just keep it going, I mean, I feel as if I'm hitting the ball really well. Pleasantly surprised after such a long break. So, yeah, just go out tomorrow morning again, hopefully we get the greens will be nice and smooth for us and not much wind and take advantage of that and post another really good number. Q. But even when you make mistakes, you mentioned the one on 11, obviously, in the very penal rough on the right-hand side, you still showed a great deal of character to immediately birdie the par-3 12th. That's great, isn't it? RORY McILROY: Yeah, and the 13th, as well, to drop a couple of shots like that so quickly and then to get them back in the next two holes, it's huge. That's a thing that I've learned a lot of the great players do, once they make a mistake, they try to rectify it as soon as they can and I was able to do that today, which really helped me get back around and can get to 6-under. Q. You have said you really like this course? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it sets up great for me. I like the sight lines off the tees, like I feel as if you can hit it on the fairway, I feel as if I can get to most of the pins out there. You know, there was a few tough pins out there today in the back, and even Sergio and Henrik were able to get to them, and especially when the greens were that firm. As long as I can keep striking my irons like that, hopefully I'll keep going. Q. You'll be off to the States pretty soon, looking forward to that? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it will be fantastic, but there's three days of golf left here and I'm playing the Dubai Desert Classic, as well. So a lot of golf left to play. Obviously looking forward to it. Played quite a lot of golf over there last year anyway and felt as if I did pretty well. So just have to go over there and try and do the best I can and if I can keep hitting like that, how I did today, then I should be okay. Q. Did you have a bad lie in that bunker? RORY McILROY: My feet were on the hard part of the bunker and when the club went in the sand -- I thought underneath the ball was going to be hard, but it wasn't. It was soft. So that's why it just sort of came up a little bit short. But I played pretty well today. I thought the 5-wood on the last, if it just was maybe a couple yards left, it would have got past the bunker and up on to the green but that's the way it goes. Not complaining about shooting 6-under. Q. Did you feel the stuff you worked on in your five weeks on, did you feel that was coming around coming into here? RORY McILROY: Yeah, one of the biggest things I was trying to do was straighten my ball flight. I thought I was shaving it too much right-to-left at the end of last season. Today I hit a couple of really nice left-to-right shots into pins. Basically I'm hitting it both ways off the tee, but I'm a lot more comfortable hitting it left-to-right now, which is a huge thing for me, because that's what you need to do, especially on golf courses that are setup like this to be able to get at every pin, you need to be able to shape it both ways. Q. Is it just a minor tweak? RORY McILROY: Just a minor tweak in the swing, just a couple of swing thoughts but nothing too major. Q. Do you do that yourself? RORY McILROY: No, Michael was with me for a week. Q. Talk us through the pick of the birdies. RORY McILROY: Fifth hole, hit a drive and a 9-iron to about 20, 25 feet left of the pin. It was nice to see it go in. It was probably going about six-foot past. And then I birdied the par 3, 7th. Hit a nice 6-iron in there to about six feet. Birdied the par 5 after that, the 8th. Got up-and-down from about 40 yards short right of the green in the rough and that was nice, held about a 10-footer. Birdied 10. Hit a drive and a 5-wood on to the front, middle of the green to about 30 feet and 2-putted it. 12, hit a 6-iron to about three-foot past the pin. 13, driver, 9-iron to six feet, just right of the pin. 17, hit a drive and a 7-iron to probably six-foot past the pin. 15, as well, I birdied. I hit 8-iron to about six feet left of the pin. Q. Great coming out that way? RORY McILROY: Yeah, pleasantly surprised. It was good. Especially I think all of the guys were struggling, me included, the first few holes. I was saying to Sergio, it's amazing when you take a bit of time off, it's so much tougher to score. But then you get in a couple of weeks and it just comes back to you, and just sort of natural. We'll see how the next three days go, but it's a good start. End of FastScripts |
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