|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 5, 2010Rory McIlroyPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA COLIN MURRAY: We'd like to welcome Rory McIlroy to the interview room here at THE PLAYERS Championship. Fresh off his first PGA TOUR victory last week, and your 21st birthday, as well. RORY McILROY: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Couple quick opening thoughts on being back here at THE PLAYERS Championship and also last week and we'll open it up to questions. RORY McILROY: Yeah. Delighted to be back here. You know, it's a golf tournament I grew up watching on TV. It's a great place. You've seen a lot of great stories here over the years, and hopefully I can be part of one of those this week. You know, it's just great to be coming here off a win last week. You know, it's still -- I don't know if it still hasn't sunk in, but it still feels pretty good. Looking forward to getting back out on the golf course and trying to shoot some good scores again. Yeah, just really excited about the week and can't wait to get going again. Q. Ian was just in here and said that the fact that you finally got this win to kind of get that off your shoulders, you just turned 21, and you finally got that win. What took you so long? RORY McILROY: Yeah. I don't know (smiling). It's great to get a win so early over here. You know, it's taken a few of the European guys quite a bit longer to do it. You know, it's definitely nice to get that win and concentrate on getting a few more. I've said everyone asks me what are your goals and everything, and I just want to try to win a bit more. I feel I've been a pro two and a half years, I've won two tournaments. It's about time to start winning a bit more, and hopefully I can start doing that. Q. How'd you celebrate last night? RORY McILROY: I had a nice little party. JP, my caddie, organized it. It was in Lulu's just out the back gate here. There were probably 40, 50 people, had a few drinks and had a bit of dinner. Had a good time, it was good. Q. You still have both eyebrows? RORY McILROY: What's that? Q. You still have both eyebrows? RORY McILROY: I think so, yeah. Yeah (smiling). Q. Was it a surprise? You weren't expecting that, were you? RORY McILROY: The party? Q. Yeah. RORY McILROY: No, I wasn't expecting so many people to be there. It was nice to see so many faces there, and I really appreciated that. It was good. Q. How did it feel to win at Quail Hollow championship last week as well as to break the course record by two strokes? RORY McILROY: Yeah, to be honest, I didn't even realize what score I was on in the last round. I knew that I think I was tied for the lead after nine holes. Then from there, walking off the 11th tee JP said to me let's try to get to 13-under. And I did that, and got to 15 in the end. So it was great. It was great to get that first win over here. The way that I did it, as well, gave me a lot of confidence knowing that you can come from behind and beat a great field like that, so it was a really good feeling. Hopefully I can have a few more of those this year and a few years down the line, as well. Q. Coming up the 18th at Quail Hollow, you applauded to the gallery as a way of thanking them. Is that something typical for you to do whether you've won a tournament or played well? Do you typically engage galleries that way, or was it just the emotion of the moment? RORY McILROY: No, I usually engage the galleries that way. I feel as if I feed off the crowd pretty well. But, you know, the support I had out there last Sunday was just immense. You know, it was really, really cool, everyone high-fiving me from greens to tee boxes. I just really fed off that. You know, I just wanted to -- I suppose not a lot of the crowd know how players feel about that sort of support, so it was just a way of thanking them and giving them a little round of applause going up the last. Q. As a follow-up to that, were you at all surprised at all by the amount of support, given that it's not like you were in Europe or anything like that? RORY McILROY: Yeah, especially with Phil coming behind me. I was a little bit surprised. But, you know, it was a nice surprise. Q. Based on what happened with Ishikawa this weekend and yourself, what do you think the state of golf is in the future considering you guys are so young? It would say that the future of golf is in good hands? RORY McILROY: I think it's in great hands, yeah. Ryo shoots 58 on Sunday at The Crowns, I shoot 62. And you've got AK's won again this year, Camilo's won again this year, Ricky Fowler's playing great. You know, golf seems to be in good hands at the minute, and we've just got to try and keep doing what we're doing and try to get those few more wins. I said this on Sunday, I think Tiger's been a huge reason for that. He set the benchmarks so high, and we're just trying to get to that point. You know, he's inspired so many young players over the world to try to do what we're doing. Q. In essence, older golfers and what they're doing at achieving such greatness is driving you. I mean, Phil mentioned that Tiger drives him. RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly. Same sort of thing. And I think all the younger guys drive each other, as well. You know, I turned on the PGA TOUR website on Sunday morning and saw that Ryo had shot 58 to win. So that drove me, as well, to say, all right, well, I can go out and shoot a good score and try to win this golf tournament. You know, we're all driving each other to try to become better. Q. Of the exceptional shots that you've played over the last year at home, which is the one that you remember most affectionately? And was it because it was the most difficult that you remember it? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I had a little bit of a wait on the 18th tee, which I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. I went from a driver to 3-wood to 5-wood in the span of five minutes. I was like, driver? No. 3-wood? No. 5-wood doesn't bring anything into play. So I was more relieved to get that tee shot away on 18. But probably just the putt on the last. I was just trying to get that anywhere within, you know, five feet of the hole just to get myself a putt for the win, and for it to roll up there and drop right in the middle, I can remember it. It was just a great way to finish off. Q. And the bunker shot was a 7-iron? RORY McILROY: Yeah, that was good. Q. How difficult was that? RORY McILROY: It was actually -- it wasn't as difficult as it looked. It was in the middle of the bunker, and walking up to it, it looked as if it was closer to the lip, but it was actually far enough away from the lip that I could have hit a 4-iron out of it if I wanted to. But I had a perfect yardage for a 7-iron and drew it in there around the bunker. All I wanted to do those last three holes was just to finish par, par, par, and I knew it was pretty much a done deal. But to finish the way I did was very special. Q. After the Masters you seemed pretty fed up and just disgruntled. Just that process of turning things around. Was there an eureka moment where you thought, this is it? RORY McILROY: A little bit, yeah. I've said I went to play Royal County Down and Portrush on the Friday before Quail Hollow. And yeah, I shot 5 under at Portrush on a Friday, and played really, really well. And that was probably the round I was thinking well, if I can do this here, there is no reason why I shouldn't be able -- if I can do this in Portrush, I can pretty much do this at any other golf course in the world. There was a good breeze blowing. I just thought at that point I'm ready to go out and play again. Because I hadn't been putting numbers on the score, you know, I'd been playing well but shooting like 72, 73, 74, and not really getting much out of it. So when I shot 67 around Portrush, I felt as if I'm ready to go. Q. What was the difference? Was it a swing thought? RORY McILROY: No, it was just getting back to playing and getting back to not worrying and thing about it too much. You know, I've said this before, just going out and playing like you're a kid again. Go, hit it, find it. Hit it, find it again. Hole the putt, go to the next tee. Just really look forward to hitting that next shot. Q. Do you have a different mindset now going into big tournaments like this and the majors? Do you have even more of a belief that you can win these things? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I don't want to get myself too carried away. It was a great weekend. I played really, really well. It doesn't mean that I'm going to -- this win doesn't mean that I'm going to contend in the majors right away. I really hope that I do, but I've said this before, it's a very long career. I've got 25, 30 years to go after the majors and more tournaments. But I'm just going to take my time and try to figure them out properly and find a way that I feel is the right way to prepare for them. But I feel pretty comfortable in that sort of environment. If I can just, you know, play the majors and learn something every time I play a major, by the time I'm 23, 24, I should be in a good position to go after them. Q. What did you learn at Quail Hollow that you can apply in majors? RORY McILROY: I suppose just self-belief. Knowing that I beat a great field there on basically a major championship venue, especially with the likes of Phil and Angel coming behind me, and to hold them off and play great golf like that down the stretch just gives me that belief if I can do it there I can pretty much do it anywhere. Q. Yesterday Tiger said one of the differences between his generation, although you're not that far removed, and yours is that equipment technology is a little better now; you can get instant feedback by looking at video right on your cell phone of swings. At a younger age, this new wave just has much better swings. Do you do the video? RORY McILROY: Yeah. I mean, I started using the video when I was 11 or 12 years old with my coach, Michael. But once you get your swing to a certain point, then most of the things that go wrong are the basics, posture, alignment, you know, just normal basic fundamentals of the golf swing. I like to keep it very simple. But yeah, I think definitely the technology and the equipment has helped the younger generation come through quicker. It has been a big deal. Especially the ball; the ball doesn't deviate as much in the air anymore or anything like that. It has made golf -- I'm not going to say -- it hasn't made it easier, but it's made it easier to improve quicker. I think that's, yeah. Q. The last few days most of the best players in the world have been asked about you and they've said great things on and off the golf course. What does that feel like for you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, that's great. It's great to have the respect of your peers. As I said, I had a little bit of a birthday bash last night. It was great to see so many of the players there. The most important thing to me, if they say I'm a good guy off the golf course, then I know that I'm doing the right things. It's just nice to play some good golf now and again, as well. Q. How much do you enjoy the pressure of all the things that have happened to you? Not just the last couple of days but the last few years, and how does that translate onto the golf course in such a relaxed manner for you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's great to have that pressure because you know that you're doing the right things. You know that you're playing well and you're progressing. But at the same time, you have to find a way to distance yourself from that on the golf course and try to just get totally focused into your game and totally focused into just trying to shoot some good numbers and not thinking about what other people are going to be saying after the round if you don't shoot a good score. That's sort of what I got into for the last couple of months. I just felt as if the whole world was on my shoulders and I just wanted to get away from it for a while. You know, when you go out and you shoot some good numbers, that all suddenly goes away, and you can start enjoying your golf again. So the pressure off the golf course is great, but at the same time you have to try and not let it interfere when you're on the golf course. Q. Jim Furyk said Monday he saw you on the range and said, what could he possibly be working on? Saturday, Sunday to this Thursday, how do you bridge that and try to keep the momentum? You almost wish the tournament started Monday, right? RORY McILROY: Yeah, yeah. I don't think -- I mean, my swing's the same. I'm still hitting pretty good golf shots. It's still there. But if there was one thing from Sunday that I wanted to keep, it would have been the mindset. Just the total focus and, you know, some people call it getting into the zone. I was just totally engulfed in what I was doing and didn't let anything get in my way or anything faze me. If you could bottle that and take it to every golf tournament, you'd be doing pretty good. But, yeah, Monday I didn't want to -- I wanted to just go out and hit a few balls just to keep it going. Make a few golf swings, play the back nine. And just I realized this was a big tournament coming up and I needed to start preparing for that, as well. Q. On the back nine on Sunday there was a swagger, a good swagger about you that I hadn't necessarily seen in that situation before. Is that something that you've worked on or something that came unconsciously? RORY McILROY: I was playing with Anthony Kim. I was just trying to copy him (laughing). I suppose so. When you make a lot of birdies like that, you get confident. For me, I felt almost on that back nine I felt invincible. Just kept hitting good shot after good shot and holing the putts. As I said, if you could bottle that mind frame every time you went out to play, it would be great. But that round of golf gave me a lot of confidence, it must be said. And it gives me a nice bit of self-belief going into the rest of the season. Q. Because you've done some mind work with a mind coach recently, does that relate to that at all? RORY McILROY: Maybe subconsciously it could do, yeah. I wasn't thinking about it. I just kept it very simple. I just looked at my target and tried to hit it there. It seemed as if the last couple of months, every number that I had, like every yardage was in between a 7 or an 8. It just wasn't quite going right. Then on the weekend I just had perfect numbers and I knew what club to hit. Everything was so clear. It was a pretty nice feeling to have. COLIN MURRAY: Thank you for joining us, and good luck this week. RORY McILROY: Thank you. 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
|