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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 14, 2010

Rory McIlroy

KOHLER, WISCONSIN

KELLY ELBIN: Rory McIlroy, ladies and gentlemen, in with a 5-under par 67 in the third round of the 92nd PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. Roar row is at 10-under par through three rounds at this point is four strokes behind leader Nick Watney, who is still on the course. Rory had 11-putt greens, 24 putts in all, sounds like it was a very solid day putting out there at Whistling Straits.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I held holed a lot of good putts for par out there. Yeah, it was good. I didn't do a lot wrong. I saved my pars when I needed to and took advantage of the holes where I gave myself good chances for birdies. So the overall I'm very pleased with the day and looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and having a good go at it.
KELLY ELBIN: Go through the birdies, the six birdies and the one bogey that you had on 8, please of the.
RORY McILROY: Yeah par-5 second hole I hit a driver into the left fairway bunker and hit a 3-iron out just, I think, I had 70 yards to the pin. I hit a little lob wedge in there to six feet.
Third hole I had a 7-iron to 12 or 15 feet just below the hole.
The par-5 fifth hole I hit a drive and a 3-wood just right of the green and chipped it from about 25 yards to six feet. Holed that.
10th hole, I drove it just on to the green, chipped it up, actually hit a pretty average chip. Chipped it up to six or seven feet and holed that.
13, I hit a three wood and a sand wedge to a couple inches.
16, I hit a driver and a 3-iron just to the left fringe and got it down in two from 50, 60 feet.

Q. Good playing.
RORY McILROY: Thank you.

Q. You made a joke earlier in the week about playing with 40 year olds and not having much to talk about, I think you were 19, 21 and 25 in that group and I'm just wondering what the subject matter might have been and what that says about the shape of the youngsters that are assaulting the game these days when your average age is 22 in that group.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was fun to be out there and Noh doesn't speak that much English so he wasn't part of the conversation much, but myself and Dustin talked about a few you things. I talked about the holiday I'm going on next week and he talked about a little break he's taking as well before the playoffs and yeah, it's nice. It's nice to have someone throughout that you can sort of relate to and just talk about stuff and I think we both enjoyed it out there today.

Q. There seems to be a lot of feeding off of each other this year with people shooting below 60 and then comes in waves, Europeans winning on TOUR events, and so forth, first-time winners in major, and now the kids are, are you guys feeding off of each other? There seems to be a bit of a youth movement too?
RORY McILROY: I'm not sure if we're feeding off each other, I just think that we're all improving and we're all getting better every year. I think that's what it is.
I definitely don't look at the young guys and go right, I have to be as good as him or I have to be -- I'm just trying to get better. And I think everyone else is sort of doing the same thing. They're just trying to become the best players they are and it's definitely helped the younger guys over the past 10 years with technology and seeing your swing on video and all that sort of stuff, it's definitely made the young guys more technically sound I suppose at an earlier age and that's probably one of the reasons why you see guys coming out here so good so early.

Q. With all that said, conventional wisdom in the past was that young guys didn't really win majors because they were so aggressive, eventually they would make enough mistakes to play themselves out of it where the experience or the pressure wasn't going to be enough for them. Do you think that's changing and that with that many 20 year olds on a leaderboard being as aggressive as you guys are being out there, is maybe the game changing?
RORY McILROY: I think it is. I think it's something that I think we're, we must be quick letter nerves as well.
Dustin Johnson had a great chance to win the U.S. Open a couple of months ago and he's put himself in a really good position again.
And, yeah, I think that coming back to the point I made previously, because we're, I think, the players are just getting so much better at a younger age. Their confidence is so high that they can take on shots that other guys just might not have thought they could. I don't know if that's because most of the guys swing it better out here now or whatever, but it does seem fast the younger guys are coming out and they're just a lot better and more ready to win.

Q. Given that St. Andrews was such a near miss for you and you think about the Friday there, how are you feeling emotionally so quickly to have another chance to win a major? I mean what was it just three, four weeks or even less. Is there a sense that have you a chance real quick to get one back?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean I definitely have a chance. And it is nice that it's come the major right after the last, right after St. Andrews. But I'm just going to, yeah, I mean I realize I got a good chance tomorrow and if I'm not too far behind Nick Watney. There's so many other great players on the leaderboard as well, someone's going to have to go out there and shoot a good score. Yeah, it's nice to have another chance. I wasn't really in contention at St. Andrews, after the second day there, I did well to finish third. And tomorrow I've got I'm in contention in a major and it's a great place to be.
KELLY ELBIN: For the record Rory tied for third at the Open Championship last month, he also tied for third in his PGA Championship debut last year at Hazeltine National.

Q. Martin Kaymer was in just a few minutes ago saying that a top-5 finish would be awesome for him tomorrow. I presume there's only one position you would find awesome?
RORY McILROY: Yes.

Q. (Inaudible.)
RORY McILROY: I'll approach it the same way as I've approached the last three days. I'm going to go out there and play my game. That's all I feel I have to do, I just got to go out there and play the way I've been playing the last three days and just let things take care of themselves. If I hit enough good shots and hit enough good putts tomorrow, it might just be my day.

Q. On foot of what you've just said, I was just wondering what's pleased you most about what you've done for the first three rounds? Have you done anything in particular to put yourself in the position that you're in or?
RORY McILROY: I've holed out very well from inside 10 feet. That's been the key this week. I said earlier in the week I did a lot of good work on the putting green with Paul last week in Akron and it's really started to pay off and I hit a lot of really nice putts out there today and even though the one I missed for birdie on 17, I hit it exactly where I wanted to, so I'm very pleased with that part of my game and hopefully I can just keep doing what I'm doing just for the next 18 holes.

Q. You probably spoken of this before but what was your timetable when you turned professional in your own head about I expect to contend or win majors by what? Did you have any sort of timetable?
RORY McILROY: I didn't really have any age or a number or anything. I suppose I just wanted to do it as quickly as possible like everyone else. But for me it wasn't about trying to get into contention in a major, I was just trying to become a better player. I was trying to do the right things off the golf course like practice-wise to help get myself well, firstly get myself into these tournaments and then to try and do well in them. And the third place I suppose and the 0th place last year, the third place at the PGA and the 10th place at the U.S. Open gives me a lot of confidence to know that if I am in these major championships I'm good enough to hold my own with the best players in the world and it definitely gives me a lot going forward into this year.

Q. Trying to remember, I think Dustin mentioned yesterday you two had played in the Walker Cup. Probably seems like forever ago to you. First match off. And I seem to recall a funny story about him being so nervous he hit the ball before they really even announced his name. I'm wondering if you can sort of describe that scene and at that point in his career he said that was the most pressure he had ever played under?
RORY McILROY: He must have had a bit of adrenaline as well because he hit it about 400 yards. That's probably normal for him though. Yeah, it was the first match of the Walker Cup and in 2007, Royal County Down and it was a foursomes match and I was teeing off the holes that Dustin was teeing off and with the away team, they have the honor on the first, usually and he steps up there and hits this thing down the middle 380 or 400 yards or whatever and I was just like, well, I mean I stepped up and I didn't realize how far he had hit it and I hit mine and I hit it really good, I mean I was playing in front of a home crowd and I was feeling it, I was pumped up, I hit mine maybe 320, and I get up there and was 60 yards behind him. I was like, hmm, this could be a long day.

Q. Simple enough and offbeat but how are you handling the weather out there, American summers are not like Northern Irish summers?
RORY McILROY: They are, they're a lot nicer. No, it's fine. It's perfect. I've played in enough countries and enough conditions over the world to handle it. The only thing out here is the mosquitoes. I got bitten a few times out there this evening and I got bitten really badly on the first day. So just have to try and put as much bug spray on as possible, but apart from that it is okay.

Q. With Nick Watney four strokes ahead and the situation rather similar to that Graeme faced at Pebble Beach, how much is your approach tomorrow influenced by what you saw as what G-Mac had achieved through patience or do you feel inclined on this golf course that you may attack more?
RORY McILROY: Yeah it's a little different. At Pebble Beach Dustin got off to a very shaky start and Graeme had the lead nearly fell into his lap a little bit.
I think out here you're going to have to make a few birdies. I mean if, you know, there was no rain last night and the course still played very, very soft. So I'm not going to go out there and be overly aggressive and be stupid, but you're going to have to hit good shots and give your self plenty of chances if you want to take the lead off Nick, because he's obviously playing very, very well at the minute and doesn't look like he's going to let it go too easily.

Q. Do you have any number in mind tomorrow. Right now Watney is about four strokes up on the field.
RORY McILROY: Not really. I feel as if I've got to shoot something in the mid 60s. But you never really know. You could go out and shoot a great score and Nick plays well and that's it. Or you could go out and shoot something around 70 and you can almost get it done. It really -- there's no number, but I suppose you just have to respond to the situation that you're going to be in out there tomorrow and I suppose just go from there.
KELLY ELBIN: Rory McIlroy, tied for second with one round to go in the PGA Championship. Thank you.
RORY McILROY: Thank you.

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