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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

February 9, 2011

Rory McIlroy

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, thanks for joining us. Welcome back as always to the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic. Obviously a tournament and a city that has a lot of affection for you. Just talk about being back and your host for the week.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's hard to believe this is my sixth Dubai Desert Classic. I've played this event more times than anywhere else. It's always nice to get back to a golf course that I've had success on before, and coming in here playing pretty well.
So obviously want to try and repeat the performance of 2009 and try and win.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: There was a lot of focus on the world's No. 1, 2, 3 together, I presume you'll be hoping to beat them all.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. Of course. I think it's -- I'm actually quite happy that I'm on the other side of the draw so I can watch a bit of it on TV. That will be quite good.
Yeah, it's fantastic for the tournament, the sort of build up that way, and hopefully I can sort of come in under the radar and post a couple of good rounds early on and get myself in a good position going into the weekend.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Be sitting here Sunday night.
RORY McILROY: Exactly.

Q. Do you like the idea of that sort of marquis match of the three sort of top attractions, and is it something that you aspire to join fairly soon in your career?
RORY McILROY: Yeah. It's great for the tournament. No doubt. I think that it will bring more people in, and people will want to watch that on TV. It's a good thing.
Obviously I would love to be part of that group one day and not too far away, four places away from third. Everyone is going to enjoy it, and even the players are pretty excited about seeing it, as well.

Q. Is there an excitement among the players with a field like this more than some other tournaments? Does it feel different coming into it?
RORY McILROY: I mean, I think it feels different because you've got the best three players in the world here this week, which is -- I don't think I've ever had that before here. Plenty of points up for grabs and plenty to play for. Westwood could be No. 1, Kaymer could be No. 1, not sure if Tiger can quite get to No. 1 with a win. It's great.

Q. Mentioning the fact that you won here in 2009 and that you have won at Quail Hollow, it's been two years since you have won on The European Tour. Is it frustrating that you have not won since a few years ago?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've always said I'm disappointed that I haven't won more because it feels as if I should have. But I've been working hard during the off-season and the last few weeks to try and put that right by winning a few more tournaments.
I'm working a little bit on strategy, working a bit on the swing and basically just trying to develop into a more mature golfer. And when I do that, I'll hopefully give myself plenty of chances to win and keep knocking on the door and eventually it will open.

Q. If you watch them on TV, would you be watching purely as a fan or are you watching to learn?
RORY McILROY: Just as a fan. Just as a fan of golf more than anything else.

Q. How different a player are you from when you won in 2009, would you say, and when you go back and play the course, do the memories sort of come flooding back and maybe give you a bit of a boost going into this week, or is it now a little bit -- has it faded in your mind?
RORY McILROY: No, there's still memories there that are very strong. I feel as if I'm a more complete player than I was in 2009. I definitely swing it better. I'm able to shape it both ways and physically I've gotten stronger and I feel like I'm definitely headed in the right direction.
In 2009, all I could do was hit a draw. It works on this course because most of the doglegs are right-to-left and I was comfortable turning it around the corners and stuff. It was very one-dimensional and I had to try to change my swing a little bit to be able to play different types of courses.
I feel as if I'm a more developed player now than I was a couple of years ago, but I still think that I've got a little bit to go to try and compete -- well, not compete but try and become the best in the world.

Q. Is it a matter of winning more? In Abu Dhabi you were close but --
RORY McILROY: I beat everyone else apart from March tine. It's like, I'm doing okay. I usually finish up there pretty high. I've been pretty consistent, at the end of last year, a couple thirds in majors last year, so I'm beating most of the field. It's just a couple of guys I need to beat every week.
It gets frustrating at times but you just have to keep doing your thing. As I said, hopefully looking at someone like Thomas last week who won last year in Portugal but his game wasn't great and he went into Qatar and played brilliantly and won. So you just need a week where things go your way, and everything falls into place and you're off and running again.

Q. You mention strategy; can you explain what you mean by "strategy?"
RORY McILROY: Yeah, just not going at everything you see from anywhere on the golf course.
Yeah, basically just thinking about it a little more and trying to sort of play away from pins and know when it's a good time to be aggressive and when it's a good time to go for the middle of the greens.
I'm a very instinctive player, and most of the time, I see the target and hit at it instead of thinking where is the best place to leave this and everything. You just eliminate the mistakes, because I think that is what sort of held me back last year. I make as many birdies as everyone else. I just make a few too many bogeys.

Q. You said you have a little bit to go yet before you're developed into what you want to be. What area? Not so much technical, is it?
RORY McILROY: Not really technical. I think technically I'm on the right path. I'm working on a couple things on my swing. But very minor things that just come with just a little bit of practise and a little bit of time.
But mostly, it's strategy and as I said, just trying to give myself as many birdie chances as possible. I think Tiger in 2000, 2001, he was giving himself over 15 chances at a birdie on average over every round he played and that was on some of the tough courses in the world.

Q. You say you're an instinctive player; do you think you play the shots too quickly?
RORY McILROY: I think playing quickly is a good thing, because it takes any element of doubt out of your mind. But yeah, there's probably times where I've rushed a little bit instead of -- there's a difference between playing quickly and rushing.

Q. Watching it on telly, watching the top three on telly, is part of what makes it interesting the fact that we don't really know what Tiger is going to do?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, you couldn't say Westwood has got off to the best of starts either this year. I think you know what Kaymer is going to do, he's going to go out and play pretty well. So it's up the other two guys to try and play as good as him.

Q. Did you ever expect Tiger to dominate the universe again?
RORY McILROY: I think if he swung it the way he swung it in 2000, yeah, definitely. But with the injury that he's had, it's very difficult for him to do that now. He's working hard with Sean Foley, and you know if that clicks into place, I'm sure he'll start winning a lot of tournaments again.
But I'm not sure we are going to see him dominate the way he did back in the early 2000s.

Q. Do you think you're now maturing as a golfer, and maybe casting aside any youthful cavalier approach that you may have had?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, that's really what I'm trying to eliminate from the game. Trying to think about it a bit more and try to take a more controlled approach. I'm not saying that I'm trying to play conservatively and still play quite aggressive, it's just knowing when to play aggressively and what not to and what flags to go at.
That's part of your preparation, as well, going out and mapping the greens and seeing if the pins are here and where you want to leave it to leave yourself the easiest putt. It takes time and a little bit of experience to develop, but hopefully I'll be able to do it this year.

Q. Do you wish you would have picked up on the need for maturity a little bit earlier?
RORY McILROY: Not at all. I think that you have to go through stages to learn, and you've got to make -- as much fun as golf is, sometimes I felt like I haven't been making it fun for myself and I was going at flags instead of realising that it's also fun to make birdies and not make any bogeys.

Q. I just wondered, if we are sitting here on Sunday with you, what would be the best part of that? Would it be to regain this trophy, or, to get an early win in the season, or, to have beaten the field that we have here?
RORY McILROY: Just to win again, basically. It would be a great start to the season. It would be a big win, and it would be a great steppingstone to hopefully a really good year.

Q. Would that be more important to you than who you've beaten?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely.

Q. When you looked at Tiger, when you're watching as a kid and he's having all of those birdie chances and dominating and you see what's happened to his life; Martin is playing kind of like that. Does Tiger still have that aura to you?
RORY McILROY: He's still Tiger Woods. He still goes out and he has not played badly, but he's just played like a normal professional golfer instead of like the way he usually does. You see that he's working hard with Sean Foley and he's putting the hours in, so I'm sure that in the near future, maybe six months, a year down the line, he'll start to play very, very well again.
And there's no, I mean, Tiger -- I've gotten to know Tiger the last couple of years and I never felt -- I never saw him dominate. I never played in tournaments that he played in when he was dominating, so I never really felt that aura. I sort of -- when I speak to him, sort of play with him, he's just Tiger. It's not really -- I don't really feel like there's any sort of special presence about him. He's just one of the guys.

Q. I'd like your reaction, please, to the change in the qualification to the European Ryder Cup Team, what you make of the changes?
RORY McILROY: What is -- I don't know.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Going back to two wild cards.
RORY McILROY: Makes it easier for a captain just to have two wild cards. If it was me, I'd just have 12 automatic selections. I wouldn't have any picks, because you know, if you're in the Top-12, you deserve to make the team.
But yeah, I mean, it will make it easier. I mean, Monty had a little bit of a headache last August when he had to choose between Luke Donald and Edoardo Molinari -- or not Luke Donald; Justin Rose, Paul Casey. It sort of takes a little bit of stress off the captain that he only has two to choose from, and hopefully those picks will be pretty obvious.

Q. What do you think about the weather?
RORY McILROY: The weather? Not as good as it usually is but hopefully it will brighten up for the rest of the tournament.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Are we finishing up on that note? Rory, we wish you a sunny day.

End of FastScripts

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