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VOLVO WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPMay 18, 2011Rory McIlroyCASARES, SPAIN STEVE TODD: Welcome to the Finca Cortesin Match Play Championship here sponsored by Volvo. If you could just start with your thoughts on another chance to have a go at match play. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's always nice. It's a bit of a change from the norm. Playing stroke play, week-in, week-out, it's nice to get a bit of match play every now and again. Didn't have that great a run in Arizona at the start of the year, got to the second round and got hammered by Ben Crane, so it would be nice to get a good run in this tournament. This golf course, it's in perfect condition. The greens are firm some of the best that I've putted on all year really. Happy to be here, and hopefully the weather can kind of improve a bit for us and be ready to go. STEVE TODD: Obviously with the format, playing a couple of times per day and the hills on this course, it's almost made for a young guy like yourself who is into the fitness. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I suppose so. It is a very hilly golf course and it's a bit of a tough walk. So I'm sure a bit of fitness will come into it at the weekend if you're having to play 36 holes a day. Hopefully I can make this that far and use that to my advantage this week. STEVE TODD: Your first round opponents, Retief and Nicolas Colsaerts. RORY McILROY: Yeah, Nicolas obviously won in China a few weeks ago. He's playing very well. So it's going to be a tough match. And Retief, he's so experienced and such a great competitor, two-time U.S. Open Champion. I'm going to need some of my best golf to beat those guys. Yeah, it's going to be tough. I think you're going to have to try and have a bit of rest and then hopefully make it to the weekend and see tough opponents lying ahead, as well. Q. Just catch us up on what you've been doing the last few weeks since you last played. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played Thursday and Friday at Quail Hollow. I had a bit of a rough round on Friday, or Thursday, and actually played pretty nicely on Friday. I just couldn't -- I got it to 3-under after 11 holes and then I just couldn't quite keep it there. Ended up missing the cut by a couple. It's been nice to get home for a few days. Sort of took the weekend off after that, and then got back into it, did a lot of good work with Michael Bannon last week back home. And yeah, that's all I've been doing, practising and sort of just trying to get ready for the next few week weeks. It's a busy time of the year for us. I think I'm playing four out of the next five weeks, leading up to the U.S. Open. So time to sort of put the head down and try and get ready for that. Q. What work were you doing with Michael, anything specific? RORY McILROY: Yeah, we saw just a little thing in my swing that we sort of worked on. I was dropping the club a tiny fraction behind me on the way down on the downswing. I was starting the ball a little right of my target and just putting a little too much draw spin on it. So just working on getting the club back down on the right plane on the way down and worked pretty hard at that. It was so windy back home, as well. It was hard to practise that much, but I just tried to do as much as I could. Q. And you were refining the draw, not trying to get rid of it? RORY McILROY: I mean, I'm -- the ideal thing is to have a very neutral ball flight, so it's easy to shape it both ways. I can hit a fade easy enough, but when I was hitting the draw, yeah, it was spinning too much. It was sort of over drawing a little bit. So just trying to neutralize it again and try and make the ball flight as neutral as possible. Q. I heard some conversation on SKY Television last week about your absence at THE PLAYERS Championship, do you have any regrets at all about not going? RORY McILROY: No, not at all. Ian Poulter slept terribly last night because of the jet-lag and I got a great night's sleep. Not at all. If I played THE PLAYERS Championship, I would have been playing six weeks in seven, and the sixth week out of those seven would be the U.S. Open. So that's no way to prepare for a Major Championship. So that was my main reason. You know, a little bit of it was because I don't particularly like -- I'm not that fond of the golf course. But that's not really an excuse not to play a tournament. It was more to do with, if I turn up at the U.S. Open feeling a little tired or a little flat, I mean, I want to turn up to that event feeling fresh and feeling ready to go. Q. Are you enjoying that freshness this year? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I've loved how my schedule has worked out this year, taking three weeks off before Augusta and playing there, and then Malaysia and then taking a couple of weeks off, playing Quail Hollow, didn't quite go the way I wanted it to, but then I feel like this is a nice stretch. Four weeks out of five for me is plenty. Playing three weeks in a row is probably as much as I'm going to do. It's a nice little stretch coming up. Looking forward to it. Q. You say you're working with Michael this week. What are you doing to fill your time apart from that, socially or just -- RORY McILROY: Not much. Went to a rugby match, Leicester and Dublin on Friday night. Not really, spending a good bit of time on holiday. Spending time with the dogs. Not really much. I've had a couple nights out with the lads. And that's really about it. It's hard to do a lot when you're back home in Northern Ireland without people knowing what you're up to. I sort of try and keep a low profile. Q. Did you watch THE PLAYERS on Sunday? RORY McILROY: I did, yeah. Q. Obviously what happened to G-Mac is being compared to what happened out to you, have you talked to him about it? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I sent him a text saying, "It happens to the best of us." (Laughter). Yeah, it can happen to anyone. He's a major champion. Things just start not going your way. He hits the tee shot right on 6 and then he over compensates on 7. He hits it left and he's like, well, where do you sort of go from here. And it's -- I think he was so unlucky in the last hole on the third round. The ball pitches right of the green and goes in the water. I mean, it was very unfortunate. It's turned a three-shot lead into a one-shot lead going into the final round. I thought the birdie putt he held on Friday, the last day was going to sort of get him going again, but then it's tough. I mean, it's tough to finish off tournaments, no matter who you are. Tiger made it look so easy for 15 years or whatever, you know. It's really tough. Q. Did that sort of confirm to you, what G-Mac went through, in regards to your own case, that it can happen to anyone, and even when you have won a Major, it can still happen to you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. Especially, yeah, you know, it's very similar. G-Mac hits the tee shot right on 6. Augusta I hit a tee shot left on 10, and it just plants that little seed of doubt in your mind. And then from there, it's just so hard to get yourself back on track. And that's basically it. Q. How often do you find yourself thinking back to Augusta? RORY McILROY: Every interview and every press conference, basically (laughter). No, not really. It's in the past. I mean, I'm very happy with where my golf is at the minute and as I said, I'm looking forward to the stretch coming up through the summer and trying to get my game in the best possible shape, and make it last until the end of August and then maybe start working on a few things after that. Q. Just wonder whether you took sport psychology and the mental work seriously, or do you just go out for a drink with your friends? RORY McILROY: I did a little bit of work with Bob Rotella last year. You know, it's really sort of reconfirming things to you that you already know: Stay patient, stay in the moment. But it's just the repetitiveness of it, just being told all the time and it sort of gets into your head a little bit. Q. Do you believe in it? RORY McILROY: Of course, I think -- oh, of course. I think it definitely helps when you need it, yeah. I've read all of Rotella's books and take little bits and pieces from it that I like. I mean, I wouldn't take all of it on board but just little pieces that I think will help me in some way. So, yeah, definitely, it helps. Q. What was Graeme's replay to your text when you said, "It happens to the best of us?" Something rude? RORY McILROY: No, no. I spent a bit of time with him yesterday and just talked to him, talked through it. He actually didn't text me back because I think he was on the flight over here. Just saw him yesterday and, you know, he was obviously a bit disappointed. It's one of those things. We've both got plenty of opportunities to win tournaments this year. Q. And should you find yourself in the same position at Congressional that you were at Augusta, what have you learned to put into practise that day? RORY McILROY: I mean, I think -- I said this last week in an interview with Matt Dickinson. I went out on the last day at Augusta just trying to keep the lead, instead of being, right, I'm going to go out, shoot 65, beat everyone by eight and just show everyone how good I am. That's really what you should be going out and looking at. Q. As Tiger used to. RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Q. No prisoners, eh? RORY McILROY: That's it. Q. So would you prefer to be leading by four when you have 18 to play or be behind by four? RORY McILROY: Oh, leading by four. Q. And yet, you had what happened at the Masters -- RORY McILROY: I'm all right. I'm good. Q. Does it surprise that you Martin Kaymer has parted with his caddie after the year he had last year, winning a Major? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think -- I don't really like talking about other people too much, but it happens. If Martin doesn't feel as if it's working 100 per cent, then you have to sort of part company. But yeah, it's golf and it's this business and it happens all the time. Q. As you guys play so much stroke play, do you get a different buzz knowing you're coming into match play? Do you want to play more match play? Do you like to play it? RORY McILROY: I like the format. Not sure if I like it better than -- I don't really -- I don't know if you always get the best winner in match play, because you can have a bad round, you can shoot 72 and still win or 74 or whatever and the guy you're playing doesn't quite have a good day. In stroke play, you need to keep it consistent over four days. Match play, it's good. It gives you opportunities to be a little more aggressive and to take shots on that you might necessarily not take on in stroke play. It's just a nice break from, as I said at the start, the norm, playing stroke play week-in and week-out. It's nice to get a bit of a break and go head-to-head with someone for a couple of days. It's different. It's nice to have a bit of a change. Q. With the match play, are you as chatty as you are with someone in stroke play? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's a bit different. Definitely a bit different. Depends who you're playing. I'm very sure there won't be much chat going on with the Goose. You know -- Q. Or in stroke play. RORY McILROY: Or stroke play (laughter). Or at dinner (laughter). Yeah, it's definitely different. I would be very comfortable having a chat going down the fairway in stroke play. Even the first couple of days going back to Augusta, playing with Rickie and Jason, we had a great time out there, sort of bouncing off one another. In match play, it is a bit different. You have to be a little more sort of poker-faced, if you like, and just sort of keep yourself to yourself. Q. Do you feel that what you've learnt at The Ryder Cup has really push you had much further forward? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think so. I mean, personally I had a great battle with Stewart Cink on the last day on Sunday, or on the Monday. So, yeah, and I think I learned a little bit from playing against Ben Crane at the start of the year, as well. He played -- he was 6- or 7-under in his round and I just didn't really get anything going. But you've just got to really -- you never know what can happen. You just have to hang in there and hang in there. That's the great thing about match play. You can shoot 65 and lose, or you can shoot 74 and win. So that's the beauty of it. STEVE TODD: Many thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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