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June 5, 2011
DUBLIN, OHIO
Q. Was it worth the wait?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was nice. It was nice to birdie one of the last two there. It was a great way to finish the tournament. I felt as if I played really good this week, I just made a few too many mistakes, which really cost me, and we'll have to try and cut those out before the U.S. Open in a couple weeks' time. But there's definitely a lot of positives to take from how I've played this week.
Q. Steve Stricker is playing out of his mind today. Does it seem impossible?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, when you're five behind going into the last day you know you're going to have to do something pretty special. You know, I got it to 4-under, and I thought if I could maybe get 14- or 15-under par for the tournament it would have a chance. But even that wouldn't have been good enough today, it looks like.
I'm happy with how I played. I could have been a little bit better, but it's been a good week.
Q. What's the difference overall now that you've played four rounds, front nine, back nine? Is it drastic in your estimation?
RORY McILROY: It's tough. I mean, it's such a tough finish now, you've got 16, 17 and 18. You're doing well if you play those in even par. You know, and 14 is really tricky, as well, even though 15 is a chance. 11 isn't that much of a chance, either. It's a tough hole.
There's definitely a few holes on the back nine which if you just take par out, you'd be very happy, whereas I just think there's a few more opportunities on the front nine to score.
Q. Was there a point out there where you looked up and said, Okay, I'm shooting low, but --
RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course, when he turned in 6-under and went to 18-under par, what do you do? You're just trying to play as best you can and finish as high up on the leaderboard as possible. You know that it's very unlikely that you're going to win, but you've still got to try and play as good as you can to finish as high up as you can.
Q. Some guys want the pressure there --
RORY McILROY: Not really. It depends on the kind of person. You just want to try to play as good as you can on the way in, and that's really all you can do, regardless if you're four shots off the lead, five, six, seven, whatever, you've just got to go and play as best you can and just try and make some birdies.
Q. Do you feel good about your game going into the Open?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, a lot of birdies. I feel as if I drove the ball really good. Putted the ball really good this week. Yeah, game is in good shape. I feel really good about it.
My putting, as I said, has been very solid the whole week, so you know, that's a huge positive to take into the U.S. Open.
Q. Any trouble spot or anything you need more work on?
RORY McILROY: Everything is pretty good, yeah. Everything is pretty good. If anything, just a little bit of strategy more than anything else, just if you're going to miss shots, miss it in the right places. This week if you miss greens it's very penal here and you get punished quite easily. It's the same as the U.S. Open, if you miss it in the wrong places you're looking at a 5 or a 6. So it's just something I need to address a little bit.
Q. Are you going to --
RORY McILROY: Wednesday, Thursday I'm going to go.
Q. Similar to this course, the fairways will be fast?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, same setup. I like those sort of golf courses, so looking forward to it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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