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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 14, 2011Rory McIlroyBETHESDA, MARYLAND BETH MURRISON: We are very happy to have joining us this afternoon Rory McIlroy, who is playing in his third U.S. Open, third consecutive U.S. Open. He has had a nice season thus far; he recently finished 5th in The Memorial and has five top 10 ten finishes on the European Tour in 2011. Can you talk about coming to The Open and what sort of preparations you go through to prepare for a course like Congressional. RORY McILROY: Especially Congressional, of course, I have never seen before. I like to get here a little early and do my work before most of the other guys get here. So I was here last Wednesday and Thursday, just get to know the course. Basically what you're trying to do is get to know what clubs you're going to hit off the tees and really learn about the greens. It's nice that I had two full days to sort of get that done. And it means you can sort of get away from the tournament a bit. I got back in last night. You feel relaxed and you feel as if you don't have to rush, you don't have to get anything else done. You sort of feel prepared. You go out and play nine holes today and nine holes tomorrow and you're ready to go on Thursday. I feel as if my preparation has been really good coming into this event, and I feel as if I'm playing really nicely. BETH MURRISON: How have you found the course so far in your practice? RORY McILROY: It's been good. They haven't set it up like a typical U.S. Open. They've shaved the rough down around the bunkers and around the greens so it gives you a few options to try to play some different shots. Most of U.S. Opens you miss the green by a couple of yards you're in the long rough. But they've introduced a few runoffs and given you a bit of variety, which I think is great. Q. A little off topic, judging by your Twitter feed the last couple of weeks, it seems you were a pretty big Miami Heat fan. How have you gotten over the loss, and do you know LeBron James at all? RORY McILROY: I've had a couple of texts from LeBron. We're sponsored by the same watch company, Audemars Piguet, so we've gone back and forth a bit. I've been to about seven or eight Miami Heat games over the last couple of years. Playing in Doral, we try to take in a couple of games every year. And because I've been to see them more than any other team, it's just the team that I follow, even before Bosh and LeBron went there. Q. To the extent that it is, the way he has handled disappointment has kind of come under some criticism this week, and obviously the way you handled it at the Masters got a lot of praise. How would you advise him in that kind of a situation (laughter)? RORY McILROY: You know, he -- I think he's been unfairly scrutinized. Everyone is going to have bad days, if it's on a golf course or on a basketball court. And with sports these days everything is overanalyzed, stats here, stats there, how has your team combined points in the last quarter of the Finals or whatever. It's just one of those things. If people keep talking about having bad -- a bad last quarter all the time, it's going to sort of get to you. But he's got plenty more chances to win Finals. And I'm sure the Heat will have a chance to win it again next year. Q. Since you got here earlier to get to know this course, what do you think about how well you can play this time? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I feel as if this setup is -- the way it's set up at the minute is a little more scorable than the previous two U.S. Opens that I've played. I'm not sure how much different the golf course is going to be on Thursday, but definitely at the minute you feel as if you can make a few birdies out there with the -- they'll obviously try to firm up the course from the weekend onwards. But I think you can see yourself shooting something in the 60s out here. I don't know if you'll be able to do that every day. I reckon a little under par might win this this week. Q. You're not alone in the last year or so of some guys having trouble closing out a major on a Sunday. I just wonder, and I know you probably have addressed it since a little bit over in Europe, but what are the big things you took away out of the Masters about how you felt the night before, how you handled it the day of and whatnot that will help you move it forward? RORY McILROY: No doubt it was a great experience for me. I took the positives from it of that week. There wasn't many positives to take from the Sunday. It's hard, it's the first time in that situation. You're going to be feeling the pressure a little bit, and I certainly did. I felt a little differently on the Sunday than I had done the previous few days, but that's natural. You're going to be natural. You're in with a great chance to win your first major and it just doesn't happen. You just move on; that's all you can do. It's not the end of the world. You analyze it, you pick things from it what you think you could have done better. And when you get yourself into that position again you try and put those things that you want to do better into practice. Q. Are there specific things that you felt on Sunday that maybe you would be more quick to handle? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I just felt a little tentative throughout the whole day. I wasn't quite as free-flowing as it was the first few days. Q. Can you talk a little bit about your diversion down to Haiti last week, and speaking of that last Sunday at Augusta, did that put sort of that experience in a little bit different perspective? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I thought I had perspective before going to Haiti, and then actually seeing it, it just gives you a completely different view on the world and the game that you play. It just makes you feel so lucky that I'm able just to sit here and drink a bottle of water, just the normal things that everyone does that you take for granted. Haiti was a great experience for me and it was great to go down with UNICEF and see all the work that they're doing with funding and helping build schools and maternity clinics and providing food and water for people down there. It's still a country in a very bad state, but it's definitely going in the right direction. It's great to see. Q. Was there one moment down there that you just can't forget that you could pass on to us, something you saw or experienced down there? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean the thing that I remember is driving past the presidential palace, and the dome on the top of it is just -- just hanging off. It's just a mess. I've got a picture of it on my phone. I was just thinking to myself if they can't even repair the president -- then they can't do anything. They just need so much help. It was nice to go and see the work that had been done with a few of the schools that had been built but sort of driving in between visits to schools and maternity clinics you saw all the real Haiti and what those people have to go through every day. It's definitely not a nice thing to see. It gives you a huge sense of just being so fortunate and just doing normal things every day. Even having streetlights and having smooth roads, you think those things, but those people down there don't have that, and they might not have that for the next 15 or 20 years. It's not just Haiti, there's countries all over the world that are having the same problems. It's just great to see so many people willing to help. Q. Seems like you took two different approaches to the two majors this year. You took a lot of time off before Augusta, rested and went in there. Different approach this time. Can you talk about if that was by design and if there was any Pine Valley stories you can share? RORY McILROY: I always like to take the week off before a major, apart from the PGA, where we usually play Akron the week before. My preparation hasn't been that much different for this as it was for the Masters. I came up here a couple of days last week, practiced at Pine Valley for the weekend, got in here again on Monday night. I've played a little bit of golf running up to it, but I made sure that I wanted to take the week off before the U.S. Open. I feel as if my preparation has been really good. I feel as if I'm coming into this tournament playing well, after a decent finish at the Memorial. I was happy with a lot of parts of my game there, so I'm coming into this with a pretty positive. Q. The three guys who have lost the 54-hole lead the last four majors, yourself, Dustin Johnson, Nick Watney, they're all young guys. How much does youth play in that part between Saturday night and Sunday morning and trying to balance everything that you've got going on while still pinching yourself and saying, I'm in contention for a major? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think we all expect ourselves to get in contention for majors. I don't think you have to pinch yourself or do anything like that. That's why we practice and that's why we play, to get ourselves in that position. And I think the more you get yourself into that position, the more you'll be able to deal with it better. And I think that's all I really have to do, just keep getting myself in those positions, and sooner or later it will fall my way. And when it does, I'll have the memories and the experience of that to fall back on when I get myself into positions like that again. Q. After that loss at the Masters who did you seek guidance from or talk to, and how do you think that loss helped you prepare for The Open? RORY McILROY: I didn't really seek guidance from anyone. A lot of people wanted to speak to me. I got a few pieces of advice from a few different people that definitely helped. Q. Just wanted to backtrack on the Haiti thing. It looked like obviously UNICEF being more of a child-specific organization that you met a lot of very, very young kids. I'm wondering if you could sort of relate what their spirit was and how many of them actually had much of an idea of who you were? RORY McILROY: None of them. Q. I can't imagine they're following what is happening out here this week or any week we're working? RORY McILROY: No, they didn't have a clue who I was. But the spirit of the children, I mean, children are so resilient. It was almost as if they were oblivious to what was around them. Once they went in the school, they were happy, they were singing songs, they were getting educated about simple hygiene, sanitation. There was a huge outbreak of cholera a couple of months ago down there. So it was educating children. The thing about Haiti, 60 percent of the population in Haiti is under 18 years old. So they have to make a huge push to educate the children. And then it's almost as if the children go back home and educate the parents. So they have to say to the parents, no, we have to wash our hands, because it's something that they've never had to deal with before. And only I'd say 50 percent of kids go to school there, so they're trying to push that percentage up, as well. So, yeah, there's a huge children-specific -- a lot of child-specific work going on there, because that's the future of the country. But their spirit is great. Even the spirit of the whole country. There was a new president just elected, and I think people are very happy with him, and he has some -- speaking to the head UNICEF people down in Haiti, he has a lot of drive and he really wants to make education a huge thing down there. So hopefully he does some good work. Q. You obviously played well at the Memorial, took a 5th place finish. And you said something to me about how you felt like you took two steps forward all week and one step back. Can you elaborate on what you meant by that exactly? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I felt like after the start I made at the Memorial on the Thursday afternoon, going out on Friday morning with the best of conditions, I felt as if I could have -- I made 6 birdies that morning but only shot level par. I could have been a few shots better going into the weekend. And it just felt like every time I sort of got myself into position I'd make a bogey or just miss it on the wrong side. And The Memorial especially, it punishes you for just missing it just in the wrong place. Even on Sunday when I got to 4-under through nine, I did well to finish 4-under for the day. I just felt like I made -- I made bogey on 14 on Sunday, but I made double on it as well on Saturday, I think. So I just felt like my game was really good, but it just wasn't -- I just couldn't find that extra gear to get myself really into contention. Q. You and Ryo Ishikawa are the same kind of young generations; what do you think of his play? Also in the future do you think you would ever compete in a final round for the championship with Ryo? RORY McILROY: I've known Ryo three years, I think. I played -- I've played a little bit with him. He's a great player. He's still very, very young. I think he's -- is he 19? Yeah. So he's -- there's so many great young players out there now. But Ryo, I played with him the first two rounds in this tournament last year and he got himself into contention going into the weekend. So he's got the game. I'm sure in the future it would be great one day to go into the last round with him and try to win a tournament. He's really good and he's got a great future. Q. Talk about Luke Donald as a friend, rival, competitor, all-around golfer. RORY McILROY: You know, I got to know Luke quite well during the Ryder Cup. He really -- I knew him a little bit before that, but he really came out of his shell there. He's a pretty quiet guy, but once you get to know him he's good fun. I've played a bit of golf with him down in Florida. He's done well. He works really hard. He really does. He works a lot on his short game, which you can see out there on the golf course. He's got one of the best short games around at the minute. He fully deserves to be where he is at the minute. For so long he was sort of like the nearly -- wasn't getting many wins, and then he just sort of, from nowhere this year, from sort of the middle of last year, has really exploded, and 15 out of 16 top 10s or something like that and a few wins. It seems like every time you look at a leaderboard he's up there. He's playing great golf at the minute. And the way this golf course is set up this week I'm sure he'll have a good go at it again. Q. Dustin was just in here talking about last year at the U.S. Open in the final round. He said one of the specific things that he learned was he sped up during that final round. Is there anything you can look back on on Sunday at Augusta, that this is what you've learned, you're going to put it in play next time you're in that situation? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I felt that I sped up as well on the 10th. We all know what he did on the 2nd and then hit it left on 3. And I did the same thing. You hit it left on 10, and then hit it up on the green and hit a tree and you're sort of rushing, and it all sort of starts a little fast. But again, that's just experience and that's dealing with it and learning not to make the same mistake twice. We should be smart enough to do that, and the next time we get ourselves in that position I'm sure the outcome will be a little different. Q. For a young man, you're so patient and you're so comfortable in your own skin. Do you feel that last year when you made the decision to just stay on the European Tour, get settled in Belfast and get your personal, get everything in gear, it's really helped you play this year, kind of put you in contention in Augusta and allowed you to do other things feeling as comfortable as you do in your own skin at such a young age? RORY McILROY: I think so. I think being comfortable and being balanced away from the golf course definitely reflects on the way you play on the golf course. I wouldn't say making the decision just not to play the PGA Tour -- I don't think that enabled me to play good this year. I just feel like -- I feel -- as you said, very comfortable off the golf course, happy living back home in Northern Ireland, seeing my friends and my family quite a lot. And once you do that and you're happy off the golf course, you know, you come to the golf tournaments fresh and you're ready to go. It definitely helps the way you play. Q. Just wanted to look back to Pine Valley. Was that the first time you were there? I wanted to make sure you didn't shoot 61 or a course record or anything like that. RORY McILROY: It was my first time there. I shot 71 and 69, two pretty boring scores. But I did make 7 birdies in the 69. Just a couple of doubles thrown in there. Q. What did you think of it? RORY McILROY: I love the place. The thing I've said is it's probably a little too much golf for me, because that's all there is to do. I mean, there's nothing else. But if you want to go for a weekend of golf, that's definitely the place to go. Q. One of the beauties of the U.S. Open is it always ends on Father's Day. Can you reflect on what influence your dad has had on your career and the sacrifices he's made so you can do what you do? RORY McILROY: Both my mom and dad have been both been a huge part of my career and the sacrifices they made for me growing up, basically spending their summers running around after me playing golf tournaments, driving me here, driving me there, flying me to the States a couple of summers. If it wasn't for them I don't know if I'd be sitting here right now. It's a pretty cool thing that the U.S. Open always ends on Father's Day. And I've got my dad here with me this week. It would be a nice present to give him on Sunday night if I was able to win that silver trophy. Q. You mentioned being flown to the States in your youth. You won in Florida in the Under-10 World Championship. Today Ernie said that you will win multiple majors, maybe even change history. This is kind of a really heavy commentary on Rory. And I just wonder, is that helpful for you as a young golfer trying to make your way when you're loaded with this kind of expectation, how you deal with it? RORY McILROY: I've learned over the past few months you can't take a lot of notice from what other people say. You have to go out and do it yourself. There's no point in everyone saying you're going to be a major champion when you're not one. You have to go out and prove them right and prove to yourself that you deserve to be one. It's very flattering and it's great that people are saying these things about me but I need to do it first, and I haven't done it yet. I just need to go out and play the golf that everyone thinks I'm capable of. And if I can do that for four days, then hopefully I'll be sitting in front of you guys on Sunday night and maybe saying, yeah, maybe I could be a multiple major champion. Q. Can you sort of talk about how did you come up with this relationship with UNICEF and what exactly you do for them. Has that trip to Haiti inspired you to be more involved in these type of causes and in what way? RORY McILROY: I joined up with UNICEF at the start of the year. As a professional golfers and for sports people that are in the spotlight quite a lot, we get requests from charities and organizations just to be a patron of a charity. I'm a patron of a couple of charities back home, but to join up with an organization like UNICEF who works all over the world, it wasn't just about I'll put my name to it and whatever. They were very keen for me to go somewhere where they work and see the work that they do. And I was -- I wanted to do that, as well. It just happened that Haiti last week worked out well for my schedule. They made it work for them, as well. I'm a patron of an autism charity back home in Northern Ireland for kids. I'm trying to -- I feel like I'm still at the age where I can relate a little bit to kids. I'm still -- I'm nowhere in the position that some of these kids are, but I just -- walking into a school in Haiti last week and seeing a few of the faces light up and playing soccer with them, just doing normal stuff that, again, we take for granted every day. It's a pretty cool feeling to be able to fill that child with a little bit of hope or joy for a couple of hours. I definitely want to keep doing it. I might think about going to Sri Lanka at the end of the year to do some work out there, also. I haven't quite finalized it yet. But I definitely want to get back to Haiti in the next year or so and see what it was like when I was there and see the progress that they've made. And for me it's just about raising awareness. It's a good thing for them if I'm on board. It's definitely a good thing for me because I get to see the great work that they do and it puts it a little bit in perspective in my life, as well. Q. Can we just get your perspective of the absence of Tiger Woods this week? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's obviously not great for the golf tournament. It would have been great to see him play. But you have to take care of your health before anything else. It was apparent that his body still isn't in a good enough place to play competitive golf. Hopefully he gets back on the course soon, but he still looked like he was in quite a lot of pain in the nine holes he played at THE PLAYERS. It's going to be -- I suppose it leaves the door a little bit open for a few of the guys. Every time you have Tiger in the field you've got to think that he's going to have a good chance. To have one of the main contenders not here gives the rest of us a little bit more of a chance. Q. You did impress a lot of people coming off the 18th green at Augusta the way you kind of handled that with class and grace. When you're in that moment, are you thinking millions of people are going to form an impression of me based on how I handle or how I talk about this, or are you just kind of rolling with the emotions? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a little bit of that in there, that millions are people are going to watch that interview and sort of see what you have to say for yourself. But I've said to a lot of people I had five or six holes to think about what I was going to say so I was pretty prepared (laughter). BETH MURRISON: Thank you so much for visiting us today. It was a pleasure to have you, and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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