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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 12, 2011Rory McIlroySANDWICH, ENGLAND MALCOLM BOOTH: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We're joined by the U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy. Rory, thanks for coming in and joining us. Perhaps we could start if you could just take us through the last three weeks. Must have been life-changing, and what your thoughts and expectations are coming into The Open Championship as the next event you're going to play following that great win. RORY McILROY: Yeah, first and foremost, I'm very happy to be back at an Open. It's obviously a tournament that we look forward to every year. But yeah, the last three weeks have been -- the first ten days after winning the U.S. Open it was a bit hectic trying to see everyone and going here, there and everywhere, but the last ten days has been good. I've got back into my routine, been practising a lot. I was here last week for a couple of days and got two good practice rounds in. So I feel as if my preparation has been really good coming in here. It was nice to relax and sort of take it all in after the U.S. Open, but I knew that the time for reflection wasn't really at this point of the season, it's at the end. I've got to forget about what happened three weeks ago and just come in here and try to win another golf tournament. Q. Have you been surprised at all by the reaction? You've been carried around on the public's shoulders for about three weeks. It's been, I imagine, pretty overwhelming. RORY McILROY: It has been, yeah. I didn't realise how much of a fuss it would create or how much of a buzz. It's been nice. I can't really -- I thought it was great for me to win the U.S. Open, win my first major, and the support that I've had from people back home, from everyone from all over the world, has been pretty overwhelming. It's a very nice feeling to have that support walking onto the golf course. Q. Apparently in the last couple of days there's been two separate bets of £20,000 on you to win on Sunday. Is this the act of very shrewd punters or of desperate men? RORY McILROY: I'll go for the first option. (Laughter.) Q. Do you think everything is now going to start to get much more difficult for you now? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, yeah. I've already sort of noticed over the past three weeks it has been a bit of a life-changing experience, and it's just something I'm going to have to deal with. Q. Do you think there will be times when you wished it hadn't changed your life? RORY McILROY: No, not at all. This is what I've always wanted to do. I've always wanted to be a successful golfer and be one of the best players in the world and to win major championships. If I have to put up with a few things along the way, then I'm fine with that. Q. The decision to not play a tournament after the U.S. Open before this one, are you glad about that now, or do you wish you had another tournament under your belt coming in here? RORY McILROY: I'm glad about it after looking at what happened in Scotland last week. (Laughter.) But yeah, I was scheduled to play in the French Open, and if I had have went into the French Open, I knew I wouldn't be giving the best of myself or been able to practice or prepare properly. Every event I go into I want to have a chance to win. I knew my preparation wouldn't have been good enough going into France to have a chance. So I thought, you know what, let's just get everything out of the way and make sure that your preparation going into The Open is as good as it could be, and that's really what I've done. For me it's all about preparation. I went into the Masters after three weeks off and shot three pretty good scores there. So it's not a problem to me not playing competitive golf after having a break. Q. A lot has been made of no Americans winning majors in the last five, and I just wonder if you have a little theory on that. And you're playing obviously with Rickie, who you're friendly with, and can you see him breaking through? And what's your assessment of him? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think these things go in cycles. In the mid '90s or even late '90s and 2000s it seemed like Tiger was winning, and it seemed like every major was being won by an American player. They won the Ryder Cup in '99. It seemed like that was the sort of period where American golf was at its strongest. And now the Europeans have just sort of stepped up a little bit and have just started to play better. There's a lot of great American golfers that are still here and that are coming through, the likes of Rickie, Dustin, Bubba. There's a lot of good players, and there's a lot of guys -- Steve Stricker just won for the third year in a row at the John Deere last week, and you've got Phil and hopefully Tiger can come back soon. American golf isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be. It's just these things go in cycles. I think there could be a stage maybe in the next year or couple years where you're saying, why hasn't a European won in five or whatever. I don't think you can really look too much into it. Q. How much do you look forward to that pairing? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoyed it at the Masters this year, the first two days with Rickie and Jason Day. I've known Rickie since our amateur days back in '06 and '07. It's nice to, especially for me, go out on the golf course this week and have someone there that's familiar. And Ernie, as well. We're in the same management company and I've spent a little bit of time around him, so it'll be nice to have those two guys to play with the first two days. Q. People have been talking about you and your ability and your potential for many years, but winning the U.S. Open and the manner in which you won it, can you not feel the expectations just going through the roof? And how do you plan to cope with that? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I don't think I'll be able to play that sort of golf every week I tee it up, but I hope I do, but I can't see it. Yeah, expectations are going to be high. I mean, I have high expectations myself. I want to go out there and try and win a lot of golf tournaments and win majors and become the best player in the world. So everyone's expectations are -- they can say what they want, they can make the comparisons. All I need to do is focus on my game, and if I can do that, I know my good golf is good enough to win plenty more tournaments. Q. Is it possible for the public's expectations to be higher than yours? RORY McILROY: I don't think so. Q. On the flipside of the great expectations and that pressure that's going to be on you, is the fact of winning a major take a lot of pressure off? We saw you were at Wimbledon, the kind of immense pressure that's on Andy Murray and when is he going to win one and when is he going to win one and maybe you've felt a little bit of that. Has that lifted a weight from your shoulders having won the U.S. Open? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, because it means that every time I come into a press conference or do an interview I don't have to answer that question, whereas a lot of guys still do, you know. So it has lifted a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I can talk about winning my second one after having won the first. So yeah, it's a nice pressure to have lifted off you. Even though I was in contention for the last four majors, to finally get the -- it feels like it's been coming for a long time, personally, but again, it's nice to get that first one out of the way and focus on getting more. Q. Can you talk about how you plan to play this golf course, particularly with this wind? It seems like it's obviously a much different test than the U.S. Open. Is it driver all the way around, or is it just a much different attitude for you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's a completely different golf course. It's firm, it's fast. But the thing is with this wind, you're going to have to keep the ball low. But sometimes it's hard to run the ball into these greens because they're so undulating and they can go so many different ways. I think you're going to really need a very strong ball flight, especially if the wind still picks up the way it is. I don't think you'll be able to run many shots in because, as I said, it can catch the wrong side of a slope and it can go 20, 30 yards away from the green. I mean, there's a few drivers out there. I played last week on Tuesday, and it was basically flat calm. There was a few drivers, and then on the Wednesday it was pretty windy, so I got to see the course in two different conditions, which was pretty good. I think especially with the rough not being up, I think this golf course is going to be all about the second shot and making sure that you get the ball in the right position on the green because the greens are so slopey that you're going to have 25, 30-footers all day if you do hit the greens. Yeah, it's going to be making sure you put your second shots in the right place and then being pretty good around the greens. Q. You said it's life-changing in terms of your experiences, Wimbledon and all that stuff. When you stand on the first tee how are you changed as a golfer by your U.S. Open experience? Is your whole mental approach transformed now? RORY McILROY: I don't think so. I don't think it should change. If anything it just gives me more confidence knowing that I can do it, when I step onto the first tee of a major that I've done this before. So there's no reason why you shouldn't do it again. But no, my mentality should be exactly the same. If I can bottle the mentality that I had at the U.S. Open going into every tournament, I'd be very happy. Q. I talked yesterday to Ryo Ishikawa and he was very happy that you win and he has more confidence because you won. Do you think he has a chance to win in the future for major championships because people compare him to you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. Ryo is one of the best young players in the world, and he's proved that. He's won so many times in Japan. Yeah, I mean, he's great. I remember playing with him at Pebble Beach last year in the U.S. Open the first two rounds, and he was in contention there. Hopefully my success at the U.S. Open can spur a lot of the younger guys on to say if I can do it then they can come up and do it, as well. I think it's probably given them a lot of confidence knowing -- and Jason Day, as well. Jason Day finished second in the first two majors of the year, and he's still only 23. It's great that the young guys are playing well in the majors. Q. The galleries around you are going to be pretty intense and very large. Is that something you're going to have to give some thought to the night before? Is it daunting, or are you the kind of character who would feed off of that? And further to that, will your experience at the Ryder Cup be a help there? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it will definitely. I'm the sort of person that likes to have people watching. I like to have a little bit of a buzz in the atmosphere around the group, and I'll enjoy it. I'll definitely enjoy it. It's not going to be the first time that I've played in front of big crowds. Last time I played a competitive round of golf, I had a pretty big crowd following me. No, I'll be fine. I've got used to it over the last few years, and it's something I enjoy. Q. At Congressional, I think one of the highlights for a lot of us who are fathers was watching your dad enjoy the moment with you. How did this change his life, and how did he celebrate? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, it was great to have him there. I mean, mum and dad have nearly been as busy as I've been the last few weeks, seeing everyone. But it was great. But dad has been a huge influence on my career. Last night we went to Royal County Down at about 7:00 in the evening and it was just me and him on the golf course, basically no one else, and I played nine holes and he walked around and just sort of -- it was a really nice moment. We did the exact same thing last year going into St. Andrews. It sort of brought back a lot of memories, playing with my dad, long summer nights, teeing off at 5:00 and sort of getting in at 9:00. Yeah, it was great that he was there, and obviously great to go home and see mum, as well. I know how much hard work they put in for me, and it's nice to be able to reward them in some way, also. Q. Last time we talked a couple years ago you said you didn't get recognised in London, big cities. Do you get recognised now? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'm finding I'm getting recognised a little bit more, yeah. It's sort of quite hard to be -- it's quite hard to stay anonymous these days. It's not a bad thing. If that's the worst thing I'm complaining about, then I'm doing something right. Q. Looking back over the last couple of years and especially the last year with last year's British Open, Quail Hollow, this year at the Masters, U.S. Open, you're playing so extraordinarily well. Was that kind of looking back do you feel like an incremental progress or did something kind of kick into another gear because of confidence? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it was probably a little bit of both. The victory at Quail Hollow last year was a huge stepping-stone for me to get my first win in the States, and then I learned a lot from The Open last year at St. Andrews, shooting that great first round and then not really handling the weather too well on the second day. And then had a really good chance going into the PGA into the last round to win there; I was tied for the lead with four holes to go. And then going into the Masters, again, leading going into the last -- so it's been a gradual process for me, and I've learnt every time I've been, and it's maybe taken me three or four times to put all the pieces together. But now I feel like what happened after Congressional that I've basically learnt most of the lessons that I needed to learn to get me over the line, especially in a major championship, and now that I've done that, I feel as if I'll be able to go on and contend a lot more. Q. You just mentioned that your first two rounds at St. Andrews last year were chalk and cheese. Would you settle for back-to-back solid 70s this time around, or is quite good solid golf no longer good enough for you? RORY McILROY: If it's good enough to win, it's good enough for me. I mean, if the wind keeps up I'll take two 70s in the first two rounds here, definitely. But you can't really put a number on it. If the wind keeps up like this, St. George's is one of the toughest Open tests that we have. I mean, solid golf is good enough for me, as long as it's better than everyone else's solid golf. Q. It seems like every resident of Holywood has been interviewed. Has all of this had a surreal aspect to it? RORY McILROY: Not really, no. I mean, I don't pay much attention anymore to TV or newspapers. It does me no good to look at them, so I'm oblivious to a lot of stuff that's going on. Yeah, I mean, obviously the people of Holywood in Northern Ireland are very proud of me, and it's a nice support to have. Q. I think you alluded to the fact that you didn't really know what to expect coming hereafter all the fanfare of America. I just wonder what it was like coming into the course today, and was it the right decision to leave it to the Tuesday and not come earlier, and how you're feeling now in the middle of all this kind of Rory-mania stuff. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's nice to be the centre of attention. But yeah, I mean, I've prepared the exact same way that I've prepared for the last few major championships, and I feel it's a process that works for me, coming to the course the week before, getting a couple of practise rounds in, and then not really getting to the course until Tuesday afternoon. That works for me. It means that -- well, I used to do it to sort of keep under the radar. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that anymore. But it works for me. It might not work for other people, but I feel as if it's the best way for me to approach a tournament. It's seemed to have worked the last few times, so I just need to keep doing that. MALCOLM BOOTH: Rory, thanks for coming in. Good luck for the week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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