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IRISH OPEN PRESENTED BY DISCOVER IRELAND

July 31, 2011

Rory McIlroy

KILLARNEY, IRELAND

Q. 3-under par total, fair to say not what you imagined start of the week, but have you enjoyed the past few days?
RORY McILROY: I have, of course, every time you come to the Irish Open, it's very special. It wasn't quite the result I was looking for this week. But the crowds have been exceptional and the weather has stayed pretty nice for us. It's been a good week. Just would have been nicer to shoot a couple of better scores.

Q. How were you hitting it today?
RORY McILROY: A lot better. My iron play was really nice today. Gave myself a lot of chances and just couldn't really convert them on the greens. But I felt as if I hit good putts. Just they were not dropping for me. So there's a few positives to take into next week.

Q. You're a Major Champion now, seems to be obviously a bit more demands on your time off the golf course. Is that a bit of a distraction, or will it take time to get used to it?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it probably will take time to get used to it. You still have to find the time to practise and work hard and try and improve, and the last few weeks have been -- yeah, it's been a new experience for me, and the demands on my time have been quite a lot. You've got to find the time to put the work in and make sure that you're trying to become a better player.

Q. Obviously the PGA coming up. What's the plan for the next couple of weeks with your preparation?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, just head to Akron next week, and again, making sure that my game is in the best possible shape going into the event the week after. It will be great to get myself into contention next week in Akron and shoot a few good rounds, and that will give me some confidence going into the PGA.

Q. And the hype in America is going to be big, as well; does that mean having to say no to people sometimes?
RORY McILROY: To be honest, I say no 95 per cent of the time. You have got to just deal with it.
Yeah, I'm trying to do a couple of things next week so the week of the PGA is really free and I can really work on my game and concentrate on the tournament.

Q. A mixed bag out there today, how would you sum it up?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, just couldn't really convert anything on the greens. A bit of a frustrating week. Especially after the good start on Thursday, it would have been nice to put myself in a solid position going into the last three rounds.
Yeah, it's fine, first week of three for me, and next week is a big week, but the week after is the most important one.

Q. The crowds have been right behind you this week, but have you felt any extra pressure just being Major Champion?
RORY McILROY: No, not being a Major Champion. I think just being a home player. The crowd want you to do well, and you are trying to do well for them. You are trying to do well for yourself but you just try and push that a little bit harder, and sometimes that's not a good thing on the golf course.

Q. As you say, a big couple of weeks coming up. How much are you looking forward to getting back to America?
RORY McILROY: It's going to be nice, I haven't been back since the U.S. Open, and it will be good. I'm looking forward to it -- Akron is one of my favourite courses we play all year, and obviously the last major of the season, as well, and I've finished pretty well in that tournament the last couple of years. So looking forward to getting back over there and playing some good golf.

Q. How realistic is it to go out and win another Major so soon again?
RORY McILROY: I think it's -- I feel as long as I put the work in next week and get my game ready for Atlanta, there's no reason why I can't have another good shot to win a major.

Q. Tiger Woods is back; how much are you looking forward to competing with him again?
RORY McILROY: It will be great for the tournament that he's back. I know he's in Akron and he's committed to the PGA, as well. Any time Tiger tees it up, there's a bit of a buzz. Just good to see him back on the golf course and hopefully he's fit and ready and healthy and able to produce some of the golf that we have seen in the past.

Q. Sum up the day.
RORY McILROY: Wasn't the best round. I felt as if I gave myself a lot of chances to maybe shoot something a little better than what I did. But just couldn't hole the putts that I needed to. And yeah, it's been a bit of a frustrating week. It would have been nice to contend and give myself a chance to win.
But I'm going into the next two weeks and they are important ones and I need to concentrate on that.

Q. Look, it's been a funny week, coming home, it's almost like a major, the pressure that's on you here; is it a different sort of pressure? A strange week, but one you've coped pretty well with.
RORY McILROY: It's definitely not what I wanted the start of the week, but it's been good. It's always nice to come home and play in front of a home crowd.
It's been, as I said, a frustrating week on the golf course but it's been enjoyable.

Q. You had that lightning start, 4-under after 10 and everybody said, Rory is in position again. It flattened out from there. What was the reason behind that do you think?
RORY McILROY: I don't know. I played very scrappy golf on the back nine on Thursday, and played pretty nice on Friday, finished well, and gave myself -- if I had shot something decent yesterday, I could have given myself a chance going into today. But just got off to that terrible start yesterday morning, and I couldn't really recover.

Q. It's not really your ideal scenario in preparing for a major two weeks away, because you like to take the week off beforehand, but now you're down to business, Akron and Bridgestone and then the PGA and Atlanta; what are your expectations? They look like they are two courses that may be suited to you.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, I've done it the last two years, played Akron and played the PGA and finished third in the PGA the last couple of years. I had a Top-10 in Akron last year.
So I mean, the PGA is always on a different golf course. So I feel comfortable the way they set that tournament up. It's tough, but it's fair, and Akron is one of the best courses we play all year. So looking forward to the next couple of weeks.

Q. The ball-striking this week was not quite in Congressional form, but it's not far away.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was. Shots like I hit -- the second shot I hit into the last, that will give me a lot of confidence going into the next two weeks, tight, right flag, wind off the right, holding a 6-iron up was basically the way I saw the shot.
So hitting the shots like that, can only give me confidence going into the next two weeks.

Q. Do you suffer jet-lag?
RORY McILROY: No. It will be good, actually, I'm going Tuesday, so it means I get in Tuesday night, just sort of get everything together and then I'll go out very early on Wednesday morning. Sort of the same thing I did last year. Creature of habit and all that.

Q. Do you suffer from it?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think everyone does. I don't think you can get away from it. I'll probably be up at half three, four o'clock in the morning on Wednesday.
But yeah, it's not too bad. Get out on the golf course, got your practise round done and you have the rest of the day to take it easy and get ready for the tournament.

Q. Just something Graeme said yesterday which was pretty interesting, with all of the success he had last year, he found this season, he hit a bad shot, because of what he had done the previous year, it weighed on him and bothered him more. Do you find even in the last couple of months when say you're pushing a ball right off the tee, you're thinking to yourself this, shouldn't be happening; do you find yourself getting down on yourself more?
RORY McILROY: No, not at all. Not at all. I think the thing about this week is just because you're trying so hard and you don't want to hit bad shots, just because it is the Irish Open. That is the reason that you're sort of -- that's the reason this week that I was maybe getting a little bit down on myself.
But you know, what happens -- what is in the past, it's done, and you can't do anything about it. So it shouldn't affect what you do on the golf course in the future.

Q. I saw you shake the head to JP there at the last putt; are you feeling good about your putting?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I felt as if I had a lot of really good putts today that just didn't go in. These greens are very, very subtle slopes and some of them are cut on crowns and it looks like a putt is going in and it will just die away at the last moment. I just had a few of those today.

Q. This week will be remembered for some of the off-course stuff, but just the last two nights in Killarney, being out and about, I've seen some of your entourage enjoying themselves. While there's all this publicity surrounding the camp, it looks like you're settled in and happy.
RORY McILROY: It's great. I have got four mates down with me this week, and I think they rolled into the house last night about four o'clock in the morning. So they had a good night.

Q. Were you with them?
RORY McILROY: No, I wasn't. I was in bed for half ten. I was pretty tired. But yeah, it's good. The Irish Open is great. It's a nice atmosphere and nice to have people that you know with you. It's a week that we really enjoy.

Q. Do you have any plans to broaden the scope -- players of your quality are learning all the time, and I'm not being critical in any sense, but I just wondered, are you looking at any particular area of your game that you want to broaden?
RORY McILROY: Not really. I feel as if I've got it to the point now where I'm swinging it the way I want to, my ball flight is very neutral: I can had hit it right-to-left, I can hit it left-to-right, I can hit it high, I can hit it low. There's nothing really that I feel as if I need to add to my game. It's just a matter of doing it on a consistent basis.

Q. Is it a question of experience, just knowing when to pick the shots in particular?
RORY McILROY: It's that, and it's, again, going back to maybe The Open a couple of weeks ago, it's having that trust in yourself to hit the shots that you know you're capable of on the range but it's just a matter of doing it on the golf course.

Q. This time last year, Chubby mentioned that's an area of your progress that you would be looking at, the development on your game to be more than, say, one- or two-dimensional in terms of moving the ball both ways and being able to do it at will.
RORY McILROY: You can only move it two ways. I don't understand.

Q. To be able to move it left-to-right-at-will type of thing.
RORY McILROY: I can. I mean, to be honest, this week, I've tried to hit a left-to-right shot most of the time. Like the shot into the last there where the pin is on the right and it's a wind right-to-left, to start that ball left of the pin and cut it back onto it, that's something that I'm getting very comfortable at.

Q. Are you surprised to hear PÃ¡draig is going to stop working with Bob Torrance for a while, or maybe more than a while.
RORY McILROY: To be honest I don't pay much attention, but I didn't realise he was still working with him. Every time I've seen him -- I mean, Bob doesn't travel obviously that much anymore. There's a lot of tournaments that he's not at, and it seems like PÃ¡draig is doing a lot of stuff on his own, anyway.

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