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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIPSeptember 28, 2011Rory McIlroyST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND PAUL SYMES: Presume you played a practise round this morning, must have enjoyed that in that weather. RORY McILROY: Played Carnoustie Monday, Kingsbarns today and the Old Course today. You know, really enjoyed it. We went out pretty early every morning. We have been done before 12 o'clock every day. It's been really nice to spend a bit of time with him and play some golf with him. PAUL SYMES: Your form coming into the week is great, finishing third in Crans and at the KLM. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I played pretty good at Crans. I was in the lead at some points during the week in Crans and in the KLM. I had the lead in both tournaments. To be honest played dreadful in Holland the whole week. Didn't play well at all but somehow managed to get myself in the tournament and had a chance going into the back nine. A couple of bogeys on 11 and 13, which didn't it help but you know, two solid weeks. Could have been a lot better. Could have got a win in one of them, if not both. Switzerland was going to be tough with Thomas playing so well. But I definitely felt as if I had a chance at KLM. Didn't quite get it done. So you know, I've played well here before, and I've finished second at the Dunhill Links and finished third and finished third at The Open here. Hopefully I can go one better this week. PAUL SYMES: Obviously a great year getting your first major under the belt. I guess your goal now is to chase down Luke in The Race to Dubai if you can. RORY McILROY: If I can. Luke, he's playing very, very consistently. He seems like every time he tees it up, he finishes in the top 5 and if he does that, he's going to be very difficult to beat. But you know, that's the goal at the end of the season. But I feel like if I can concentrate on just trying win tournaments, then The Race to Dubai will sort of take care of itself. But yeah, obviously I want to try and get closer to him and put a bit of pressure on him with a couple of events to go. Q. You said before that this is the start of a big run of events leading up to Christmas? RORY McILROY: Yeah, 12 weeks in a row -- well, 12 weeks on the road. I don't have 12 tournaments. Q. Without stating the obvious, you want to get a victory before the end of the year, don't you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course, I want to get a win, whether it's here or Korea next week or China or Dubai or Thailand or Hong Kong or wherever I am. I want to kick on. I feel as if I'm playing well enough. I'm hitting the ball well and I feel like my game is in good shape. So if I can keep getting myself in contention and giving myself chances, I'll hopefully put my foot through the door and get another win. Q. There's a rumour going around that your dad had a pretty spectacular finish this morning? RORY McILROY: He did. Q. What happened? RORY McILROY: I gave him eight shots, so I mean, we play stroke play because we sort of -- everything is in the hole this week. So he starts at 8-under par and I start at level. Going up the last, he was one ahead of me. I hit a really good drive up there and he hit a decent drive maybe 50 yards short of the green. I was a bit closer. He chipped a 9-iron around through the valley of sin up the hill into the hole. It's his second chip-in of the day as well. He didn't even let me have a chance to beat him or even tie him. So I was the one buying lunch today. Q. What did you shoot? RORY McILROY: Today, I shot 4-under but I was 5-under going down 16 and hit a ball OB. Q. Do you visualize every shot before you hit it? RORY McILROY: Not really. I mean, for me, I just like to go through the process of what I'm trying to do with the golf shot. So I'll try and -- obviously it says the yardage, what club I want to play, the wind; just try to see the shot in my mind, what shot I want to hit and just try and produce that shot, because for me, that's all I can do is just -- if I can make a good swing, that's all I'm trying to do. Q. (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: Yes, a lot of visualisation. Q. Do you think there's a realistic chance to catch him? RORY McILROY: The Race to Dubai? Q. Sorry, yeah. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I still think it's possible. But I have to think it's possible. I have to think that I can still produce a few good weeks and get a couple of wins and get closer to him. But we'll see what happens. There's a few. I mean obviously this is a very big event. You've got HSBC and China, which is a big one; Dubai World Championship; Singapore is a big money event. I'm not playing in it but it's a big opportunity for the guys. So there's still a lot of events with a lot of ranking points and a lot of money to play for. Q. Three or four years ago at St. Andrews, you made a name for yourself. What does it mean to you, the Old Course and St. Andrews? RORY McILROY: It means a lot. To be honest, the first time I played the Old Course, I wasn't a fan. I didn't like it. I didn't like just that it was so different, sort of every other golf course that I ever played, but once you play it more and more times, it grows on you, and you realise that there's so many different ways to play it. It gives you so much variety, and now it's one of my favourite courses in the world. I think part of the reason for that is because I've played so well here and I've become so comfortable on this golf course. One bad day sort of killed me at The Open last year, and you know I've come close in this tournament before on a couple of occasion. It's a course that I've got great memories of, not even the course and everything; it's got a great atmosphere and great buzz. I always look forward to coming back. Q. Just following up on your great round in your first time here as a professional here at the Dunhill, it was enough to get you your Tour card and now a couple of guys looking to emulate that; what would you say to them at this stage? It's obviously a big chance for them to do what you did. RORY McILROY: It's a big chance. I think the thing for them -- I've read a couple of articles that have been written on Tom Lewis, and he's really -- he seems to really be pressuring himself into getting his Tour card. I played the first stage of Tour School before I actually played in this tournament. You know, you can't put that much pressure on yourself to get your Tour card straightaway. I was just fortunate that I was playing well at the right time. Sometimes it just doesn't work out like that for different people. But I came into this event, I just played the British Masters got my first-ever paycheck and came in here, I wanted to play well with not that many expectations and ended up finishing third and got any card and that gave me confidence and I went to Madrid the next week and finished fourth. Tom obviously finished 10th last week in Austria, so he's got a bit of confidence and it's high and really needs to play well when it's like that. Wouldn't surprise me if some of those guys didn't go onto earn their tour cards in seven events but it's not the end of the world if you don't. There's been plenty of players that have had to go through The Challenge Tour or Tour School and it's a great way to learn the ropes and get your card that way. Q. You made some comments at St. George's; do you see this as a week to prove to yourself you can play in bad weather? RORY McILROY: The weather, it's going to be perfect. It's going to be great. There's going to be no wind. Playing in sunshine. (Smiling). Yeah, coming off the course at St. George's, I was very frustrated. Frustrated with myself -- I was cursing everything, the draw, the way I played, the weather. I just came off the course and was annoyed at everything basically. Looking back on it, it wasn't the right thing to say. If you want to be a great golfer, you have to try and play well in all conditions. So I mean, I'll -- it will be great if the weather stayed like this all week but if it doesn't, then it's another opportunity to challenge myself and see if I can get better in windy conditions. Q. What have you been doing the last few weeks? RORY McILROY: What haven't I been doing? I watched a little bit of the Solheim Cup. Q. Vivendi? RORY McILROY: Watched a little bit. I watched on the last day. I did a few sponsor commitments. Was in Leeds for a couple of days working with Steve MacGregor on my fitness and did a little bit of testing. Was in Monaco for three days. Practised on Saturday for the first time. I hit balls for the first time in ten days. Yeah, I went to the Man-United Chelsea game. Of the fortnight I was home, I was actually home for three or four days. Q. Is it strange to there for have a 12-week road trip coming up? Doesn't seem like you're having any real time off? RORY McILROY: No, not really. It's nice. I mean, I wanted to do it. I'm looking forward to this stretch. It's going to be nice. Playing Korea next week where I've played well. Played in the Korean Open two years ago and finished third. Had a chance to win. And then I'm doing an exhibition in China with Poulter and Westwood and language win Chang. And then I'm playing the Grand Slam of Golf, which I'm really excited about and then I go back to China for two events, Lake Maleren and HSBC and then I have two weeks off which I'll probably need by that point. And then I play the World Cup, Hong Kong, Dubai and Thailand. So I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be good and it's going to be nice to get home on the 22nd or 23rd of December or whatever it is and enjoy Christmas. Q. Do you think playing links golf as a youngster will be much of an advantage to you this week? RORY McILROY: I've made this clear before. I feel more comfortable on parkland golf courses. But being comfortable on a course like St. Andrews, even though we only play St. Andrews twice, I feel very comfortable on those golf courses and on St. Andrews and I feel very comfortable on Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, as well. Yeah, I mean, it might be a slight advantage, but these guys are all experienced. They have all played a lot of links golf before. Q. Have you mapped out your schedule for next year yet? RORY McILROY: Pretty much, yeah. Up until the end of -- sort of. I mean, there's a few events that we don't know what's going on or what date they are going to be in. But basically, everything else is pretty much -- Q. What's the biggest thing you'll miss? RORY McILROY: I'm not going to be able to play the Memorial two weeks before the U.S. Open, which I love the Memorial. It's a great event and it's an event that I've played well in before. So I'll be slightly disappointed to miss that. But apart from that, everything else is -- Q. Tucson? RORY McILROY: Tucson? Yeah, that's where I'll start my season in the U.S.. Q. Have you found it harder to go into town than before? Have you been into town this week? RORY McILROY: No, I don't really go out when I'm at home anymore, and no, I've just been sort of taking it easy. I've had dinner in the hotel a couple of nights. I mean, I'll go out for dinner with my mom and dad tonight in the town but I won't go into any of the pubs or anything. I'll just try and keep it low key. Q. Just getting harder for you to do that? RORY McILROY: A little bit, yeah. I don't mind. It's great that people want to come up and talk to you and have pictures and everything, but sometimes you just want to sort of keep it low key and sort of keep yourself to yourself. Q. Your Dad was in the pub last night watching United-- RORY McILROY: Yeah and I was in my room watching City. (Laughter). That's funny, isn't it. I didn't have SKY Sports 4 in the room. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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