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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIPOctober 1, 2011Rory McIlroyST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND MICHAEL GIBBONS: Well played today, 66. Give us your thoughts on that. RORY McILROY: It was good. Could have been a bit better, but any time you shoot 66 -- so I probably would have taken it at the start of the day. But you he know, I felt as good I gave myself a few chances. I'm happy where I'm at. You know, as long as a couple of the guys don't get too far ahead, I'll feel as if I've still got a chance going into tomorrow. Q. You mentioned a couple of chances, a lip-out and a chance on 17, can you just walk us through those? RORY McILROY: Yeah, even from the start of the round, I hit it to three feet at the first. Didn't make it. I held a really good putt at the second for birdie. Hit it close, hit it to six feet on 6. Didn't make that. I suppose after that, it was all pretty good. I had a really good -- on 16, and 17 I had another good putt. There were a couple of chances, but 66 is still a good effort. Q. Your ball-striking has been good from the first round -- RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's been great. I've done a good bit of work with my coach, Michael Bannon this week, and even though I didn't hit any balls for ten days leading up to the tournament, I've sort of been travelling around -- the swing, trying to get into positions. I've always got a feeling, even when I'm not practising of where I want to get to and I've been swinging that little club every day, ten, 15 minutes and just getting used to where I want the club to be. I've been hitting the ball really good. Q. Is it a 5-iron -- RORY McILROY: No, it's a cut down lob-wedge. So just gives me a chance to swing it inside. So at least I'm swinging a golf club and at least developing some sort of feeling if I'm not hitting balls. Q. Where did you get it from? RORY McILROY: Yeah, Michael made it for me. It was just one of my old lob-wedges that we cut down and it's no bigger than this size (indicating). It's just something that he actually made it for me last year, because he thought it would be a good idea to swing it in the room at night, kind of work on something. I've been carrying that around and it's worked pretty well. Q. When was the last time you weren't in contention? RORY McILROY: PGA. That was -- it was before that at The Open. Maybe Firestone. Yeah, I was in contention going into Akron, and had a couple of thirds and now have a chance coming into tomorrow again. I'm very happy with my consistency. I always feel like this time of year I can get on a decent run. I remember in 2009 when I was challenging for The Race to Dubai and I went on a run of seconds and a fourth and a fifth and a third and another second. I don't know if I just like this time of year or whatever it is, but I feel like I can get on a good run and produce some good finishes. Q. With your striking being so pure, is it difficult for Michael to see where you are going wrong? RORY McILROY: I mean, for me I feel like it's very simple, because I always fall back into my bad habits, so he always knows a way how to get back out of them. Yeah, he's always looking at different ways -- at address, everything imaginable on the golf swing. He's knowledgeable and he has drills for all types of things. We work very well together, and so it's nice to -- I'm going on a 12-week run now so it was great to have him here this week just to make sure everything was in good order going into this stretch. But we are constant communication. We speak every week, sometimes every other day to make sure everything is all right. If something is really wrong I can send a video of my swing back to him and he'll look at it and give me a ring tell me what's going on. It works very well, to have a coach that you trust so much and a coach that you've had since you were six or seven years old, I think that's a big advantage. Q. Do you know much about Michael Hoey? RORY McILROY: I've known Michael for quite a while. He's actually a member at the same golf club, Shandon Park. I've known him for quite a while. He's a supremely talented player, he always has been. He's playing great this week, and he's scoring very well. Q. How long have you had the little club? RORY McILROY: I've had it for the last couple of years. And I've sort of been carrying it about with me -- it's not like if I go to the toilet and things I bring the club with me. (Laughter). Q. With your striking being so pure, is it difficult for Michael to see where you are going wrong? RORY McILROY: No, because it's never -- inaudible -- we need to look at this, we'll discuss what we need to do. Honestly, I think are for the top players, the striking of the ball is always going to be there, just because you've hit thousands of millions of golf balls. It's just about fine tuning little things here and there. For me, I can get a still steep on the way back -- my right elbows get behind me and I get off-line, so it's a matter of the getting back on plane and keeping in the positions that you want. Q. What was the name of the Golf Club you were with Michael at? RORY McILROY: Shandon Park, and I was 11 or 12 years old. I practised a little bit with him but it was about the time when he won the British Amateur -- and he did win the British Amateur. Q. Was he a role model to you? RORY McILROY: Not really. Yeah, probably an older -- he was the most talented Irish amateur at that time. He was doing a lot of great things over in the states but I never got to watch G-Mac up close until I turned pro basically. I knew Michael a little bit better. Q. Are the Northern Irish guys keeping a secret that we don't know about? RORY McILROY: No, I don't think so. I don't know what it is. I mean, these things, you talk about Northern Irish golf, but you've got two English guys 1 and 2 in the world. So I don't know if it's a coincidence or we were feeding off one another or whatever it is. It's great to see G-Mac on a bit of form, as well. Obviously great to see Michael up there. Yeah, I don't think it's going to last forever. I hope it does, but I just think it's a period where we are all playing well at the same time and it's great that it's happening and hopefully it does last for a bit longer. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you, all the best tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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