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DUBAI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY DP WORLDDecember 9, 2011Rory McIlroyDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, thanks for joining us. Give us your reflections on the round to start us off, please. RORY McILROY: It obviously wasn't the way I wanted to finish. I felt as if I played pretty solidly out there. You know, 3‑under after 16 holes, if I had of tried to‑‑ if I had to pick one up at the last two, which I was trying to do, and get to 10‑under par for the tournament, it would have been a really, really good day. But unfortunately that wasn't the case. I've got a bit of an uphill battle on my hands now to try to win the tournament. But it's still very possible. I'm only five shots back with 36 holes to go, which you can make that up in‑‑ you can make it up in nine holes or you can make it up, but I've just got to stay very patient and bide my time and just try to play as good as I can. Q. How good would it be playing with Alvaro Quiros tomorrow, seeing as the two of you are such big hitters‑‑ RORY McILROY: I'm not. Q. You're not? RORY McILROY: (Shaking head no.) Q. Well, I'd like to withdraw that remark. (Laughter) MICHAEL GIBBONS: Next question. Good start. Q. How about your health? Were you starting to feel a little bit tired coming down the back nine, and if you could shed some light on the test results and how things are looking? RORY McILROY: To be honest, I don't feel too bad. But yeah, we got the blood test results back last night, and yeah, I mean, it was basically just the same. Platelet count was low and my white blood cell count was low, as well. Going to see a doctor again on Saturday, tomorrow night, and she's going to have a look at me and determine whether this is the last tournament for me or not, or if I go to Thailand next week. Q. You don't know what it is, in terms of what illness or what virus? RORY McILROY: Not really. It's just the lasting effects of the virus that I had. They said it could have been Dengue fever, which is obviously is carried by mosquitoes or whatever. But I think it's just the lasting effects of that and feeling a little run down and my immune system is a little low. It's taking my body a bit more time to recover than it usually would. Q. What is Dengue fever? RORY McILROY: It's carried by mosquitos. It's a water‑based virus, basically. Q. And a golfing question. Were you aware that Alvaro had actually got an eagle at the last, and did that actually affect you playing 17? RORY McILROY: No, not at all. I did see on the big screen on 17 that he did hole a putt for eagle but that was when we were walking up to the green, so it obviously did not affect my tee shot. You know, to shoot 12‑under out there over two days is a very, very impressive score. He played well last week in Hong Kong, just had a bit of a tough day on Sunday, so he's coming here with a bit of form. Q. Did you actually have Dengue fever? RORY McILROY: Well, they said it was a mild case of it, just because of the platelet count. The platelet count didn't go so low to say that I had like a bad case of it. But yeah, I mean, it could have been that. It could have been food poisoning. It could have been a number of different things. It could have been bacteria. Obviously I don't have that anymore. It's just lasting effects, and my body trying to fight it to obviously get back to 100 per cent. Q. You didn't eat the burgers in Shanghai, did you? Because I had a bad case of food poisoning after. (Laughter). RORY McILROY: Ah, no. Q. Have you been given a tonic? RORY McILROY: A tonic? Q. Something to keep your health up. RORY McILROY: Not really. The only thing they could really do, they give you medication at the time, like so when I was in the Maldives and I was in Dubai the week after. But since then it's just been trying to keep hydrated and they have given me a few rehydration packs and electrolytes and stuff if I've got a fever and temperature again. But no, I haven't been taking anything for the past couple of weeks. Q. Will you draw some inspiration from Luke Donald's victory on the PGA TOUR needing to win the final tournament of the year, he did that with five strokes behind, coming from five strokes behind. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean, it can be done.  The only thing about that was his closest challenger, Webb Simpson, I think finished pretty high up, as well, didn't he? I'm not so sure. Look, if it happened to work out in my favour and I was to win this week, it still might not be good enough. So I've just got to concentrate on trying to win the tournament and see what happens and try to put the Money List thing out of my head and try to get my fourth win of the year. Q. What's the prognosis going forward health‑wise? Is it a long period of rest? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think just a bit of rest and just trying to stay in one place for awhile. Get a bit of rest and try and let my body just get back to full health as quickly as possible. As I said, I'm visiting the doctor again tomorrow night just to see what she thinks, whether I should go to Thailand or not next week. Q. Just back to the round, I mean, earlier you obviously were hitting the birdies and playing pretty well. Maybe could you talk about the first half of the round. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I got off to a nice start. I was 2‑under through nine. Gave myself plenty of chances on the front nine. Missed one‑‑ I had a great up‑and‑down on 3, but then gave myself a chance at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9‑‑ well, 7, not really. But 5, 6, 8 and 9, and I was able to birdie the 8th hole. I could have held a couple more putts there and maybe made a couple more birdies. But it was a solid round of golf. Especially with the way the conditions were there. It was pretty tricky with the wind. Something in the 60s today, I thought would have been a very good score. But just the last couple of holes ruined that for me. Q. Is it solely the doctor's decision whether you go to Thailand, or are you desperate for some extended respite before the start of the new season? RORY McILROY: To be honest I'm ready for the season to be done. But, you know, it's up to her, as well, at the end of the day. If she feels like I can go, then I'll make a decision whether I will or not. But, yeah, I mean, I'm looking forward to putting the clubs away at whatever point that is and taking a bit of break. Q. When you and Alvaro are side‑by‑side with a driver in your hand, who is longer? RORY McILROY: No, he is. He is by‑‑ I don't know. I'd say I probably hit it a little further through the air than Alvaro. Alvaro hits it on a more sort of penetrating flight. Overall, he's definitely much longer. He hits his irons much longer than I do. He's got a lot more speed. Q. Is it just speed, and how does he generate that speed? RORY McILROY: I mean, everything; body, hands. He's got an unbelievably fast hand speed because his turn, he doesn't bring the club back very far. It only goes to three quarter most of the time. He generates a lot of speed down with his arms and his hands. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, thanks for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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