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ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 25, 2012Rory McIlroyABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SCOTT CROCKETT: Rory, welcome, thanks, as always, for coming in and joining us and welcome again Abu Dhabi. It's a place you know well and a place you've played well at, a second, third and fifth in the last three years. Your thoughts on returning to a venue where you clearly play well. RORY McILROY: Yeah, this is the fifth time I've played this tournament in Abu Dhabi. I've pretty much done well every year. You know, it's a golf course that I feel suits me. Maybe doesn't suit me as well as it does Martin Kaymer, but I'm getting there. Yeah, it's a great place to start the year. I usually come out to Dubai a couple of weeks before and do some practise. You know, the weather is usually pretty nice to get your game in shape, and really looking forward to this week. It's a great field. Great way to start the year. I'm excited to get the new season up and running. SCOTT CROCKETT: Obviously it's difficult to know how good your form is, a great run of form, the win in Hong Kong; that must please you to take it into this year. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I definitely felt a little bit of momentum at the end of 2011 and it would be great to keep that momentum going at the start of this year.  I feel like I played some good golf the last couple of months of the season, and worked on a couple of things. The last couple weeks, I felt like there was some things I could do a little bit better and felt like they were clicking into place and this week will be a good gauge to see how those things are coming along. SCOTT CROCKETT: A fairly easy draw; low profile, no pressure around you there. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it will be great. I played nine holes with Tiger yesterday, and to play with Luke and him the first two days will be great and definitely a nice way to start the year. Q. How did that practise round with Tiger come about? RORY McILROY: I don't know if you saw, we were trying to bounce and play the drums up on that stage yesterday.  We were just saying, "You going to go out and play?" And Tiger went, "Yeah, I'm going to play nine." And I said, "So am I." Just went out and played nine holes. It was good. Q. Considering how popular the swing has become, is this really the start of your season, the way you look at the year, either here or Dubai, depending how the schedule works out? RORY McILROY: Yeah, this has been the start of my season the last five years; so ever since I started on the Tour full‑time. Yeah, this has always been the start of my year, and hopefully it will continue to be so, yeah. Q. More to that point, how much do you enjoy starting in this part of the world? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's great. I came out here on the 12th of January. Obviously the weather at home at the minute isn't too good to practise in. So to come out here and get your game in shape and really put in a couple of weeks of hard work is nice. To stay out here, and I'm going to play in Dubai in a couple of weeks' time and I have next week to practise again; for me, this is the perfect place to start. Q. You travel all over the world; what's the reception like from the fans here, on and off the golf course? RORY McILROY: It's great. I obviously have a very close connection with Dubai. One of my main sponsors is based there. It was the first professional tournament that I won, and I've been playing in the Dubai Desert Classic since 2006. But here is great, as well. They have developed a tournament every year and turned it into probably the premiere event in the swing with the field and the ranking points and everything that comes along with it. Q. Have the fans become more golf savvy do you think over the years? RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely, I think so. They are still learning but I think the first tournament here, was it 2006? So it's been coming here for a few years, so they are obviously getting a little more knowledge every year. Q. When we saw you in Dubai last, you were struggling with fitness and talking about dengue fever. How is your health, and maybe talk about what you were doing in the off‑season. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I definitely wasn't feeling my best the last couple of weeks of the season last year. I actually stayed out in Dubai for ten days afterwards. I was advised not to travel anywhere for at least a week, so I stayed in Dubai for ten days. I got home on the 22nd of December, spent three or four days at home. Then I actually flew to Thailand to spend New Year's with my family and Caroline's family, as well. That was very nice. Went back to Northern Ireland for a week and came out to Dubai. Q. Everybody's here, all of the big names and everything, I wonder if there's any sense that you really want to make a statement this week; Tiger is here coming off a win and all that kind of thing. RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it's always nice to start the season off well. I felt like I've sort of done that the last couple of years, without obviously winning. You'd like to go out, not so much to make a statement or any sort of intention, but just to‑‑ I think just for yourself to know that what you might have been working on in the off‑season is coming together nicely, and again, gives you a bit of momentum going into the next few events. It's always great to start the season well. It gives you a little bit of confidence. Q. You mentioned playing in Dubai in 2006. Can you remember that day following Tiger, are those memories still pretty clear? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I remember that afternoon. Q. With the U.S. Open under your belt and what you've achieved in the game, do you sit back sometimes and pinch yourself how much you have achieved? RORY McILROY: Yeah, the thing that I always‑‑ of course, I'm very proud of what I've achieved in the game, and I feel as if I can achieve a lot more. But it always‑‑ this is going to be my fifth full year on Tour, and it's going to be my seventh Dubai Desert Classic. It surprises me so much how fast the years go. We are already in 2012. I can remember going into my first full season in 2008 and sort of doing the same thing, coming out to Dubai early, practising, playing in this tournament. Yeah, it's just amazing how fast it goes. Q. Tiger is obviously known for creating his own bubble. I just wondered how often you are communicating with him and kind of what your relationship generally was like with him, and also obviously playing nine holes with him yesterday, whether you noticed any sort of difference in his demeanor; whether he seemed happier with his game and everything compared to a year ago. RORY McILROY: I've only really sort of gotten to know him over the past couple years. But I've always felt like I've had a pretty good relationship with him. I think I feel pretty comfortable in his company. I feel like he feels pretty comfortable in mine. It was good. And the practise round, it was good. He seems like he's happy with everything. I know he's definitely happy that he feels like he's back to 100 per cent fitness, which is great for him. He definitely hit a lot of good shots out there. So I think he's worked hard in the off‑season, and looks like his game is in pretty good shape. Q. You've been talked as a future No. 1 pretty much since you turned pro and you got fairly close last year. Just wonder if that's one of the big targets for this year, and what the other goals are. RORY McILROY: Yeah, the rankings are‑‑ they are sort of a by‑product of what you do. So I'd rather just concentrate on trying to win tournaments and trying to improve as a player, and if I happen to do that, then hopefully the ranking will take care of itself. But goals for the season, every year since I turned pro, I've just tried to improve, just tried to get a little bit better, either at one aspect of the game or overall or consistency or maybe putting in a little bit more work here and there. That's pretty much the same goal I have this season is just trying to become a better player. If I can do that, then hopefully the results will take care of themselves. I'm not really one to really set targets like, I want to win four tournaments this year, I want to win this or I want to win that. I'm more sort of focussed on the process of trying to become a better player, and if I do that, then obviously that will make it easier to win tournaments. Q. You mentioned earlier there were a couple of things you were working on; for the train spotters here, can you tell us specifically what you were working on? RORY McILROY: Just a few fundamentals. Posture was one of the key things, and just a little bit of swing plane. I was setting the club a little steep on the way back, so club was getting a little bit across the line at the top and just trying to feel like I'm getting the club pointed a little more left at the top so it's on the right plane. That's basically it. Q. You mentioned Martin Kaymer. What is it about him and his game that suits his play so well? RORY McILROY: I'm not sure. I think certain guys have certain courses where they feel so comfortable, and the golf course fits their eye. Obviously this is the course that Martin feels suits him best. I think he just feels comfortable off the tee. He hits a lot of fairways. From there, he's one of the best iron players in the game, so he gives himself a lot of chances for birdies. That's what you have to do around this golf course. It really is a ball‑striker's course; if you can put your ball in the fairway, it sets you up for‑‑ the greens aren't very severe, so you can get the ball pretty close to the pin from the fairway and give yourself a few chances. That's obviously what he's done the last few years. Q. Is it true that you've taken a liking to American football, and is that anything you discussed with Tiger yesterday? Obviously a big part of the season coming up. And as an aside, what were the circumstances in 2006 at Dubai? RORY McILROY: I suppose from spending a little bit more time in the States, I've gotten to like‑‑ the only one I'm still trying to get into is baseball, but it's tough to get into (laughing). Yeah, if there's an American football game on, I'll watch it. I watched the highlights of the 49ers/Giants game a couple of nights ago. Obviously it's a big part of the season, Super Bowl coming up and everything. And yeah, actually, funny, it was in 2009, I sat on a flight from New York to Las Vegas beside Brandon Jacobs, the running back for the Giants. I didn't have a clue who he was, but sat beside him and everyone was coming up and shaking his hand and I was wondering who this guy was. Went on my phone and went on Google and Googled him and realised he was a pretty good football player. (Laughter). In Dubai, I was just playing, I got an invite as an amateur in 2006 and 2007. I missed the cut in 2006 as an amateur. I shot, I think it was two 72s, but I think I played in the morning on the Thursday and shot 72 and Tiger was out in the afternoon, and I went out to follow him and stole one of the camera guy's cameras so I was able to get inside the ropes. (Smiling). Q. I know you went over the early part of your schedule on Twitter. Can you talk about the challenges of setting your schedule this year, bouncing back and forth? RORY McILROY: Yeah, you know, you obviously don't want to try and play too many tournaments week‑in, week‑out, bouncing back and forth. So after I play in Dubai, I'll go straight to the States and spend quite a bit of time there through the Masters and into Quail Hollow, TPC. Then I'll come back to Europe for Wentworth, and then‑‑ it's actually not so bad. I think what Luke did last year, it proved to a lot of guys that it can be done and you can play that consistently while playing both tours. But it's not that much of a challenge. You get time to recover and you try and set your schedule out so‑‑ the only one that I think that I'll‑‑ there's a sort of stretch there where you go Quail Hollow, TPC, back to Europe and then straight back to the States again for the run into the U.S. Open. That's probably the only bit of the season that will be a little tough. Q. Can you remember when you made the step from watching Tiger outside the ropes or inside the ropes to feeling, as you said, comfortable in his company yesterday, or was it a gradual process? And does he still have that‑‑ a little bit of an aura for you? RORY McILROY: Definitely the first time I played with Tiger I was a little nervous. I remember playing a skins game at the Memorial Tournament with him in 2010; wasn't even two years ago. Yeah, the first time you play with him, it is‑‑ you've watched this guy on TV your whole life winning Majors and doing things that no one thought was possible. So you're going to be a little awestruck. I suppose once I got to spend a little time with him and maybe have lunch with him a few times and everything, you can sort of break the barrier down a little bit, and it's fine from there. I played with him the first round at the Chevron in 2010 and felt less in awe, and then obviously getting to know him a little bit better since, I feel quite comfortable being around him. Q. In golfing terms, playing a practise round with Tiger, are there any subjects that are taboo that you don't talk about, whether it's putting or driving? RORY McILROY: We talked about a lot of things yesterday. We talked about putting, we talked about driving, we talked about feelings, we talked about what you're trying to do on the golf swing. So that is quite interesting to me, because obviously Tiger has went through a couple of swing changes in his career and talking about what he was trying to do maybe in 2000 and what he was trying to do in 2004 and what he's trying to do now. It's pretty interesting to me because I feel like I have quite a lot of knowledge on the golf swing and it's something I'm quite interested in. So to sort of share ideas with him was pretty nice. Q. Obviously this is not a major but having a lineup like this and playing with this kind of field, how does that feel and what does that do for your game? And also, I think you talked about this in Dubai a little bit, the idea of going out with Tiger on Sunday with everything on the line. RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's definitely not a quiet way to start the year. It's great, you get straight at it right away. You're playing with two of the best golfers in the world in the first two days, and you're up against one of the strongest fields probably that will be assembled this year. You want to try and get off to a good start, so you want to try and play well. But obviously the Majors have that little bit extra and that something different. But if it was to happen, if I was to come up against Tiger at any point in a tournament this year, it would be a great thing for me, I think a huge challenge to see how my game would hold up against that sort of pressure, and something I could definitely learn from. Q. Just what you said about Tiger and his swing changes, Tiger is on roughly his fourth swing at the moment and all of them fairly different or fairly marked changes. Do you see yourself making that many changes on your swing during your career, or are you happy with the way it just develops with you and are you happy to just leave it the way it is; is that the sort of thing you have? RORY McILROY:  Hopefully I won't have to change it. I know Tiger had to change it because of his body and the way he hurt his knee and everything, so he could not quite swing the way he did in the past. Obviously he made a few adjustments. And hopefully, touch wood, that won't happen to me; that my body breaks down and that I have to change some part of my golf swing. You're always making tiny little adjustments here and there and trying to get it as good as you can. But I don't see myself making any major overhaul of my golf swing. Q. I understand a little change in the background, Steve MacGregor has gotten very involved with his football commitments and he helped with a slight back problem that you were having with stability, or inis it a silt. Is that something that's difficult to replace or something that you can work on with yourself? RORY McILROY: I feel like I've learned a lot from Steve and I feel like I've become pretty knowledgeable at that side. I can still‑‑ it's not as if I'm completely not working with him. He's left the door open; if I ever need any advice, I can call him and I still have a very close relationship with him. But we are very lucky that we have access to some of the best people in the world and whatever area you need, so you are always going to get some good advice. Q. What do you think about Abu Dhabi as a place, and has it changed since last you've been here? And apart from golf, what else has attracted you to the city? RORY McILROY: This is my fifth time here. You can definitely see it evolve every time you come back, with places like Yas Island and Saadiyat. At first I played Saadiyat a couple of years ago and was very impressed with it and actually went to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the end of last year, which was an amazing weekend. The city, you can still see it's developing, but it's definitely going to become one of the major attractions in the world in the years to come. SCOTT CROCKETT: Rory, thanks, as always for your time and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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