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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 24, 2012Rory McIlroyMARANA, ARIZONA SCOTT CROCKETT: Rory, thanks for coming and joining us. Once again, very well played. A tough you match against Miguel, who is never the easiest of opponents. Give us your thoughts on getting through that and into the quarter finals. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it was great. I felt like I played my best golf of the week today. I hit a lot of quality shots. I still hit a couple of lose ones, but for the most part I felt like I drove the ball great. I hit a lot of iron shots close to the pin. I was really pleased when I had to hit good shots coming down the stretch, 15, 16, 17. I was able to produce them. SCOTT CROCKETT: Miguel is a very gritty opponent. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, he doesn't go away. I didn't‑‑ to be honest I could have finished the match off a little earlier if I had of played the two par‑5s on the back nine a little better, well, 11 anyway. And I sort of got away with 12. He missed the green right and I followed him over there, which was just a bit of a mental error. But apart from that, as I said, I felt like coming down the stretch, I needed to hit good shots and I was able to do that. SCOTT CROCKETT: Nice moment at the end, you seemed genuinely pleased for you and wished you all the best, I think, didn't he? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, he did. He was very nice. He's one of the most popular guys on Tour and everyone likes him. Yeah, he's a gentleman and I appreciated that. Q. Would you say you struggled on the greens today? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I misread a couple at the start. And then I got JP in and felt like I putted a little bit better. I said yesterday that I wasn't struggling reading the greens, and then all of a sudden today I couldn't read them well. They're tricky. They're very tricky. You've got a putt with a slope going one way and the valley is the other and the grain looks another way. You can confuse yourself sometimes. And then if you do get the right line, you're usually going to leave it short because that's all you're concentrating on. They're pretty tricky. I gave myself a lot of opportunities today and didn't take as many as I would have liked. I'll probably go and spend 20 minutes on the putting green after this. Q. When did that JP start? What's pleased you most about your game this week? Is it that you've been winning your matches? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it's always nice to get‑‑ I'm not saying I played terrible the first two days, but it wasn't like my best. I definitely saw a glimpse of my best golf out there today at some point. And JP came in around the‑‑ I misread one‑‑ completely misread one on 5. And from 6 onwards, I felt if I needed him, I'd just call him in. Q. How important is this event to you? I know it's the WGC, but as a match play, you don't play a lot of match play? RORY MCILROY: No, but I think that's what's nice about it. We don't get to play match play that often. So it's a nice little treat in a way. It gets you away from the norm of playing four rounds of stroke play. Usually in the first round in a stroke play event you don't really‑‑ you don't get too high, you don't get too low. But in match play it's a little bit different. Emotionally it sort of drains you. It's probably a good thing we don't play match play every week, because I'd only be able to play about ten events a year. Q. Just as a follow‑up, tomorrow looming, if you want to get to Sunday, looks like Lee is in the way, playing very well. He's only trailed I think one hole all week. Talk about having to overcome that. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it will be good. Obviously Lee is playing well at the minute, had a great chance to win in Dubai. And for the most part has looked very strong this week. We both have to win our matches tomorrow. And I'm going to have a very difficult opponent in either John Senden or Sang‑moon Bae. I've played with both guys before. They're both great players, great ball strikers. I just have to concentrate on tomorrow's match and see what happens after that. SCOTT CROCKETT: He's never been behind actually all week, just to correct you there. Q. Following up on Bae, what do you know about him? RORY MCILROY: Actually I played with him in the last round of the Korean Open in 2009. I might actually have been tied for the lead going into the last day with him. He ended up winning. I was really impressed with him. As I said he's a very good ball‑striker and he played very well then. That's the only time I've played with him. He's been very impressive this week taking down Poulter and Charl, two of the best players. Especially Poult is one of the best match players, and Charl, obviously, a Major champion. So he's had a great week so far. And we'll see what happens tomorrow. Q. Were you paired with him in the last round? RORY MCILROY: Yes. Q. Let's talk about Mark Wilson again. Have you ever played in a match play with him? RORY MCILROY: No, I've played‑‑ no, a couple practice rounds. But he has his buddy Clarkey with him. But I might have taken him and Clarkey in practice rounds. But apart from that I don't think I've ever played‑‑ I don't think I've ever played that much with him in stroke play. Q. Let's go back to the Dubai World Championship a few years ago in that first round. RORY MCILROY: No, not really. We're both completely different players. I feel like I'm a completely different player than I was back then, a lot more experienced. Q. Is it difficult to not let your mind drift to the possibility of being No.1 by the end of this week? RORY MCILROY: To be honest it is. But in a way that's a good thing. I've said it all week, it gives me a little bit of motivation, a little bit of an extra incentive, not that I really need one. It's a World Golf Championship and there's plenty of ranking points and plenty of money up for grabs. But it's a nice incentive. It's nice to have in the back of your mind. And if you are struggling in a match and find it hard to get yourself up or get any sort of momentum, if you think about that and you think if you can really dig deep you still have a chance to become No.1. It can work both ways. You can turn it into a positive if you want. Q. Just looking at this year, this 2012, how do you look at the year? You've obviously had a great year last year. You won the major. Is this year a building year or is this the year that you really want to establish yourself as the next great player in golf? RORY MCILROY: Probably the latter. I feel like last year was a great stepping‑stone for hopefully bigger and better things. I've started off the year pretty well with a couple of top five finishes, and definitely a chance to win in Abu Dhabi. It's nice to get through to the quarter finals here. And obviously it would be nice to go a little further. As I said just before, I feel like I'm a different player than a couple of years ago, and I feel like I've improved and gained experience and that should all help me. And winning tournaments, and obviously the biggest tournaments in the world, the four Majors, which are the tournaments that we all target and we all try to peak for. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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