|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 10, 2012Rory McIlroyMIAMI, FLORIDA Q. You often talk about the process and trying to stay in the process, but after you birdie 12 and you're that low at that point, what's the challenge in not thinking ahead to where you could be going? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it was great to be 9‑under through 12. Obviously your mind is going to start thinking, you know, 15 is a birdie chance, 16, 17. But it's a good thing. You set yourself a target and you try and get there, and unfortunately today I wasn't able to do that. Q. What was the turning point? RORY McILROY: The bogey on 14, I drew a bad lie in the bunker and it was a tough one to get to the green and obviously left it short. You know, made bogey there, which really stopped my momentum. Just couldn't get it back after that. Q. Speaking of 14, there was that scoreboard right near the green, and it showed that Bubba had just gone 3‑under after two holes. When you've been just grinding to put yourself back in contention and you look and see that the leader is 3‑under after two holes, what goes through your mind? RORY McILROY: Nothing really. To be honest, all I was trying to do was make par on 14 and move to the next hole. You know, I still didn't feel like I was in a position to look at the leaders because, you know, the lead could be 18‑under par by the end of the day, you know. So that didn't really affect me at all. Q. What do you take away from today? RORY McILROY: I played some good golf which is great.  I putted better, which was nice. I was 74 to 74 in putting this week, so I needed to improve that a little bit. I think I had ten putts through the first nine holes and that was a big improvement, and I hit fairways, which was the key. That's what I need to do tomorrow again. This course is so much easier when you put your ball in the fairway. Q. Did sub‑60 enter your mind? RORY McILROY: Yeah, of course. When I was 9‑under through 12, you're thinking four of the last six, and here we go. But, obviously it didn't happen like that. Q. You got off to that stubby start; at what point did you start to think about, this could be something special? RORY McILROY: I'm not sure, I birdied three in a row. I birdied 5,6,7, all wedge shots to within six feet. So that was‑‑ and didn't birdie the 8th hole, which was a little bit frustrating. Made a great birdie on 9 to turn in 30. That's when I thought if I could start the back nine well, maybe I could post a really low one. Q. On a day when it was this easy, seems kind of easy harvesting out here when the wind is not blowing; fair to say? RORY McILROY: It's a resort golf course, and it was a tough test 15 years ago but now it's just got outdated. They definitely need to do something with it, and it's great to see that Trump's taking over the place and he's going to do a good job with it, I'm sure. Q. So are you pleased or disappointed with 65? RORY McILROY: Disappointed. I never thought I would stand up here and say I'm disappointed with 7‑under but today is definitely one of those days. It's okay. It would have been nice to post something, 61,62 or whatever, but yeah, at least I've put myself sort of back into the tournament and given myself a chance to post a high finish, at least. So that's a positive. Q. How do you like situations like today, where you can just free‑wheel and go low, or would you rather see the golf course harder? RORY McILROY: I would rather see the golf course harder. I feel that I play my best golf on tough golf courses. Even like last week at the Honda, minus 12, U.S. Open was a bit different, minus 16, but I like golf courses or I like setups where the winning score is between 8 and 12‑under par. That's the sort of golf that suits me the best. Q. If Trump came to you with suggestions, what would you do to toughen up this course? RORY McILROY: I'm not sure. I mean, the first thing I'd do is change the grass. I mean, the grass here is not‑‑ even you can see on TV, it's a little scrappy and it's a little scruffy and aesthetically it doesn't look great. Like they overseeded last week at the Honda and I thought it played really, really nicely. I'm sure they could do the same thing here. So that's one thing. I have no clue about course design, so I couldn't start to tell you what they could do differently. But yeah, that's one of the things that I'd like to see here, if they just overseeded it, I think it would be a lot better golf course. Q. How much of a lift did it give you playing with Graeme? You guys had dinner last night obviously and you were kind of flat the first day or so. RORY McILROY: It's nice to go out there and just play with a friend. It's not like‑‑ the last couple of days, as well, with Lee and Luke were great. But it's nice to go out there with G‑Mac. You're sort of pretty relaxed and you play, and we both got off to pretty good starts and you sort of feed off one another. It's nice to play a round like that. Q. Tomorrow is your last round before the Masters. Is there any added pressure to try to get a good one in? RORY McILROY: No, not at all. I can't really‑‑ no. I mean, I'd love to post a good finish going into the Masters, but between tomorrow and the Masters, I have three weeks. So it doesn't really matter if it was‑‑ maybe if I was playing Houston and I wanted to post a good round going into the Masters or whatever. But no, I'm going to be happy just to go out tomorrow, play, try and post a good number. And then I've got three weeks off to really prepare and think about Augusta. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|