|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 6, 2012Rory McIlroyAUGUSTA, GEORGIA RONALD TOWNSEND: Good afternoon. We would like to welcome Rory McIlroy. He finished his second round with a 69, 3‑under par for today, currently 4‑under par for the tournament. As you know, this is his fourth Masters appearance, and we would invite your questions. Q. Looking at a man 30 years your senior, are you surprised to see him up at the top? RORY McILROY: To be honest, no. I mean, he always seems to play well here whenever he comes back. I feel he still has the length to play this golf course. I think the more times you come back here, the more you feel comfortable on it. Freddie has a lot of experience here and he still has the game to do well. You know, great to see him up there, and just adds a little more spice to the weekend. Q. With regard to Freddie, you've obviously probably watched him over the years, and how do you just describe the way he goes about things, just kind of a mellow guy and everything looks easy? RORY McILROY: He's just cool. (Laughter). I hope I'm that cool when I'm 52, or whatever he is. Yeah, he's just a cool guy. And he's good fun. I've gotten to know him a little bit over the last couple of years, and you know, he's laid back and relaxed and just a really nice guy. Q. What do you think was the key to your round today? RORY McILROY: I drove the ball better. That was the big thing. Whenever you drive the ball well here, you can‑‑ it enables you to be a little more aggressive with your iron shots, and maybe go at a few more pins. That was the difference today. Q. Obviously the birdies at the end of yesterday's round were big, but how important was it yesterday to erase that double‑bogey early, and then obviously string together some good holes? And secondly, just how comfortable are you on this golf course? RORY McILROY: I think the whole round yesterday was important to me; to not let the start get to me, and those two birdies at the end really gave me some momentum going into today. But yeah, that was a big challenge for me, a big test, because obviously not the way you want to start the tournament. And to sort of stay patient and hang in there, I felt like I did that pretty well. As I said, every time you come back here, I think you feel a little more comfortable every time, and yeah, I mean, to be honest, I don't hit as big a draw as I used to. So there's a few tee shots that I was probably more comfortable with a couple of years ago than I am now. But yeah, I'm comfortable. I feel like I've got a better short game than I had a couple of years ago, which enables me to be a lot more aggressive into the greens, because I know if I don't quite get it right, I still have a good short game to get it up‑and‑down. Q. How does the vibe sort of change on the weekend in a major, looking ahead to the next two days? You obviously struggled on the back nine here Sunday, but you also played so well at Congressional. How does your mind‑set and the whole challenge change come Saturday? RORY McILROY: Yeah, there's definitely a little bit of a different feeling, but it should be the same. You just try and go out there and shoot a good score, and that's all I'll be trying to do tomorrow. Go out there and try and post a good number and see where that leaves me going into Sunday. Because there will be a lot of guys, just looking at the leaderboard here, there's going to be at least 20, 25 guys within five shots of the lead. So there's a lot of guys going out there tomorrow that will think they have a chance over the next two days. Q. You talked about what you learned here last year. How proud are you and how good is it to be back in a position to win a year later? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's nice. I wouldn't say I'm in a position to win yet, but we'll see what happens tomorrow. It will definitely be nice to feel like I'm in a good position going into Sunday. But it's good. I feel like I've played solid golf the last two days, and you know, could have been a couple shots better, like probably everyone in the field is thinking. But I'm in a nice position and I definitely would have taken it after the start yesterday. Q. You've basically been in contention now every tournament going back to the PGA, or at least been up there. It almost looks routine. Does it feel routine? Does it seem as easy as it looks? RORY McILROY: Um, no, I wouldn't say it's as easy as it looks, but it's nice that it looks routine and it's great to be able to put yourself in position most weeks that you play. But I think that just comes down to hard work and practice and really trusting yourself and trusting your swing all the time. I feel like I've improved a lot as a player over the last 12 months, and I think that showed in how I've played this year, and obviously at the end of last year, as well. Q. Freddie was talking about good temperaments for the game. You started off with a double and you overcame it. Do you feel like you have a good temperament for the game? Did you come to that or did you start with it? RORY McILROY: No, I definitely didn't have a good temperament for golf whenever I was growing up. I was a little temperamental. I think you learn that being like that isn't‑‑ it can only be a negative thing for you. There's no point in getting upset or really throwing clubs, because it just puts you in a bad frame of mind. It's better just to stay positive and think of the chances that you have coming ahead. But yeah, I think that's something that I've definitely developed over the past few years. Q. You mentioned the two birdies to finish yesterday. But how important was the scramble on 18 today? Would you put that on level with the two birdies? RORY McILROY: Yeah, for sure. As nice as the two birdies were yesterday, if I had've finished with two bogeys today, I would have been just as bad. It was great to get that up‑and‑down on 18. I felt like I played very well today, and if I had fell from 5‑under to 3‑under the last two holes, it would have been pretty disappointing. Q. You've mentioned the leaderboard; there's quite an array of people with experiences and ages. How would you characterize it? It seems different than most majors. RORY McILROY: I mean, it is and it isn't. You've got Jason Dufner, who could have won the PGA in August. You have Freddie Couples who has won here. You have Louis, who is The Open Champion, and Lee who is up there, and Sergio who could have won many majors, myself, Bubba Watson is up there. There's a lot of guys that have had chances, but I mean, you look at the names on the leaderboard, and there isn't like one style of golf. There's a lot of different ways to get the ball around the golf course obviously, and you know, I think that's just‑‑ that's Augusta in a nutshell. There's so many different ways to play it, and some guys can do it with their short game and some guys can do it with their long game. I think you see that on the leaderboard. Q. You talked about your short game. On 16 you went for it and ended up with a pretty difficult‑looking chip shot. Can you talk about pulling that shot off? RORY McILROY: On 15? Q. Yeah, 15. RORY McILROY: It was a tricky shot. To be honest, the chip shot didn't quite come off the way I wanted it to. I wanted to land it maybe another yard or two further on, but it took a pretty nice hop in the fringe and trundled on to the green. It was not exactly how I envisioned it but it worked out pretty well. Coming here with an improved short game definitely gives you confidence. It sort of gives you confidence the whole way through your bag, from the driver to the irons, just because you know you can be that little bit more aggressive. Q. What are your experiences with Fred, and are any of them off the course or kind of all just hanging around? RORY McILROY: Yeah, just hanging around tournaments. I haven't played that many tournaments with him, because I think when I came out here, he was maybe already on the Champions Tour or just about to get on the Champions Tour. Yeah, I've had a few sort of dealings with him or whatever, but not really anything‑‑ Q. Does anything stand out, any moment with him? RORY McILROY: Not particularly, no. RONALD TOWNSEND: Thank you all. 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
|