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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJune 16, 2013Rory McIlroyARDMORE, PENNSYLVANIA Q. Other than the actual score, what did you think of your experience here at Merion this week, the course and the fans? RORY McILROY: It was great. I thought it was a really good test. I thought the atmosphere out there‑‑ obviously when you're in a group like I was the first two days, it's going to be great anywhere. I enjoyed the week. Regardless of not playing my best. I thought it was a great venue and a venue that hopefully we come back to. Q. It's been 32 years since the U.S. Open came here. Would you like to see it back here and do you think it will? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean some guys want to keep that 30‑year gap going, I'm not too sure, just because it's beaten up on us so much. But I think it would be great to have it back here. Q. Why do you want it back? Why do you think the golf course, the logistics, the infrastructure‑‑ RORY McILROY: The logistics doesn't matter that much. It's a bit of a hassle at the start of the week, but you get used to it. It's so different. We rarely play golf courses now that are rarely under 7000 yards. And everyone coming in the week, it's short, it's wet, it looks like it's going to get ripped apart. It looks liken par is going to win. Q. What do you‑‑ what is the reason for your struggles? RORY McILROY: Everyone hits bad shots, but mine are just costing me too much at the minute. I'm seeing plenty of good shots out there, and sometimes at the U.S. Open good shots don't get rewarded like at other places. But that's fine. But the bad ones just need to come in a little bit. Q. You were struggling with execution? Are you seeing the ball come off the club and going what the hell is going on? RORY McILROY: Yeah, there's been shots like that. The drive on the second hole yesterday, it sort of goes straight right, and you're just‑‑ when you hit a tee shot like that at the start of the round, it's sort of in your head the rest of the day. And that's why I struggled off the tee yesterday. Q. Did you get a sense of any of the history that's happening at this course? RORY McILROY: Not really. I had dinner in the Trophy Room on Tuesday night with the Past Champions Dinner, so that was a pretty cool occasion.  But, no, when you're out there, you're just trying to think about playing and thinking about trying not to make bogeys. Q. (Inaudible.) RORY McILROY: It's hard. We all didn't play our best this week. Actually I thought the three of us, the first two rounds, Adam played the best, and he was the one with the worst score. But that is just what a U.S. Open does to you. We've had a bit of time line between here and The Open Championship and everyone will be trying to get ready for it. Q. There's been a difference of opinion about pin placements, fair, unfair, on the edge? RORY McILROY: On the edge. There's been a few this week that have been‑‑ yeah‑‑ like I can see that they're trying to protect the scores and stuff. But the pin position on 7 today, for example, was on the back of a slope. At least put it a couple of yards down so it's on the flat part of the green. They decided to put it on a ridge. It's a U.S. Open. Q. What can you take this week going forward to The Open Championship? RORY McILROY: I sound like a broken record, but I don't feel like my game is that far away. That's what I've been taking out of this week. It's a matter of trying to let it all click into place. I've got one tournament in between now and The Open Championship and that's the Irish Open. I'm looking forward to playing that. It's usually a good week, a week where I'm quite busy. But it's a good atmosphere and it's great to play in front of the home fans. It will be nice to get back there and play. Q. I understand the dynamics, but how tough is it to get adjusted to new equipment? RORY McILROY: It's definitely a different feeling. I guess at the start of the year‑‑ you know, the thing about new equipment, you can stand on the range all you want and hit balls, but you really need to test it on the course. The numbers could be great on the Trackman, but once you get out and test it in competitive play. And that's something I didn't do at the start of the year. I played‑‑ I only played twice by the end of February, I think. So I sort of needed to play a little bit more. If I was to do it all over again, I would have done things slightly differently. But you learn from that and it's hopefully something I'll never have to do in my career again.  So I don't mind taking three months to figure it out and go from there. Q. Slow play was a big part of the week with rain. Where are you at with where it's going, slow play? RORY McILROY: Yeah, it's‑‑ it needs to be dealt with. Someone just had a hole‑in‑one. It needs to be dealt with because people follow our example, follow our lead. And if recreational golfers are playing in five hours or five and a half hours, that's just not‑‑ people these days don't have that time to go and play golf. So it's going to drive people away from the game. You've got to find a way to make it a lot quicker. I'm a fast player, so I obviously am very against slow play. But they're clamping down on it now, which is good. It's not that there's‑‑ there's a few slow guys out here. It's not like there's 50 percent are slow and 50 percent are quick. There's a few and they're the ones that just need to pick up the pace a little bit. Q. Talk about what happened on 11 and why your frustration, I guess, got the better of you? RORY McILROY: Yeah, I mean I just hit a bad tee shot into the creek there, and then‑‑ what you don't want to do as a golfer is follow one mistake with another, and that's what I did. And obviously I got a bit frustrated there. Yeah, it's a hole that you want to try to take advantage of. It's a hole that you want to at least give yourself a birdie chance. And you walk off with a quad and it's not very good. Q. It's a combination of maybe a week of frustration? RORY McILROY: Yeah, exactly. I think that's what this tournament does to you. At one point or another it's got the better of you, and it definitely did this weekend. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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