|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MASTERS TOURNAMENTApril 10, 2014Rory McIlroyQ. Great round today. When you bogey 18, it kind of puts a mask over all the good play today. Was that your own assessment? RORY MCILROY: It was a good day. It was solid. I think that they set the course up very difficult today. Some of the pin positions were tough to get close to. It was just, sometimes I wasn't putting the ball in the right place and taking two putts and getting out of there. For the most part I felt like I put my ball in the positions they needed to be in and it was just one of those days it was tough to get it close to the hole. The greens are firming up. The wind was all over the place. Anything under par today was a good score. Q. For you around here patience is probably been the strongest part of your game. RORY MCILROY: I think everyone needed to stay patient today. Because you had chances on the par‑5s, there were some tougher holes early that you could maybe take advantage of. But apart from that, the greens were getting firm on the back nine, the pin positions were difficult, you just really had to be wary of them. Anything in red numbers today was good. Q. Was 17 an example of where experience really helped? RORY MCILROY: Patrick got a little unlucky, he got a little bit of a kick forward off the back of the bunker. Jordan obviously went at the pin and came up a little short. But, yeah, it's a prime example. 16 as well. Par‑5 can, the majority of the guys are just going to hit it about 40 feet past of the pin and take their 2‑putt and get out of there. But, yeah, I think that coming back each and every year you do learn where not to miss it and you learn where you need to position your ball to give your self the easiest chance at birdie. Q. How did Patrick and Jordan handle the pressure? RORY MCILROY: I felt they handled it really well. They both had it under par, Jordan finished under par, Patrick didn't have a good finish, but I felt like they played well. Q. (No Microphone.) RORY MCILROY: Setup was much more difficult than it has been in the past. Going tomorrow afternoon the greens are going to be firmer. I wouldn't mind if they were a little softer. But it was a tough setup, I think that they really wanted to do that, they didn't want the scores to get too low. You can see by the boards nobody is going too low. Q. You had a couple of clutch putts went by. Did the speed surprise you? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, they're fast already. Yeah, by Sunday they're going to be pretty dicey. I think every year you play practice rounds here, then there's just a little extra fire in the course come Thursday. It's a little firmer, a little faster, it's to be expected here. Q. People are calling this that your grouping kind of a young marquee group. Did it have that type of feel to it? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think so. Jordan is young compared to Patrick and myself. Patrick's a year younger than me, but there's a lot of good young guys coming up, coming through, and I feel like I'm one of the older, well not older, but there's maybe Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, myself, these guys, Matteo Manassero, there's a lot of good young players coming up. Q. Given the difficulty and so early in the week, does it sort of reassess any or change anything going forward? RORY MCILROY: Not really. I was keeping an eye on the board, just to see how everyone else was doing, not who was leading or that, but just the scores. Because then you can sort of compare how you're doing and compare, okay, well, 1‑under is actually a good effort out here. So it seems like everyone was finding it pretty ‑‑ Scotty got off to a great start, was 4‑under through 10 and then finished off well, minus 3. And obviously Bill Haas. But apart from that, there's 2s, 1s, it's a score of anything around 70 today would have been, people would take that. Q. Are you ready for a really grinding week? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think more grinding on the greens than anything else, because they're getting firm and getting fast already. So even‑‑ there's putts that you hit that look like they're going in and just hit the edge and all of a sudden they're four or five feet by. And you really grind on those coming back. 18 was a prime example for me. Q. What happened there on 18? RORY MCILROY: I hit a really good shot actually just to the bottom tier and hit my first putt up and it just slid by the right side and just kept going a little bit, got a little low and I had like a 5‑ or 6‑footer coming back. I just didn't ‑‑ it just didn't turn as much as I thought it would and it caught the side of the hole and I still had a good 3‑, or 4‑footer coming back for a 3‑putt. Q. There's a mixture of guys on the leaderboard at the moment. The firmer and faster it gets, will it get a little tighter? RORY MCILROY: I think it brings the guys that don't hit it as far into the mix a little bit more. Because it's not just about power then, it's about precision, it's about putting your ball in the right place and it becomes more of a mental challenge than anything else, just playing to your spots. It almost becomes like chess, where you're just making these moves. That hasn't been my forte in the past, but I'll learn to love it this week. Q. Pin position on 11, I think you went to the right side there. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, those three trees, I was just going at that right tree and somewhere short of the bunker and again leaving yourself a 40 foot putt and trying to 2‑putt there. Q. What did you have in on 8? RORY MCILROY: I had 141 or something. I hit a wedge. Again, it is hard to know where the wind was coming from there at that time. And I hit it a little bit too far. Sometimes that apron grass is sort of sticky and a little bit into the green and I just hit it too hard. So it got away. Q. You looked very patient out there. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I was very patient out there. Even when I made bogey at 12, I didn't really push too hard. I had a couple of holes coming up where I could make birdies. So it was a good day for patience. 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
|