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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCEMay 28, 2014Rory McIlroyDUBLIN, OHIO THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Rory McIlroy here to the interview room. Thank you for joining us. Coming off an exciting week. Congratulations to your victory at Wentworth this past week. I know you've enjoyed some success at Muirfield in the past. I'll turn it over to you for some opening comments on being here. RORY MCILROY: Delighted to be back here. Muirfield Village, I think it's one of the best events on the TOUR, one of the best events that we have. Great golf course. It's run incredibly well, obviously, with Jack being so heavily involved. A lot of guys want to show up and show their support for the tournament. And he's assembled one of the best fields of the year. So it's good to be here, obviously coming off the back of a win last week. My game feels in really good shape. It has felt in good shape for the last few months. And it was really nice to get that win at the weekend and gives me some confidence coming into here and obviously the U.S. Open in a couple of weeks' time. So delighted to be back. Looking forward to getting ready and getting started in the tournament tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. As you mentioned, you had some good tournaments this year without a win. How important was it to get one just to sort of feel like all that effort is being rewarded after a lot of close calls and top 10s and what have you? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, definitely, I felt like I could have won‑‑ I came close in Abu Dhabi, the first tournament of the year for me. And I felt like I let one slip away at the Honda, shooting a 74 on Sunday. And then I wasn't really getting into contention, but I was having good weekends, posting top 10s. So I knew my game was good enough to get into contention. And I didn't really do that in sort of Houston, Masters, Quail Hollow, TPC. I finished the tournaments well, but never really had a chance to win. And then first time I did have a chance to win last week, I'm able to close it off. So it was really nice to do that, and that gives me confidence knowing that my game is holding up under pressure when it matters. Q. First of all, mentioning that you had been playing well, what is the difference between playing well but not winning and winning? RORY MCILROY: I think for me it's been a stretch of nine holes at some point during the tournament where I've maybe shot 3, 4, 5 over par and at the weekend I've lost by 2 or 3. It happened more than once at Sawgrass. I didn't get off to very good starts at all on the front nine. It happened at Quail Hollow as well a little bit. I had three really bad Fridays in a row, Masters, Quail Hollow, TPC. I think that's what really held me back. And I didn't have one of those stretches last week. I didn't have a stretch where I went, okay, I played the front nine and 3 over par on Friday but it was in tough conditions and came back to shoot 1 under par. So it's being able to manage a game when you're not in total control of it and you can turn those 74s and 75s into 71s. Makes a lot of difference. Q. Have you had a chance to scout out Pinehurst? RORY MCILROY: Not yet. I'm going to go Sunday night from here and I'll spend Monday, Tuesday up at Pinehurst and see what it's like. And then go back home to Florida for a few days and then go back up after the weekend. Q. Just from a mental or confidence standpoint, maybe, how important was last week's win to you from the standpoint of you've often talked about sort of your performance on the course and things off the course being sort of joined at the hip, if you will. Just from, like I said, a mental or a confidence standpoint, and the fact that you had some opportunities this year to win, how important was that win last week? RORY MCILROY: I think it was very important. I think I showed quite a lot of mental strength or focus or whatever you want to call it last week during the whole tournament. And when I really needed to play well and hole some putts and get it up‑and‑down when I needed to, I was able to do it. So I think mentally it gave me a lot of confidence knowing, as I just said before, that when I did get myself into contention I could close it out, which I wasn't able to do at Honda, which is really the last time I did get myself in contention. So it was nice to be able to close it out in the way that I did. And, yeah, it gives me a lot of confidence going to I guess the second half of the season. Q. And a follow‑on on Pinehurst. What, if anything, do you remember from '05, if you watch it on TV, and then, secondly, of what you do know of the golf course, is there anything that sort of stands out about it that you like or dislike, maybe? RORY MCILROY: Honestly, I don't remember. I remember Michael Campbell won obviously. And I think it's hard to compare because the golf course is going to be so different this year. No rough. It's going to be a different U.S. Open. It's going to be a U.S. Open we aren't used to seeing in terms of how it plays off the tee. And even when you miss greens, guys aren't chopping out of five‑, six‑inch rough. It's you're going to have to have a lot of imagination around the greens, bump it into slopes, putt up the hills. There's going to be a lot of visualization and imagination needed. And that's why I'm going to go up there early and see what I need, what different shots that I need around the greens. But from what I hear, I'm looking forward to the fairways are going to be a little more generous than they usually are at a U.S. Open and it will encourage guys to get driver in their hand. It's going to be a long golf course, so you get driver in your hand and you can be aggressive off the tee, which obviously I like. So really looking forward to seeing it next week and seeing what sort of challenges it's going to present. Q. Not you specifically but golfers generally, is there one thing that you have to be locked in with your game to win here, or is it multiple things? RORY MCILROY: Here at this golf course? I think it's multiple things. It's one of the more generous courses off the tee that we play all year. You've got to drive the ball well, but it's pretty generous off the tee. But you can't‑‑ the fairways are wide, so you shouldn't miss fairways. If you do miss fairways, you're going to get yourself into trouble because the rough is pretty thick this week and the fairway bunkering can be deep in some holes. I think iron play and putting and that sort of‑‑ I think it's more a second‑shot golf course.  A little bit like Augusta in that way. You can hit‑‑ as I said, it's generous off the fairway but then the greens are quite sloping and some pin positions are very tricky. So I think you've got to be on top of your iron play. And then with how good the greens are here, if you can get on a run with your putting, you can start to hole some putts. Q. I'm going to ask you a question you probably don't want to answer, but it's being reported everywhere that you broke up with Caroline over the phone in a three‑minute conversation and she thought it was a joke at first. In an effort to be fair, we wondered if we could hear your side of the story or if you care to comment. RORY MCILROY: I'm here to talk about my golf. Q. The whole thing you endured last week, looking back, would it have been better to not make a public announcement just for your own sake, let it come out as it comes out, whenever, or would that have been worse? You obviously in that news conference appeared pretty down and then had to deal with it, from all of us, what have you. But looking back, would that have been easier or maybe not to keep it in? RORY MCILROY: Honestly, I don't know. It's one of those things that it was a very public relationship. And I thought it was best that‑‑ instead of letting it linger and rumors, just to have it right there as soon as possible. Q. You know what it's like to be in a public eye when you just turn pro young. When you look at what Justin Rose went through when he first turned pro, those 21 missed cuts, having experienced the expectations and the public, just a magnifying glass, is that maybe‑‑ what does that say about him and does it make you look at him any differently than you would have whether he won a major or not? RORY MCILROY:  Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think it puts a lot of things in perspective as well. You think you're going through a struggle where you miss a couple of cuts in a row, and then you look back at Justin and his 21 missed cuts and even‑‑ you know, okay, he won the U.S. Open last year and it's a great achievement, but even coming back, going back a few years when he won the European Order of Merit back in like '07, '08, it's a big achievement from where he was. But everyone matures at different times, and it obviously just took Justin a little bit longer to adjust to whether it was life on TOUR or the professional game or whatever it was. But he's an incredibly hard worker. I think everyone can see that. You can see him on the range with Sean all the time and working hard on his game and see him in the gym. And he's doing the right thing. So obviously even during that period where he was missing all those cuts, he was, I'm sure, still working hard doing the same things. And all that hard work paid off in the end. And obviously I was very happy to see him win last year at Merion on Father's Day. His father was a huge influence in his life, just like all of our fathers are in some way. And I was really happy to see him win. Q. You just talked about Justin and his maturity and every player matures differently. Can you talk about where you are in your maturation process, both on the course and off the course? RORY MCILROY: I think on the golf course I'm in a good point. I think there's been a few things that have happened in my life in the last couple of years that have been huge learning processes, whether it be splitting with a management company or new equipment or whatever else that it may be. That's been a huge learning process. And I think every time you fear some sort of adversity like that you learn from it and you become more mature and you make better decisions the next time. And in that way I'm definitely learning and I'm maturing. And I think I'm pretty mature for a 25‑year‑old. If you were to get a few of my friends up here talking to you, they'd probably say the same thing. I mean, on the course I'm‑‑ I'm really happy with how I don't let runs get away from me anymore and I can fight back and I don't let my shoulder slump or my head get down. I'm proud of myself in that way on the golf course. And off the course, you know, I've had, as I said, a few tough learning curves. And I've learned from them and trying to become more mature and make better decisions as well. Q. Do you think when you decide to get involved in the second relationship or another relationship that you would be as public with it as you were with this one? RORY MCILROY: I don't know. It's only been a week, so I'm not thinking that far ahead, to be honest. Q. For 25, that was a good answer.              (Laughter). Q. You mentioned about your good success or near successes earlier in the year and before last week. Can you quantify how important your win in Australia at the end of last year was getting you back on the path to success? RORY MCILROY: It really was. I went to Australia again playing pretty well. I had a good couple of weeks in October where I felt like my game was coming back in some way. I went to Korea, finished second there. And then I finished top 10 in the World Golf Championship in Shanghai. I think I finished 5th in Dubai at the end of the season event in the European Tour. I felt like my game was in good shape. Had a really good practice week in Dubai the week before I went on to Sydney. I think it was important to get the win. I don't think it was like a necessity to get the win. But I was just really pleased in the way that I won the tournament. You're going down there, it's Scotty for the Triple Crown or whatever you want to call it and being the Masters champion and everything, and being able to take him down the back nine and be able to come out on top, that pleased me more than anything else. And I knew then that my game was in good shape because if you can handle that sort of pressure, you know that you're going to be able to handle anything. Even if it wasn't a major. But you're still battling one of the best players in the world. Even we played together on Saturday as well, so for 36 holes and being able to take him down was very satisfying. Q. Are you any closer to making a decision as to who you'll represent at the Olympics? RORY MCILROY: No, not really. I think we've had a few conversations with the R&A and IOC and talking about taking the decision out of my hands in some way. It's still ‑‑ it's not as far away as it was. It's a couple of years away. But I've still got a bit of time to sort of think about it. And I think 2016 is going to be a very busy golf season with that and the Olympics and everything else that's going to be going on. So, yeah, it's one of those things that I just gotta be 100percent comfortable with whatever I decide and go with it. Q. Will it be easy to be 100percent comfortable given how delicate the situation is that you're in with that? RORY MCILROY: Of course I won't be a hundred percent comf‑ ‑‑ I mean, I should be. I mean, if you're going to the Olympics and representing a country, you would think you would want to be pretty sure that's the country you want to represent. But, yeah, it's a delicate subject. And what Graeme did last year with playing in the World Cup took the decision out of his hands. So maybe I'll do something similar, who knows. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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