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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY NATIONWIDE INSURANCEMay 29, 2014Rory McIlroyDUBLIN, OHIO THE MODERATOR: Great round today, continuing that great play from last week. If you could, some opening comments. RORY MCILROY: Yeah, felt very comfortable out there again on the golf course. Got off to a solid start, birdieing two of the first four holes, and then picked up another couple later on in the front nine and turned in 4‑under, which is a solid start without doing anything really special. And then my round sort of caught fire at the start of the back nine, birdieing 10 from the right rough after a pretty average drive. And then making the eagle on 11 to get to 7‑under. That's when I thought that it could be a pretty good round. I made a bit of a mess of 14. But it was nice to get those couple of shots back straightaway again. Just really happy with my game, happy with how I played, and just trying to keep this going for the rest of the week. Q. Can you talk us through what the problems were with the left knee? RORY MCILROY: I felt like I tweaked it on my second shot on the 7th. I think ‑‑ I wear spikes, so sometimes your foot can get stuck in the ground and you can torque your knee a little too much. I think that's what I did, I tweaked it. The inside of it is sore, it's a little swollen. Go see the physio and get some treatment and get ice on it, and hopefully it will be okay for tomorrow. Haven't really had it before. Sort of strange. So I came here with‑‑ tweaked my back on Friday evening at Wentworth and played through that at the weekend last weekend. And I tweaked my knee here this week. But I'll be okay. Some treatment and I should be fine for the morning. Q. Do you remember the last time you had this good of a putting round? And you talked in Charlotte about your putting problems at the Masters with the alignment and aiming and what have you. Are you still working on that at all or is it safe to say that those problems are gone? RORY MCILROY: I think my best putting round is my last one. The last day at Wentworth I putted really nicely. I feel since I started to work with lining the ball up and using that, it's been much better. I'm more confident. I have my‑‑ I trust when I'm aiming a lot more. Even putts like‑‑ tricky putts like the last hole there to save par, you line it up and you know you've read the putt right and you can just go ahead and hole the putt. And you're really happy with that, and I really think I've found something with my putting. Q. When was it again you started lining up the‑‑ RORY MCILROY: I guess straight after the Masters I started to work on it, and then ‑‑ so the last, I guess, three tournaments. Q. Curious if a little bit of adversity seems to make you focus more or just enjoy golf more, you're having more fun when there's greater challenges around you? Explain what's going on right now with the good scores? RORY MCILROY: I don't think it's anything more than just being confident with my game. I was expecting this to happen. I've been playing well.  I've been posting good numbers, good rounds. And I knew my game was close. And honestly I don't think it's anything to do with what's happening off the golf course. It's just I've been trending in the right direction, and it's starting to all come together. Q. This is a follow‑off of that. So from the time you tweaked your knee you were 7‑under. How do you do that? How do you manage the pain, the swelling? It looked like you were trying to stretch it. You were talking to J.P. Just how do you put together 7‑under when you're in physical distress? RORY MCILROY: I don't know. It was sort of like I tweaked it and then you have three or four minutes until the next shot. So you can sort of walk it off a little bit and it eases. And after the next shot it's painful again and you can walk it off. And when you're over the shot, you're not thinking about your knee, you're thinking about the shot at hand and what you're trying to do with it. And I knew it was going to hurt a little going after a couple of tee shots or hitting those 2‑irons into the par 5s, but I knew that I'd get over it and get on with it. And I'll get some treatment tonight, and hopefully it makes it feel a little better for the morning. But just something I'll have to manage this week, and then for ‑‑ obviously looking ahead to the U.S. Open, making sure that my body's in good order going in there. Q. Couple of different questions. One, what happened there on 14 with the second shot? And then, second of all, it's rare that guys play this well two weeks in a row, especially coming off a win. Just curious, when you arrived here, was it more of a continuation of what you have done with Wentworth last week? And, secondly‑‑ or was it a matter of just sort of feeling something different when you got here this week? RORY MCILROY: The second shot on 14, I had 113 to the pin. And it was downwind. I hit my full sand wedge 116. I was trying to take a little bit off it making sure I didn't leak it to the right and catch a slope. So I give it a little bit extra just at the bottom and I flipped it left, just wasn't a good shot. It wasn't a good swing. The thought process wasn't right on it. It was just bad. And I didn't‑‑ I left it in the bunker and just made a mess of the hole. But, yeah, it wasn't‑‑ but obviously it was nice to bounce back with eagle. And I think it is just a continuation of playing well last week in Wentworth. And I think it feels‑‑ with the long flight and with having a few days, it feels‑‑ I don't know, it's almost if I had went and played in Sweden this week on the European Tour, I don't know if I would've played as well, but because of the long flight and the travel and everything, you ‑‑ Monday seemed like a long day and it just sort of felt like when I got here it was just a different tour. You're getting ready for the U.S. Open. It's a big tournament, the Memorial in itself. And I prepared well. I came here early Tuesday morning, practiced, did a good session on the range yesterday after the Pro‑Am in the afternoon, so I've been putting a lot of work in, and it seems to be paying off. Q. What were the irons on the par 5s? RORY MCILROY: 4‑iron on 11 and 5‑iron on the 15. Q. And on 14 you were aiming away from the flag with the slope and everything on the first shot. What kind of lie do you have? And then on the second one, what happened there that you did go at the flag and bring the slope into play? RORY MCILROY: I was plugged on the downslope on 14. So it was either leave the ball in the bunker just in front of me and then try and get it up‑and‑down from there. What I was trying to do was get the ball out of the bunker and sort of around the front of the green so I could have a putt up the green and make my 5 and take my medicine. And just didn't come off the way that I wanted it to. And then where it was in the bunker, I sort of had to go for the pin. If I had to hit a good bunker shot, I might have been able to get it within six or eight feet, but it just ran on. Q. Couple of years ago during the FedEx playoffs you won twice in a short span, and just wonder if you‑‑ RORY MCILROY: Three in four weeks. Q. Right. That's right. PGA also. (Laughter.) Do you just try to keep it going when you're on a roll like that, or are you ever fearful of a let‑down, you know, after a‑‑ RORY MCILROY: Yeah, after a win. I think you're always fearful of a let‑down after a win when it's either new to you or you haven't done it in a while or whatever. But I think the confidence that a win gives you and you're making a lot of birdies and all you're seeing is trying to hit the ball close and make the putts. I'm not saying the game feels easy, but you're on a roll where you have momentum and you're looking to get under par and you're looking to shoot low scores. But I've won‑‑ I haven't won‑‑ I mean, I've won 12 times in my career and six on the PGA TOUR. But I think I'm used to winning enough now. I know how it feels; that going into the next week there shouldn't be a let‑down, it's just keep it going, keep doing the right things, and keep shooting low scores. Q. Couple years ago you shared with us how Jack sort of mentored you a little bit down in Palm Beach The Bear's Club. Last year when you were struggling or anytime this year, have you had any conversations with him in that regard in any way that could help you out? RORY MCILROY: A little bit, yeah. I mean, he's always around The Bear's Club and you bump into him and stuff, always asks how my game is, how I'm feeling. This year it's usually been, Yeah, pretty good, I've been doing well, whatever. But it's always nice to have someone like that to talk to if you ever need to. Because he's won 18 majors and he's done so much in the game and had so much success, that when he talked to me about a little bad run of form or slump, as he called it, from, what was it, '67 to '70 or something like that where he didn't win a major‑‑ whew, I mean, terrible slump‑‑ but I remember him talking to me about that last year and what he felt, what he felt he needed to do to get back to his peak. But, yeah, I mean, it's always great to have a chat with him. Ran into him earlier in the week, him and Barbara, and congratulated me on last week and stuff. It's cool just to be able to do that sort of stuff with him. Q. Generally we're a bit of a curious lot, reporters, and don't usually believe in coincidences. So I guess the question is: When we have a big decision to make, anybody has a big decision to make, once they finally make it, it takes the pressure off. I guess my question to you, in any way, shape, or form, has that happened to you over the last two weeks? RORY MCILROY: No. No, because my game's been in good shape. And this has been coming. It's been coming. My performances have been really good, been shooting really good scores. There's just been runs of holes in tournaments where I haven't played so well and I've shot it 4‑ or 5‑over in the space of nine holes, and that's really just derailed my tournament. Last week I just didn't do that. And that's down to nothing more than hitting good golf shots and hitting good putts and limiting my mistakes whenever I get in trouble on the golf course. Q. That being said, when you walked off of, after the double, were you even thinking about that? RORY MCILROY: No. I was honestly just thinking about how sore my knee was going to be after I hit my tee shot on 15 really hard (laughter). Q. You kind of touched on this, but why did you think you were close? When you had a string of top 10s, but they were back‑door top 10s, different from Abu Dhabi, from Honda, when you ‑‑ what was different about your game? RORY MCILROY: I was hitting a lot of quality shots. I was hitting like a lot of iron shots close, I was making a lot of birdies. And I know my game is close when I'm making‑‑ maybe making six or seven birdies in a row but shooting 1‑ or 2‑under. I know my game is close then because it's much easier to limit the mistakes than it is to go out and have to find birdies somehow. If you're making two birdies a round and then a bogey and it's a little‑‑ you can't quite get going, and I think I alluded to that a few weeks ago: It's much easier to limit the mistakes than it is to go out and try to find these birdies. And I've just been able to do that a bit better the last couple of weeks. Q. Some of the players this morning talked about how scorable the course was with‑‑ it was kind of soft with no wind. I wondered after your practice rounds the last two days, did you expect to see the scores and shoot the score that you did today? RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, I can see low scores around this golf course. Generous fairways. And if you can get your ball on those fairways and you're on with your iron play and your putting, there's low scores out there. The par 5s are reachable, especially for the longer guys. Like Bubba and Keegan are up there, I see. So guys like that and myself and Adam and Jason that I played with today, we can reach all the par 5s, and you take advantage of those. So I actually thought the course was a little firmer yesterday than it was today. I don't know why. It just seemed it played a little softer. But the course is very scorable, great conditions. And you've got guys that are this good on TOUR, they're going to take advantage of that. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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