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100TH OPEN DE FRANCE

June 29, 2016

Rory McIlroy

Paris, France

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, welcome. Just give us your thoughts for the week ahead. How is your form, and obviously a special week, 100th Open de France.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, happy to be back in France. It's been a long time since I've played in the French Open, 2010. I was supposed to play in 2011 but after the win at the U.S. Open, I took a month off to enjoy myself.

But yeah, it's good to be back. I mean, I've been wanting to come back for awhile, and being the 100th anniversary and just two years to The Ryder Cup, I thought it was a good thing to come and support the tournament, support The European Tour and familiarise myself with the golf course for two years' time.

And last time I played here, I finished one shot out of the playoff. So I've had some good form on this golf course and hopefully I can continue that this week.

Q. Can you explain to us what are the key shots to play on this course? And which holes can you be more aggressive and which holes do you have to be conservative?
RORY McILROY: I think very important here is off the tee. If you can place your ball in the right positions off the tee, it's very important. I actually haven't been out on the golf course yet, so I don't know how thick the rough is, but I'm imagining it will be pretty thick with all the rain that's been here over the last few weeks. If you can put your ball in play off the tee, I think that's very important.

And then there's a few holes where you have to be conservative and try to take your pars. The ones that spring to mind, the seventh hole, for example; just try and put it up in the fairway and take your four. I think you can be maybe a little aggressive on the par 5s, try to get it down there. Most of the par 5s are reachable.

I'm not sure about 14 this week. I'm not sure if that will be quite reachable with how soft it is this week. But the other par 5, you can try to take advantage of and try to make birdies there.

Q. The subplot this week is obviously the double points and a lot of players who are still far down the list can get themselves up the list; makes it interesting for everyone, doesn't it?
RORY McILROY: It does. I think that was one of the incentives to come here, maybe not for myself, but for some of the other guys. I think a few guys that aren't playing might regret it, depending on what happens when the team is picked at the end of August or September or whatever it is.

But then, for example, you've got Shane who was in a tough position, he wins his first World Golf Championships last year and naturally you want to go and try to defend your title. So he was put in a tough position, just because of the way the schedule was this year.

But yeah, you could see many guys that are down the list and have a good week this week, they can put themselves right into contention for either an automatic place or a pick. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds.

Q. You mentioned Shane, and obviously the latest in what has now become a long line of --
RORY McILROY: Mosquito? (Laughter).

Q. Shane's become the latest in what's become quite a long line to pull out now of Rio. Players have said it's for Zika; players have said it's for scheduling. Does it beg the question: Should golf even be at the Olympics?
RORY McILROY: I think that's not for me to say. I wasn't a part of the process. The R&A and some of the other bodies that run our sport thought it was a great idea, and obviously it is, to try and get golf into different markets, and the Olympics is obviously a great platform to do that.

I don't know. I've said to people, I have four Olympic Games a year. That's my pinnacle. That's what I play for. That's what I'll be remembered for. But again, I think as a tool to grow the game around the world, I think it's great and I think that golf in the Olympics is great for that.

Some people argue that it would have been better to send amateurs there, but the whole reason that golf is in the Olympics is because they wanted the best players to go and compete. But unfortunately with where it is this year, people just aren't comfortable going down there and putting themselves or their family at risk.

It's an unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in. I'd say if the Olympic Games were in most other cities or most other countries in the world this year, you wouldn't find as many people not wanting to go and participate.

Q. Just following on from that, do you think it's at all embarrassing for the game that so many top players have pulled out, than other athletes?
RORY McILROY: I don't think it's embarrassing for the game because most other athletes dream their whole lives of competing in the Olympics, winning an Olympic Gold, and we haven't. We dream of winning Claret Jugs and we dream of winning green jackets. Whether that makes golf look insular in any way; but it's just the way it is.

So in a way, I think with all the negative press that the game has received over the past sort of week or so since this all came out, I don't think it will have any long-lasting effect, but it's been a bit of a difficult time for golf over the past sort of ten days.

Q. And we haven't seen you since the U.S. Open. Can you assess what went on there? Was that the most disappointing cut you've missed?
RORY McILROY: No, Muirfield in 2013 was still the most disappointing. That was the lowest point I've ever been at in my professional career. That was obviously disappointing. But obviously sometimes you need these setbacks to reassess things and think about what you need to do to move forward.

I've worked with Michael a lot last week, and working on a couple of things, bad habits that crept into my game. I've been working hard on those and sort of trying to bed them in.

We sort of started, what was it, Friday afternoon, at the U.S. Open, had a good range session there. Sort of talked about a few things. I'm not one to try and tinker with things throughout a tournament, especially a major, but I sort of had no choice. I needed to try and do something.

We've continued on that road and try to put things right, and it's still a work-in-progress. But it might have been a blessing in disguise, just because I need to work on a few things, and as I said, fallen into a few bad habits. But I'm gradually trying to get myself out of it.

Q. Obviously there is no vaccine for Zika, and you did say a few weeks ago, you had your jabs, etc. So what tipped you to pulling out? And secondly, if I can also ask, obviously none of the top women golfers have said they are not going yet. So is there any reason for the disparity?
RORY McILROY: I guess some of the top women golfers might not have plans to have children in the next six months to a year, where that's maybe different with some of the men. You've got Shane who has just got married. Jason Day has a young family. I'm getting married next year.

I think you can't really compare apples-to-apples because we're just in a different position than they are. I'd say 90 per cent of the athletes going to the Olympics are single and have no plans to start a family in the near future. Whereas, there are some golfers that are in that position and in that scenario.

For example, I was speaking to PÃ¡draig Harrington about it last night. He's not planning on having any more children, that's sort of over for him, so there's no risk of him putting Caroline at risk or his future children at risk going forward. Where I think there's just some doubt about if you do -- I know it's very low-risk, but even if you do contract it down there, you don't want to take any risk when it comes to that stuff.

Q. What was the tip, after you've had your jabs.
RORY McILROY: For me, it was I didn't want to disappoint people. I didn't want to disappoint Paul McGinley who I've become very close with, and that was probably one of the toughest phone calls I've had to make, because we've talked about it so much. We've done so much work, put work into it: Got accommodation, got security down there, got a chef in, got everything, got everything planned out. As you said, I got my jabs; I had two dead shoulders for about four days.

But then at the end of the day, if I'm not just not a hundred per cent comfortable going down there, I just don't want to put it at risk. There's another Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, and I'm more than happy to wait until then to get that Olympic experience then.

Q. When you talk about the Olympics and children, did you see that open letter was published the Children's Hospital from Rio. What was the reaction and how do you respond to that?
RORY McILROY: For me, I feel like I do enough for charity. I think you all know that I do enough for charity and I focus on causes that are close to home. I know it's a huge concern down there and they are trying to protect mothers and their children.

Look, if I had of been down there and things had of been different, of course I would go and try to visit the hospital and try to raise awareness. Maybe another time.

Q. Will you go back to them in your own time sort of formally?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I'll write a letter back to them. Show them the decency is courtesy to write a letter back; I guess explain my concerns on why I'm not going down there.

Q. Going back to what you said about refocusing after the U.S. Open, it's been a bit of a theme in your career going back to the Masters, where you use the setbacks to your advantage; are you pretty confident that will be the case as well?
RORY McILROY: I really think you need to. You need to use the setbacks to learn and grow and move forward. And it was -- look, it's very disappointing to miss the cut at the U.S. Open and forego a chance to win another major championship.

But at the same time, I had to aggressive a few things and it was almost like it needed to happen, just to assess everything and try to make a few changes where they needed to. I was trying to play few a few things and I just needed to go back to the drawing board a little bit and work on a few things.

I felt like I've always used setbacks well. I've always learned from my mistakes and I think it's been one of the great things about my career that any time I've had a setback, I've usually come back pretty well. There's no reason why I can't do that again.

Q. Does it tend to ramp up the determination, as well, especially that you missed the Open last year?
RORY McILROY: Yeah, it does. Definitely won't be playing any football matches from now until The Open. Yeah, it does. It gives you a lot of determination and motivation to come back and be better and be stronger and play better.

At the end of the day, that's what I'm trying to do. Try to use those disappointments as fuel for the fire going forward and hopefully, as I said, I can get to where I want to in my golf swing and the way I'm playing and have a good run this summer.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Rory, thank you. Good luck this week.

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