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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 12, 2019

Rory McIlroy

Pebble Beach, California

MIKE TROSTEL: It's my pleasure to welcome the 2011 U.S. Open champion, Rory McIlroy, into the Media Center. He's playing in his 11th U.S. Open and still holds the 72-hole record for the U.S. Open, 268, set back in 2011.

Obviously a great week last week at the Canadian Open, 64, 61 at the weekend. I have to think you're feeling pretty good about the state of your game heading in.

RORY MCILROY: Yeah. Obviously it's a nice little confidence boost coming into this tournament. I feel like my game has been in pretty good shape all year, and it was nice to validate the good work that I've been putting in with another win.

And I feel like the golf that I played last week is what I'm capable of and the golf that I'll obviously try to produce more often. You're obviously not going to go out and shoot those scores every weekend, but it's nice when it happens. It was a nice way to come into this tournament.

The last few years I haven't played the week before, and I'm not sure that was the right plan of attack for me. So to come in and have a nice bit of golf under my belt I think will hopefully stand me in good stead for this week.

MIKE TROSTEL: You made a switch from carrying three wedges to four in preparation for Pebble Beach. What was the strategy behind that?

RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think if you look at the length of this golf course, and it's obviously not one of the longest golf courses that we play all year, but there's so many approach shots, if you do drive it well, between sort of 130 and 150 yards, obviously there's some approach shots that are much longer than that as well, but I just wanted to give myself every possible option in terms of yardages and shots that I could play.

And if I've learned one thing about the U.S. Open overall these years is your distance control has to be spot on. That was the reason for putting that extra wedge in. And I got a nice bit of practice with it last week, and feeling good about the setup.

I think as well this week I can go without the 3-iron. I don't have a 3-iron in my bag. I strengthened my 4-iron by a degree. It goes just a touch further than it usually does. But there are holes out here that I'll hit that off the tee as well.

I sort of started to think about the setup that I needed for this week a few weeks ago. I've played two tournaments with that setup, and it's worked pretty well. Yeah, I feel like everything is ready to go for this week.

Q. Can you tell us, first of all, how the hangover was on Monday? And is it true that you gave your putter away after the last round at the Canadian Open?
RORY MCILROY: No. So first of all, the hangover wasn't too bad. I just had a couple of glasses of wine on the plane on the way here, and that was it. Sort of more tired. And even that three-hour time change from the East Coast to the West Coast, it gets you that first couple of days. I took it easy Monday morning. I came out here and did a little bit of practice Monday afternoon. Yeah. I felt good.

And, no, the -- so I was -- is it the director of Golf Canada, Laurence? I traded him. He gave me a Raptors jersey, and I gave him my putter and thought he was going to give it to Harry up at the scoring area or whatever. And I saw Harry. He goes, Where's your putter? And I said, I better go find it. So, no, I definitely didn't give it away. I know I've done some stupid things in the past, but that would have been right up there.

Q. Many congratulations on your win in Canada. You used the word "freedom" after that particular victory. Can you talk more about that and just give us a sense of how liberated you're feeling right now.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think when you're playing up there in the final rounds of tournaments and you're up around the lead, it's easier said than done to play with freedom. And I think that how I played last weekend up around the lead. I know what I'm capable of, and it's just about trying to get that out of myself just a little more often.

But it's obviously very hard to play with that amount of freedom if you're not confident in your golf swing and you're not confident in what you're doing with your game.

So I felt really comfortable with everything for the last few weeks. Some of it's sort of minor swing changes that I've been trying to make. Not changes, but just little tweaks. I felt like they started to bed in over the weekend at Memorial that I missed the cut. And I even said before the tournament last week I felt like that missed cut at the Memorial was a blessing in disguise. It let me work on my game a little more.

Those two rounds highlighted a couple of things that I still needed to work on. And I think just from seeing good shots and making good swings on the range, to then seeing good shots, making good swings on the golf course, then you can start to play with a little bit of freedom and fire.

And that's what I did over the weekend there. I just -- I hit driver. I hit it hard. I played with less technical thoughts, and that was really it. And, again, I wish I could go out and do that every single final round, but it takes a while to get to that point.

And last week was I guess a great -- I think I proved to myself that I can go out and I can do that, and hopefully I can do that more often.

Q. It wasn't as though you hadn't won this year. So interesting choice of words there, right? I wonder if I could follow up with how liberating would a first major victory since 2014 now be at this point?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, liberating, satisfying, I mean, there's a lot of different words you could use to describe what it would feel like. But, yeah, I think I had a chat with -- at the Champions reunion last night -- which was a lot of fun. I had a chat with Johnny Miller, and Johnny said, You look at the history of major championships, that first round is so important. I said, I know. My first rounds at Augusta and Bethpage this year just sort of put me a little bit behind the eight ball. And it's hard to catch up. Especially, you know, major championships are played on the toughest courses, and you start to chase on those really tough courses, it's hard to do that.

I think getting back to winning, the majors that I've won, I've started every single one of them really well, runs in sort of the mid-60s, and I think that's sort of what's held me back a little bit. If I can take that freedom that I played with on Saturday and Sunday last week and put that into tomorrow and play with that sort of freedom and get off to a good start, I'll be right -- hopefully right in the tournament from the get-go and stay there.

Q. I'm assuming, given your upbringing in Northern Ireland, you've dealt with wind a lot playing golf. Could you share your best story of why wind torments golfers so much and maybe one example of when you conquered it and one example of when it messed with your mind?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think there's different -- not different types of wind, but there's wind that you get, say, at a course like this, or a seaside course, which is it's simple, right? It might gust a little bit, but it's very constant. It's coming out of the same direction. It's not swirling in trees. So I think it's a little easier to navigate your way around.

But then when you get into -- I think it would be much easier to play in wind here at Pebble than it would to, say, play in wind at Spyglass, because you're in the trees and it's swirling and a ball that stays in the trees, and the low ball flight is going to do something completely different than a ball that gets up above the trees.

I think that's why for the most part it looks like guys handle wind on the coast a lot better than they do -- you'll hear guys say it switched on me or it's tricky. And it does. Sometimes when it's windy and the wind is swirling and it's gusting, it's all about hitting the shot at the right time.

You even go back to the first major of the year at Augusta, and the guys that were hitting it into the water on 12 coming down the stretch, that was probably not hitting it at the right time. But it gets hit by a gust of wind that they couldn't feel.

But I think like a course like this, Pebble, it's going to be coming out of the west every day. It's sort of 11, 12 miles an hour, whatever it's going to be. So you're sort of prepared for it. You know what it's going to do, and it's not going to surprise you.

Where I feel when you play more inland and you've got wind, it can surprise you a little bit more, guessing a bit more.

Q. Are you planning on wearing the Raptors jersey here in Warriors country?
RORY MCILROY: No. No, sir. Neutral.

Q. Did you bring it this week?
RORY MCILROY: I did. I did. It would be nice. I'm all for dominance in sports, and I think it's a cool thing. But it would be -- I followed the whole Finals -- or the whole playoffs, and I guess it would be cool for -- the atmosphere up there last week was unbelievable. I felt like the whole country was behind that team.

But, no, I'll be obviously an interested onlooker this week. And it's a nice distraction from what we're doing. But that Raptors jersey this week is probably staying in the suitcase.

Q. You've won in back-to-back starts before. Is there some secret formula for keeping that momentum going?
RORY MCILROY: I don't think so. I think it's -- I read a little bit of what Brooks said yesterday in terms of he feels like he's in his prime and why would you reflect now. I'll reflect when I'm done.

And it's a bit like that. Last week is over, it's done, and you move on to the next week. And I keep saying that's what's wonderful about golf, whether you win or lose, you go to the next week and it's sort of forgotten about and you start again.

So I think that's it. You can't dwell on success or failure, and you just move forward and keep looking forward. And I think that's the best way to approach if you win one week and you're trying to go into the next week and do the same thing.

Q. Just curious, some details on what you -- the technical fix was at Memorial over the weekend. And then feeling good with the driver, is there room here to hit more than the four to six drivers that guys say they will, or are you kind of restrained in that facet?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I've been working on my posture a little bit, trying to get a little more hip hinge, trying to get over the ball a little bit more.

And with the driver I was almost getting a little too far over it. I've always stood quite upright with the driver, and I felt like I was getting a little too over it. And then I was just getting stuck on the way down.

I hit a couple of really loose drives at Memorial that cost me. So that was just standing a little more upright and giving myself a little more room, a little more time, I guess, to hit it.

And I'm probably going to hit five drivers max this week. There's not really -- you've got the two par-5s on the back nine that you probably hit driver. Some guys probably won't hit driver on the 18th. You've got the second hole, the 9th hole, the 10th hole. And that's pretty much it.

I just don't think it's worth it. I'd much rather be in the fairway hitting a 7-iron in than you're trying to hit a driver up there. The greens are so tricky and they're so small that if you hit it into the middle of the green, you're going to have a decent birdie putt anyway.

This week is all about patience and just giving yourself looks and chances, playing from the fairway. I think if you go out and you try to overpar this golf course at all, it can bite you pretty quickly.

Q. Your 2011 U.S. Open win came the first major after the rough day at Augusta. With a few years of hindsight, are you able to put that in perspective, how did that affect your career as a whole, bouncing back that quickly?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, look, I've said before, I think that Sunday at Augusta was one of the best learning experiences of not just my career but my life. And I think it was exactly 70 days from that Sunday to the Sunday at Congressional. And I talked to a lot of people. I got advice from a lot of different folks and different people looking at it from different angles. And I reflected myself a little bit and I took what I needed from that. I thought about where I went wrong. Thought about what I did right to get myself in that position.

But ultimately I -- I was focusing on too many outside factors that I couldn't control. The only thing I can do is concentrate on myself and control what I do. And I'd love to have that back nine back in hindsight, but I think that back nine was a great lesson for me going forward and partly the reason why I've had the career I've had.

Q. Just wonder if you consider -- jumping off what you were talking about with the quick starts that you talked to Johnny about, and even coming off of your win on Sunday, do you consider yourself a frontrunner of sorts? It seems like when you get it rolling, you can look like an unstoppable force a little bit, when you get that mojo going?
RORY MCILROY: I've always said I'd much rather -- some people say it's nice to be a couple back going into the final round. I'd rather be in front. That's just -- you'd rather be in the best position possible. I've had victories where I've went away from the field and it feels great, and it's nice when it happens, but I've also went the other way, too. And I've gutted it out.

I don't know, I feel like I am. I feel like when you get in front, it gives you a lot of confidence and you go from there. I feel like the times that I have led for the most part I have been pretty good in that position. Yeah, I guess I'd call myself a decent frontrunner.

Q. Going back to what you said about freedom in your swing, just curious when's the last time you sort of felt that free in your swing? And secondly, how important is confidence for you in terms of needing to play well?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I think confidence is important for everyone. I don't think you can play to the best of your ability if you don't have confidence and belief in yourself. Whether that's more important for me than other people, maybe. But I think the last time I felt this free or felt the way I felt -- I guess felt the way I felt last week probably has to go back to maybe that -- the run at the playoffs in '16. I felt really good. And then going into the Ryder Cup in '16 at Hazeltine, I felt like that was a real good stretch of golf that I played.

So it's probably been a couple of years, two, two and a half years.

Q. I was a little unclear on the putter thing, the misunderstanding there. How was that resolved that you got your putter back?
RORY MCILROY: I said to Harry, Could you go and find Laurence? He's got my putter. And put it back in the bag and make sure the bag gets on the plane and goes to California.

That was really it. It wasn't -- I think -- yeah, the guy I gave it to was running the golf tournament. He knows it's not for him.

Q. I know you played in the AT&T with your dad. When you first got here, what did you think of Pebble Beach, and is there any comparison, winter and summer?
RORY MCILROY: By the looks of today, no. But the last couple of days, yes. I mean, the course is so different during the Pro Am, it's so soft. There's not a lot of rough. The fairway lines are so different. I mean, I hit a tee shot up 11 yesterday that I thought was in the middle of the fairway, and it missed the fairway by ten yards.

It's just the fairway is so far moved to the left on that hole and there's -- the 8th hole, as well. The fairway is moved. Just the fairway lines are so different.

Yeah, it's a completely -- it's a completely different golf course. I played here in 2010. It was really cool. I didn't play very well, but I got to play the first three rounds with Tom Watson, and that was his final U.S. Open. And we were talking about it last night at the dinner. It's so cool how this game can cross generations. And Jack was talking about he played with Sarazen in the '72 U.S. Open, or whatever it was. So just to think that -- how many generations this game can span is really cool.

Yeah, I can see this -- I think the setup this week is awesome. It is -- greens are perfect. Fairways are great. The rough is thick, it's tough. But if you hit it off line, you're going to get punished. But it's fair. I think it's a very, very fair setup. But with the conditions being a little cooler and windy, you can see it get firm, and it's going to start to get tricky. You're going to have to make sure, if you do miss it, you give yourself certain angles.

It's like I was saying to Mike Davis last night, the worst place you can miss it on this golf course is pin-high. If you miss the green and you miss it pin-high, you're dead. You need to be either long or short and give yourself an angle.

But I'm looking forward to it. It's obviously the toughest test of the year. I'm coming in with some pretty good form and looking forward to the challenge.

Q. What do you have to change most when you come from a place where you shot 15-under to a course where presumably even par would be a good score at the end of the week?
RORY MCILROY: 22-under.

Q. I meant on the weekend.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, it's completely different golf. It's a different mindset. At the same time, if you're seeing birdies and that's what your mindset is, I think sometimes you can go into the U.S. Open thinking that par is a good score and par, par, par; all of a sudden you see someone is 5- or 6-under. And obviously there's a score out there. I'm not saying that that's -- that could be -- I could see someone shooting in the sort of 65, 66 range this week. It's definitely out there.

But I think just patience, knowing that pars are never going to be a bad score at a U.S. Open. But at the same time there's -- you look at this golf course and you've got wedge into 1, wedge into 3, wedge into 4. The par 5, 6th, the 7th hole is 110 yards. You've got so many wedges and opportunities to make birdies. You're not going to go chase every pin, but at the same time this course does offer you opportunities to make birdies.

I think sometimes, if you are playing well, you don't need to settle for pars, you can go out there and get after it. And that's sort of what I did at Congressional. Obviously the course was a little softer and the conditions a bit more benign, but it doesn't -- if you're playing well, it doesn't have to be the typical grind out your pars. If you feel like you can make birdies, go out and get after it.

Q. Jordan was saying that when he played with you at Memorial he had never seen a player have more unlucky bounces; that you could have easily made the cut. And yet it sounds like you benefited so much from maybe having those unlucky bounces and missing the cut.
RORY MCILROY: Yeah.

Q. How do you process that? Does it almost reaffirm that everything happens for the best, as hard as that is to accept sometimes?
RORY MCILROY: Yeah, I mean, I never want to be on the golf course or come off the golf course after a round and feel like, oh, I've got so unlucky or can you believe that? I think, as many maybe bad breaks I had at Memorial, somewhere down the line it's going to flip and I'll have some good ones.

It all evens out at the end of the day, I feel. But it was a -- yeah, he's probably talking about I hit two tee shots on the first day, I hit a tree and it hit left and we couldn't find it. And I hit a little right on 2 and it hit a rock and went out of bounds.

My thing is they weren't great golf shots. So my thing is they probably deserved to end up where they did. That's my attitude towards it, anyway. And it gave me an extra two days to work on some things and figure out why I hit those shots. I shouldn't be hitting branches of trees or rocks ten yards right of the fairway.

So, yeah, it was -- it was, in hindsight, a great thing. Like I obviously would have loved to contended in Jack's tournament. And I feel like one day, with how that golf course sets up for me, I'll hopefully win it. This year it might have been a blessing that I got to spend an extra bit of time on the range.

Q. You mentioned a couple of times, can you talk a little about what the dynamic was like at the Champions dinner last night? You don't do it every year. Who else did you have interesting conversations with?
RORY MCILROY: It was awesome. 33 of the 36 living U.S. Open champions. We had a great table. It was Erica and myself; Jordan and his wife, Annie; and Brooks and his partner, Jena. It was just the six of us at a table. And it was really cool. I don't know, even just the stories that we were telling. We were obviously the young table (laughter). We must have stayed about an hour and a half after everyone else had left. We shut the place down, just chatting, and it was really, really cool.

But then talking to Lee Trevino about the Ryder Cup in Walton Heath and it was like '81, and Jerry Pate came into the story, and they played together in the foursomes and they beat Faldo and Sam Torrance. Yeah, just really cool.

And then there was some artifacts from the USGA Museum, Hogan's 1-iron from Merion. The golf ball Bobby Jones won the Grand Slam with. Arnold Palmer's visor that he threw up in the air at Cherry Hills. I'm a golf geek, and I love the traditions and history of the game. And that is so cool.

I sort of walked away from that dinner wishing that they did it every year. But I think it is so special that we do it every five or six years, and you look at that picture. Gary Player stood up and made a great speech about how he came here to the United States with no money. He won, I think -- he won the U.S. Open, it was $5,000 or something. And that was a huge deal back then.

Just how the game has changed and evolved. It just made me really appreciate being a part of that club that have won the U.S. Open. It was a really cool thing. And looking forward to being able to do it for years to come.

MIKE TROSTEL: Rory, thanks very much. Have a great week.

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