AMGEN IRISH OPEN

September 3, 2025

Rory McIlroy

The K Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Media Centre for the first press conference of this year's Amgen Irish Open. I'm delighted to be joined by World No. 2, Rory McIlroy.

Rory, teeing it up in the Ireland National Open for the first time as a Masters champion must feel pretty sweet.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, it is. It's good to be back. Sort of had a great experience at Portrush a few weeks ago for The Open, and I can't wait to get out there and tee it up tomorrow, getting on the 1st tee as the Masters champion and go from there.

Yeah, great to be back. I've got plenty of nice memories from the K Club from over the years, from attending the Ryder Cup as a 17-year-old to obviously winning the Irish Open in 2016. Yeah, it's been a great place for me. I'm excited to be back.

Q. Just a few quick ones. When you get back on the island of Ireland, is there anything you do to assimilate or any rituals to make you feel at home again? Also, you talked about the success you've had here at the K Club, but if you could only play one course on the island of Ireland for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

RORY McILROY: Is there anything I do to assimilate? We spent the week in the west of Ireland, and it did not stop raining for 72 hours. I guess that's a good way to acclimatise. Not really. Last time we were at the K Club, it was 30 degrees and sunny and beautiful. It doesn't look like it's going to be that this week. So we'll take what we can get.

Yeah, it's always nice to get back. I don't get back as often, I guess, as I used to or as I'd like just because of the way the schedule is and sort of where my life's taken me.

If I could play one course, it would probably be Royal County Down for me. I personally think it's the best course on the entire island. I obviously played well -- I played Walker Cup there and played well last year and had a good chance. Again, like I -- we had a pretty good weather week last time at RCD, and it's always nice when the weather is better.

Yeah, it's funny, like I -- growing up, it was on my doorstep, and I don't think I appreciated how good all the courses are here. I think because I travelled around and played in boys tournaments and youth tournaments and going over to Rosses Point for the west and Baltray for the east, I took for granted how good the courses were.

Then you travel elsewhere and you come back and play these courses, and we start to realize we're pretty lucky with all the great golf we do have here.

Q. Obviously some fantastic wins this year. You're now looking at the Ryder Cup coming up. Taking this and Wentworth, how important is it to add another W to this in terms of your sharpness?

RORY McILROY: Look, I would love to add another W to the win column this year, but like it's not a necessity. I'd love to get myself into contention and at least be a little bit sharper than I was at BMW and at the TOUR Championship. I figured out my ball striking at least in Atlanta. I felt like I hit the ball terribly at the BMW but I putted well. Then in Atlanta, I hit the ball better but I putted terribly. So just need to try to piece everything together.

These are two big weeks, yeah, to make sure the game is sharp, but I think the only way to tell you're as sharp as you want to be is getting yourself in contention under pressure and the sort of business end of things on Sunday. I think it's important to do that. It's important to give myself a couple of chances to win.

Ultimately, winning, that would be lovely, but I don't think it's absolutely necessary going into the Ryder Cup, but it would be great to at least feel really good about my game and looking ahead to Bethpage.

Q. In 2016 you took the Irish Open here. What is the best part about the course and coming back here?

RORY McILROY: For me it suits my style of game. I feel like my game travels pretty much everywhere, and I've done well on links courses as well.

But I think from a logistical standpoint, from an operational standpoint, there's pretty much everyone who needs to be onsite could be onsite at the hotel. The proximity to Dublin is quite nice. I think for the sponsor Amgen to have a location like this where they can bring in the people they need to bring in, it works well for the sponsor too. So the K Club's got a lot going for it.

Look, I think some people would argue they'd like to see the Irish Open played on a links course every year, but I think alternating between a parkland in the K Club and then maybe a links course each year gives it a nice balance.

Q. Rory, obviously the Ryder Cup coming up. Having been on a couple of losing teams in the states, you've never been on a winning one. I'm sure you're really looking forward to this year, a terrific occasion, hostile territory perhaps, a really, really long course, and being most senior this year, you must be really looking forward to it?

RORY McILROY: I am. I'm very excited. I've said this repeatedly, but I think winning an away Ryder Cup, it's up there with one of the biggest achievements in the game, especially nowadays.

There's a reason that every Ryder Cup for the last 10 years has went to the home team. The home team do have a big advantage from the setup of the golf course to how partisan the crowd is. So, yeah, I think the Europeans have a wonderful opportunity this year to achieve something very, very special, but it's also going to be very difficult.

They have a very strong team. They're going to have a pretty raucous crowd on their side and on a golf course that a lot of them know pretty well from previous tournaments there. So make no mistake, we know we're up against it and we know we've got a tall task on our hands, but I love the team that Luke has assembled. This is going to be my eighth Ryder Cup. I'm the most experienced player at the Ryder Cup.

Yeah, I've enjoyed that more senior leadership role on the team for the last few of them, and I'm very excited.

Q. Just on the team itself, tell me what you make of that 11, 12 guys that were there last time and Rasmus coming in. The point could be made that the 11 guys are all stronger players than they were two years ago. Rasmus has obviously improved as well.

RORY McILROY: You could certainly make that case. The entire team has played some really good golf between Rome and now, someone like a Bob McIntyre who's won a couple times now on the PGA TOUR, had a chance to win the U.S. Open.

I think as well, speaking of the team, a few of the guys' games or the profile of their games, if you look at it from a stats perspective, are -- I think when we went to Rome, you had some guys that were purely foursome players, some guys were purely four-ball players, I think now we have flexibility within that 12, whether it be foursomes or four-ball, and changing the dynamics around a little bit.

I think it's something that will offer the team more flexibility than we have in Rome. Obviously Rome worked out very, very well for us, but as you said, you could argue that pretty much every player on the team is more accomplished than what they were two years ago.

Q. Just to follow up, you mentioned the west of Ireland, the Irish Open, links golf. (Regarding Doonbeg), do you have any problem playing there and spoken to them about it?

RORY McILROY: I've never played Doonbeg. I went there for dinner once at some point. I've obviously heard the rumours. I'm not sure if it's confirmed or not or when the schedule comes out, but if it were to go there, I would have no problem. The Scottish Championship was played at a Trump property near Aberdeen there a few weeks ago, looked like it was great event. We're going back to Doral next year on the PGA TOUR.

If that's back on a links course, I'm not sure how Doonbeg stacks up against other links courses in the country, but I would be absolutely happy to go there.

Q. You mentioned the crowd there. You're extremely popular over there. How big of a crowd do you get? It seems to be a very pro-American crowd, Trump's going to be there.

RORY McILROY: Maybe, I don't know. But I guess all we can do is control our response and our reaction to it. I watched a little bit of Novak Djokovic last night playing in his match against Taylor Fritz. It was a very pro-American crowd. He's been the best at handling that sort of -- he's had to deal with it his whole life, whether it's playing against an American in New York or playing against Roger or Rafa.

He came and spoke to us a little bit about that stuff last time in Rome. So maybe taking a leaf out of his book and channelling that energy the right way, but again, all we can do is control our reaction and our emotions to it. I think the less we play into it, the better it is for us.

Q. Did you see Sergio in the crowd last night?

RORY McILROY: I did.

Q. He was supposed to be here?

RORY McILROY: He was supposed to be here.

Q. Suddenly didn't appeal to him?

RORY McILROY: No. I don't -- it would have been great for the tournament if Sergio played, but obviously he was trying to keep himself sharp, I guess, if he did get a pick. Look, he has the right to enter and pull out of whatever tournaments he wants to.

I think, as I said, Luke has assembled a very strong 12 players, and I think it's the right 12 players. I'm sure he's disappointed, but at the same time, I'm sure he wishes Europe well.