McIlroy Sets Sights on Players Championship


After winning three matches Sunday to roll to victory in the WGC Cadillac Match Play Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, Rory McIlroy will take a day off and then start preparing for his next tournament.

That would be the $10 million Players Championship. Golf's so-called "fifth major" starts Thursday at the original Tournament Players Course, TPC Sawgrass. in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

McIlroy pocketed $1.57 million and 550 FedEx Cup points for his Match Play triumph, the second WGC title of his career. He's now the odds-on favorite at the Pete Dye-designed Sawgrass and the Players' $1.8 million winner's purse and 600 FedEx Cup points.

By polishing off Paul Casey on the darkness-delayed 22nd hole with a birdie Sunday morning and then beating veteran Jim Furyk 1-up in the mid-morning semis and Gary Woodland 4 and 2 in the afternon's championship final, McIlroy padded his No. 1 points total in the latest World Golf Ranking.

The newest ranking, released Monday, has the 25-year-old Northern Irishman with a points average of 12.6246, well above No. 2 Jordan Spieth's 9.0522.

After accepting the trophy and big winner's check Sunday evening in San Francisco, McIlroy met with reporters and discussed his outstanding Match Play performance. Here's what he had to say about his play in San Francisco and his plans leading up to the 2015 Players.

MODERATOR: Rory, many congratulations. WGC Cadillac Match Play champion, nice ring to it.

RORY McILROY: Yes, very nice ring to it. Yeah, it's been a great week, to play. What is it, 7 matches, having to sleep on one, as well. Sort of trying to beat three players in one day today. Yeah, it's been a great week. Match play is a format that I've always enjoyed. I feel it's a format that I do well in and I excel in. And I've shown it once in this tournament before. But I felt like with this new format, it would give me a better chance to make it through to the latter stages. Played some great golf this week and got the job done, which was the most important thing. And great to get the first win stateside this year, and move on next week and try to do the same thing.

Q. Talk about the final.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think sometimes finals might not have the quality of some of the previous rounds, whether that's to do with a little bit of fatigue kicking in or maybe just the occasion or whatever.So I felt like Gary and I didn't get off to the best of starts. But I made a few birdies in the middle of the front nine and got going and got a pretty substantial lead there. And he came back at me with a couple of birdies at 10 and 12. He let me away with one on 13. And then from there, he missed it left on 14 off the tee, which you couldn't really do. And he sort of gave me that hole, as well. There was a bit of an ebb and flow in the match, but thankfully I was on the better side of it at the end.

Q. How high up do you rank in winning today, the karma you had from watching the fight in the Media Center (laughter)?

RORY McILROY: I am a big believer in karma. I don't know, obviously I think I give myself a much better chance of watching it in there than trying to make it to Vegas, that's for sure.

Q. How important was this win for you? You'd won earlier this year, but I know you didn't have the results you wanted at Augusta and maybe a couple of other places, how do you rank this victory?

RORY McILROY: I think it's always important for me to get my first win stateside during the year. But as I said, as you said, I won in Dubai at the start of the year and had a couple of good finishes, but I never really felt like I got into contention for the last few events. Even though I felt like I played okay at Doral, Bay Hill and Augusta, I never really had a chance to win a tournament. So it was nice this week. I sat up here at the start of the week and said I want to give myself chances to win tournaments. And it was nice to do that this week and get the job done. Yeah, it's really satisfying to get that first win here, no matter what format it is, it's always nice to get a trophy. And now we move on to next week and try to do it again.

Q. I'm curious how much different you played from your previous two starts from the standpoint that you played okay at the start of the week, you seemed to get better as you went on, you could almost apply this if it was stroke play to some of your performances at Doral or Bay Hill. Where are you now going forward and is that where you put a value on winning, the feeling of it?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, you know, honestly I think I'm playing very similar to the way I played at - I'm probably a little bit more in control of my swing and my ball flight now than I might have been at Bay Hill and Doral. But definitely at the Masters I felt really comfortable. And as you said, this week I felt like I got better each and every day. And I think that was more to do with just sharpness around the greens and putting and holing a few more putts and taking advantage of the opportunities I was giving myself. And I knew I needed to do that especially after the first three days. I knew that the matches would just get tougher and tougher. Obviously the guys that you come up against, they're playing well because they make it out of their groups and they're progressing in their matches. So I knew it wasn't going to be easy, so I needed to up my game a little bit and thankfully I was able to.

Q. Assume the victory is the ultimate answer. But what do you think of this setup, the golf course? The weather is a little cold, but did you enjoy the week?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I did, as a whole, I really enjoyed the week. I had a great time here. We're staying right in the middle of San Francisco in the city, and going out to nice restaurants and getting to know the city a little bit better. It's been a great week. I never played Harding Park before. I enjoyed it much better than the other course across the Bay (laughter). Sorry if there's any Olympic fans here. But I really, as soon as I played the course, I liked it. It's a fair test of golf. You get rewarded for good shots. It suited my eye. I like big trees that frame holes and you've got a lot of definition to work the ball off stuff. I really enjoyed the golf course this week and enjoyed it as a whole.

Q. How would you describe playing here, signature San Francisco conditions in many ways, with the fog and wind, probably stuff you're used to from where you grew up? And secondly, it seems like kind of a response in some ways to the Jordan success at the Masters. You said that sort of inspired you in some ways?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I never knew that San Francisco weather was quite similar to Irish weather until I got here a couple of years ago at the U.S. Open. But, yeah, you know, it was cold, blustery conditions, and somewhat used to that from back home, even though I play most of my golf in '80 degrees and sunshine. But I felt like I handled the conditions pretty well. Yeah, I think everyone, not just me, but everyone on Tour was inspired seeing Jordan do what he did at Augusta. And I definitely wanted this is the start of a nice little run of golf for me and I wanted to come out and play well and increase my lead in the World Rankings, which I've done after this win, and keep it going. But it's always nice to have people pushing you, and I feel like he's one of the guys doing that right now.

Q. How many hours of sleep did you get last night? What time did you get up? Compare the difficulty of winning this to winning a major? Where does this go on your résumé? Where does that trophy go in your trophy case compared to the others?

RORY McILROY: Went to bed at 10:30. Woke up at 4:30. So that's six hours sleep, which is pretty good. I felt like that was - I'll sleep better tonight, I think. And where does this rank? You know, I think World Golf Championships are very important to us as players. They're a group of events where you get the best group of players in the world. This ranks right up - I rank it just below the majors, just like I did with my victory at Akron last year. These Wedgewood trophies are nice to look at in your trophy cabinet. It will be going in there right next to the one I won at Bridgestone last year.

Q. The difficulty of five days of matches versus a major?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, in match play you definitely - in the positions that I found myself in, you have to dig a little bit deeper. You have to try and find things from places you don't know if they're there or not. And I was able to produce a couple of key shots when I needed to this week. As a mental test, I don't think we face anything tougher. I think we face things just as tough in terms of majors. The U.S. Open gets really tough and firm and the Masters is always a mental grind every year, but to play seven matches in five days is as tough as it's going to get for us.

Q. This week with the weight of wondering if you were going to get to the fight or not, is there any concern at all going into Players?

RORY McILROY: No, I mean, it is the longest. I got to the final of this tournament a couple of years ago in Tucson and then went the next week and won at Honda. I don't feel like there will be any sort of fatigue or tiredness after this week. I'll take tomorrow off. I might practice a little bit on Tuesday. I'm going to get up to Jacksonville on Wednesday morning and prepare like I normally do there and be ready to go on Thursday.

Q. You talked a moment ago about the mental toughness and obviously you had some tough rounds: Friday against Billy, against Paul yesterday, against Jim this morning. Can you try to put into words what goes on in your mind when you're down two with two holes to go and you need to make that shot? Are you thinking about the next shot, about the next hole, how do you approach that?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think you're definitely just thinking about your next shot or your next hole or whatever it is. But in my mind, it was always if I can just apply a little bit of pressure, just make them feel it a little bit. When you're 2 up with two to play, you're feeling pretty good about yourself and you're quite relaxed. But if the guy applies just that little bit of pressure to you, it can make a world of difference. And I was able to do that in my matches when I needed to do against Billy and Paul and against Jim. And when I applied that little bit of pressure, I was able to take advantage of that. I the hit a good chip shot against Paul last night on 17, and he blew his putt by and missed the one coming back. So just a chip shot might have gotten into his head a little bit.

Same thing against Billy on that 17th hole. I had a really good tee shot in there and just him seeing that tee shot might have made him feel a little more pressure and I was able to hole the putt. That's all you're thinking about, just put them under any sort of pressure that you can, and see how they react to it.

Q. Gary mentioned he felt you somehow flipped a switch and playing with more intensity. Have you learned to be more cut throat and close things out a little more aggressively?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, definitely. I felt like I've had that intensity all week. Honestly those first few holes with Gary, that was probably the most relaxed or jovial or whatever you want to call it I've been the whole week because I know Gary well and I get on really well with him. There's no point in not talking to someone if you're usually friendly with them and all that sort of stuff. But we're both trying to win a tournament here at the same time. Once I got up on the match, I just tried to up the intensity a little bit and take advantage of that. And that's what I was able to do. And I feel like every time I get in these positions to win tournaments and close tournaments out and do it, it adds that and adds to that ability to really knuckle down when I need to.

Q. What was the toughest part about, as you said, having to dispatch basically three people? And I'm wondering if it had even the fact that all three of those people are looking at you as the No.1 player in the world, maybe they're bringing a little extra motivation, kind of like Manchester United, people always bring their best games to play them. Do you feel that bullseye in match play?

RORY McILROY: I don't really feel it. I mean, some people might bring a little bit more intensity with them if they're playing me, but I'm sort of treating every match as if it's the same. I'm going out there and trying to play the best golf that I possibly can, and hopefully at the end of the day that's good enough to win. And probably of the three today, I'd say the toughest thing was standing on the first tee this morning at 6:45 and thinking if I've just got up to come all this way to play one hole (laughter). So I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. I don't want to have to do this just for one hole, I want to be here all day. So I put a lot of pressure on myself and thankfully I was able to make the birdie and get through.

MODERATOR: Many congratulations.

RORY McILROY: Thank you.

The transcript for the above interview is courtesy of ASAP Sports.