Speaking to the media just minutes after reclaiming the Green Jacket, Rory McIlroy reflects on his week at Augusta and discusses how he is reassessing his future goals in light of his return to winning majors
Last year you completed the career grand slam, and this year became the fourth player to defend your title. Could you share your emotions after going back-to-back?
RORY McILROY: I thought it was so difficult to win last year because of trying to win the Masters and the grand slam, and then this year I realised it’s just really difficult to win the Masters. I tried to convince myself it was both.
Yeah, just incredible. I obviously did the bulk of my work on Thursday and Friday. I don’t think I would have believed anyone if they said to me all you have to do is shoot even-par for the weekend and you’ll win. I definitely thought I was going to need to go out there and at least shoot a couple of under-par scores.
Yesterday [Saturday], I felt the golf course was gettable pretty much all day, but today [Sunday] the wind was up a little bit. It was gusty. It made things definitely a little more tricky, especially on the back nine.
I just had to hang in there. I did a decent green session on Saturday night and tried to figure a couple of things out, and I definitely hit my irons better today. I think I struck the ball better today overall, which was good to see, but I still needed to rely on my short game those last few holes. The up-and-down on 16 and the up-and-down on 17 were huge.
I was just delighted to be able to get it done. Having a six-shot lead going into the weekend, it would have been a bitter pill to swallow if I wasn’t able to get myself over the finish line.
Can you just take us through what you were trying to do with the tee shot on 12, and if that was the line you were going for, and what club you hit?
The wind was in off the left. I played a practice round with Tom Watson in 2009, and he said to me on the 12th tee he always waited until he felt where the wind should be and then just hit it as soon as you can.
So that’s what I did. The wind was all over the place. When I stood up on the tee, it felt like it was off the right, and I looked at the 11th flag, it was blowing right to left. But I was patient, and I waited to feel where the wind should have been coming from, and I knew it was just a perfect three-quarter 9-iron.
I aimed it at the middle of the bunker. Probably didn’t anticipate it to drift as far right as it did. That’s why you give yourself a little bit of margin for error. That was a really good golf shot at the right time and probably a golf shot I wouldn’t have been able to hit yesterday if I didn’t go to the range and try to figure a few things out and try to neutralize the ball flight a little bit. Yeah, it was an absolutely huge shot for me in the tournament.
What do you think this tournament and this golf course has taught you about life?
Maybe that good things come to those who wait. Just keep going. I find myself in a very similar position today to where I was in the last round last year, two or three behind, but I played solid golf after that.
I was 4-under for an 11-hole stretch there, which is what I needed to do to give myself that cushion going up the last. I just tried really hard to focus on myself. I thought that if I could get to 14-under everyone else would struggle to get to that score. So that was the number I had in my head. I got to 13 on the last and had that two-shot cushion.
I didn’t quite get there, but yeah, just keep going. Keep your head down and keep it going. If you put the hours in and work on the right things, eventually it will come good for you.
This game has such odd mystery to it. What is it about golf where a player is never exactly the same from one day to the next?
You have a lot of time to think. You’re out there a long time. There’s a long time between shots. There’s a long time between rounds.
Of all the big sports, I do think golf is the most mentally challenging. I think it’s hard to stay in the same mental space for four days in a row. I was in a great mental space, like say on the 13th tee shot, for example. All of my practice rounds up here, the weeks leading into it, Monday, Tuesday, great. I hit two left on Wednesday off the tee. Then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, I didn’t sniff hitting the fairway.
So, it’s just there’s little things that happen that just start to make you second guess things. It’s just very hard to stay in the right spot mentally for a long period of time.
How was it having your parents in attendance for this? How did that change the emotional experience for you today?
I caught myself on the golf course a couple of times thinking about them, and I was like ‘no, not yet, not yet’. Yeah, it’s really cool to have them here. They missed it last year, and the first thing I wanted to do was fly home to see them because I obviously wouldn’t be sitting up here if it wasn’t for them.
I had to convince them to come this year because they thought the reason I won last year was because they weren’t here. I said on the putting green that I’m glad we proved that wrong, so they can keep coming as long as they want.
Given you had a six-shot lead after 36 holes and then were two shots behind with nine holes to play. You don’t like to make things easy on yourself.
Yeah. I used to make it easy back in my early 20s when I was winning these things by eight shots. No, it’s just it’s hard. It’s hard to win golf tournaments – especially around Augusta. You’ve had maybe a couple of runaway winners over the years, but it always seems to be a very tight finish at this golf course. I think it’s the nature of the course, it’s the nature of what’s at stake.
I walked into the dining in the locker room yesterday, and I sat with Shane [Lowry] and Tyrrell [Hatton], and they were both saying, ‘geez, like when we finished, we were like one or two behind, and then all of a sudden we’re seven behind’. And I said ‘Boys, there’s a long way to go. There’s a lot that can happen in a golf tournament over 36 holes or even 18 holes.’
I certainly didn’t think I was home and dry after Friday night, and I knew I still had lots of work to do. But I still thought I would need to shoot under-par to get the job done, but thankfully I did enough.
Can you just grade the different parts of your game throughout the week? Driving, irons, around the greens, putting. I’m curious what is your conception of how you played versus how you think you could have played?
I felt like I didn’t drive the ball great. I drove it better today, but I would give my overall driving a B-minus. For three days my irons were really good, Thursday, Friday, and today I felt like I hit some better iron shots. Saturday was really poor, so I’d give that a B.
Then my scrambling and my short game and my putting, that’s what won me the tournament this week. Even the chip on 17 wasn’t that easy today. That was a really good chip shot. So, I’d give my short game and my putting an A-plus.
Can you explain the situation hitting balls Saturday night and what you were able to work out and how that might have helped you today?
My swing path was just getting a little bit too far to the right with every club in the bag, so I was just hitting too much of a draw. Then when the path is coming from that far inside, if you don’t keep your body moving at all, the ball is just going to go dead left.
So I focused on hitting quite a few cut shots; really trying to open up my lower body through impact. When I do that, it helps me stabilize the club face and start the ball more on line with more of a neutral flight.
That was really the feel that I tried to get last night, and that was the feel I brought into today. Starting at the 1st hole, I hit some much better iron shots.
What were your conversations like with your caddie, Harry, today, especially coming up 18 after your tee shot?
There wasn’t really much to say. I think we were both just hoping that my ball wasn’t in a really bad spot or behind a tree. I was just hoping that I had a swing. No, it was pretty quiet out there. It was pretty tense. After the double-bogey on six we were just sort of talking try to get back to even-par for the day after nine. He was trying to encourage me, telling me there’s plenty of time left, just try to keep hitting fairways and greens.
There wasn’t a ton of talk out there. I think we both knew what we needed to do. I just needed to step up and execute.
You were pretty open last year after you won about taking some time to really soak it in before getting back to the grind. Is this going to be the same or different, do you think?
I think different. I said at the start of the weekend here I felt like the grand slam was the destination, and I realised it wasn’t. I’ve just won my sixth major and I feel like I’m in a really good spot with my game and my body.
I don’t want to put a number on it, but I feel like this win is just a part of the journey. I still have things I want to achieve, but I still want to enjoy it as well.
I’ve waited so long to win the Masters, and suddenly I win two in a row. So, I still want to enjoy it. I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I go back to play competitive golf, but I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation or the sort of things that I was feeling last year post winning this tournament.
You’ve avoided number goals throughout your life, but you have said you would like to be considered the greatest European of all time. We’ll debate it forever, but how does it feel to at least be in that conversation now?
Yeah, like today I tie Nick [Faldo] for major wins, so there’s obviously going to be that conversation, and that debate is going to be hard. But it’s a cool conversation to be a part of.
Again, it took me 10 years to win my fifth major, and then my sixth one’s come pretty soon after it. I’m not putting a number on it, but I certainly don’t want to stop here.
I just wonder if you can compare and contrast in the moment the emotion last year versus this year of winning here. Not just the moment you won, but the process of trying to win.
It felt similar. I felt like I was a lot more controlled over the last few holes. I made really good swings, hit some good tee shots, hit the 17th fairway for the first time this week, which was a good swing, which I needed to do. Once I got that ball up-and-down from the back of 16, I just said to myself on the 17th tee, I just need four more good swings. I made one, but somehow I got it done.
In the moment, I think when the ball trickled by the cup on 18 and I marked it there from two inches or whatever, I just looked at the back of the green, and I give it one of these because I saw my mum and dad and Erica and Poppy, and I was just like I can’t believe I’ve just done it again. I wasn’t as emotional as I was last year, but just, wow, it’s amazing. I can’t believe I did it again.
You were behind Cameron Young early on and then you were behind Justin Rose, and then you had Scottie Scheffler breathing down your neck. Was there any point today when you felt like you might have let this one slip away?
I don’t know if it ever felt that way. I think, if I hadn’t birdied the 7th and 8th holes, that I would have started to have to push a little bit. But I think the birdies on 7 and 8, Justin bogeying 11 and 12, I and then me birdieing 12, I never felt like I was out of it. I never felt like I had to press at all.
I knew that there was some important shots coming up, but I really just felt, okay, if I just don’t make any bogeys, if I just sort of limit the mistakes over these next few holes, knowing with how the back nine of the Masters goes and people are inevitably going to make a couple of mistakes here and there, I felt like if I was the one not to make the mistake, then I would be in a good spot.
It was stressful to watch, but you didn’t look all that stressed or flustered yourself. What was the moment of greatest stress during the final day, and how did you get through that moment?
I’d say walking off the 18th tee not knowing where my ball was. I think that was the moment of greatest stress. It could go anywhere. It could be anywhere.
There were a few others. I thought my second putt on 11 was huge to avoid making bogey there. That green, I felt, was a lot slower than the rest of the greens this week just because it was new and definitely different characteristics in terms of the slopes of that green are so different than what it used to be. Cam and I both left our putts short there, but I held a really good second putt, which was a big point in the day, I felt.
You talked so much coming into this week about your preparation. I’m curious if this is the most prepared you feel you’ve been before a major championship and what you can take from your prep for this that you’re going to try to implement moving forward?
I joked last week and going into this week that this place feels like my home course. I haven’t played anywhere else in the last two or three weeks really. I felt prepared in that way. I felt prepared that wherever I hit it on the golf course, I sort of know what to do. I know where to miss. I’m pretty comfortable with all the shots around the greens.
Yeah, I think it’s a good blueprint, but I’m not going to take three weeks off before every major. It’s important to get to the major venues early, do your preparation, play. And not just play and look at things, but actually play. Go out there with one ball, shoot a score, and try to do it that way.
When I’ve talked to Jack Nicklaus over the years how he prepared for majors, and he would go the week before, and he would simulate a tournament. He’d play one ball for four days, shoot scores. So then when he got to the tournament, it felt second nature to him. I did a little bit of that leading up to here, and I think that’s certainly a good way to prepare going into the next majors.
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