MIKE WOODCOCK: We’ll make a start. I’m delighted to welcome former Open champion and current Masters champion Rory McIlroy into the interview room. Rory, how does it feel to be back at The Open and competing once again for the Claret Jug?

RORY McILROY: It’s always good to be back at The Open. For someone from this part of the world, this is obviously a huge championship and brings me back to my childhood and watching my heroes try to win the Claret Jug and then coming to The Open for the first time in ’04 at Troon, playing in the Junior Open Championship the week before that.

Always great to be back. I feel like this major season always feels like it goes quicker and quicker every year. Obviously one last opportunity at one of the big four and try to give it all I’ve got this week.

Q. Rory, there’s this common refrain that TrackMan golfers don’t do well at Opens. As someone who’s a little more feel based and an Open champion yourself, do you agree with that? What are we misunderstanding about that?

RORY McILROY: No, I wouldn’t totally agree with that. I think that TrackMan or any launch monitor, it’s a very useful tool. I think you can get too into the numbers, which then can be detrimental. I think, yeah, TrackMan can be very useful. It can be — I think it can actually help you with the feel of your golf swing at times.

If you see a certain number on TrackMan, it gives you a feeling of what you need to do, so if you can sort of match up the number you see on the screen with a feel that you have in your golf swing, I actually think you can become more feel-based.

I use TrackMan a lot in season because I feel like it’s hard to work on technical positions when you’re just trying to manage your pattern through the course of the season. I use TrackMan where it’s like, okay, my path’s getting a little to the right, I’ve just got to feel like I swing more left. Or my face angle is getting a bit left and I’ve got to feel like I hold it a bit more square through impact, whatever it is.

To me, I actually feel like it’s a great tool to use when your swing gets off a bit and you can sort of train your feels back into where they need to be.

Q. Rory, you touched on the quicker and quicker major season, which is obviously how it feels to a lot of us. We’re now going to have 8-1/2 months or something until the Masters after this Open. Does this serve the sport as well as it can, or would it be better if there was a bit more of a spread?

RORY McILROY: I see — I guess I see pros and cons in both. I’d like to see the major season spread out a little bit longer. I think it gives — the Masters is always going to have the buildup, but I think then PGA into U.S. Open, U.S. Open into here, it just seems like it’s very, very quick. From a player perspective, if you get on a bit of a run, it’s nice to be sort of playing well and go from one straight into the next.

But for the sport as a whole and for, I guess, the general interest in the game, obviously I can see the positives in that major season being stretched out a little bit longer.

Q. Your clip went viral from the Scottish Open of shouting you’re so bad at golf to yourself, and I know you’ve been working very hard on the range this week. Just how happy are you since saying that to yourself on Sunday?

RORY McILROY: Depends what hour of the day you get me, I think.

It’s funny, I felt really good the first two days in Scotland and then felt like my game just sort of deteriorated as the week went on. Even though I shot a good score on Sunday, it didn’t feel very good.

So, yeah, I’ve done a good bit of work the past couple days, again, getting the TrackMan out, seeing what my numbers are, and just trying to match up the feels of my swing with what I’m seeing.

Also, like I played 30 holes on Sunday. I felt a little bit tired yesterday, so I didn’t make it on the course, but that allowed me a bit more time to hit some balls and dig into the swing a little bit. Felt good on the range. Felt good out on the course today. Definitely trending in the right direction.

Q. Scottie was just in here and mentioned how the changes to the golf course are very apparent because of the more abruptness of some of the features. You’ve had another chance to go around this morning and see it as it’s really browning out. What are your thoughts? Have they evolved a little bit or at all about how the changes play and how you plan to attack the course?

RORY McILROY: I think it’s a double-edged sword. I think all this dry weather and sun and a little bit of wind is obviously great for the course in one way, but when I was here a couple weeks ago, the rough was a lot more penal than it’s going to be this week. It’s definitely burnt out a lot.

There may be certain instances where — you know, the big thing, especially off the tee here, is the fairway bunkers and avoiding those. You might see some guys being more aggressive off the tee, taking driver, trying to take the fairway bunkers out of play. Okay, it might be in the rough, but it’s not that penal, so you get a wedge in your hand and you can figure it out from there.

Yeah, I think most of the changes are very good. I really like the 5th hole. I like the change to the 7th. I like the change — yeah, some of the greens are maybe a little unnatural with the runoffs and sort of what they’ve tried to do with the mounding. But it creates a good challenge, and it creates options for if you do miss the green, whether it’s a putter, a bump-and-run, some guys might choose lob wedge, and I think what we all know, even going back to Shinnecock a few weeks ago, when you give professional golfers options and you can create a little bit of doubt in their minds in terms of should I play this shot or that shot, that’s when things start to get fun, especially for the viewer. Not so much for us but…

That to me is the sign of a good championship test.

Q. I think when people talk to an athlete about their legacy, they often frame it in a way of how are you going to enjoy it and appreciate it in your own lifetime even as an old man, but I would be curious for you, how concerned are you with your legacy past when you’ll be on this earth? How concerned are you with how you’ll be viewed in a hundred years? Do you think about that kind of thing? Does it matter to you since you won’t be here? How does that go?

RORY McILROY: No, I don’t really care. I would like to think that the people that love and care about me think a certain way of me, but yeah, I’ll be long gone. I’ll be dead. I don’t think I’ll be seeing what people say about me. I’ll be six feet under. I don’t think I’ll be a ghost. I don’t think I’ll be, you know, like — yeah, I don’t care.

MIKE WOODCOCK: It’s been a theme of this afternoon’s press conferences, I think.

Q. The last week or so ago, the R&A announced sort of a new set of behavioral guidelines that they expect fans to follow. In relation to that, at the U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark took a bit of heckling, took a bit of crowd trouble on his way to winning. In your experience, how much of that do you think is down — or bad behaviour, bad crowd behaviour is down to gambling?

RORY McILROY: I wouldn’t say — look, we’ve had gambling over here for forever, and I would say the crowd behaviour has been pretty good for the most part. Obviously it’s a newer thing in the United States. Yeah, you could see how people that have a bet could — you know, it’s a very easy game to influence. The crowd aren’t far away from you.

I feel like certain things have happened to me over the years where it’s definitely been because of that, but it’s very rare, I would say. But certainly it’s a thing that we’ve definitely talked about when I was on the board of the PGA TOUR, on the PAC, like whenever gambling or sports betting in the United States was coming into golf in a big way, it was something we talked about and how do we place it to make sure the integrity of the competition isn’t jeopardized by letting this stuff happen.

I feel like it’s policed pretty well. In every crowd of thousands of people, you’re going to have your few bad eggs here and there, but for the most part, I think golf crowds are pretty respectful.

Q. Did you have favourites in the rota when you were a kid as a fan? Has that evolved at all? Do you have different favourites now as a player?

RORY McILROY: Come on, Kevin. St Andrews. The Open at St Andrews just feels different, just like the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach feels different. That to me is — I’ve only played in two Opens at St Andrews, but they’ve been my favourite as a player and also were my favourite ones growing up and watching. It sort of helped that Tiger won a couple of them early on.

Q. Is there any that your appreciation has evolved, like you’ve grown to appreciate them more as you’ve played them?

RORY McILROY: No. I would say I’ve appreciated a couple less since I’ve played them. No.

Q. Rory, it feels like you’ve historically played well at courses that you like, like Quail Hollow or Augusta. Is there anything about Royal Birkdale that you particularly like?

RORY McILROY: I think one of the common things you hear about Birkdale is it’s very fair for a links golf course. The fairways aren’t overly undulating, so when you land the ball in the fairway here, it seems like it stays on the fairway. There’s not a ton of blind shots, which I’ve never really had a problem with in other links courses, but that’s something that people say quite — it’s quite a common thing.

But I’ve always liked this course. I first played here in the Amateur Championship and then played an Open back here in 2017 and did okay. Yeah, it’s definitely — it’s certainly one of the — you know, if you were to poll every player in the field, I’d say it would be up there in terms of being everyone’s favourite Open venues to play for sure.

Q. Quick follow-up on the major schedule. Have you voiced those opinions to the powers that be as they start to figure out the future schedule?

RORY McILROY: No, I’m done with that part of — it’s a very complex jigsaw. You know, COVID didn’t help in terms of the PGA moving back to — it wasn’t just COVID. But I think the playoff structure for the PGA TOUR in August — and PGA with their move to Frisco obviously opens up — May time is better for them in Frisco, if that’s going to be one of their anchor sites, than August, for example.

Yeah, being a part of it for a while, there’s a lot of different constituents in the game, a lot of different governing bodies and opinions. My opinion isn’t going to change anything. I feel like I would certainly voice it, but I don’t think it’s going to really change anything.

Q. Last year you had the chance to play at home. Can you describe what the pressure that Matt and Justin and Tommy and the other English players will face this week?

RORY McILROY: For me luckily, it was my second time at playing at home. I felt like I handled the second time a little better than the first. But it is; it’s a tough environment. It’s a great environment but tough in a way that you just feel the extra expectation on your shoulders, and you feel like you’re trying to play well for everyone else and not for yourself.

I think there’s already enough pressure on anyone in this field to play well for themselves, so to add that extra layer on top of that is always pretty difficult. Yeah, like Tommy coming back here, for example, he grew up five minutes away, but I feel like Tommy’s more level-headed than I am and maybe won’t — he won’t fall into that trap like I did in 2019. It always seems like it takes me one go round to get it right.

It will be interesting to see. I’m playing with Matt tomorrow, but I think a lot of those guys are pretty level-headed, and they’ll go out there and stick to their routines and do their thing, and it will be great. It would be great for them all to have a great week because obviously with England in the World Cup still and everything that’s going on, it would just be an amazing atmosphere for the tournament.

Q. I’m not sure if you’ve had an exchange with Scottie on your way in and he was going out because some of the things are similar. You guys have got so many records at every round that you play, every tournament, every week, some record or the other is against your name now. How do records and wins, do they motivate you? Do you play for them? Is that the legacy that you play for, or what is it that you play for now? 13 Tour titles, six majors, and God knows so much else.

RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think it would be — I’m sure Scottie said something similar, but I think it would be a pretty unfulfilling pursuit if you’re just chasing records and chasing results. You have to enjoy the process. You have to enjoy the journey to get there. I’ve learned that the hard way at times by chasing results and chasing records too much.

You start to focus on your craft and your practice and doing the things you need to do to try to become a better golfer, and then if you do that, the results and the winning almost take care of themselves, or at least you put yourself in position enough to at least step through the door a few times.

Yeah, it’s not like when I step onto the golf course — you’re obviously trying to win, but winning is such a — like it’s not a real tangible goal, right? So the real goal is I want to do this with my swing or I want to hit this sort of shot or I want to feel good when I’m over the ball, whatever it is. If you do that stuff enough times, hopefully you get yourself in a position to win. Then from there, yeah, you can start to think about winning the tournament. But if all you’re thinking about is winning and results, you’re playing the wrong game.

Q. So when you hit the first ball on the 1st tee on Thursday, what would be the single biggest motivator for you?

RORY McILROY: Seeing how good I can be. Seeing if the work I’ve put in and the practice that I’ve put in can stand up to the most intense pressure that we are under, which is major championships.

Q. The start you made in 2017 meant obviously you had to play catch-up for most of the week. With the current setup and the changes, is it more possible to make up ground or is a fast start absolutely essential?

RORY McILROY: Fast starts are always important in these tournaments, or at least not shooting yourself out of it. I did well to rally in 2017 and shoot a decent score on that first day after a bad start — yeah, you try to play as good as you can. Like 72 holes is a long golf tournament. It’s a lot of time. A lot of things can happen.

So it’s not essential, but it’s obviously better to start well than not to start well.

Q. Just going back to the legacy question, many people already consider you to be European golf’s greatest player, one of the greatest British sports people. Last year you spoke about what an honour it would be if you were to receive a knighthood. It hasn’t happened yet. What’s your understanding of what’s gone on there? There seems to be some kind of tax issue. Could you sort of clarify what the latest is on that?

RORY McILROY: I have no idea. If that honour were bestowed on me one day, that would be amazing, but yeah, I have no idea.

Q. So no one has actually told you why that hasn’t happened? You haven’t had any conversations or information come your way?

RORY McILROY: I haven’t inquired, no.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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