Rory McIlroy faced the media for the first time since the build up to The Masters last month where he comfortably missed the cut after being one of the tournament favorites.
The four-time Major winner wasn't able to complete the elusive career grand slam and the mental strain of missing out at Augusta led to him missing the following week's RBC Heritage, and taking a $3m fine for doing so.
He arrives at Oak Hill this week again as one of the betting favorites but is slightly under the radar after only recording a T47 finish in his one start since The Masters.
So, what did he have to say?
SIDESTEPPING LIV
I guess that answers that then. pic.twitter.com/QMbFOJ3g0MMay 16, 2023
McIlroy was only asked two LIV Golf questions by the on-site press and it was very clear that he had no intentions of speaking about the Saudi-backed start-up.
Asked what the game might look like in three years if he had a crystal ball, he simply replied: "I don't have a crystal ball." To a follow up on whether he could speculate, his answer was again brief - "No."
He was later asked whether it will be conscious decision to sidestep LIV talk. His answer, "Yeah."
Having voiced his views week-after-week last year as the PGA Tour's de-facto spokesperson, it seems he's planning to keep his thoughts to himself for the foreseeable.
The Pain Of Augusta
After shooting rounds of 72-77 (+5) to miss the cut at Augusta, McIlroy spoke of the "deflation" he felt that ultimately led to him missing the RBC Heritage and playing just one tournament since.
"Yeah, golf is golf, and it happens and you're going to have bad days," he explained. "It wasn't really the performance of Augusta that's hard to get over, it's just more the mental aspect and the deflation of it and sort of trying to get your mind in the right place to start going forward again, I guess."
BOMB AND GAUGE TACTIC?
When describing the course setup this week, McIlroy likened it to Winged Foot in 2020 when Bryson DeChambeau won the US Open.
DeChambeau, the biggest hitter in the game, essentially 'bombed' his driver as far as possible and 'gauged' his wedges out onto the green and putted the lights out. McIlroy hinted that that tactic could be a possibility this week with the greens at Oak Hill open at the front and awaiting balls to be ran up.
"I look at a golf course like this and I think it's quite similar to what we faced at Winged Foot in 2020 in terms of long golf course: long rough, pretty narrow fairways, but there's a lot of openings into the greens," he explained. "You can run the ball up. The fairways are pretty firm and those aprons are certainly running.
"There's two different trains of thought of how to play that. It's playing from the fairway and being able to get a little closer to those tight corners, or you can just get it up there as far as possible and try and run it up the front of the green, which basically most greens allow you to do.
"Obviously there's a certain style of play that worked pretty well in 2020 at Winged Foot, and I guess, as I said, it remains to be seen what sort of golf wins this week."
PGA LOST ITS IDENTITY?
The PGA Championship moved from August to May in 2019, with it now occupying the second spot in the four-Major cycle. Previously known as 'Glory's Last Shot', the PGA Championship now sits just a month after The Masters and a month before the US Open.
Has that damaged the event and caused it to lose its identity? That's what McIlroy hinted.
"Do I like it in May? Look, the only thing about May is that, maybe in the future it'll start to exclude places like this in the northeast to host this championship [due to the colder weather], so that's a shame," he said.
"The northeast is sort of my favorite golf to play in this country. I love the golf courses up here and I love the tradition, and a lot of the historic golf course architects started their journeys up here and have built some amazing golf courses.
"It would be a shame if we weren't able to come back here.
"I always liked in August that this was glory's last shot and there was a real identity there. Not saying that it's lost any of that identity in terms of its still a Major championship, but I feel like having it be the last Major of the year maybe just gave it a little bit of something that it doesn't quite have right now."
HE DOESN'T WANT (OR NEED) TO BE RUTHLESS
McIlroy is without a Major victory since 2014's PGA Championship, where he was a ruthless competitor having won The Open just a month earlier at Royal Liverpool and two other Majors in the three years prior.
Is he still ruthless? He says he doesn't need to be.
"I find being that way pretty exhausting in life in general, to be that ruthless, and it's not as if I can't get into that mode, but I don't feel like I need to be that way to be successful on the golf course."
He is also lowering his expectations this week.
"Less expectations," he said on what he is working on in his mental game.
"Just sort of trying to sort of be in a good spot with taking what comes and not thinking about things too much, not getting ahead of myself. Just trying to go out there, play a good first hole of the tournament, and then once I do that, try to play a good second hole and just sort of go from there."
JOSH ALLEN
The four-time Major champion was asked about the Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, to which he revealed that he would love to meet him.
"I haven't," he said on whether the two have met. "I know he's a big golf fan. I haven't met him. I think he played Pebble Beach pro-am this year, but I didn't play there. Yeah, I'd obviously love to meet him."
HOME GAME
The Northern Irishman says he's been getting a lot of support from the locals, now that he is an adopted Rochester man after marrying Rochester's Erica Stoll. He also said he loves the changing seasons of the upstate New York city and has spent Christmases there.
"Yeah, it's been really nice," he said. "I got a lot of support out there yesterday in the practice round, and yeah, I certainly know this area probably a little better than most of the people in the field.
"Hopefully that support will help me and give me some momentum as the week goes on. Yeah, it's nice to come back to somewhere that you're familiar with, that you've got obviously really good memories and sorta good karma.
"I've spent summers here, I've spent falls here, I've spent a few Christmases here. I really love the seasons. We live in Florida. We don't get that.
"So it's nice to come up here and see the leaves change in October and have the snow at Christmastime.
"There's certainly parts of it that I've really enjoyed and will continue to enjoy."
