Rory McIlroy about Tiger Woods

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In the last interview, Rory McIlroy talked about several topics, and also about Tiger Woods. The golfer said: "I’d made a bit of a name for myself as an amateur by then and knew Chubby (Chandler) and Darren (Clarke) so I was in the clubhouse and got to chat to Ernie when he won.

It’s amazing to think it’s been 17 year. Certainly a lot’s changed for me since the last time I was here. I might as well play the Scottish as well. My original plan up until last week was us to come as a family, play here, take a week off, which is now the Scottish Open, and play the Open.

With me being a sports person the restrictions are not as heavy for me as they would be for Erica and Poppy. I felt it wasn’t fair to put them through what they’d have to go through to be here with me. The plans changed very quickly and we made the decision I travel on my own.

I wasn’t going to go back to the States for a week inbetween the Irish and the Open, so if I’m here I might as well play the Scottish as well. It went very quickly from them coming, to not coming and then me playing three events in a row!

If anything, it’s probably worked out for the best. It’ll be nice to get a tournament on a links course before going into Sandwich. I didn’t play for a week because I was spending time with the family before being away.

So I can now get to work here and in Scotland. The last time I was on the 18th green here was that prize-giving ceremony. Tiger Woods won and I somehow sneaked my way under the ropes on to the back of the green. I was standing right behind him and his glove was still in his back pocket.

I could have reached out and got it and ran, that would have been a good story to tell. Obviously I didn’t. It was the first time I’d seen him play live. I still remember the first shot I saw him hit, the drive at the 5th, a par five.

He hit 2-iron into the green. It was so cool. I’d idolised him growing up and to actually see the man in the flesh was pretty exciting."

Jon Rahm still leads the men's ranking

1 1 2 ESP Jon Rahm 9.8279 471.74 48 -200.43 203.03 48
2 2 1 USA Dustin Johnson 9.6104 403.64 42 -202.43 99.26 42
3 3 3 USA Justin Thomas 7.9417 389.14 49 -176.87 144.02 49
4 4 7 USA Collin Morikawa 7.4345 371.73 50 -107.02 198.43 50
5 5 8 USA Xander Schauffele 6.8312 321.07 47 -143.27 140.10 47
6 6 5 USA Bryson DeChambeau 6.6703 333.51 50 -134.73 134.48 50
7 8 12 USA Brooks Koepka 6.3126 265.13 42 -136.73 177.90 42
8 7 9 USA Patrick Cantlay 6.2812 270.09 43 -121.03 142.28 43
9 9 11 USA Patrick Reed 5.9525 309.53 52 -133.49 139.07 62
10 10 4 NIR Rory McIlroy 5.8882 282.63 48 -172.98 134.14 48
11 11 10 ENG Tyrrell Hatton 5.7853 271.91 47 -110.80 93.99 47
12 19 28 USA Harris English 5.5911 290.74 52 -64.15 186.00 55
13 12 22 RSA Louis Oosthuizen 5.4651 251.40 46 -86.62 152.79 46
14 14 14 NOR Viktor Hovland 5.4592 283.88 52 -69.19 157.42 53
15 13 6 USA Webb Simpson 5.2394 220.06 42 -125.36 57.66 42
16 17 13 USA Daniel Berger 4.8698 228.88 47 -76.03 102.56 47
17 15 19 USA Tony Finau 4.8696 253.22 52 -105.39 146.57 58
18 16 20 JPN Hideki Matsuyama 4.8677 253.12 52 -93.92 134.55 56
19 18 31 USA Scottie Scheffler 4.6730 242.99 52 -66.37 149.73 61
20 23 23 MEX Abraham Ancer 4.4653 232.19 52 -80.98 123.05 59
21 20 24 ENG Paul Casey 4.4067 220.34 50 -96.73 145.72 50
22 22 82 USA Jordan Spieth 4.2599 217.26 51 -44.85 184.79 51
23 21 16 ENG Matthew Fitzpatrick 4.1881 217.78 52 -97.98 77.80 57
24 25 26 USA Jason Kokrak 4.0925 208.72 51 -68.07 108.74 51
25 24 42 USA Billy Horschel 4.0591 211.07 52 -63.49 134.21 54
26 26 18 KOR Sungjae Im 3.6605 190.34 52 -95.18 65.89 71
27 27 36 ENG Lee Westwood 3.5823 179.11 50 -53.50 99.71 50
28 28 27 AUS Cameron Smith 3.4313 171.56 50 -62.39 67.48 50
29 29 59 USA Will Zalatoris 3.3747 168.73 50 -29.07 115.99 50
30 31 45 CHI Joaquin Niemann 3.3409 173.72 52 -60.98 105.51 58
31 30 66 USA Phil Mickelson 3.2769 154.02 47 -39.10 113.27 47
32 32 15 USA Matthew Wolff 3.2100 134.82 42 -65.01 15.42 42
33 33 17 ENG Tommy Fleetwood 3.1440 163.49 52 -104.30 49.43 52
34 43 29 AUS Marc Leishman 3.1332 153.53 49 -73.05 78.37 49
35 35 154 USA Sam Burns 3.1168 152.72 49 -24.93 125.75 49
36 34 30 USA Ryan Palmer 3.1001 145.70 47 -55.93 66.98 47
37 36 54 CAN Corey Conners 2.9886 155.41 52 -52.43 94.44 60
38 37 32 FRA Victor Perez 2.9387 129.30 44 -54.04 49.67 44
39 38 90 RSA Garrick Higgo 2.9186 140.09 48 -21.73 100.09 48
40 41 21 AUS Adam Scott 2.8990 115.96 40 -84.91 38.36 37
41 39 38 USA Kevin Na 2.8297 147.15 52 -70.26 86.44 52
42 40 100 USA Max Homa 2.8117 146.21 52 -44.04 117.80 54
43 42 33 IRL Shane Lowry 2.7619 143.62 52 -84.24 73.19 53
44 45 138 USA Stewart Cink 2.7426 120.67 44 -16.48 90.31 44
45 47 91 USA Brian Harman 2.7158 141.22 52 -35.62 98.03 58
46 44 35 ENG Justin Rose 2.6986 129.53 48 -79.42 65.48 48
47 46 34 RSA Christiaan Bezuidenhout 2.6981 140.30 52 -58.22 41.77 53
48 52 25 USA Kevin Kisner 2.4598 127.91 52 -79.80 29.22 55
49 48 46 ESP Sergio Garcia 2.4016 122.48 51 -60.14 61.58 51
50 49 95 KOR Siwoo Kim 2.3949 124.54 52 -41.65 87.97 63
51 50 55 SCO Robert MacIntyre 2.3564 115.46 49 -45.60 55.73 49
52 51 52 USA Kevin Streelman 2.2544 117.23 52 -49.43 56.01 57
53 56 57 USA Russell Henley 2.2168 113.06 51 -35.80 46.72 51
54 55 48 ENG Ian Poulter 2.1833 113.53 52 -53.51 52.68 55
55 53 61 MEX Carlos Ortiz 2.1727 112.98 52 -38.63 46.53 58
56 54 40 AUT Bernd Wiesberger 2.1632 112.49 52 -63.05 46.69 52
57 57 144 USA Charley Hoffman 2.1536 111.99 52 -28.30 82.91 56
58 58 50 ENG Matt Wallace 2.1017 109.29 52 -61.21 50.77 61
59 61 44 USA Bubba Watson 2.0938 98.41 47 -46.56 34.57 47
60 62 113 AUS Matt Jones 2.0923 108.80 52 -34.51 73.31 59
61 60 126 RSA Branden Grace 2.0908 108.72 52 -33.30 74.44 56
62 59 39 USA Gary Woodland 2.0658 101.22 49 -79.12 42.82 49
63 64 37 USA Matt Kuchar 2.0373 103.90 51 -84.51 47.68 51
64 65 47 USA Brendon Todd 2.0284 105.48 52 -43.72 37.96 57
65 63 49 CAN Mackenzie Hughes 2.0176 104.92 52 -43.89 33.69 56
66 71 43 AUS Jason Day 1.9648 92.35 47 -51.57 27.82 47
67 66 272 KOR Kyoung-Hoon Lee 1.9448 101.13 52 -19.06 88.79 65
68 72 203 ITA Guido Migliozzi 1.9270 92.50 48 -23.44 77.31 48
69 68 265 USA Chris Kirk 1.9047 76.19 40 -13.16 63.97 34
70 70 81 USA Talor Gooch 1.8992 98.76 52 -31.98 50.55 56
71 67 60 COL Sebastian J Munoz 1.8954 98.56 52 -43.07 37.36 64
72 69 63 USA Lanto Griffin 1.8622 96.84 52 -45.17 38.93 64
73 73 103 USA Cameron Tringale 1.8271 89.53 49 -24.81 51.03 49
74 74 156 ARG Emiliano Grillo 1.7882 92.99 52 -25.26 63.82 58
75 75 131 USA Keegan Bradley 1.7660 91.83 52 -33.10 59.87 53
76 76 114 JPN Rikuya Hoshino 1.7557 70.23 40 -27.71 38.15 40
77 79 152 RSA Daniel van Tonder 1.7328 71.04 41 -19.59 42.29 41
78 99 79 GER Martin Kaymer 1.7269 77.71 45 -34.93 34.29 45
79 77 64 USA Joel Dahmen 1.6993 88.36 52 -44.85 32.52 54
80 80 58 ENG Andy Sullivan 1.6907 81.15 48 -36.44 17.69 48
81 78 120 FRA Antoine Rozner 1.6749 87.09 52 -27.04 46.81 53
82 82 130 USA Harold Varner III 1.6320 84.86 52 -29.25 49.23 54
83 85 123 JPN Takumi Kanaya 1.6091 64.37 40 -17.14 28.13 23
84 81 99 USA John Catlin 1.5972 79.86 50 -26.12 29.76 50
85 83 122 USA Brendan Steele 1.5816 75.92 48 -26.95 40.09 48
86 89 101 ENG Sam Horsfield 1.5641 71.95 46 -25.58 30.46 46
87 86 74 USA Chan Kim 1.5527 62.11 40 -29.74 21.13 40
88 84 62 USA Adam Long 1.5502 80.61 52 -43.51 13.77 63
89 87 51 RSA Erik van Rooyen 1.5340 79.77 52 -53.24 20.03 57
90 88 68 RSA Dylan Frittelli 1.5096 78.50 52 -38.56 17.17 58
91 100 70 AUS Lucas Herbert 1.4995 59.98 40 -29.19 14.54 37
92 90 199 RSA Brandon Stone 1.4707 75.01 51 -19.62 48.06 51
93 92 182 RSA Dean Burmester 1.4651 76.18 52 -20.04 46.16 57
94 93 206 RSA Charl Schwartzel 1.4639 58.56 40 -13.33 38.03 38
95 91 53 USA Rickie Fowler 1.4563 68.45 47 -55.58 31.17 47
96 94 83 BEL Thomas Detry 1.4363 74.69 52 -33.87 23.78 53
97 95 94 SWE Alex Noren 1.4277 74.24 52 -33.00 29.80 55
98 159 239 JPN Ryosuke Kinoshita 1.4200 56.80 40 -10.42 37.48 39
99 98 219 AUS Jason Scrivener 1.4180 69.48 49 -22.16 49.91 49
100 96 72 USA J.T. Poston 1.4137 73.51 52 -45.84 26.00 60