Q. How is the game coming into this first event?
RORY McILROY: It feels good. I think there's always excitement and anticipation about a new year coming around and wanting to get off to a good start.
So yeah, I've been playing well in practise. I've been practising well. I've done some good work over the really sort off-season that we had. But yeah, it feels good. It's nice to come out here and have these run of events be the first events of the year. It's perfect weather.
It might be a little windy for the week but you can get some good practise in and you still want to do really well in the tournament but it's a bit like, you know, just to see where your game is and see what you need to work on going into obviously the meat of the season in a couple months' time.
Q. You win twice last year, and the public looking from the outside may be thinking, not playing his best. What do you want to improve this year?
RORY McILROY: I definitely feel like I turned a corner after The Ryder Cup. I think anyone that was paying attention saw I played better those few events did I play after The Ryder Cup and it's just trying to continue on what I've been working on since then.
I think trying to eliminate the big miss off the tee, those destructive shots where you make doubles from, reign that in a little bit and getting more effective with the scoring clubs. If I do drive the ball well I give myself so many opportunities. It's about hitting new shots that maybe go to 15 or 20 feet or inside ten feet and all of a sudden you start to hole some and get a bit of confidence there.
There's not much I need to work on but there's a couple of key aspects, and I think if I can get them down early in the year, I could be in for a good season.
Q. At this stage of your career, is the greatest growth between the ears or the golf swing?
RORY McILROY: Between the ears. Over the years I've learned when you get to this level, there's so many different ways to swing a golf club and everyone is trying to be somewhat perfect.
You just have to know what you do well and just try to repeat that, and it's about creating a repeatable swing. It doesn't have to be absolutely by the book and perfect, but the more optimal you can be between the ears, that's where you're going to pick up shots and that's the difference between winning and losing tournaments, and that's something that I continually, like everyone, just have to try to work on and become better at.
Q. For some of us watching (physical training on social media) give us an idea about how transferrable is it? What are the skill sets with the dead lifting and the box jumps?
RORY McILROY: It's called contrast training. It's about lifting heavy-ish loads, not too heavy. It's the week of the tournament, you're not going to be trying to absolutely kill yourself.
But it's more, yeah, as you said, making it transferrable, and they are athletic moments. There's nothing more athletic than using the ground to explode out of, and you do a similar move in the golf swing. As well you lift a heavy load and then you go and jump on a box and because of that heavy load that's just been through your body, your nervous system, it makes it feel easier.
And I'm not trying to gain speed but I'm not trying to lose any either, so it's about trying to maintain what I have. The game has become such a par sport that these are the things that you have to do nowadays.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports