Michael Bamberger
June 10, 2025
Rory McIlroy ranks number one among the best talkers in the game.
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Oakmont, Pa. – Rory McIlroy’s press conference is scheduled to start Tuesday at 1 p.m., but starts five minutes early. The tent was packed with people, and Rory sat in his rotating seat, on a riser, behind a dining table, about three feet above sea level – writers, bloggers, shooters, and others. Why postpone joy?
With Tigers in semi-retirement, the best pre-match show in town (your town) is a press conference for Rory McIlroy. He sells himself there, Nike and the game he plays for fame and glory. We observe him before, during and after, hoping that some of these, golf skills and golf magic will wipe off on us. We pay for privileges. He was paid. There are no products here, but this is not a zero-sum game. If so, you’ll read other things now, instead of watching NBC, Brad Faxon and Peeps hosting on Sunday afternoons.
In many cases where Rory McIlroy decided to speak, he was an amazingly good speaker. (As he pointed out, last month’s PGA title was a “weird week” by Quail Hollow.
Rory McIlroy has no peers in his generation. Half of his class is his class, with three-quarters of speakers in his class, if not better: Padraig Harrington, Phil Mickelson, and Colin Montgomerie. Before those gentlemen, there were the Big Three of the TV era, Gary players, Jack Nicklaus and L. Trevino. McIlroy used to be a teenager, so he kept getting crowded.
On Tuesday, in the USGA’s Cisco-sponsored interview tent (only toilets are not for sale), there were about 40 seats in the infield, just below McIlroy’s stage. Every seat is occupied. The wings on the left and right are crowded. In addition to the seats, dozens of them stand on hexagonal tables for cocktails and snacks, but here they hold their cell phones and journalist laptops, although these aren’t once staple foods. USGA media official Julia Pine sat on the right side of McIlroy, noting that volunteers handed the microphone to each journalist who was selected to ask questions. The reporter’s agreement is to raise a question and allow for quick follow-up. As usual, almost no one asks personal questions. I won’t even give you the most personal example of the question one might ask, because That Too personal. Golf is unique. only.
Jenna Harner was there to ask McIlroy a Pittsburgh question. Harner is a sports anchor and journalist at the WPXI Pittsburgh NBC branch. She is a regular visitor to Steelers Games, Pirates Games, Penguin Games. This U.S. Open is her first major golf champion. She drove to work – Oakmont Country Club – with butterflies and conflicting hints in her belly. The Steelers made their debut at the Steelers’ new quarterback on Tuesday’s first day at a small training camp. So it’s a big deal to talk about sports, one of the great sports cities in the United States.
But the chance to meet Rory McIlroy in person beats everything. She was inserted into everything that happened to the mini camp, but she hung on every word McIlroy. In the Cisco interview tent, he said about 2,000 of them in a 15-minute interview, and there were thousands of them outside, radio interviews and other interviews. If you string all these words together, you will have a long piece of magazine work. look It is his first choice. return, Yes. These words flow effortlessly, and his ideas are usually primitive. “You dreamed of finally putting into the Masters, but you wouldn’t think about what’s going to happen next,” he said, explaining his unknowns over the past two months.
Outside, McIlroy was almost on the fence, answering questions from two radio reporters he knew from Britain. A dozen or more journalists formed a bulky semicircle behind them. A child stared at the small gap in the fence to see what was going on. Local sports anchor Harner is taking a closer look, trying to attract McIlroy’s eyes and enter there with his own questions. Nothing happened.
“Others would ask him about his golf, his route and all of that, but I want to ask him about Pittsburgh and the fans here,” Haner said.
She has no chance. It was a routine thing to do at a Rory McIlroy press conference. There are always problems on the mowing floor.
McIlroy does raise a question about his comfort in these circumstances, talking about the game he played with. “I love myself, I love golf, so I’m comfortable talking about these two things,” he said. “I think you’ll always be willing to talk about topics that you feel like you know very well, and I think I know a lot about golf, especially my golf. No one can better tell you my game, my thoughts and my thoughts and my feelings.”
“I’ve always loved it. I’ve always loved talking about games.”
Bryson DeChambeau next. You may remember that he won last year’s U.S. Open, where he shot McIlroy’s. He came at 2pm and he was really great, fun, engaging, and wouldn’t make a motion anyway. But the tent is half filled. Rory McIlroy left the building and dozens of journalists followed him.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments via michael.bamberger@golf.com
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Michael Bamberger
golf.com contributor
Michael Bamberger writes for Golf Magazine and Golf.com. Prior to this, he served as a senior writer for nearly 23 years Sports Illustrated. After graduating from college, he worked as a newspaper reporter, first of all (Marsha) Vineyard Gazette, after Philadelphia Inquirer. He has written various books on golf and other disciplines, most recently Tiger Woods’ Second Life. His magazine works have been published in several editions of the Best Sports Works in America. He owns a U.S. patent on the Electronic Club (Utilities Golf Club). In 2016, the organization’s highest honor won the Donald Rose Award from the American Association of Golf Course Architects.
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