Rory McIlroy dishes on lifting less than Tiger Woods and the Jordan Spieth rivalry

For Rory McIlroy, winning at Quail Hollow on Sunday was not quite as momentous as lifting trophies at Congressional, Kiawah, Hoylake, or Valhalla.

His seven-shot victory, though, was still worthy of a mini-media tour — both traditional and digital, as he chatted with Dan Patrick about Tiger Woods, fitness, and rivalries after fielding questions from fans via Periscope, the live video app.

Speaking to the Dan Patrick Show on the phone Monday morning, McIlroy offered an idea for growing his game that would seem to make more sense than “foot golf,” pizza pie-sized holes, and other far-fetched schemes. Newcomers, kids particularly, are likely to take up the sport if their role models look like the athletes many of them are.

“I think golf has progressed a lot and it has become more of an athletic sport. You look at some of the moves that guys make at the ball nowadays, and you need to be strong in certain areas. You don’t need to be built like a linebacker, but you need to have stability and strength in certain areas in your body,” said McIlroy, who has become as much a gym rat as his boyhood idol.

Woods, who has taken heat over the last couple of years for being too bulked up, was the driving force behind golfers’ fitness regimens. He inspired McIlroy and many of his generation on the golf course and in the workout room.

“If more golfers look athletic, it portrays a much better image for the game, and that encourages kids to maybe pick up the sport or pick up a club,” added the world No. 1. “Maybe it encourages their parents to get into golf as well, because maybe 15-20 years ago the image of golf wasn’t athletic. It wasn’t the way it is now. And Tiger has changed that. You look at some of the younger guys that now on tour and the look is much different but I think that’s a great thing for golf.”

Also good for golf, according to the four-time major champion are rivalries. While everybody’s favorite would-be challenger, Jordan Spieth, has a long way to go to be in McIlroy’s league, his Masters win encouraged Rory to do what he must to retain his position atop the golf world.

“You look at some of other sports and some of the other rivalries, I’m thinking individual sports like tennis, Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal], they made each other better … Even Phil [Mickelson] made Tiger better,” said McIlroy, who was one of the first to refer to Woods’ greatness in the past tense, when he did so on the Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show in August.

“As I said, it inspired me to see Jordan do what he did at Augusta. It inspired me to go out and maybe have a little edge, and a little bit more intensity,” he said. “Since then it’s been nice to pick up a couple of wins in my last three starts and I’m sure that’ll spur Jordan on as well.

“If you look at what Rickie [Fowler] did at The Players, as well, there’s a lot of young guys that can go ahead now and take control of big golf tournaments, and again, that can only be good for golf. I think that healthy competition and rivalries is definitely a good thing for all of us.”

McIlroy took to the radio airwaves a few hours after his maiden voyage on Periscope as he live streamed a session from aboard his private jet Sunday night. McIlroy, his caddie JP Fitzgerald, and a few friends yukked it up for about 15 minutes as they flew from the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte to London for a Nike event on Monday.

Though he spared everyone yet another playing of his “Hall of Fame” commercial, McIlroy did not miss a chance to shill for his favored timepiece.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Woods, at 39, can out-bench press his 26-year-old Nike stablemate.

“Tiger, I think,” McIlroy, who estimated he can bench some 230 pounds to Woods’ 300, told Patrick. “Yeah, yeah, no, Tiger. Tiger, yeah. I’ve probably got shorter arms, so I don’t have to move the bar quite as far as he does.”