Rory McIlroy’s latest triumph might just well be his greatest till now.
So far in his relatively short professional career of seven years, the young Northern Irishman has been dazzling in the way he won tournaments.
Whether it was his first professional victory at Dubai Desert Classic, or his three major victories before Sunday night, McIlroy has proved that there are very few players in the world who can run away with tournaments like him.
He simply annihilated the field in his first two majors – winning both the 2011 Masters and the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island by eight shots. And while the margin may have been just two strokes at Royal Liverpool in last month’s Open Championship, it really was another walk in the park for him.
The other way McIlroy has won his tournaments is by sneaking up on the leaders with blitzing final rounds. That was how he won his first title on the PGA Tour – when he shot a stunning course-record 62 at Quail Hollow Championship – or at this year’s BMW PGA Championship, where a six-under par 66 on the final day helped him catch Thomas Bjorn, who was ahead of him by seven shots.
So, a majority of McIlroy’s wins have come when he is either assured of the title, or when he did not have any chance of winning on the final day. Although it has been proven time and again that no lead is safe in golf on the final day, the 25-year-old world No1 has relatively been pressure-free on most judgement days.
On Sunday, McIlroy was the only player in the top-20 of the leaderboard, who was playing over-par. That must have been disconcerting because a wet Valhalla was there for the taking, and everybody around him was making birdies by shooting darts at the pins.
When he finished the ninth hole, he was already three shots behind, having led by one at the start of the day. The back nine on Sunday, considered the most difficult stretch of golf by most players, is where talent and ability takes a back seat. It’s the time when the player who is mentally the strongest, often prevails.
Luck often plays a significant part in any victory, and McIlroy got his share with the thinly-skulled second shot that set up his eagle on the 10th, but there was nothing lucky about that brilliant second shot on the 17th hole from the fairway bunker. It was pure class, and the following birdie set up an amazing win.
Perhaps it was the involvement of Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler in the epic showdown, or perhaps it was just the quality of golf, but the TV ratings of the final day of the PGA Championship were up 36 per cent from last year, and 54 per cent from the year when McIlroy won in 2012. Those numbers once again underline the growing significance of McIlroy in the American market.
There have been talks of this being the start of the ‘Rory’s era’, and even though McIlroy himself cringed at the term, he better well get used to it.
To win three back-to-back events as huge as the Open Championship, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, even Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus would have been proud of that.
