PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — It was almost unfair, giving Rory McIlroy an extra 15 hours to know the exact shots he would need to hit to win.
Once the Players Championship became a three-hole aggregate Monday playoff due to a Sunday weather delay, McIlroy had the clear advantage over J.J. Spaun. But as the wind gusted down the 16th, McIlroy was as nervous as he had been for a long time, he said later. On Sunday, he had regretted not closing the door. The pressure, inevitably, was on him.
The stakes made for a tough night; he woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep. The situation made for a “stressful” morning; he got to the course at 6:15, using the same workout and warmup routine as he would if he had to play a full 18 holes to find some semblance of normality.
“I was as nervous as I can remember,” McIlroy said.
But once the ball was on the tee, McIlroy, as he’d done all week, relied on what he knew: His game has been maturing for moments like this. He grabbed his driver and sent it over the left trees 334 yards down the fairway. He hit a pitching wedge into a par-5 and made birdie. Game on. Spaun made par. Two holes remained, but it was already game over.
“By no means did I have my best stuff this week,” McIlroy said. “But I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a huge thing.”
The win was a triumph of McIlroy’s game, another testament to his longevity and glimpse into his maturity. At 35 years old, 12 years into his pro career, McIlroy still has the brute strength required to overpower golf courses. Now, however, he also has the finesse necessary to change gears, to recover, to battle and to win even when his game is not in peak form. This week, he uncharacteristically missed 30 of the 58 fairways. It didn’t matter. His putting, short game and approach game were up for the challenge.
“I feel like I’m a more complete player,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I can play in all conditions and anything that comes my way.”
A year after Scottie Scheffler dominated the sport with nine wins and one major championship, turning himself into the unquestioned top player in the world, McIlroy is mounting his retort. Through four events this season, the No. 2 player in the world has two wins in signature events — one here and one at Pebble Beach — this season, both in comeback fashion.
If the results are the headline, the process that’s playing out during four — or five — days of golf is the tangible proof. After spending some time in the offseason working on his swing, McIlroy is in control of his golf ball, and by extension his game. Even when the game frustrates him in moments, his evolution as a player has allowed him to stay patient. As he did on the 16th tee Monday morning, McIlroy can hit it high. As he showed on the second hole Sunday, where he made a crucial eagle, he can also bomb it low. And when the wind is up and the pressure is on, McIlroy can rely on his off-speed pitches and precision.
When he got to the island green 17th tee Monday, which was 130 yards playing into the wind, he knew the exact shot it would require. On the range, he had practiced it, positioning himself to mimic the wind he knew he would face. A “three-quarter, three-quarter 9-iron” that would go about 147 yards, McIlroy said. It did exactly that. “I go back to 2009 when I first set eyes on this golf course, and it certainly wasn’t love at first sight,” he said. “I’ve had to learn to play this golf course and adapt my game to it in some ways. To win for a second time [here] is awesome.”
The fissure between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour over the past few years has appeared to water down some PGA Tour events, but the Players still carries weight, and McIlroy felt it Monday as he raised the golden trophy again.
The tournament almost always produces great winners; the course almost always requires elite performances. Six years after his first win here, McIlroy’s second victory puts him in rare company, as only three other players have won multiple Players and multiple majors (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Scheffler).
The role that Scheffler plays in McIlroy’s form is not to be dismissed. His greatness has forced McIlroy to dig deeper into his determination to remain one of the best. It’s why McIlroy instituted some swing changes this offseason, why he still puts in the work and why he hasn’t fallen off.
“Seeing Scottie, what he’s done … it’s inspired all of us to try to be better,” McIlroy said. “I know I have to be better to compete with him”
It is inevitable that as the calendar turns to April, the conversation also turns to what all this success might mean for McIlroy at Augusta — where Scheffler will defend his second green jacket — and beyond. The major drought will enter its 11th year this season and with it, more attention, more pressure and more questions loom. But as he showed Monday and throughout this week, McIlroy is as confident in his ability to win the biggest events as ever even if he’s not that far removed from his recent heartbreaking major losses.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m making those mistakes at the critical times like I was previously. I think a big part of that was just learning from those mistakes,” McIlroy said. “It’s a long career. You have to stay incredibly patient. I would say that some of those losses have helped me learn what to do when I’m in those positions again.”
McIlroy’s win this week matters. After doing this for so long, he knows that externally his career is measured in majors, but also that golf is a game of such razor-thin margins that the difference between a trophy and just another check can come down to inches. He is familiar with that more than most, and yet the two wins this season have served as evidence — not just to himself, but to the rest of the golf world, too — that he has put in the work and that no one is playing better than him right now.
