Rory McIlroy ready to dominate golf again after Players Championship win
Rory McIlroy’s win at the Players Championship on Sunday is just the beginning of another run as the best player in the world for the Northern Irishman.
After four holes on Sunday at the Players Championship, it looked like another week of so close but oh-so-far for Rory McIlroy.
The 29-year-old Northern Irishman had just put his second shot to the fourth green into the water hazard for a double-bogey. Again at the 14th, he put his approach shot from the middle of the fairway into a greenside bunker, his attempt to save par from five feet not even touching the cup. Suddenly McIlroy, who came into Sunday’s final round a shot off the lead held by Jon Rahm, looked to be letting another tournament slip away.
But this was a different McIlroy playing TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, one who doesn’t let a bad shot deter him. From a fairway bunker on the 15th, he hit his approach to 14 feet and made the putt to reclaim a share of the lead, then took sole possession of the lead for good with a two-putt birdie on the par-five 16h. At the formidable 18th, he hit two perfect shots into the green, leaving him just a tap-in to win the Players.
The win was a long time coming for McIlroy. So far in 2019, he’s been in contention at every tournament, not finishing worse than sixth in his previous five starts on the PGA Tour. Three times he played in the final group on Sunday. All three times, and his previous nine going back to last year, he’s come up empty. What McIlroy took away from those weeks, however, was not the disappointment of losing. It was the satisfaction that he was playing so well.
McIlroy has made a concerted effort this year in improving his mindset. Instead of dwelling on every bad shot, it’s always on to the next one and concentrating on the positives. Removing all the negativity surrounding his game has been the biggest difference in allowing him to reach a new level of play this year.
“I guess I’ve been good, I’ve been disciplined this year in not reading a lot of stuff about myself. So that has helped because I haven’t read any of the negativity or anything,” he said at his post-victory press conference on Sunday. “Obviously I know that it’s going to happen because of who I am and what I’ve done in the past and whatever. But I really have left each tournament happy.”
McIlroy never questioned why he wasn’t winning despite getting into contention so often. He decided to focus on what he was doing well, knowing if he continued to play this way the wins would come sooner or later.
“When you reflect on the week you have to reflect on the 72 holes and not just the last two holes you’ve played. And every time I reflected on the 72 I’ve played I’ve been pretty happy,” he said. “I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do…Everything was in a really good place. And that’s why I was just preaching patience and it was just a matter of time.”
This new and improved McIlroy looks poised to retake his spot as the dominant player in golf. He leads the PGA Tour this year in strokes gained: tee-to-green and off-the-tee, and ranks fifth in driving distance. Even his putting, often the crux of his game holding him back, has been better under the influence of Brad Faxon. He ranks 57th on tour in strokes gained: putting in 2019 after not being higher than 97th the past four seasons.
McIlroy is now installed as the favorite to win the Masters next month as he attempts to win the career Grand Slam. It was at Augusta a year ago that his recent struggles on Sunday began. Grouped with eventual champion Patrick Reed in the last group in 2018, McIlroy shot 74 and fell into a tie for fifth. The Masters won’t be the only major championship he looks forward to the rest of this year. The Open Championship will be played in his backyard, at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, a venue where he set the course record as a 16-year-old.
One thing that will be different for McIlroy in this stretch of dominance is his consistency. In years past he’s been capable of extraordinary runs, winning majors by eight shots or pulling out three straight victories. Those would be followed, however, by missed cuts and long spells of poor finishes. McIlroy, though, insists that won’t be the case this time around, and it’s all because of his new mindset.
“I think it’s maturity. I think it’s been having a focus over the last six or seven months on my attitude. Especially my attitude to golf, and not letting golf define who I am as a person. Trying to keep the two things separate,” he said.
“One thing that I used to do in the past is I let what I shot that day influence who I was or my mood. Trying to keep those two things very separate is something I’ve worked hard on because who I am as a person is not who I am as a golfer. I took me a while to get to that point where I realized who those two people were. That has been a big thing, and I think that’s been the big difference between the highs and lows of the last few years and the more consistent play even in the last 12 months.”
With the win on Sunday, McIlroy joins Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only golfers with 15 PGA Tour titles and four majors before the age of 30. It’s fitting company for him. Nicklaus and Woods dominated golf for long periods of time. McIlroy is now set up to do the same, and it started on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass.