McIlroy eyes Masters after Players win
PONTE Vedra Beach, Florida: Rory McIlroy has won four of the five biggest events in golf after his onestroke victory at the Players Championship in Florida yesterday and is turning his sights on the fifth — next month’s Masters at Augusta National.
A victory at the April 1114 tournament would make him the sixth man to complete the modern grand slam of all four majors — the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship — and the second this century after Tiger Woods.
McIlroy, who won his last major in 2014, has had four cracks at completing the grand slam, but he has never gone to Augusta with quite the sort of consistent form he is in now.
The Northern Irishman had not finished worse than sixth in five starts and he finally closed the deal on St Patrick’s Day at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.
He also vaulted to fourth in the world rankings, his highest position in almost 18 months, and collected more than $US2 million ($NZ2.91 million) for the victory, but it did not take long for talk to turn to another type of green, namely the green jacket.
‘‘If I go to Augusta with a similar golf game to what I have now and the attitude I’ve shown over the first few weeks of the year, I think I’ll have a great chance,’’ he told reporters.
If nothing else, victory yesterday will silence the critics who had observed that McIlroy, for all his consistency, had appeared to have lost the closer’s instinct, having not won for almost a year.
‘‘Even with some noise around me — ‘he can’t close, he can’t plays on Sundays, blah, blah, blah’ — I’ve just got to do my thing,’’ he said.
‘‘And if I go and I concentrate on me, control what I can do, good golf and good attitude takes care of the rest.
‘‘[But] I don’t want to look too far ahead.
‘‘I really want to enjoy this. I’ve actually got an interior design meeting tomorrow morning to pick out some stuff for our new house, so that’s the next port of call.
‘‘I’ll turn my attention to what’s coming up in a few days’ time.’’
McIlroy became the first player from Northern Ireland to win the Players Championship, emerging as the last man standing to beat American Jim Furyk by one stroke.
On a day when 15 players at one stage were within two shots of the lead, McIlroy eventually emerged from the pack, overcoming an early doublebogey by displaying enough maturity to hang tough before moving in for the proverbial kill.
He carded a 2underpar 70 for his final round.
McIlroy finished at 272, 16underpar, to edge Furyk, who with a gimme birdie at the final hole threatened to become the event’s oldest winner at the age of 48.
With Furyk already in the clubhouse, McIlroy knew what he had to do as he played the final three holes.
After a birdie at the par4 15th, he used his power to reach the par5 16th in two shots and a twoputt birdie gave him the lead.
McIlroy then safely negotiated the waterlined final two holes with tapin pars to clinch the most prestigious tournament outside the four majors.
Furyk shot 67 to finish alone on 15under.
‘‘There’s a little disappointment, thinking maybe I played well enough to win,’’ Furyk said.
‘‘Rory obviously felt differently.’’
It was Furyk’s 31st runnerup finish on the PGA Tour, the same number as Woods.
Englishman Eddie Pepperell (66) and Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas (66) finished two strokes behind McIlroy in a tie for third.
Pepperrell and Vegas sank monster birdies at the par3 17th.
Overnight leader Jon Rahm floundered, the Spaniard making three bogeys in the first four holes and compounding his misery by dunking his tee shot into the water at the par3 17th.
He shot 76 and finished equal 12th on 11under. — Reuters