Rory aims for a first

Rory McIlroy has his eye on a piece of PGA Tour history this week as he targets a successful defence of The Players Championship. The world No 1 arrives at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, aiming to become the first player to go back-to-back at TPC Sawgrass.

“I don’t think you ever need an extra motivation when you come to this golf tournament, but to be the first one to defend here would be very cool,” McIlroy told reporters.

McIlroy will tee off on Thursday after an encouraging start to the season in which he has posted five top-five finishes in six starts.

He was in the hunt for victory at last weekend’s Arnold Palmer Invitational but slid out of contention after two double-bogeys on the final round. Nevertheless, the Northern Irishman sees similarities between his start to this season and 2019, when he bagged the first of four wins in 2019 at The Players after a run of consistent performances.

“It’s nice to be back,” McIlroy said. “A lot of similarities between this year and last year in terms of how I’ve played the first few events of the year, given myself some chances, haven’t quite been able to capitalise, and would be wonderful to replicate what happened last year.”

Webb Simpson, the 2018 Players Champion, will not be surprised if McIlroy ends up walking away with the $2.7m winner’s cheque this weekend.

Simpson believes the 30year-old McIlroy is comfortably the world’s best player.

“He’s certainly the best player in the world,” Simpson said. “He’s floated in and out of the best player in the world for his whole career it seems like.