Return to Kiawah puts a major pep in McIlroy’s step
AMID the windswept dunes of Kiawah Island, the 2012 US PGA Championship is recalled for the week when Rory McIlroy dressed like the heirapparent to golf’s throne and kind of played like it, too.
Not only did McIlroy wear Tiger Woods red for his final round on the Sunday, but he drained a putt on the 18th green to eclipse the record margin of PGA Championship victory set by Jack Nicklaus.
‘I wasn’t playing with Tiger and thought I would wear it,’ explained McIlroy. ‘Might have to do it from now on. No wonder he wins so much,’ he quipped.
Very few, if any, 23-year-olds, could take out a Tiger and a Golden Bear with the same Sunday slingshot but Rory was capable of astonishing things at the time.
Indeed, when his final putt dropped in the shadows of a
South Carolina sunset, CBS commentator Jim Nantz announced: ‘The new ruler of the game of golf is Rory McIlroy.’
Beside him in the booth, Nick Faldo, was also blown away.
‘Whatever putting instruction manual he’s selling, I’m buying it. What a display on the greens, 24 putts on a major Sunday afternoon,’ added Faldo.
McIlroy’s second major came in his 16th try, compared to Woods’ two from 12, but the difference was the distance back to his pursuers – no one got within eight shots of McIlroy at either the 2011 US Open or 2012 US PGA.
And he did so against a background of whispers as his form heading to Kiawah was patchy, especially in the bigger events. He’d tied 40th at the Masters, then missed the cut at the Players, The Memorial and the US Open, before finishing tied 60th at the Open. ‘I was a little frustrated with how I was playing earlier on in the year, but a few people in this room were probably pushing panic buttons for no reason,’ he said in his moment of victory.
Kiawah served up relentless drama before McIlroy’s Sunday procession as it welcomed the return of big-time golf for the first time since the 1991 Ryder Cup.
There were a number of curious takeaways, not least the 18th finishing position of John Daly, if only because he’s never finished higher in a major since, while the second round average score was in excess of 78, a USPGA high, as Atlantic winds battered the shorelines.
All sorts of names bobbed about on the leaderboard. Vijay Singh, at 49, was the co-leader after day two, along with Tiger.
Both would be blown off course come a marathon Sunday which saw the leaders complete their third rounds before breakfast after Saturday storms. At one point in the third round, McIlroy’s ball got stuck in a tree. He took a penalty drop, chipped and putted for par. As you do when it’s your week.
Another quirky moment came in the final round when Carl Pettersson was penalised two strokes for brushing a leaf on his back-swing in a hazard on the opening hole.
The rule is since changed but that was no use to the burly Swede who finished tied for third with the defending champion, Keegan Bradley.
Ian Poulter birdied the first five holes of his final round, six of the
‘HE HAS EVERY CHANCE OF EQUALLING SEVE’S FIVE MAJORS’
first seven, to threaten McIlroy.
But as has been the case through his major-less career, the Postman was unable to deliver down the stretch. If only, this had been the Ryder Cup.
In the end, little-known English pro David Lynn trundled unnoticed across the line in second. It was his first time playing in the United States and he must have thought all his birthdays had fallen at once.
Lynn never figured again on a major weekend and retired in 2014 with persistent elbow trouble.
But no one could catch McIlroy who finished 67, 66 and breeze to victory, prompting Pádraig Harrington to observe: ‘Rory is showing that with his A game, everybody else is going to struggle to compete with him. Tiger is not going to pick a major off unless he’s got his A game out there.’
Nine years on, McIlroy returns to the scene of his triumph, shorn of dark, curly, locks and also of the giddy expectations that followed his second major.
While he added two more by the summer of 2014, he’s since endured a seven-year major hitch.
He’s no longer the new ‘ruler’ of golf but then no one really is in these post-Tiger days.
Brooks Koepka (four majors), Jordan Spieth (three) and Dustin Johnson (two) have had their moments but they’ve also found out, as has McIlroy, that it’s one thing getting to the summit, quite another staying there.
Even so, McIlroy has every chance of equalling the five majors of the late Seve Ballesteros as he sails into Kiawah on a wave of confidence after victory in the Wells Fargo Championship last Sunday.
Clearly, his new association with coaching guru Pete Cowen is paying dividends, notably on the greens where he missed nothing from inside six feet at Quail Hollow.
Harrington said on Thursday that ‘the swagger is back’ with McIlroy and warned, ‘when he starts playing well, he plays even better.’
For purity of strike, power and precision off the tee, distance control with his irons and bunker play, McIlroy is in a class of his own. It’s been wedge play and inconsistent putting that have held him back on the major front.
Nine years ago, he ‘had a good feeling about it (the PGA) at the start’ of the week.
That good feeling is back, which is a blessing for McIlroy, and the game, which needs his jaunty step on major Sundays, especially with Woods crocked by injury, and ageing.
It’s high time McIlroy plundered his treasure island again.