I was done with golf after Ryder Cup..I have to be more like me
Rory stops chasing perfection and lands 20th Tour triumph
RORY McILROY relaunched his career with his 20th victory on the PGA Tour at the CJ Cup – then revealed he had wanted to stop his season at the Ryder Cup.
The four-time Major champ broke down in tears in Whistling Straits last month on the final day of Europe’s crushing defeat.
But the Ulsterman said his emotional Sunday singles victory over Olympic champion Xander Schauffele sparked a flame.
And after vowing to get back to “being me” and not seeking to be perfect, McIlroy returned to shoot weekend rounds of 62 and 66 in Las Vegas to beat Open winner Collin Morikawa by a single stroke.
The new world No.8 said: “On the Saturday night of the Ryder Cup, I was done with golf. I didn’t want to see golf again until 2022. I was really disappointed with how I played. Then I talked about that Sunday singles match and that sort of sparked a bit of a flame again.
“I went out against Xander and I won my point by doing whatever I could. I wasn’t trying to be perfect, I wasn’t trying to hit shots that I wasn’t comfortable hitting, I just went out there to try to win my match and I did.
“Part of the emotion at the end of it was to do with that week but it was also probably to do with the last few months in terms of searching to try to get better and the realisation that I don’t need to search for anything, it’s all right here.
“I just need to play golf, I need to simplify it, I need to just be me. For the last few months I was maybe trying to be someone else to try to get better and I sort of realised that being me is enough and being me, I can do things like this.
“Sometimes I forgot that in a quest to try to be too perfect probably but this week was a great reminder that you don’t need to be perfect to be a great golfer.”