Vegas helps Rory find a way back to ‘being himself’
RORY McILROY admitted he used his Ryder Cup heartache as motivation to join the select band of players with 20 PGA victories after his win in the CJ Cup.
The Northern Irishman, who started the final day in Las Vegas two shots behind leader Rickie Fowler, followed up his superb third-round 62 with a six-under 66 to finish on 25 under par.
It was McIlroy’s second victory of 2021 and helped to put the misery of last month’s disappointing Ryder Cup in Wisconsin – which culminated in a tearful television interview – firmly behind him.
‘On the Saturday night of the Ryder Cup I was done with golf,’ said the 32-year-old who mustered a single point in Europe’s landslide 19-9 defeat to the USA at Whistling Straits (below). ‘I didn’t want to see golf again until 2022. I was really disappointed with how I played. ‘There was a lot of reflection in the last couple of weeks. This is what I need to do. I 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 and get better.
‘I realised that being me is enough, and being me I can do things like this.’
McIlroy mixed four birdies around his first bogey since Thursday on the front nine, gained another stroke on the 12th before setting up the win with a monster 34-foot putt on the 14th.
A composed approach to the last meant he could two-putt from 13 feet for a closing par to finish ahead of Open champion Collin Morikawa, with Fowler and a third American, Kevin Mitchell, a further two shots behind.
‘To get to 20 wins here is a big achievement,’ added McIlroy, who has been working with a different coach in Pete Cowen since the Masters in April as he tried to make some technical adjustments.
‘I played really well this week, highlighted by the ten-under round, but to follow that up with a really solid round [is satisfying].’