Single Rory soars

IN BETWEEN t he ropes, Rory McIlroy’s “sanctuary” as he put it, he looked so imperious that even his well-known antipathy to the “new” Wentworth couldn’t stop him.

Helped, he admitted, by the wet conditions allowing him to mostly ditch a conservative plan he never seemed that keen on, he looked in as good a fettle as his high water mark — so far — of 2011-12.

Sure, the field came back to him thanks to the errors of others, and he cheerfully acknowledged his good fortune there too.

But once the chase was on, you had a clear feeling that there was only one winner, and when he finally did hit the front, he impressively engaged another gear with the two final birdies to close the door.

You still have any doubts about the star quality element? He may have broken Caroline Wozniacki’s heart but the Wentworth crowd clearly still have him in theirs.

A s he said later, he’d been playing pretty well coming into the championship. The equipment issues are now irrelevant, and the contractual one probably as well.

We found out that, as many expected, he’s not the marrying kind right now. But what we really learned at the weekend is that Rory is made of much tougher stuff than we realised.

The last 18 months of various t urmoils were a tough shift, but in the long term those experiences have made him capable of fighting off future setbacks.