SAME OLD RORY

Gritty back-9 effort propels McIlroy to one-shot victory

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Maybe this was the secret for Rory McIlroy all along: Staying out of the final pairing of the final round.

Maybe McIlroy’s most important putt was the 12-foot birdie putt he missed on the 18th hole of his third round Saturday that placed him in the second-to-last pairing in Sunday’s final round. We’ll never really know. What we do know for certain, however, is this: McIlroy is the 2019 Players Championship winner thanks to a gritty 3-under back-nine performance in Sunday’s final round that got him to 16-under for the week and a one-shot winner over Jim Furyk on a chilly, blustery day at TPC Sawgrass.

McIlroy’s birdies on Nos. 15 and 16 allowed him to seize the lead in a final round that dripped with drama as the afternoon wore on with more than a dozen players in the mix to win.

Until Sunday, the narrative surrounding McIlroy for months had focused on him putting himself in position to win by getting into the Sunday final pairing yet failing to win. Dating back to January 2018, that had happened to McIlroy nine times.

There would not be a 10th time Sunday because McIlroy was in the penultimate pairing — just as he was when he last won, in the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

“Maybe if I hadn’t have had those experiences, I wouldn’t be sitting up here with this trophy,’’ McIlroy said.

So McIlroy, a Northern Irishman, won on St. Patrick’s Day.

“I came here as a 19-year-old in 2009, missing the cut, getting kicked out of bars in Jax Beach for being underage, so I’ve come a long way in those 10 years,’’ McIlroy said. “So to think about that guy to where I’m at … it was beyond my wildest dreams that I’d be sitting up here with 24 worldwide wins and four majors and five Ryder Cups played.

“At that point, I didn’t know what to expect. I came on Tour and all I wanted to do was keep my card, and from there, you grow and you learn and you become a better player, and you realize that there’s a lot more that you can achieve.’’

McIlroy had finished in the top 6 in his previous six tournaments without a win.

“He knew that he was playing some good golf and it was just a matter of time for him to be able to take those opportunities and he obviously did it on a grand stage like he did [Sunday],’’ said Jason Day, who was paired with McIlroy on Sunday.

McIlroy wobbled early, with a sloppy double bogey on No. 4. But he played his final 10 holes in 4-under par, seizing the lead with a birdie on No. 16 and closing with ice-water-in-his-veins clutch pars on 17 and 18.

McIlroy, shooting 70 Sunday, staved off a spirited run by Furyk, who shot 67, Jon Rahm, who began the day with a oneshot lead, Tommy Fleetwood, with whom he began the day tied for second, Eddie Pepperell and Jhonattan Vegas, both of whom shot 66 Sunday, among other challengers.

“I knew [Sunday] was going to be difficult just by looking at the forecast,’’ McIlroy said. “But the good thing is it wasn’t just difficult for me, it was difficult for everyone else. I needed to show a lot of character out there, and I think all the experiences I’ve had over the last few weeks in terms of trying to win and not getting over the line definitely helped me.’’