Rory McIlroy is coming into form at just the right time – by winning the so called “fifth Major” – the Player’s Championship at TPC Sawgrass this St. Patrick’s evening.
The four-time Major winner overcame last year’s US Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk to win by a stroke on 16 under par in difficult conditions at Sawgrass.
Northern Ireland’s McIlroy is looking to become just the sixth player in history to win all four Majors when the US Masters tees off on the morning of April 11th.
The 29 year-old took the gold Player’s Championship trophy to match his gold golf shoes after starting the final round one shot behind overnight leader Jon Rahm.
The Hollywood, Co. Down native birdied the par-five 16th to go one ahead of Furyk and held his nerve on the punishing par three 17th and par four 18th which he completed in three and four strokes respectively and that was enough to win the tournament.
He signed for a closing round two-under par 70 and a first prize cheque of $2.26million (€1.995million) – the second-richest prize in golf for one event.
Furyk, had held the clubhouse lead after birdieing the last but it was one too many strokes for the 2003 U.S. Open winner.
McIlroy now breaks a winless streak that extended back over a year to the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
He has not won a Major since the 2014 US PGA and now goes into the first Major tournament of the year as one of the favorites.
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