Rory McIlroy, only 23 years old, once again inscribed his name in gold letters in the Grand Slam thanks to his resounding victory, by eight strokes, in the US PGA played in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. The Northern Irishman won his second major and returned to the top of the world golf ranking, surpassing England’s Luke Donald. He alsobecame the youngest player to win two majors, surpassing Tiger Woods by four months, and also the first player from his country to win this tournament.
In June 2011, McIlroy wowed the world with his historic win at the U.S. Open: he was the youngest winner, at 22, since 1923 and a record score of 22 under par.
One year and two months later, this prodigiously talented golfer has added a new major, with the brutal figure of 8 strokes ahead of the second-placed Englishman David Lynn (-5).
On the rebound, McIlroy regained the world lead held by England’s Luke Donald and achieved the third victory by a European golfer in this tournament in the last five editions.
At the Ocean Course, McIlroy has broken a bad streak in the three previous Grand Slam tournaments in 2012 and regains the path of the players called to write the best lines of world golf at the beginning of the century.
The Sunday of this victory was a marathon of holes and golf, as the penultimate day was postponed due to storms and many of the players had to finish off the unfinished work of the third round and complete the fourth.
McIlroy went to bed as provisional leader, along with Fiji’s Vijay Singh, but with the obligation to play 9 holes when he woke up and then another 18. Those 27 holes in one day not only did not mean an overload of play, but McIlroy signed 67 strokes (-5) and at the end of the afternoon he presented 66.
The result was devastating. The Northern Irishman was 8 strokes ahead of Lynn, and 9 strokes ahead of Justin Rose, Keegan Bradley -the best American and defending champion-, Ian Poulter and the Swede Carl Pettersson.
Tiger Woods, who entered the weekend as the leader, shot 72 and 74 on Sunday to finish in eleventh place and far from casting shadows on McIlroy’s all-important win.
The Englishman Donald, who fought like a beast to defend his world championship (66 strokes in the last round), finished in thirty-second place, five steps worse than the Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, the 48-year-old veteran who never gives up and who, as in the British Open in July, was the best of the Spanish representation. The Malaga-born player totaled 289 strokes, while Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño had a total of 297 strokes and was 62nd in the tournament.
McIlroy is the sixth European to win the US PGA after 94 editions. Previous winners include Jim Barnes (1916 and 1919), Jock Hutchinson (1920), Tommy Armour (1930), Padraig Harrington (2008) and Martin Kaymer (2010).
Leave a Reply