McIlroy's victories have Tiger-like feel

When Rory McIlroy arrived at The Ocean Course last Monday, he went to his locker, gazed out the window overlooking the practice green and the beach and thought, "I just have a good feeling about this week."

He told his caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald, and the rest of his team, the same thing, and played just two nine-hole practice rounds leading into the tournament.

"It's funny how things work out," McIlroy said. "I felt from the start of the week that it could be special."

He just didn't know it would be THIS special.

In his two major wins, at last year's U.S. Open and Sunday at the PGA Championship, McIlroy won by eight strokes both times. He broke the U.S. Open scoring record by finishing 16 under at Congressional, then set another record for the largest margin of victory in a PGA Championship.

Fitzgerald called McIlroy's play on Sunday "special," and it was. McIlroy didn't make a bogey, went 8-for-8 getting up and down and tossed in a half-dozen birdies, including two on his final three holes for good measure.

There's no doubt at one point this year McIlroy took his "eye off the ball" and his swing got out of sync. But he worked hard these last two months with his swing coach Michael Bannon and putting guru Dave Stockton, and he found his rhythm and his boyish bounce again.

The struggles he endured -- which lasted all of about a month by the way -- were also part of the learning curve, McIlroy said. He was still trying to figure out things in his game and figure out how to handle being the superstar he's become.

For example, when McIlroy had his Masters meltdown last year, he hadn't set any sort of target score for the final round. Two months later at Congressional, the goal was four rounds in the 60s. At the PGA, he knew if he could get to 12 under, no one would catch him. He did one better than that, finishing at 13 under.

"Most of his problems were more mental than physical," Stockton said.

On Sunday, the only problem McIlroy faced was trying to find Tiger Woods' name on the leaderboard.

It wasn't there when he looked, and late in the day no one else's was close, either.
Instead, McIlroy, dressed in red himself, was doing what Woods used to do to everyone else.

But that's where the comparisons to Woods should end, at least for now. This should be enjoyed for what it was: A virtuoso performance.