Welcome Back Rory. All Hail Rory!
Getty images
Rory McIlroy wins the 2018 Arnold Palmer Invitational in eye-popping fashion with birdies on five of the last six holes. It was like Rory of old by destroying drives to parts no other golfer reached and making putts just like the McIlroy of #1 ranking status. The win was his first PGA tour victory since 2016 (539 days). The win followed six straight over-par rounds as well…
It was a sight to behold–especially after Tiger Woods’ drive on 16 went exit stage left (and OB) to sink him from contention.
This stat aptly summarizes McIlroy’s dominance for the week.
Strokes gained putting has been tracked on Tour since 2004. Here are the players to win a tournament while leading the field in strokes gained putting, driving distance, proximity to the hole & scrambling:
Rory this week
That’s it
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) March 18, 2018
His drive on the par-5 16th was otherworldly. The sound was different. So was the length–375 frickin yards. Leaving a flip wedge of 119. Ridiculous. He had the familiar (but somewhat recently misplaced) bounce in his step.
3⃣7⃣5⃣. 🚀#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/ugo1giUiew
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 18, 2018
Maybe more importantly heading to Augusta is Rory is enjoying the game again. When you’re struggling, golf is anything but enjoyable.
“I rediscovered my love for the game so much so I am even enjoying playing casual rounds of golf as well.”
On the last birdie putt on 18 to seal the deal…
“I’ve seen Tiger Woods make this putt enough times to know what it does, so I just wanted to try and emulate that,” McIlroy said. “Didn’t quite give it the hat toss; I was thinking about doing it. But, I mean, just to be able to create my own little bit of history on the 18th green here is pretty special.”
And finally this nugget…
Good nugget from @eamonlynch: After helping Rory to a 100-putt performance at Bay Hill, Brad Faxon was contacted by three other former major champs.
— Ryan Lavner (@RyanLavnerGC) March 19, 2018
Masters week can’t arrive soon enough as there are plenty of delicious storylines to swirl around Augusta National.
