You’re required to beat the best players in the world at one of golf’s most iconic venues.
The Players Championship and the majors are cut from the same cloth in this way, a sentiment echoed by one man whose name is etched into the fabric of both.
Rory McIlroy experienced darkness before light at TPC Sawgrass before he ticked the famous golden trophy off his career bucket list in 2019.
Four missed cuts preceded his one-shot victory over Jim Furyk, but a large hole would’ve been left in this prolific winner’s résumé if he was never to join Nicklaus, Trevino, Norman, Woods and Mickelson on the honours board at PGA Tour HQ.
“It means a lot. I think just the iconic venue and the list of winners that have won, everyone tries to put their name on that list of winners,” McIlroy told NCG.
“It’s revered just like a major championship. You have to beat the best field in golf to win there and you have to do it on an iconic golf course that all the greats have done it on before you.
“It’s one of the biggest events in golf and it’s an amazing week as well. The tour put on a great show and the players are treated unbelievably well and I’m certainly really proud that I’ve been able to get my name on that trophy.”
A host of players were in the thick of contention on Sunday, playing for the lion’s share of $12.5 million, which was the biggest purse professional golf had seen at the time.
How did they feed themselves?
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Rory McIlroy 2019 Players Championship victory wasn’t without drama…
Jon Rahm began the round one ahead of McIlroy and the Northern Irishman took a significant step backwards with a double-bogey on the 4th hole.
Just name a player and they had a chance to win. Tommy Fleetwood, Brandt Snedeker, Dustin Johnson, Eddie Pepperell, Jhonattan Vegas. It was busy.
McIlroy forged his comeback as the race to the clubhouse began. His birdie on 15 by way of a remarkable bunker shot from 178 yards is something only seen in the elite sphere.
He established control of the tournament with another birdie on 16 as much of the competition either fell away or couldn’t keep pace.
“I remember Jim Furyk making a big run,” he added. “I remember Johnny Vegas made a huge putt on 17 as well and the bunker shot on 15 and to make birdie off that tee shot was huge.
“I think just with how I handled myself coming down the stretch, the two drives I hit on 18 on Saturday and Sunday.
“With a one-shot lead, the way I played the 18th hole on Sunday, any time I’m under pressure or in a situation like that again, I can always draw on that memory and that experience to try to get me over the line.”
The peak of confidence is hitting a high draw to a front left pin, with a large lake left of the green, and landing it over the top of the flag. This is what McIlroy did to secure the par he needed for his 15th PGA Tour title.
But interestingly, he and Sandy Lyle stand alone as the only players from the United Kingdom to win The Players. Sir Nick Faldo came close, as did Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and of course Pepperell.
The UK wasn’t the only region to be so vacant at The Players in its infant years. Lyle was the only non-American player to taste victory between 1974 and 1990 before Steve Elkington came along in 1991.
So why is this, Rory? Don’t you have an existential theory on this conundrum? Quite inexplicably, he didn’t.
“I know a few Europeans have won it as well, so it’s not as if we’re completely shut out, but I don’t know. It’s a small part of the world and there’s not a ton of professional golfers that come from there, so that’s just more of a numbers game.”
Having collectively whet the golf world’s appetite with a curtain-raising win in Dubai, McIlroy always promises so much heading to Sawgrass – the site of one of his most impressive displays that sits proudly aside his quartet of major trophies.
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