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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.—Jim Furyk was one of several pros who waited around Sunday evening to congratulate Rory McIlroy on his victory at the Quail Hollow Championship.
Imagine, then, the veteran’s surprise when he discovered the 20-year-old had beaten him to the range at TPC Sawgrass on Monday.
“I got a kick out of that,” Furyk said with a smile. “I don’t know what he was working on.”
As it turns out, not much. McIlroy just wanted to make sure he didn’t lose the feeling he had on the back nine Sunday, when he felt almost “invincible” as he shot a course-record 62 on the way to his first PGA TOUR victory.
“I’m still hitting pretty good golf shots,” McIlroy said Wednesday. “It’s still there. But if there was one thing from Sunday that I wanted to keep, it would have been the mindset. Just the total focus; some people call it getting into the zone. I was just totally engulfed in what I was doing and didn’t let anything get in my way or anything faze me.
“If you could bottle that and take it to every golf tournament, you’d be doing pretty good.”
McIlroy is doing better than good right now. Not only did he just win his first TOUR event, he turned 21 on Tuesday. His caddy arranged a birthday party that night for about 50 fellow pros, caddies and friends at a Ponte Vedra seafood restaurant nestled up to the Intercoastal Waterway.
“It was pretty cool to see the turnout,” Rickie Fowler, who turns 22 in December, said. “It just shows Rory is a great guy.”
Humble, too. And charming, as well as charmed. “The most important thing to me, if they say I’m a good guy off the golf course, then I know that I’m doing the right things,” McIlroy said. “It’s just nice to play some good golf now and again, as well.”
And whether they were on the guest list Tuesday night or not, players of all ages can’t say enough nice things about McIlroy right now. World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman was among the many who called to congratulate the young pro.
The legendary Arnold Palmer weighed in on Monday night at the annual awards dinner of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters in Salisbury, N.C. He was there to introduce his long-time friend and Sportscaster of the Year, Jim Nantz, a long-time friend.
“It’s pretty encouraging to see a young man come on as he did in Charlotte,” Palmer told the Salisbury Post. “It was pretty fantastic. I think it will have a very positive effect on the game. A few more of these young guys coming along will help it a lot.”
Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who was four strokes behind in second on Sunday, called the 62 an “incredible” round. Lefty was just one stroke behind McIlroy after he made birdie on the 14th hole but the Northern Irishman pulled away with an eagle-birdie-par-birdie finish.
“It reminds me of the best performance I think I’ve ever seen which was Tiger in the U.S. Open in 2000,” Mickelson said. “I think that was the most impressive golf I’ve ever seen.”
Padraig Harrington, who was especially fond of the chocolate ice cream birthday cake on Tuesday night, was worried that too many expectations had been placed on McIlroy. The Irishman knows how hard it is to stay patient when an entire country is waiting for you to break through.
“I think it’s a big step for him,” Harrington said. “I really do. I think with all that external pressure on him … it’s very easy to be a burden. Now that he’s won, that burden is gone. He can be a lot more relaxed about his performance, be a lot more patient. … So I think it’s a big stepping stone for him.”
McIlroy acknowledged Sunday night—and again on Wednesday—that those expectations had started to weigh on him. Prior to coming to Charlotte, he had missed two cuts, one of which was at the Masters.
McIlroy went back across the pond and decided he needed an attitude adjustment. A round of 67 in a stiff breeze at Royal Portrush convinced McIlroy he was on the right track. He just needed to relax and go out and play.
“It’s great to have that pressure because you know that you’re doing the right things,” McIlroy said. “… But at the same time, you have to find a way to distance yourself from that on the golf course and try to just get totally focused into your game and totally focused into just trying to shoot some good numbers and not thinking about what other people are going to be saying after the round if you don’t shoot a good score.
“That’s sort of what I got into for the last couple of months. I just felt as if the whole world was on my shoulders and I just wanted to get away from it for a while. When you go out and you shoot some good numbers, that all suddenly goes away, and you can start enjoying your golf again.”
McIlroy did that last weekend in Charlotte, and he wants to take the same mindset into the PGA TOUR’s signature event at TPC Sawgrass. He made his PLAYERS Championship debut last year and missed the cut.
“It’s a golf tournament I grew up watching on TV,” McIlroy said. “It’s a great place. You’ve seen a lot of great stories here over the years, and hopefully I can be part of one of those this week.”
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM Chief of Correspondents
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