Brilliance of McIlroy provides boost for Ryder Cup

Now, instead of the 16 different winners of the last 16 majors, the talk is of Rory McIlroy winning two majors by an incredible combined margin of 16 strokes.

Eight at the US Open last year, a record eight again as he added the US PGA Championship with a performance so many more people could have sat and admired if only it had not clashed with the Olympics closing ceremony.

No wonder McIlroy upgraded his season from B to A-plus immediately after his latest tour de force, one that took the tournament’s biggest win off Jack Nicklaus and left Tiger Woods – absent from Congressional last summer – in the dust 11 strokes back.

“I think I heard Tiger say that you can have a good season, but to make it a great season you need a major championship,” said the 23-year-old, the fifth youngest player in history to have two majors.

“Now I’ve had two great seasons in a row.”

But perhaps the greatest thing of all about him is that his fresh-faced, youthful image is so good for a game that had the Woods off-course sex scandal and on-course tantrums at its epicentre for so long.

“I realise that every time my face is on TV or I’m playing in a tournament that I am role model for a lot of people and a lot of kids do look up to me,” he said.

“I try to do my best in that regard and put myself across as honestly and as modestly as I can.

“Some can view it as a big responsibility, but I think if you go about your life and live it the way you always would, I think everything’s okay.

“It’s a huge honour to be put in that position. To have an effect on so many people’s lives is a nice feeling.”

McIlroy is again world No 1, dethroning Luke Donald for the fourth time in under six months, but this time doing it with the performance of the season.

They are both back in action next week for the start of the FedEx Cup play-offs at Bethpage and in six weeks, of course, they will both be competing for Europe at the Ryder Cup in Chicago.

Jose Maria Olazabal’s potential side – qualifying does not end until Sunday week in Scotland – needed a boost after three of the four previous majors went to Americans Keegan Bradley, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson and the other to South African Ernie Els.

Whether McIlroy’s display will rub off on others remains to be seen. Martin Kaymer appears out of sorts, Sergio Garcia has just dropped out of an automatic spot and Lee Westwood has just parted company with both his coach Yorkshireman Pete Cowen and caddie Mike Waite, who had been the stand-in for the injured Billy Foster.

Westwood is taking on someone yet to be named to work on his short game. He ranks 193rd out of 195 in scrambling – the ability to get up and down from off the green – on the PGA Tour.

McIlroy’s brilliance will hopefully radiate on his team-mates against the powerful Americans.

London has said its goodbyes to the Games and passed the baton to Rio de Janeiro, whose Olympics in 2016 will surely include a 27-year-old McIlroy.

Golf is returning to the Olympics after a gap of more than 100 years and something will have to go seriously wrong if he is not gunning for gold (probably for Great Britain, although the option remains open for him to choose Ireland).

How many majors he will have by then is anyone’s guess. But the sky is the limit.

And to think there were “What’s Wrong with Rory?” headlines little over a month ago after he missed four halfway cuts in five starts. He now sees that spell as a blessing in disguise, making him realise what had to be done and how best to handle the burden of expectation – not just other people’s, but his own.

It will be a while before the same question is asked. He is faster to two majors than Woods, Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo or any of the “Great Triumvirate” of Harry Vardon, JH Taylor and James Braid. Only Young Tom Morris, Gene Sarazen, John McDermott and Seve Ballesteros did it quicker.

Ian Poulter, who gave McIlroy a run for his money with a stunning run of six birdies in seven holes at the start of his final round before dropping back to joint third in the US PGA, commented: “Rory has obviously played some immense golf out there.

“When he plays golf like this he’s very impressive to watch. Everybody should take note – the guy’s pretty good.”

Poulter need have no worries about his Ryder Cup place – even if he is bumped back out of an automatic spot on the team.

Poulter replaced Garcia in the 10th and last automatic position with his joint third place finish.

Garcia and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts have the chance to relegate Poulter at this week’s Wyndham Championship in North Carolina, but given his last-day performance and the inspirational displays the Englishman has given in the last two Ryder Cups he looks nailed on for a wild card if need be.

Poulter’s charge brought him only one behind McIlroy. The Northern Irish star then showed everybody a clean pair of heels and, as he ran out of steam over the closing stretch, Poulter was pipped for second by compatriot David Lynn.

With four points out of five in Louisville in 2008 – he was a controversial wild card then – and three out of four at Celtic Manor two years ago, Poulter has been a key member of the European side.

“It’s just a shame I couldn’t quite finish it off,” he said of his closing 69 at Kiawah Island. “I guess it was a dream start and it was a great day. This is the last tournament I was going to play for Ryder Cup qualification and I had to play well.

“I was just outside the points, now I’m just inside the points. I don’t know how that’s going to play out obviously with Gleneagles (next week’s Johnnie Walker Championship is the last counting event), but, hopefully, that’s good enough.”