Rory McIlroy says winning The PLAYERS Championship at Sawgrass has topped off his best ever start to a season, as the Masters favourite now looks ahead to trying to complete the grand slam at Augusta next month.
McIlroy had strung together five straight top-six finishes to start off his campaign, but after a few near misses he got over the line in style with a gutsy victory on a thrilling final day at TPC Sawgrass.
His one-shot win over Jim Furyk gave the 29-year-old a 15th PGA Tour victory but, perhaps more importantly, got another win under his belt almost a year to the day since he last tasted success.
The PLAYERS moving to March from May provided ideal conditions for McIlroy to thrive - conditions he likened to Augusta as he already sets his sight on becoming just the sixth player to complete a career grand slam.
"If I hadn't have won today I would have said I don't need a win going into Augusta, but it's very nice to get a win, especially doing it on this golf course, honestly a golf course that played a little bit similar to the way Augusta will play in a few weeks' time," McIlroy told Sky Sports after his victory.
"I can take a lot from this. It's taken me a few weeks to get to this point but I feel like I'm playing some of the best golf of my life right now and I just need to keep going with it and keep doing the same things."
"I said to myself 'One good swing. You've made plenty of good swings today, you just need one more. As soon as I made contact I knew it was straight up the middle of the fairway.'"
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McIlroy was delighted with a special victory at the event known as the fifth major, which aptly enough comes just before his attempt to win a fifth genuine major at Augusta.
Although he wants to enjoy this win, McIlroy knows that the Masters is coming up quickly on the horizon and is delighted to have silenced those remaining doubters questioning his ability to close out tournaments.
"I don't want to look too far ahead," McIlroy added. "I really want to enjoy this.
"I've got a week off. I've actually got an interior design meeting on Monday morning to pick out some stuff for our new house, so that's the next port of call.
"I feel like I've managed the first six tournaments of the year very well, even with some noise around me, whether it is, 'He can't close, he can't play on Sundays, blah, blah, blah'.
"I've just got to do my thing, and if I go and I concentrate on me, control what I can do, good golf and good attitude takes care of the rest.
"And if I go to Augusta with a similar golf game to what I have now and the attitude I've shown over the first few weeks of the year, I think I'll have a great chance."
Patience the key
McIlroy says a new weapon in his armoury is an increased focus and patience that he found on Sunday at Sawgrass to birdie the 15th and 16th and par the last two holes on the course's treacherous finishing stretch to complete his win.
"It's very special," McIlroy added. "I just tried to treat it like any other day. Even though I've had all those close calls this year, they didn't mean anything.
"If anything they were good for me, I called them 'remote misses', it gives you even more hope to go forward and go again. I think all those experiences this year led me to this point and ultimately they were good for me because it got me over the line today.
"The birdie on 12 was huge to give me a bit of momentum and the final few holes were tough. To get that birdie on 15 after the dropped shot on 14 was massive.
"I knew 16 was a good chance and to par the last two holes and hit three good shots when I needed to, that gives me a lot of confidence going forward."
