Although he didn’t have any green clothing with him for St. Patrick’s Day, Rory McIlroy, born in Northern Ireland, had a small, celebratory flower that his daughter Poppy gave him for winning his second PLAYERS.
McIlroy had said Sunday evening that he just needed five good swings on Monday. He meant the drive and second shot on 16, the tee shot at 17, and the drive and second shot on 18.
He said he got three of them. So, it wasn’t perfect golf, but it was golf that was good enough to win.
Not being perfect and still obtaining the goal is something he has learned over time, that he doesn’t have to play perfect golf to reach his goals of winning. Basically no one plays perfect golf, not even Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods.
McIlroy even summarized the playoff perfectly when he said, “It started with a great drive on 16 which set me up for an easy birdie. Then a great swing into 17, and those three swings were basically what decided the championship.”
He pushed the drive on the 18th, and it went into pine straw beyond the rough. However, he was able to recover and reach the green two shots later.
In all honesty, at that point, it was already over because, unfortunately for J.J. Spaun, he had put his tee shot at the 17th in the water over the green and had to go to the drop area.
He ended up with a triple bogey there. Rory would have had to do something similar at 17 or 18 to let Spaun back into contention, and he didn’t.
McIlroy birdied the first playoff hole and bogeyed the next two. Spaun parred the first hole, but it was the triple bogey at the 17th that did him in.
“I'm a better player now,” Rory McIlroy said after winning his second Players.
What he meant by that is that he’s more accomplished with his shots than he was when he won his first PLAYERS.
“Watching Scottie go two in a row last year was unbelievably impressive, and I think the only multiple major champions and multiple PLAYERS champions are Jack, Tiger, Scottie and myself, so it's a pretty nice group to be a part of," McIlroy said.
In collecting his second trophy, he becomes just the 8th multiple winner of THE PLAYERS.
He joins a list that includes Jack Nicklaus (3),Steve Elkington (2), Hal Sutton (2), Fred Couples (2), Davis Love III (2), Tiger Woods (2) and most recently, Scottie Scheffler (2), who was the first back-to-back winner of the event.
