The scary thing for McIlroy’s peers is that the drama-charged final day at Valhalla forged a new weapon to add to his already considerable arsenal of talents: how to win without you’re 'A' game.
It’s a trait that very few in the history of the sport have been able to boast but it is another attribute he now shares with Nicklaus and Woods, who could both find a way to win in the most trying of circumstances.
It’s arguable McIlroy even had his ‘B’ game firing after starting the final round with a one-stroke lead but slipping early to fall behind a hungry pack that included perennial crowd favourite Phil Mickelson, the season’s perennial major contender Rickie Fowler and the perennially overdue Henrik Stenson.
The world’s best front runner suddenly looked vulnerable on a sodden golf course that was haemorrhaging birdies to all and sundr,y including McIlroy’s playing partner, Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, who had made the cut in just one of five major starts prior to this week.
At Hoylake a month earlier, McIlroy grabbed the championship by the scruff of the neck with late eagles over the final holes to distance himself from the field at the completion of the third round. Three strokes adrift at the turn at Valhalla, McIlroy seized the moment again with a single, majestic ‘result’ on the par-5 10th that also turned this championship on its head.
A 3-wood from over 280 yards came out of the neck of the club, the ball bouncing along the left fringe of the fairway before feeding onto the green and to within eight-feet of the hole for eagle.
"That was the turning point for the day,” he said. “You need a little bit of luck in major championships to win and that was my lucky break."
After that, you knew the putt was destined to be a mere formality, and so it was.
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