The three-hole aggregate play-off turned out to be a major anti-climax as McIlroy birdied the par-five 16th to take the lead, then hit a three-quarter nine-iron to 30 feet into a 30mph wind at the treacherous 17th, where JJ Spaun’s hopes sailed over the island green into the lake en route to a tournament-ending triple-bogey six.
A sawed-off eight-iron into the draught at the 18th ensured a closing bogey that clinched his 28th PGA Tour win that looks like a watershed moment.
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Rory McIlroy kisses the trophy after winning The Players Championship following a play-off against JJ Spaun yesterday
Rory McIlroy confronts heckler and gets him thrown off course
Even without his ‘A’ game, McIlroy raised hopes that he might now have the versatile game to box clever and win the Masters next month.
“Absolutely,” McIlroy said when asked if his best golf lay ahead. “I don’t think I should be out here if I didn’t believe my best golf was in front of me.”
Driven by the ones that got away, he’s examined what went wrong and taken steps.
“I’ve had my heart broken a lot over the last few years when I’ve had chances on Sundays and it hasn’t quite materialised,” he said. “But we all have to go through it, or at least all of us not named Tiger Woods.
“It’s a part of the process, it’s a part of the learning journey, and ultimately, those are the days that make us better.”
It was a major milestone for McIlroy, who felt the doubts creep in when he failed to convert a three-shot lead with six holes to play on Sunday.
But he overcame a fitful night’s sleep and executed the kind of shots that could make a difference at Augusta.
“Honestly, standing over that tee-shot on 16 this morning is the most nervous I’ve been in a long time,” he said. “So I think that will stand to me, feeling like that and being able to hit the golf shots that I need while your stomach is not feeling great and your legs are a little shaky and your heart rate is racing.
“To have to go through that today, it’s nice to have that in recent memory for some of the tournaments coming up for sure.”
“People say pressure is a privilege, and it really is,” he added.
Mental coach Dr Bob Rotella has helped immensely, but Scottie Scheffler’s success has also been a factor.
“It was so gusty, I maybe didn’t have all the shots that were required to go out and shoot something under par that day,” he said of his second-round 77 alongside Scheffler at the Masters last year.
He’s learned from the critical late mistakes he made in the US Open at Pinehurst and Irish Open at Royal County Down and while he lost the following week’s BMW PGA to Billy Horschel’s play-off eagle, he felt he turned the corner there.
“The US Open was hard,” he said. “The Irish Open was hard. I bogeyed 15 and 17 on the way in there. That was a hard one to lose at home.
“But I feel like where it started to turn around was the next week at Wentworth. Billy Horschel beat me in a play-off but the way I played down the stretch there, that’s the way I want to play.”
He no longer feels he makes the same mistakes “at the critical times” that cost him in the past but also feels he’s simply a better player technically.
“I’m a better putter,” he said. “I’m better around the greens. I can flight my ball better in the wind; my ability to shape shots both ways …
“By no means did I have my best stuff this week, but I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a huge thing.”
