PGA Tour results: Rory McIlroy wins CJ Cup 2021 to climb back into top 10 of world golf rankings

Rory McIlroy is a winner again, his victory at the CJ Cup in Las Vegas his 20th on the PGA Tour and delivered with the authority of old.

On his arrival in Las Vegas, McIlroy shared the belief that when his game is dialled in he remains the world’s best player. That is how it looked as he clipped the wings of Collin Morikawa, the year’s champion golfer and one of six top-10 players in the field, to win by a stroke on 25 under par after a bogey-free closing round of 66.

Though McIlroy won in May, his form has been indifferent since the pandemic, and dire since the Wells Fargo success. He reached his nadir at the Ryder Cup, losing both matches heavily on the opening day and sitting out Saturday morning’s foursomes, at which point he was, he claimed, done with golf for the year.

“I was really disappointed with how I played. I get more emotional thinking about that than even thinking about this,” McIlroy said after victory on Sunday. “There was a lot of reflection in the last couple of weeks. On the Saturday night of the Ryder Cup I didn’t want to see golf again until 2022.”

And then came his victory against Olympic champion Xander Schauffele, one of only three European wins in the singles, to trigger the tearful greenside reckoning that would ultimately prove a turning point. “Sunday night I thought, ‘Go to Vegas, go to CJ and try to build on this little bit of a breakthrough that I’ve had.’

“This is what I need to do. I need to play golf, I need to simplify it. I need to just be me. I think for the last few months I was maybe trying to be someone else to try and get better. I realised that being me is enough, and being me I can do things like this.”

CJ Cup 2021 leaderboard

1 Rory McIlroy -25
2 Collin Morikawa -24
T3 Keith Mitchell -22
T3 Rickie Fowler -22
T5 Aaron Wise -21
T5 Adam Scott -21
T5 Sam Burns -21
T5 Talor Gooch -21
T9 Cameron Smith -20
T9 Robert Streb -20
T9 Im Sung-jae -20
T9 Gary Woodland -20
T9 Harry Higgs -20

The reference to “someone else” might be seen as the rabbit-hole that claimed McIlroy as he sought to emulate the swing speed and distance gains that took Bryson DeChambeau to the 2020 US Open title at Winged Foot 12 months ago and appeared to be reshaping the game. In trying to go faster and further McIlroy in fact disturbed the natural rhythms of one of golf’s great motions.

The realisation of that has restored a degree of equilibrium and given him back his swagger.

Only 39 golfers have notched 20 PGA Tour wins and, since 1960, only six by the age McIlroy is now, 32. They include the greats of the game; Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

“It’s is a big achievement,” McIlroy said. “I didn’t know if it was going to be this week, but I knew if I just kept my head down and kept playing well and kept doing the right things that eventually I’d get there. It feels really good.”