PGA Tour: McIlroy ‘proud’ of return to world No 1

Rory McIlroy admitted his return to the highest of the world rankings got here faster than anticipated after he secured world No 1 spot with a profitable title defence on the CJ Cup.

McIlroy registered a twenty third PGA Tour victory and third of the yr with a one-shot win over Kurt Kitayama at Congaree Golf Membership, with the Northern Irishman posting a four-under 67 regardless of ending his closing spherical with back-to-back bogeys.

The four-time main champion’s success follows his RBC Canadian Open win June and a history-making third FedExCup victory on the Tour Championship in August, with McIlroy’s newest title additionally seeing him leapfrog Scottie Scheffler to grow to be world No 1 for the ninth time.

“If somebody had advised me on the Friday evening of the Valero Texas Open [in April] after I missed the minimize that I’d be world No 1 by October, I’d have requested them what they had been smoking as a result of I’d not have believed them,” McIlroy admitted after his victory.

“Yeah, it’s simply been a wild six months. I figured just a few issues out with my recreation and I’ve simply been on a extremely good run.
“Every little thing kind of feels prefer it’s got here collectively for me and right now was only a continuation of how I felt like I’ve been enjoying over these previous couple of months. Now it’s all about going ahead and making an attempt to only maintain this going.

“It’s wonderful. It’s so much to course of proper now simply with every part, however actually happy with myself with how I dealt with this week figuring out what was at stake and actually simply how I’ve performed over these previous couple of months.”

McIlroy’s return to world No 1 for the primary time since 2020 caps a stellar yr the place he additionally posted top-eight finishes in all 4 majors, with the 33-year-old happy with his progress over the previous 12 months.

“This event final yr was the beginning of me making an attempt to construct myself again up thus far,” added McIlroy, who was world No 14 when he received the CJ Cup in 2021. “I had a extremely tough Ryder Cup, I’ve talked about that at size. I feel I used to be exterior the top-10 on this planet and it’s not a place that I’m used to being in.

“I feel simply the regular climb again as much as the summit of world golf and what it takes, it’s not simply me, it’s everybody that’s part of my workforce. It’s not a solo effort.

“Simply pondering over that final 12 months, there’s lots of people that deserve quite a lot of the plaudits and I’m the one which sits up right here and takes them, however there’s quite a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that folks don’t find out about.

“All of that stuff mixed is simply as essential as what I do on the market making an attempt to get these wins. It’s a workforce effort and I feel every time I take into consideration that, that’s what will get me a little bit bit choked up and emotional as a result of it’s actually cool to be on this journey with different individuals that you simply wish to be on the journey with.”