As we bumble, fumble, muddle and guddle on through our daily existence, we tend to have a lot of 'moments'.
There are magic moments and senior moments, moments of madness and moments of reflection. There may be the odd, fleeting romantic moment and in certain restaurants you now get offered a 'soup of the moment'. In fact, this correspondent often hurtles through the full gamut of said moments during the dizzying palaver that accompanies the weekly winkling out of the Tuesday column. The upshot of this momentous process, of course, is that the 'soup of the moment' usually ends up splattered over the laptop and down the front of the semmit, killing off any notion of a 'romantic moment'. It probably would have been a brief moment of madness anyway.
Here in the world of golf, it is Rory McIlroy who is the man of the moment as he continues to conjure those magic moments. His victory in the WGC Cadillac Matchplay Championship at the weekend was one that illustrated his resolve, tenacity and killer instinct as much as his golfing prowess. He played 121 holes over the course of five testing days in San Francisco and had to finish off three matches during an action-packed Sunday which concluded with the reigning Open and US PGA champion overcoming Gary Woodland in the final. Even Mayweather and Pacquiao would have been left reeling on the ropes after this series of head-to-head bouts.
Before the larks had even yawned and croaked themselves awake on Sunday morn, McIlroy edged out Paul Casey in an nip-and-tuck encounter that had spilled over from Saturday night before he got the better of the resilient Jim Furyk with a rousing birdie, birdie, eagle finish in the semi-finals which overturned a one hole deficit late on. If you'd locked McIlroy in nearby Alcatraz he probably would have found an escape route. It wasn't the first time he had got out of jail during an eventful week. In an earlier match against Billy Horschel, McIlroy was two down with two to play and won in extra holes while he railed from one down with two to play against Casey before eventually winning at the 22nd.
Woodland, the big-hitting American whose colossal clatters could just about zip through 14 US states, was ideally suited to nullifying McIlroy's own prodigious length off the tee in the man-to-man arena but the Northern Irishman was ruthless on his way to a 4 and 2 success. When Woodland missed a tiddler for birdie on the 13th to reduce McIlroy's lead to one, you sensed the game was a bogey.
"When he saw me miss that putt on 13, he definitely flipped another switch," conceded Woodland. "He didn't miss a shot coming in after that."
This victory, his 17th as a professional, simply re-affirmed McIlroy's majesty and demonstrated once again that even at times when he is not at his absolute best, he can still find that extra something and chisel out a victory. That is a hallmark of golfing greatness. McIlroy became only the third player, after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, to win 10 PGA Tour titles before the age of 26. This latest success arrived on his final day as a 25-year-old. Of course, it's been a 21-year-old who has been hogging a heck of a lot of the limelight of late. Jordan Spieth's memorable Masters triumph a few weeks ago had dunted McIlroy into the sidelines as everybody cooed and gushed like gurgling Royal correspondents gazing at images of Princess whits her name. Spieth is the new kid on the block and his success at Augusta was, quite rightly, hailed from the roof of the Butler Cabin as he thundered up to No 2 in the world. McIlroy remains the man to beat, though, and as he extended his vast advantage at the head of the global order, this victory was a stark reminder to Spieth and the rest that they have an almighty catch up job on their hands. With The Players' Championship next up on the schedule, the momentum is all with McIlroy as he prepares for the peak season.
It's coming up for a year now since McIlroy called off his engagement to his fiancée, Caroline Wozniacki, with the wedding invitations already in the post. Just days after facing the media music, and the wrath of just about every woman on the planet, McIlroy swept to victory in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and embarked on a remarkable run that would see him win back-to-back majors and a WGC crown. The single life would have a spectacular impact on his sporting life as McIlroy became golf's dominant force.
Perhaps Tiger Woods is looking at that same strategy? A brief statement on his website - annoyingly released during the WGC final in a shameless attempt at attention grabbing - announced his separation from Olympic skier, Lindsey Vonn. Just a few weeks after playing happy families at the Masters, the whole thing is aff. The romantic moments, it seems, have been put on hold. We continue to wait and see if Woods has any more magic moments left in him on the golf course.
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