The Ulsterman will play in the highly exclusive - and almost certainly “lucrative” - pro-member at the Seminole Golf Club, a course that once turned down Jack Nicklaus for membership. McIlroy, who rose from eighth in the world to sixth, will then travel up to Miami and compete here at this week’s WGC Cadillac Championship desperate to cap a fine start to the season with the victory to give it validation.
Nobody can argue that McIlroy is not in a better place than this time last year. Twelve months ago, McIlroy had missed the cut at Abu Dhabi, lost in the first round of the WGC Match Play and had walked off midway through his second round at the Honda. This year he already has two runner-up finishes and another top 10 to his name.
McIlroy is determined to see the positives following an event in which he led for the first three rounds, before the 74 which placed him into a four-hole play-off eventually won by another 24-year-old, the American Russell Henley. He is obviously concerned to have lost the killer touch which saw him win five times in 2012, but McIlroy is refusing to panic with the Masters six weeks away.
“It is very disappointing, but it was a decent week,” he said. “I got myself into contention again. It was my third stroke-play event of the year and the third time I've been in contention with a chance to win. I haven't been able to sort of walk through that door but I feel like the more times I knock on that door, I'll eventually step through it.”
The worry for McIlroy must be the calibre of leaderboard on which he failed to prevail. McIlroy held a two-shot over Henley going into the final round and would not have believed that a 72 for his playing partner would lead to victory. Ryan Palmer and Scotland’s Russell Knox were the others to make the play-off. The former has not won for four years and the latter is still trying to establish himself on the PGA Tour.
In short, McIlroy is in a different league to the trio, but found himself pegged back and over-taken. Perhaps it is time for another chat with Jack Nicklaus. Three years ago, the pair had dinner when the 18-time major champion told the young maestro that lesser rivals would always be more inclined to beat themselves than him. Nicklaus repeated the sentiment as McIlroy laboured on a back nine which was essentially wrecked by a double bogey on the 16th and a bogey on the 17th.
"One thing that Rory's got to think about here is who's on the leader board," Nicklaus said. "When I was playing we used to have Johnny Miller on the leader board, or we had Tom Weiskopf, or Tom Watson, or Arnold, or Gary, or Trevino, who you know were going to finish. These guys are kind of unproven. They're all good players, but Rory is a proven player and Rory should have the advantage coming down the stretch with them."
McIlroy did not, but he now recalls what it takes to get over that line. “I just need to be mentally strong,” he said. “That was a perfect opportunity to win. No one was really coming at me. I started at 12-under and eight-under under got in the play-off. So I'm just thinking, play those last few holes just solid. It’s tough to take at the minute but I'll sleep it off. It’s a new week and try to get myself back into contention next week at Doral.”
Knox would have been here in Doral, not to mention Augusta, if it had been he, and not Henley, who had birdied the first extra hole. But the 28-year-old from Inverness, who has been based in Jacksonville since enrolling in college there 10 years ago, is taking so much from his performance as he tries, at the second attempt, to establish himself on the PGA Tour.
“My game is improving every week and I felt that was a position I should be in,” Knox said. “I'm confident in my game and was very pleased with my finish. I didn't win obviously but my previous best finish on the PGA Tour was tied ninth, so how can I be disappointed?”
His mood is in direct contrast to that of Tiger Woods. The world No 1 withdrew after 13 holes of the last round at the PGA National citing back pain. Woods, who has begun the year with a missed cut at Torrey Pines, a tie for 41st Dubai and now this WD, will receive treatment for the next few days and is confident of defending his title here. But with Masters fast approaching, he is clearly in a race against time.
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