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What to Make of Rory's Win in Vegas

RORY IS BACK IN THE WINNER'S CIRCLE

T. Ingals @StickyClickSM

Rory at last weekend's CJ Cup, Photo from Getty Images.

Rory McIlroy returned to the winner's circle for the first time since May with his victory at the CJ Cup at The Summit Club in Las Vegas. The Northern Irishman finished one stroke ahead of reigning Open Champion Colin Morikawa. Rory also edged out fellow competitors Keith Mitchell and, a familiar name, Rickie Fowler. 

What did this win mean for Rory? Well, to be honest, I have no idea. I don't think anyone does. Rory is a really streaky player and the event didn't have an immense field, but it was still a professional tournament and he won. He is now one of 39 men who have won 20 or more PGA Tour events. That's an impressive feat. But Rory is at the stage in his career where I don't think he cares about winning regular season tour events, especially wrap around events. He wants to win majors. And he hasn't even come particularly close in years. 

Rory's last major championship was the 2014 PGA Championship. At the time, it looked like he was going to be the next Tiger Woods. How many was he going to win? 10? 15? Of course, we had gotten ahead of ourselves. And maybe the expectations and pressure of being the next big thing has caused Rory's performances in major championships to decline. Nevertheless, a win is a win. And maybe this means he has discovered something in his game that he can use as a catapult into having a strong 2021-2022 season. Who really knows? 


Rickie Fowler at the CJ Cup. Photo from Getty Images.

The storyline coming out of last weekend that I'm more interested in is Rickie Fowler's top-3 finish. It's been a while since we've seen Rickie's name towards the top of the leaderboard. What does it mean? Is his game suddenly back? Will we seen him competing in the Masters this upcoming April or will he be at home watching from his couch again while commercials including him fly across the TV screen? It's going to be interesting to see if this was just a flash in the pan, or is his game actually improving? I hope it is a sign of things to come. He's a likable guy and an interesting character within the golf world. No one doesn't like Rickie and hopefully we'll see him back to world top-25 form, and maybe one day he'll even win that coveted major championship. 

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