Rory McIlroy heading into major schedule at full speed

Rory McIlroy has gone almost a year since his last victory, but that’s nothing to worry about. Based on what we’ve seen these last several weeks, he’s ready to head into the biggest part of the PGA TOUR schedule in peak form.

About this time a year ago, Rory McIlroy was one of the bigger question marks on the PGA TOUR. He hadn’t won an event anywhere in the world since the 2016 Tour Championship, and his results from 2018 weren’t particularly awe-inspiring. He missed two cuts in his first four starts of the year, and seemed to be struggling out of the gate.

Then, almost like a light switch, something flipped. McIlroy won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, and he pretty much went on a tear for the rest of the season. In 13 tournaments he played after his return to the winner’s circle, McIlroy scored nine top-25 finishes, including top-five efforts at The Masters and the Open Championship. To close out the year, he was an integral part of Europe’s dismantling of Team USA in the Ryder Cup.

Fast forward to 2019, and McIlroy is again winless. But despite that fact, I have to believe that the Ulsterman is in top form, and he’s ready to put together one of the best seasons of his career as the biggest events are just around the corner.

McIlroy got a significantly earlier start to his schedule this year, and that may have something to do with his hot run. Looking to spend more time on the PGA TOUR – and less of a globetrotting split with the European slate – McIlroy played the Sentry Tournament of Champions for the first time in his career. He finished fourth after a final-pairing 72 dropped him out of second place.

The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines was another first for McIlroy, who didn’t play his first U.S. Open until 2009, one year after the La Jolla, Calif. resort hosted the American national championship. A pair of weekend 69s on the South Course brought the Ulsterman yet another top five, and this is when things started to really pick up. The Farmers hosted a star-studded field, and McIlroy handled them all in his maiden voyage.

The story hasn’t changed in any meaningful way in the weeks since, either. A trip up to the Genesis outside of Los Angeles saw Rory finish just three shots behind eventual winner J.B. Holmes despite three back nine bogeys. Then, this past week in Mexico, nobody was going to catch Dustin Johnson, but McIlroy was the only one who could even come close. DJ won by five over McIlroy; Rory beat the rest of the field by another five strokes.

DJ has been outstanding, to be fair, with three top tens counting the victory in Mexico. So has Justin Thomas, who has four top-tens in his last five starts and “should have” won the Genesis Open. But McIlroy has just been so terrifyingly consistent, and frankly, I don’t think we’ve seen anything close to his peak yet.

I hesitate to say that “Rory McIlroy is back” because, really, I don’t think he ever left. We all know how hard it is to win on the biggest stages in golf. But what Rory is doing, arguably better than anybody right now, is putting himself in position to win time and time again. He’s not playing himself out of tournaments, and as long as he keeps doing that, the win will come sooner or later.

And let’s not forget about the upcoming schedule, either. Rory will make his next three starts at Bay Hill (defending his 2018 title), TPC Sawgrass (top-tens in 2013-15) and Augusta National, where he will look to take his five straight top-ten finishes at the Masters and turn them into the green jacket, completing his career Grand Slam.

With all we’ve seen over the last two months, I’m not going to be betting against Rory McIlroy anytime soon. This could be a record breaking year for him, and we’re only just getting started.