PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Leave it to Rory McIlroy to make the second day of February feel as though the second week of April were right around the corner.
That's bound to happen when a player of his immense talent — and deficiencies when it comes to the Masters — delivers a sublime performance on a special stage like Pebble Beach, especially early in the year.
Starting strong is nothing new. This is the third straight time McIlroy has won within a month of a new year. He beat strong fields in Dubai in 2023 and 2024.
“Start as you mean to go on,” is what McIlroy said to caddie Harry Diamond as they walked up the 18th to a two-shot victory in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
He already has contemplated the possibilities even before winning at Pebble Beach. McIlroy is entering his 11th year without winning a major. The Masters has been at the forefront for him since it became the missing leg of the career Grand Slam, if not sooner.
But there's more than Augusta National.
The PGA Championship is at Quail Hollow Club, where five times no one has posted a lower 72-hole score than McIlroy — four victories and one playoff loss. The British Open returns to Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland. If that's not enough incentive, he also has a score to settle from 2019 when he hit his opening tee shot out-of-bounds, made an 8, shot a 79 and missed the cut.
Still, what stood out about Pebble Beach was the manner in which McIlroy won.
In wind Saturday strong enough to bend flagsticks at a 45-degree arc, he played bogey-free for a 65 that got him back into the tournament. Tempted to hit driver on some of the short par 4s when the tournament was still up for grabs Sunday, he laid back with irons.
Whether that's called being disciplined or conversative, it was a formula that worked.
McIlroy talked a lot about “impulses” that have made him one of the most exciting players to watch but also might have cost him tournaments over the years. He is good enough to think he can pull off any shot.
His new strategy came from the one player that figures to present the biggest obstacle.
McIlroy has been fawning over Scottie Scheffler the last few months, particularly Scheffler's impressive habit of turning in a relatively clean card.
“I've never — this is anyone, this is Tiger, this is in the history of golf — I don't think I've ever seen a golfer play as many bogey-free rounds as Scottie,” McIlroy said. “He just doesn't make mistakes. He plays the right shot at the right time over and over and over again. And when you don't make mistakes on the golf course, the game can become pretty easy."
That's how McIlroy made it look at Pebble Beach.
It wasn't boring as he suggested. The eye candy was his towering tee shot on the par-5 14th and his 7-iron to just outside 25 feet for an eagle that all but clinched it. That was more about timing than power — 12 other players hit longer tee shots Sunday on the 14th hole.
It was his 6-iron from a bunker on the 10th to 18 feet for a birdie that gave him the lead for good, and his 7-iron into the tough par-3 12th to 8 feet, that stood out to McIlroy.
If anything, the manner in which he played looked familiar. McIlroy said two keys for him were strategy and picking conservative targets. That's what he has learned from Scheffler.
“To me, those are the two big things that he does better than anyone else,” McIlroy said. “There's impulses that I have on the golf course that it looks like Scottie doesn’t have, and I have to rein those in and I have to try to be a little more disciplined about it. And that’s what I’m trying to do."
McIlroy now has 27 titles on the PGA Tour to go along with 11 others worldwide, but he is not chasing numbers at this stage in his career. That includes the No. 1 in the world ranking, firmly in the grasp of Scheffler. Winning against a strong field got McIlroy only a little closer to No. 2, double major winner Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler showed plenty of rust in his return after puncturing the inside of his right hand while making ravioli, and he still tied for ninth at Pebble.
What matters to McIlroy is April through July, the major season. His victory at Pebble Beach is only going to bring that into view, starting with the Masters. McIlroy is trying to find the right formula, another example how much of this game is between the ears.
“I think for me it’s always the mental side of it," he said. "That probably is the biggest barrier between me being good and being great. For the most part over the course of my career, I’ve had the physical attributes and hit the ball long and been able to do things that maybe some other guys aren’t able to do. But it's ... my thought processes held me back a little bit.
“I think I’m much better equipped now to handle whatever is thrown my way.”
There are more tests to come.
