Rory McIlroy Excels

CARMEL, Ind. – Rory McIlroy beat the strongest leaderboard in golf this year Sunday in the BMW Championship and joined some elite company.

Everyone knew Boy Wonder was a special player when he won the U.S. Open last summer with a record score. The last month has established him as the dominant player in golf, with three wins in four tournaments loaded with the best players – the PGA Championship and two FedEx Cup playoff events.

McIlroy became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, and with his sixth career win, he joined Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win at least six times at age 23.

By all accounts, he's a great kid and an all-around good guy.  The real story isn't that he won, but how he has handled himself in his short but rising golf career.  He has shown sportsmanship and honor in a sport that values those highly.  Watching him Sunday, I also saw him show a lot of grace when he was under pressure and things didn't go the way he wanted.  Unlike some golfers, he simply moved on to the next shot, and that patience and control served him well.

There's no doubt we will keep hearing more about McIlroy as he continues to climb the ladder, but at this stage he has already stepped onto a very small stage and set himself apart.  Good luck to him, he will need it against Tiger and even Mickelson, who won't give up easily.  He picked a heck of a time to be a runaway success.