After a turbulent 18 month-period without any victories and a change in swing coach, Rory McIlroy has described his triumph over this past weekend as a ‘relief’.
The Northern Irishman secured a much-needed victory at the Wells Fargo Championship, coming out on top with a single stroke.
It proved to be a somewhat emotional outcome for McIlroy, who had immensely struggled with his game, especially in recent months.
But, the hard work that followed after the appointment of Pete Cowen before the PLAYERS Championship has given the former world No 1 belief again.
READ: McIlroy secures third Wells Fargo victory
‘There’s relief that I’ve won again, relief that my season is sort of back on track, and more just satisfaction at the journey that I’m on and the process that I’ve been going through to try to get back to this point,’ he said after Sunday’s victory.
‘There’s been a lot of hard work, but I’ve put my head down and I haven’t really looked too much in either direction – I’ve just tried to do what I need to do. For a couple of months there, all that hard work seemed like it was not really getting anywhere, wasn’t providing me with much.
‘But then, knowing that my game was pretty good coming in here and then have my neck completely lock up on me on the range on Wednesday afternoon, not even thinking I was going to play on Thursday, and then I’m sitting here on Sunday night with a trophy.’
McIlroy’s failures to capitalise on good positions ahead of recent final rounds have especially been troublesome for him, but in Charlotte he responded by launching an attack to top the leaderboard.
‘It’s been a bit of a funny week in a way. Just glad that I got through it and played some really good golf over the weekend.
‘Pete deserves a good bit of credit for it, for sure. Obviously, Michael Bannon is the one that’s got me all the way to this point, so I’m never going to mention Pete without Michael because Michael deserves a lot of credit, too,’ he added.
