Rory McIlroy returns to No.1 in world rankings for ninth time with CJ Cup victory

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy returned to the top of the world rankings – for the ninth time – with his successful defence at the CJ Cup on Sunday. It was the 33-year-old’s 23rd PGA Tour title and he topped the leader-board despite dropping a shot on each of his two closing holes at the Congaree Golf Club in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

American Kurt Kitayama took second place after he missed a 22-foot birdie putt on the final hole to force a playoff leaving him on a 72-hole aggregate of 16-under-par 268 to McIlroy’s 267 at South Korea’s lone PGA Tour event that has now been played in the United States for the past three years thanks to Covid-19 restrictions in the Asian economic powerhouse.

Korean K.H. Lee was third, two shots behind the winner, while England star Tommy Fleetwood and Spanish Open champion Jon Rahm shared fourth place a further shot away. The victory gave McIlroy his second successful title defence of the season after he prevailed at the RBC Canadian Open in Toronto this July.

The win at Congaree means that McIlroy – having completed his 221st career PGA Tour start – joins Tiger Woods (at the 2008 Farmers Insurance Open) as the only reigning FedEx Cup champion to win on his season debut (2022-2023).

It was the sixth event of the new season and the Northern Ireland golfer’s first start on US soil after he missed the first five having concentrated on his DP World (European) Tour commitments since the summer.

As a by the way, McIlroy is now only behind Woods and Greg Norman in the number of times the three have reached No. 1 in the world rankings, nine times for McIlroy to 11 by the others, one of whom is a close friend and the other a lightning rod of dislike for his founding tole in parallel LIV Golf league that is roiling the golf establishment, particularly in the United States.

“I’ve worked so hard over the last 12 months to get back to this place,” McIlroy said after his win on Sunday. “I feel like I’m enjoying the game as much as I ever have. I played with that joy and it’s definitely showed over these last few months. It’s a big achievement and I’m really proud of myself right now.”

Earlier this year, McIlroy missed out narrowly at The Open, played on the Old Course at St Andrews Links in Scotland in its 150th year where he finished in third place behind Australian Cameron Smith and Cameron Young of the US. It was a result that cut the 33-year-old deeply and he is reported to have wept on his wife, Erica’s shoulders at the spiritual home of the game having set his heart on winning golf’s most storied trophy.

“It’s been a wild six months,” McIlroy was quoted as saying on pgatour.com. “I figured a few things out with my game, and I've just been on a really good run. Everything sort of feels like it's come together for me and today was just a continuation of how I felt like I've been playing over these last few months. Now it's all about going forward and trying to just keep this going.”

The South Caroline result gave McIlroy at least one win in each of the last six PGA Tour seasons and took him to 28th place on the all-time list of 23 titles behind LIV Golf’s top money-winner Duston Johnson of the US and South African legend Gary Player, both on 24 victories.

It also marked McIlroy’s return to the top of the rankings for the first time since February last year that had lasted for 11 weeks. His longest stint has been for 54 weeks between August 2, 2014 and August 16, 2015 and he has twice been numero uno for exactly a week, both times in August/September of 2015.

In all, this latest climb makes it 107 weeks at the top for Rory McIlroy.