Experts worldwide rank Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course among the toughest golf courses to conquer. That’s how Pete Dye designed it. It features high winds, vast waste bunkers, and elevated greens, which add to the difficulty. And yet, during the summer of 2012, Rory McIlroy turned one of golf’s most punishing stages into a personal showcase.
He arrived at the 2012 PGA Championship carrying expectations after his breakthrough U.S. Open victory a year earlier and answered the critics who questioned his talent. While many would see it just as a major championship win, it was the moment that began Rory McIlroy’s legacy, as the young talent started to look inevitable.
Rory McIlroy conquers Kiawah Island
The Northern Irishman looked comfortable from the opening round, but it wasn’t without challenges. He opened with a round of 67, but Carl Pettersson was ahead of him by one stroke. And then, McIlroy had his worst round of the event, which was a 3-over 75. But it was not too bad, as the average score for Round 2 was 78, which shows the brutality of the course.
By the end of Round 2, he was two strokes behind co-leaders Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, and Carl Pettersson. He recovered with a round of 67 to become the leader post Round 3. When storm delays disrupted the third round, McIlroy held his nerve and kept himself within striking distance. As he returned on Sunday for the last round, the tournament slowly turned into a coronation.
He carded a final round of 66, which helped him break the record set by Jack Nicklaus by winning the event by 8 strokes. His 33 on the front nine never allowed the chasing pack an opportunity to build pressure on him.
“It’s just been incredible. I had a good feeling about it at the start. I never imagined to do this,” the 37-year-old said after hoisting the Wanamaker Trophy.
Over the years, fans have known Rory McIlroy as someone who can hit very long. And that’s exactly how all his rounds at the Ocean Course were. To add to that, his iron play remained sharp, while his putting was nearly flawless. In fact, he went bogey-less over his final 23 holes of the tournament.
The most symbolic moment came at the 18th hole. Numbers were already in his favor, as victory was almost sealed. Seeing that, he reportedly told J.P. Fitzgerald that he was going to win by eight shots. Moments later, he buried a 25-foot birdie putt to do exactly that. This helped him win with a comfortable eight-shot victory over the runner-up David Lynn.
The moment McIlroy became golf’s new standard
With only his second major win, the young Northern Irishman became golf’s new standard. He had already won the 2011 U.S. Open by eight shots at Congressional. However, questions still lingered as he struggled a bit under the hype and heavy pressure that came after the victory. For instance, he fired an opening-round 3-under 67 at the 2012 Open Championship. However, the golfer faded to a finish of T-60.
“And then the second half of the season has been—it’s still been pretty good. It’s been a little bit more of a struggle. I feel like I’m playing pretty well, so, I mean, if I had to give my season a grade to this point, I’d probably give it a B,” he said ahead of the final major of the season.
But then he repeated the same feat at the PGA Championship and proved his skills to the world. Suddenly, he became the player expected to define the next era of golf. People even started to compare him with Tiger Woods.
The 15x major champion won his second major at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah. He was 23 years and 7 months old back then. Rory McIlroy, on the other hand, was four months younger than Woods. He became the youngest since Seve Ballesteros to win two majors.
McIlroy’s red shirt on Sunday further reminded fans of the dominance Tiger Woods had at the peak of his time. But this time, the 2x Masters winner finished 13 shots better than Woods in the final two rounds.
There were just too many familiar traits to ignore the comparison. He overpowered the difficult golf course with aggressive driving, created scoring opportunities where others played defensively, and looked mentally untouched by pressure. That set the foundation upon which the Northern Irishman built his legacy.
How the golf world reacted to Rory McIlroy’s victory
The reaction from fellow professionals only strengthened the notion that the Northern Irishman is to build something important after what happened at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. Woods himself praised the young talent immediately after he allowed the 82x PGA Tour winner to come only within 4 strokes in the final round.
“He’s got all the talent in the world to do what he’s doing. And this is the way that Rory can play. When he gets it going, it’s pretty impressive to watch,” Woods said.
Padraig Harrington also commented on how great Rory McIlroy can become after that second major win.
“I think winning his second major is going to make things a lot easier for him,” he said. “Now he’s delivered again. It’s going to be a lot easier for him going forward. And he’ll get better.”
Harrington was speaking about the other three major performances McIlroy gave that season. Among those, his best came at the 2012 Masters, which was a T40 finish after rounds of 71-69-77-76. The Irish professional predicted that it would become easier for McIlroy from then on, and that’s how it went.
Graeme McDowell delivered another memorable assessment while discussing McIlroy’s rise. While he rejected claims of comparing the Northern Irishman with Woods, he still had only positive things to say about him and his rise in golf.
He described Woods as “a once-in-a-lifetime player” but added that McIlroy was already becoming “a once-in-a-decade type player.”
These comments prove that golf was witnessing the arrival of a player who was more than capable of carrying the sport into its next chapter. David Feherty even famously joked that no one would have believed that a golfer could dismantle the Ocean Course in that fashion before McIlroy did it.
