Wow! That’s the first word that comes to my mind to describe Rory McIlroy’s sustained brilliance and dominance in professional golf over the past month.

By winning the PGA Championship on Sunday at Valhalla, he has now won the last three events he has played — the Open Championship and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational being the other two. That’s three of the nine biggest tournaments of a season, and no wonder he is on top of the FedEx Cup, the Race to Dubai and the world rankings.

Of those three wins, I thought the PGA Championship was his finest effort. And I say that because, clearly, McIlroy’s game was not at its best in the early part of the final round and yet he managed to show a lot of tenacity and perseverance in hanging on fighting till the last moment.

At the Open Championship, as well as the WGC, the Northern Irishman went into the final day with a healthy lead over his rivals. He played solid golf throughout Sunday and did not let the other contenders come near him.

But at Valhalla, McIlroy started the final round with just a one-shot advantage, and was the only one player on top of the leaderboard who was playing over-par after the front nine. By the time he entered his back nine, he was behind by three shots, with Phil Mickelson, Henrik Stenson and Rickie Fowler in full flow.

So, for him to fight back and win the tournament was a terrific effort. He played some superb shots en route to lifting the Wanamaker Trophy and many fans would perhaps rate his second shot on the par-5 10th as the turning point. But, for me, his shot of the tournament was the second to the difficult par-4 17th hole, which set up the most crucial birdie for him.

While I was delighted for McIlroy, I have to say I felt bad for both Fowler and Stenson. I mean, Mickelson already has a few majors under his belt, but these two players have been most deserving of a major win in the last couple of years.

Stenson has always been in contention since last year’s Open Championship, while Fowler became only the third player ever — after Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus — to record a top-five finish in each of the four majors of the season.

The majors are over as far as the 2014 season is concerned, but there are a lot of achievements remaining for McIlroy and others before they shift their focus to the 2015 Masters. The Ryder Cup next month is going to be a huge thing for players from both sides of the Atlantic.

Then there is the FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai. And, looking at how Rory’s been doing, I really don’t think anyone else has any chance of stopping him.

 

Jeev Milkha Singh is a four-time champion on the European Tour.