McIlroy said at the start of the year in Dubai that he plans to play fewer events this year — he played 27 last year while continuing to support his home circuit, the European tour. McIlroy is a six-time winner of the Race to Dubai and the only player to win the Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup in the same season.

Leave it to Rory McIlroy to make the second day of February feel as though the second week of April were right around the corner. That’s bound to happen when a player of his immense talent — and deficiencies when it comes to the Masters — delivers a sublime performance on a special stage like Pebble Beach ,

Toying with his opponents had come to an end. That seems an exaggeration of Rory McIlroy’s standing and prowess in professional golf, given the past few years have been noted not for what he has done so much as what almost was.