Dark days now behind Rory

Rory McIlroy admits that he simply “couldn’t cope with any more” when he suffered that mentalmeltdown at the Honda Classic last year and fled the course midway through his second round.

At the time he said he wasn’t in a good place mentally and while his official excuse was an aching wisdom tooth, the past year has revealed that there was so much going on in his life off the course that it was a miracle he didn’t have a breakdown even earlier.

Fast forward 12 months and McIlroy could not be in a better place mentally or physically and with his golf game humming like a well-tuned machine, he’s ready to make up for last year by gunning for a victory that will bring back memories of the 2012 Honda Classic win that made him world No 1 for the first time.