Masterstroke at Valhalla’s 10th was a ‘lucky break’

It was the shot that will appear on the McIlroy highlight reel for many moons to come but the new PGA champion admitted the three-wood second into Valhalla’s 10th hole, that changed the face of the final major of the year on Sunday, was simply a lucky break.

As Rickie Fowler moved into the lead with a birdie at the 11th hole, behind him Rory McIlroy was lying three shots back on the par-five 10th fairway having lost his one-stroke overnight advantage over a lacklustre front nine.

And then came the shot that shifted the momentum of the tournament firmly back in the Irishman’s favour, a fairway wood 281 yards from the pin that got a low run along sodden ground and rolled to seven feet from the hole. From there, McIlroy sank his eagle putt and moved to within a shot of the lead before closing out the deal with birdies at the 13th and 17th holes as Fowler, Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson faded down the stretch.

And it all started with the majestic three-wood, except, the world No. 1 explained: “The ball flight was probably around 30 feet lower than I intended and the line of the shot was probably around 15 yards left of where I intended.

“It was lucky, it really was. You need a little bit of luck in major championships to win and that was my lucky break. I didn’t hit a very good shot there but it worked out well and I made eagle from it.

“So, yeah, you know, things can go your way and it seems like whenever you’re on a run of form like I am, things sort of fall your way.”

McIlroy landed the killer blow at the par-four 17th when he nailed his approach from a right-sided fairway bunker after a 318-yard drive. His nine-iron from 150 yards out left him with an 11-foot putt, which he dropped for the birdie that gave him a two-shot lead going to the last.

“That was big,” he said. “I think if you look at my statistics as a fairway bunker player on the PGA Tour, you’d need to go sort of below the top 100 to see where I’m at. My fairway bunker play has not been great over the past couple of years.

“But I was able to produce a great shot at the right time. I stepped up to the shot and I just hit it. I wasn’t thinking about what it meant. I saw it was getting dark and I was like, right, I’d better hit this pretty soon and hold the putt and get on to the 18th tee and try to get this thing done. It was really a good thing that I didn’t give myself much time to think about it.

“And after missing a couple of opportunities on 15 and 16 for birdies; to hole that putt on 17 was huge, and just to give me that little bit of a cushion going up the last made the tee shot slightly easier on 18.”