Relentless Rory eyes next frontier

His hands had been back on the Wanamaker Trophy barely two hours, but Rory McIlroy was already keenly aware of his place in golfing history and, more importantly, the next landmarks he wanted to reach in the game.

His PGA Championship victory on Sunday night under Valhalla’s dark and brooding skies had made the world number one a four-time Major winner at the age of 25 to put him in the company of fellow young but high achievers, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

He had become the first man since Pádraig Harrington in 2008 to win back-to-back majors, emulating his compatriot’s Open and PGA double at Birkdale and Oakland Hills, and he had also matched Woods’s triple crown of 2000 and 2006 in winning The Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA in consecutive starts.