Rory McIlroy looking after No.1

Rory McIlroy returns to the fray at the PGA Championship today, one ligament lighter than in his last competitive appearance and with a lot more to lose if Jordan Spieth continues his dominance of the 2015 majors.

Five weeks and five days after a game of football left him with a ruptured left ankle ligament and a grade two tear in another, the world No. 1 is at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin to begin the defence of the title he won in such dramatic fashion at Valhalla 12 months ago.

That he will tee off this evening (7.20pm Irish time) for the first time since the US Open seven weeks ago in the company of Spieth, the American who won that week to add to his Masters victory, and Zach Johnson, who succeeded the Irishman as Open champion, can only focus further McIlroy’s determination to reestablish himself as golf’s main man and strengthen his ranking as the best player in the world.

Spieth, the tournament favourite, can replace him as No.1 in any number of scenarios if the 22-year-old Texan finishes third or higher and after the year he has enjoyed, even McIlroy would not deny him that status.

Asked outright who the best player in the world is right now, McIlroy yesterday replied: “If you were to go by this year, you would have to say Jordan. I would say if you go over the last two years, I would say it’s probably a toss up between Jordan and myself. It’s all a matter of opinion at this point.”

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Pressed for his opinion he added: “I’ll tell you at the end of the week.”

McIlroy, 26, may have been eclipsed by Spieth so far this season but the Holywood golfer is not about to let that continue without a fight. Having avoided surgery on the ankle he thought he had broken when he caught his foot in the turf on July 4, he feels he is once again in a good position to reassert his superiority.

That assessment comes after passing a self-imposed fitness test over 72 holes of solitary golf at Quinta do Lago in Portugal last week before practicing at Whistling Straits since Saturday.

“I have played quite a number of rounds of golf. I’ve been practising for over three weeks getting my game ready, getting my game sharp. I feel like I’m playing well. Hitting it well on the range. I’ve taken that onto the course in practice rounds and from there it’s being able to take it from there into tournament play with a card in your hand.

“But I expect to play well. I don’t see any reason why I can’t bring the sort of form that I’ve shown in practice rounds and on the range to the tee on Thursday afternoon.”

If McIlroy were to this weekend recreate the magic of last summer when he won The Open, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship in consecutive starts, he would be only the second golfer to win back to back PGAs since the tournament went to stroke play in 1958, following Tiger Woods’s successes in 1999 and 2000 and again in 2006 and 2007.

Given his form in this major, with two victories in the last three years added to two top-threes, including here at Whistling Straits in 2010, and an eighth place in his six starts, this is the championship he feels most at home in.

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Now if only his left ankle can survive the rigours of 72 holes on a tough, long golf course.

Martin Kaymer won here in 2010, when McIlroy finished a shot out of the play-off between the German and Bubba Watson, and did so with a display of immaculate driving and putting, just as he showed in winning at Kiawah Island in 2013 and Valhalla 12 months ago.

The only question mark is McIlroy’s competitive sharpness because as his compatriot Graeme McDowell, describes, this course requires you to keep the ball on the fairway.

“Hitting it long is going to help in places but you have to keep it on the beaten track here or you are in big trouble,” McDowell said.

“There is a premium on accuracy, fairways and greens. It is the kind of course you are not going to scramble well on because if you do hit it in trouble, you are in big trouble. It is steady as she goes and plenty of fairways and plenty of greens.”

Just the sort of course which could see Zach Johnson thrive again, as he did in 2010 when he tied for third with McIlroy here and at St Andrews last month.

Or Jason Day, knocking consistently on the majors door with nine top-10 finishes in 20 major appearances. And certainly that man Spieth. Then again, could the Shane Lowry bandwagon keep rolling for another outstanding week? It might be asking too much to expect the Offaly golfer to improve on his WGC-Bridgestone victory last Sunday that sent Lowry into the world’s top 20 for the first time.

Yet after the drama we’ve seen in the last two majors, you wouldn’t dare rule it out. After all, on both occasions the PGA has been staged at Whistling Straits, in 2004 and 2010, it has need a play-off to produce the champion. Perhaps we should prepare for a tight finish.