2015 Wells Fargo Championship results: Rory McIlroy destroys the field at Quail Hollow

Rory McIlroy started the week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a 3/1 favorite to win -- some absurd Tiger Woods-in-his-prime kind of odds for golf. He finished it with a Tiger-like dominant weekend, zipping past the leaderboard with a course-record round and not letting anyone come anywhere close to touching his lead on the way to shattering a set of tournament records. Tiger is the only player under 40 with more wins than Rory, who will roll to the U.S. Open having won two of his last three PGA Tour events and as the prohibitive favorite.

McIlroy, built on that outrageous Saturday round, crushed a long list of records at the Wells Fargo this week. He set a new course record. He destroyed the previous tournament record of 16-under, set by Anthony Kim back in 2008. He broke the birdie record at the 14th hole, pouring in his 26th of the week. He passes Gary Player as the international player with the most PGA Tour wins before 30 -- and he’s got four more years to add to that.

Saturday’s course record broke his own mark, which he set as a chubby and shaggy-haired 20-year-old in Sunday’s final round of the 2010 tournament. That rocketed him past everyone on the leaderboard for his first win in the States, and it was an announcement of sorts that he would be one of the top talents of the next generation.

Well, there’s no real debating now that he is the top talent of this generation. He’s won four majors in the intervening years, ascended to No. 1 in the world, and has lapped any other mid-20s prospect that might challenge his spot. It’s clear that the Jordan Spieth record-setting win at the Masters got his attention, especially all the fawning over the 21-year-old Texan as the “next big thing.” It’s like Rory got his Sports Illustrated after the Masters with the “Jordan Rules: The Spieth era arrives” cover, put it down, said “Nah,” and went out and crushed two of the better fields in golf in his next three events.

Spieth is an incredible talent, the best young American in the game, but he’s not McIlroy and he’s nowhere close right now. They play a different game, and when both are at their best, Rory is going to win. Spieth just doesn’t have the length off the tee, which is McIlroy’s primary strength. Rory’s just 5’9 but he annihilates the ball with his driver, regularly bombing it 350 yards out there. He overwhelmed a course that’s supposed to be a major championship test and is considered one of the best on the regular PGA Tour rotation. During Saturday’s round, he made it a pitch-and-putt thanks to that tee ball.

The course even has a stretch called the “Green Mile,” the final three holes that have wrecked many rounds during this championship’s history. On Sunday, after navigating his final round without any trouble or let-up, McIlroy came to the 16th and hammered it 354 yards over a sand trap that was supposed to be in play. This was playing as the toughest hole on the course, and he had a simple gap wedge into the flag. He stuffed it a foot from the cup for a tap-in birdie.

He’s playing a different game than everyone else and his best is better than everyone else’s -- he strolled to the 18th tee with a 7-shot lead! Spieth’s Masters win and Rickie Fowler’s historic finish last week at The Players were enormous for a sport looking to get away from the Tiger era. But the heir to that throne was already here.

On Saturday, Rory said, “I feel like the best player in the world and I wanted to go out and prove that.” Of course, we’ve seen him win by that kind of margin at majors before so we know what we’re getting when Rory is dialed in. Yet this weekend was still startling to watch, and we’re set up now for a second straight dominant summer from Rory at the majors.

Here are the final results from the non-Rory division at the Wells Fargo:

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