2015 WGC Cadillac Match Play results: Rory McIlroy dominates at Harding Park

Jordan Spieth’s dominance at the Masters left the admiring masses breathless about a new era and the “next” great golf talent. But he’s not the No. 1 player in the world, Rory McIlroy is, and we were reminded why this week at Harding Park.

McIlroy overwhelmed the top 64 players in the world during the annual bracket-style WGC Match Play Championship and picked up his 10th career PGA Tour win before his 26th birthday. As Golf Channel’s Justin Ray revealed,only two other players who have hit that mark by that age -- Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

At the last WGC event in March, Rory was busy angrily throwing clubs into the middle of water hazards. This was in the middle of a stretch of shaky play to start his season in the States, taking steam out of what many thought would be a week contending at Augusta and completing the career grand slam. A nine-hole stretch that required 40 strokes put him out of contention at the Masters, but when the weekend hit, he re-asserted why his best is better than anyone else’s (even Spieth’s, who was uncatchable after those first two record-setting rounds).

On Sunday, McIlroy became just the second No. 1 overall seed to win this match play event, providing company to Tiger yet again. Match play can be a particularly fickle format in which the most talented players often don’t win. It can also help players navigate rough patches. Rory found himself in a hole on several occasions this week, but that form we saw late at Augusta always came through.

Birdie streaks -- not to mention the eagle he poured in at the 18th to complete a dramatic comeback on Jim Furyk in the semis -- materialized at the right time in what were some of the best single elimination matches we’ve seen at this event. The final against Gary Woodland got tense for a moment on the back nine, but Rory’s putter put him 4-up at the turn, a lead that was too much to overcome against the game’s best player. Unlike his two previous matches -- the 21-hole, two-day bout with Paul Casey and that wild comeback on Furyk -- McIlroy closed out comfortably on the 16th green with a 4&2 win

Now the Tour hops across the country to the season’s “fifth major” at The Players Championship. Rory has never played particularly well at TPC Sawgrass. It’s a Pete Dye design that has not fit his eye, and one of the “hate” tracks he has in the “love-hate” relationship he described last year with Dye courses.

But he’ll still be the favorite, and we know why after watching this week. He hits it farther and better off the tee than anyone in the game, and when the putter is rolling, McIlroy is near unbeatable. After this last month from the world Nos. 1 and 2, we’re set up to have a fun little summer ahead of us.