US PGA 2015: Rory McIlroy primed for return… with a little help from Spieth

A late afternoon buzz pulsed around here yesterday as word spread that Rory McIlroy was out on the course. This is how he hopes it might be on Sunday, heading down the back nine in the final group of the day. On this occasion McIlroy had Brandt Snedeker for company. Fable demands it is Jordan Spieth cometh the hour.

Spieth has made 2015 his own. Though the Open spilled narrowly from his grasp three weeks ago, denying him the chance to claim an unprecedented Grand Slam, a notional Spieth slam is still on should victory be his.

No one in the history of the game has won all three American Majors in the same year. If Spieth is to add the US PGA Championship to the Masters and US Open titles already claimed, he will have to see off a world No1 full of running after missing St Andrews with a ruptured ankle ligament.

McIlroy was unrepentant in declaring his love for the beautiful game that cost him the defence of his Open crown, insisting he would not be giving up football or any of other extra-curricular interests. His time away from golf allowed him, he said, to put life into perspective. It was not the end of the world he imagined it might be. That said, he pursued an aggressive rehabilitation programme to return swiftly, and while his world No1 status remains intact, he knows how close he came to losing it, and who he must beaten to maintain it.

McIlroy said: “Whenever you see someone put together a season like this, of course you become motivated. But as well as that, you’re inspired. I think the performances that Spieth put in at the Masters and the US Open and even at St Andrews when he was so close, were inspirational.

“That’s something for him to be proud of, especially how he handled everything at St Andrews going into all the Grand Slam talk. I think even though I’m not that much older, he was 21 at that point, I probably wouldn’t have handled it quite as well as he did.”