Rory McIlroy

I am not going to wax lyrical about Rory's weekend rounds - and especially that final back 9 - at Quail Hollow. Everyone else will be doing it and I will have nothing new to add except a reverential silence.

What I will do is apologise to Rory: after the Masters, when he said he would take 6 weeks off, I thought it was the best thing for him. It would give his back a rest and give him a chance to re-discover his mojo. I got the impression that too many people were sitting in the wings, offering advice - and it was messing with his head. Here was - essentially - a kid who ripped up golf courses for breakfast, with very little advice from anyone else. Suddenly as a professional, as the 'next big thing', everyone wanted to give him advice, and when it's coming from every angle it's hard to ignore. When his putting deserted him last year he even went on Twitter looking for suggestions!

After the Masters, and after his extremely short lay-off, he came back and said he was going to go back to doing what he did best - rip up courses for breakfast. I had my doubts, but Quail Hollow quashed them instantly. I was, am and will always be, a huge fan and the coming months and tournaments are going to be thrilling.