Rory McIlroy dismantled the Ocean Course and the field at the 2012 PGA Championship, closing with a flawless 66 to win by eight strokes. The margin shattered Jack Nicklaus’s championship record of seven, set 32 years earlier.
A three-shot lead, then total control
McIlroy entered the final round nursing a three-shot advantage after a storm-delayed Saturday. He never let anyone creep closer than two strokes as the afternoon unfolded. By the time he reached the 18th green, the only question was the record.
A bogey-free sprint through the wind
The Northern Irishman played his final 23 holes without a bogey, a stretch of brutal discipline on a course battered by 38 mph gusts earlier in the week. Two exquisite wedge shots on the back nine set up back-to-back birdies that extinguished any hope for the chasing pack. He punctuated the victory with a curling 25-foot birdie putt on the last.
The ball tracked into the centre of the cup, eight clear of England’s David Lynn, who closed with a 68 to finish runner-up. “I never imagined I’d do this,” McIlroy told reporters afterwards. “It was a great round of golf. I’m speechless.”
The win ended a run of 16 consecutive major championships with different winners. At 23, McIlroy became the youngest player since Seve Ballesteros to claim two majors, and both came by the same staggering margin — his 2011 U.S. Open triumph was also an eight-shot rout.
He reclaimed the world number-one ranking, his second major title arriving just 14 months after his first. The Ocean Course, hosting its first major, had been reduced to a backdrop for a young champion cutting records down to size.
A career was accelerating faster than the gusts off Kiawah Island.