PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — His peers had long faded away. There Rory McIlroy stood beside a likeable but unfamiliar journeyman on a chilly, windy Monday morning playoff with a chance to make a statement. He’d already hit his tee shot onto TPC Sawgrass’ famous 17th island green, and as J.J. Spaun’s tee shot flew into the water, Spaun and everybody around him stared in confusion. What happened? How’d it go long?

Before Spaun could even lower his club, McIlroy was off. Strutting. Striding to the green. For all intents and purposes, The Players Championship was over.

As McIlroy won the aggregate three-hole playoff Monday for his second Players Championship win — and his second signature event win in four starts — something is happening in front of McIlroy as major season approaches. It’s not all too different from what happened in Ponte Vedra, just in a broader sense.

Rory McIlroy has a window right now. He has an opportunity. And as the Northern Irishman nears age 36 playing what he calls his most complete golf in years, it has a chance to be one of the best and most important opportunities of a remarkable yet frustrating career.

The window: McIlroy is the only truly elite, top-tier golfer playing at a winning level right now, less than a month from the Masters. His peers are going through it. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is, after a three-year run not seen since Tiger Woods, working back to form following hand surgery and displaying obvious frustration. Xander Schauffele, coming off two majors in 2024, is understandably a mess in his first two starts back from a rib injury. Collin Morikawa is playing fantastic golf, but he’s trying to overcome his Sunday issues. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau are over in LIV, playing good golf but remaining difficult to predict.

While nobody is numerically catching up to Scheffler in the rankings anytime soon, McIlroy has a chance to restake his claim as the top dog in golf right now. His win at Pebble Beach was substantial, displaying discipline, creativity and a newfound focus on playing “like Scottie” in how McIlroy managed his mistakes. Before that, he won his sixth Race to Dubai title in the winter. And this win at the Players solidifies nobody is in the form of McIlroy at this moment in time.

This is not a mandate that McIlroy should win the Masters. This is golf, a sport where the heavy favorite might have an 8 percent chance to win a tournament. Putting that on any player is nonsense. But it would also be naive to not address the opportunity in front of McIlroy. He hasn’t won a major championship since winning his fourth 11 years ago. He gets the same questions every year. The pressure on him is the furthest thing from new. But if he can maintain this level of play — and if it takes more time than originally hoped for Scheffler and Schauffele to get back — it would feel like a missed chance to not earn his fifth major.

It’s a fine line we all have to tiptoe between how comically good McIlroy has been spread across 15 years, reaching 43 worldwide wins and 28 on the PGA Tour, and how he hasn’t been able to close at events like the 2022 Open Championship, the 2023 U.S. Open and of course the 2024 U.S. Open. Nine major top-10s across 16 starts is incredible. So incredible he gets dunked on for failing to win.

He admitted he was in a low place after Pinehurst, walking Manhattan’s High Line by himself with headphones in to get away from the world. He slightly gave away the Irish Open in September too. He lost in a playoff at the BMW PGA Championship near London. So the pride he felt Monday morning was as much for the significance of winning the PGA Tour’s marquee event as it was for the nerves he was feeling and still finishing with a win.

He had to go to bed trying to sleep knowing he let a three-shot lead get away Sunday. He ordered room service. He watched a little “The Devil Wears Prada.” He woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t get back to sleep. And he walked up the 16th tee in front of a (shockingly) large crowd considering the early Monday restart, and felt all the weight of the moment.

“Honestly, standing over that tee shot on 16 this morning is the most nervous I’ve been in a long time,” McIlroy said.

And he launched a drive as close to perfect as one could get, leaving himself a wedge into a par 5 and an ensuing birdie. Those kinds of moments? Those are the final steps.

He’s only five starts into the 2025 season, so please take this with multiple grains of salt, but he’s currently gaining more strokes against the field (2.65 according to DataGolf) than his absolute prime seasons in 2012 and 2014, and his recent stretches in 2022 and 2023. He called himself the most complete golfer he’s been in years.

“I’m a better putter. I’m better around the greens. I can flight my ball better in the wind. My ability to shape shots both ways. Yeah, I’d say those are the things. Really I’m managing myself more around — by no means did I have my best stuff this week — but I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a huge thing,” McIlroy said.

This entire conversation about windows and opportunities can be boiled down to this week at TPC Sawgrass.

By the time Sunday finished, Scheffler was eight shots behind. Schauffele was 25 back at 13-over. Morikawa played admirably but remained five back. Fair or not, McIlroy was primarily battling Sunday against golfers like Spaun, Akshay Bhatia, Tom Hoge and Bud Cauley. Four shots behind with 18 holes to go, many people still thought it was his tournament to win.

When asked why he was so nervous last night, McIlroy said that quiet part out loud.

“Because I didn’t get it done last night and I really wanted to.”

He then returned to an earlier question to finish that thought.

“I’m expected to win, as well. That brings its own pressure in some way.”

There it is. The Holy Grail. Rory McIlroy has spent the better part of the last decade re-learning how to win when he’s expected to. Monday morning, with everything to lose, he got the job done and won the Players. Over the next four months, he’ll have a massive opportunity in front of him. We’ll see if he can do it again.

(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)