Sunday Evening Takeaway: May 2

Congratulations to this week’s winners: Alvaro Quiros at the Open de Espana, Rory McIlroy at the Quail Hollow Championship, Martin Piller at the Athens Classic, and David Eger at the Mississippi Gulf Coast Classic. Some bits of takeaway from this week:

* Rory McIlroy makes the cut on the number, then goes 66-62 on the weekend to win his first PGA Tour title. This is the Rory most of us expected to see this season. Injury delayed his “arrival” of sorts, but he’s definitely “here” now and making a statement. McIlroy turns 21 on Tuesday; with that milestone combined with his win, I’d dare say that there will be some serious partying going on in Ponte Vedra in a few days!

* I’m not terribly surprised that Tiger Woods missed the cut; most professionals do miss cuts from time to time. What did surprise me is just how badly Woods played, especially on Friday. He seemed to be having shoulder issues at one point, so maybe that had something to do with it. I’m not going to chalk it up to “what he’s been through”; this wasn’t his first round back on the course. Unless he is in fact injured, I expect to see him playing relatively solidly at Ponte Vedra next week.

* Ryo Ishikawa shot a 58 on Sunday in a Japan Tour event. Yes, the course was only 6500 yards, and the field was weak, but no one else has shot 58 in this particular event. It’s impressive.

* It was definitely unexpected to see Billy Mayfair and Paul Goydos at the top of the leaderboard for most of the week in Charlotte. It wasn’t as unexpected to see them both fade on Sunday. Hopefully, there are better final rounds for both of them at some point this season.

* I enjoy watching Ricky Fowler playing and playing well. I do not enjoy the head-to-toe orange ensemble; having seen him play live at Bay Hill, I can testify that it’s even brighter in person.

Speaking of “live”, I’ll be reporting from Ponte Vedra starting on Thursday, with some on-course (and possibly off-course) notes on The Players Championship. Until then...