Rory McIlroy’s struggles continue in final round at Sawgrass as Northern Irishman fades after brilliant start… questions around his form are getting louder ahead of The Masters

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER overcame severe neck pain to successfully defend his title at The Players Championship on Sunday. For Rory McIlroy, finding a cure for his form is proving to be a much trickier affair.

As Scheffler celebrated a magnificent five-shot comeback on the final day, McIlroy was wrapping up after a week that only heightened questions about the state of his game a month after The Masters.

If there was any progress to report during his trip to Sawgrass, it was that he tied for 19th. Considering his previous four starts yielded a high of 21st, that will have to suffice for now if he’s inclined to look at the bottom of his bag for optimism.

Instead, the British lead was led by Matt Fitzpatrick – he had a fantastic week thanks to two missed cuts in his three previous tournaments. By finishing fifth, it’s safe to say he’s in the groove and looking strong in all departments.

But the same can’t be said for McIlroy. Given the quality of his play we know he is only a few good rounds away from being a contender, and yet his problem here was that any show of strength was immediately offset by a display of weakness, either with his rider or his irons . .

McIlroy takes first place from the pine straw in the final round of The Players Championship

One statistic showed the undulations more clearly than any other: over the four rounds, he carded 26 birdies, which was the second most in the field. And yet he accompanied them with so many errors that his total of nine under par was a whopping eleven strokes behind Scheffler’s winning score at twenty under and seven less than Fitzpatrick.

His sigh told its own story at the end of a closing 72, in which his five birdies were offset by five lost shots and he hit just four of 14 fairways. It was so very different from the opening 65 which increased his options around this tournament.

“I think after the first round my expectations were sky high because I thought, ‘Oh, I think I’ve got it figured out,’” he said. “Then the last three days have been a little bit more of a struggle.

‘Golf is a very fickle game. It gives you one thing and then takes away something else.”

Over the four rounds, McIlroy hit 26 birdies, the second most in the field

McIlroy, who is taking a fortnight off before competing in the PGA Tour event in San Antonio a week before The Masters, added: “It’s not all bad if these are the worst results I’m going to get: 20th places. I feel like this is my floor and I’m not quite at my ceiling yet.”

In contrast to McIlroy’s fluctuations, world No. 1 Scheffler is a picture of consistency and resilience.

He required treatment on his neck during the second round but closed with a remarkable eight-under-par 64 to win by one over Open champion Brian Harman, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark. The latter had a putt at the end to force a play-off, but it came out of the cup.

That was cruel for him and created a piece of history for Scheffler – he is the first golfer to retain the title and did so from five strokes back. He will certainly go into The Masters as the favorite and seemingly well past the putting issues that kept him from outright dominating the game over the past year.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays a shot from a bunker on the eighth hole on Sunday

Fitzpatrick closed at 16 under after a 69. He started the final loop on the edge of contention and entered the fray with two consecutive birdies, but leaked three in the next 12 holes. A series of four consecutive birdies to round off the match put a shine to the numbers.

Off the course, the golf civil war enters an intriguing week, with the PGA Tour’s six player directors meeting the LIV circuit’s Saudi sponsors for the first time on Monday.

The six – Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Cantlay, Adam Scott, Webb Simpson and Peter Malnati – will hold talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, head of the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, in a bid to boost slow-moving merger talks .

McIlroy, who was once central to that effort until resigning from the policy council last year, believes progress is possible, not least because he believes Al-Rumayyan’s motivations and LIV’s behavior should be viewed separately .

He said, “I’ve said this before, that I spent time with Yasir. I think the people who represented him in LIV did him a disservice: Greg Norman and those guys. I see the two entities, and I think there is a big divide between PIF and LIV. The closer we can get to Yasir and PIF and hopefully complete that investment will be a really good thing.”