Rory McIlroy: I’m a better player now… I just need a spark to end Major drought

But the World No.2 could not be more upbeat about his game, which he considers far superior now to what it was in 2014, when he won the US PGA Championship at Valhalla, his fourth Major and his second in a row.

He returns to the Louisville venue next week for a crack at that elusive fifth Major win and with seven Top 5 finishes and 14 top 10’s in 35 Major starts since he held off Phil Mickelson in near darkness in 2014, he’s arguably better equipped than ever to pull it off.

All he needs, he believes, is “that little bit of a something”— the Major spark. “There was more volatility in my game back then,” he told The Quadrilateral’s Geoff Shackelford.

“Absolutely. And you look at — I don’t want to get too much into the data stuff, but if you look at my numbers over the last four years and compare them to earlier in my career, yeah, I’m a better player.

“The results in the biggest events haven’t married up with that, but I’m still grinding away. I’m a good enough player to just play my way into contention but it’s when I get into contention, say on that back nine on Sunday at Valhalla, it’s just needing that little bit of something.

“At Valhalla (in 2014) it was Phil and Ricky fist-pumping on the way to the 12th tee. Whatever it is, just tell yourself a story to get that fire going. Not that you should need a fire playing for a Major championship. It’s the biggest thing that we do. I know that I’m a better player now than I was back then.

“And the narrative has been, ‘Rory hasn’t won a Major in 10 years, so what’s going on or what’s wrong?’ But I’ve done everything else there is to do in the game in those last 10 years. It’s just a matter of getting over the line in one of those big four.”

Finding that spark came easily to him at Valhalla in 2014, where he was coming off back to back wins in The Open at Hoylake and the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

He avoided a Monday finish by driving on the 18th as Fowler and Mickelson played in the group ahead having found the spark he needed to ease clear on the back nine.

“Probably waiting around on Sunday because of the weather,” he said of his abiding memory of the final round and a two-hour weather delay. “And then I remember starting out lethargic. I was in the lead, then quickly lost the lead.

“Ricky and Phil were up ahead of me and making a charge, and then on seven, the par five, I hit this really cool chip over the bunker and made birdie there.

“And then the eagle on 10 was where everything turned around. The luckiest golf shot of my life. I remembered that I had hit one OB left on 10 so I was trying to hit this high draw. Instead, I hit this low necky cut that ran up onto the green to six feet.

“I’d gotten maybe one behind at that point and Ricky and Phil fist-pumped each other walking off 11 green. That almost felt like two-on-one in a way. And I was like, ‘I’m going to get these guys’. And then honestly, I hardly missed a shot on the way in.”

He will be seeking that spark again next week but first joins Shane Lowry and Seamus Power at Quail Hollow where he will bidding for his fourth win in the Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy and Lowry will be joined at Valhalla by 2008 champion Padraig Harrington.

But Power needs to win in Charlotte this week after failing to make the field automatically.

The PGA of America is reserving two spots for the winners of the Wells Fargo Championship and the opposite field Myrtle Beach Classic.