McIlroy lays down Masters marker with Sawgrass win

Masters fever just got louder. The prospect of Augusta National morphing into Rory Land in mid-April has intensified. Rory McIlroy's second Players Championship victory suggests that maybe he has timed his Masters run perfectly this time. Never before has he landed at the first major of the year with two victories already banked.

- Ewan Murray

McIlroy laid down a marker on the course here yesterday before immediately making a similar statement off it. "I feel like I'm a better player now than I ever have been," he said.

This was the playoff McIlroy dare not lose. It was one he never looked like losing. By the time JJ Spaun found water on the 17th - the second of three aggregate extra holes - this contest was over. And yet, McIlroy endured a sleepless night as he contemplated his joust with an opponent who had entered the tournament ranked 57th in the world.

"Standing over that tee shot on 16 this morning is the most nervous I've been in a long time," McIlroy said. "So feeling like that and being able to hit the shots I needed, while your stomach is sort of not feeling great and your legs are a little shaky and your heart is racing... to have to go through that, it's nice to have that in recent memory for some of the tournaments coming up."

Georgia is already on McIlroy's mind. Here, he became the first European to win multiple Players Championship titles.