McIlroy captures 94th PGA Championship

• By Jay Coffin
• Aug 12, 2012 6:57 PM ET

The PGA Championship was “Rory’s Last Shot” to win a major this year and McIlroy capitalized in spades. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland dominated Sunday at the Ocean Course and became the sixth youngest to win his second major championship, joining a list that not even Tiger Woods is on.

McIlroy punctuated a final-round 66 with a 25-foot birdie on the 18^th hole to beat little-known Englishman David Lynn by eight shots. The margin of victory was a record for the PGA. Jack Nicklaus held the previous record of seven shots with his win in 1980. McIlroy shot 67-75-67-66 for a 13-under-par 275 total.

The victory also vaulted McIlroy back to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. The last time a player won a major to go to No. 1 in the world was Woods following victory at the 2005 Masters.

“I don’t think I’ve let it sunk in yet,” McIlroy said. “It was a great round of golf. I’m just going to enjoy this tonight.”

Only Young Tom Morris, Gene Sarazen, Johnny McDermott, Seve Ballesteros and Jack Nicklaus were younger than McIlroy when they won their second major. McIlroy is 23 years, 3 months and 8 days. Woods was 23 years, 7 months and 15 days when he won his second major.

"He's got all the talent in the world to do what he's doing," Woods said. "When he gets it going he's impressive to watch."

Tiger Woods was a co-leader after 36-holes with Vijay Singh and Carl Pettersson but faltered over the weekend with rounds of 74-72 and tied for 11^thplace. He failed to break par in all eight rounds on the weekend in majors this season. It’s the fourth consecutive year that Woods has gone without winning a major, his last coming in the historic U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines in 2008.

Justin Rose, 2011 PGA champ Keegan Bradley, Ian Poulter and Carl Pettersson all tied for third place at 4 under par. Poulter birdied six of the first seven holes Sunday and was the only player to mount a charge, getting within two shots at one point. But he bogeyed four of the last six holes to shoot 69.