McIlroy: Spieth inspired my recent surge

Rory McIlroy is the best player on the planet. When he’s on his game, as he was this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship, he’s almost impossible to beat.

How many guys on the planet that you know can hit a 365-yard drive and a gap wedge to 3 feet on a 510-yard par 4 playing into the wind?

The Sunday triumph at Quail Hollow was McIlroy’s second win in his last three starts, including a win at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play. This run isn’t simply the byproduct of things clicking again for the world No. 1. This has been inspired play, thanks to Jordan Spieth’s record-setting Masters win and the subsequent fawning over the 21-year-old as the game’s new king.

McIlroy wanted to put the brakes to all that talk, and he knew the best way to do that was with a visual demonstration.

“To win the Masters at 21 and to do it the way he did, it was a phenomenal performance,” McIlroy said of Spieth on Monday on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “It definitely inspired me. I’m really happy for Jordan, he’s a great guy. I’m expecting more of that out of him in the future. I know I’m going to have to work hard to stay ahead of him and try and beat him.”

He added, “It inspired me to have a little bit more edge and have a little bit more intensity.”

McIlroy won’t play again on the PGA Tour until the U.S. Open, teeing it up the next two weeks on the European Tour, including the BMW PGA Championship, where he is defending champion, and the Irish Open, which he will host in his native Northern Ireland at Royal County Down, a top-10 course in the world.

Though Spieth didn’t have his best stuff at The Players, where he was grouped with McIlroy and fellow young gun Jason Day the first two days before missing the cut, McIlroy expects the Texan to play inspired in his home state.

McIlroy said, “I’m sure (my run) will spur Jordan on as well.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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