So what did we learn from the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool?

Well, it seems a young man from Northern Ireland has found whatever it was which eluded him in 2013.

Rory McIlroy essentially destroyed the par five’s on his way to victory, his third major championship and the 25-year-old doesn’t appear to be done.

If he keeps driving the ball long and straight, making putts of all lengths and keeping his head straight, he will be tough to beat on most any course on this planet.

The win was not as close as the final tally showed as McIlroy was simply heads above the rest of the field all four days.

Sure Sergio Garcia and Ricky Fowler had some moments but they were bit players in the one man show which was Rory’s from start to finish.

He was only the seventh golfer in the history of the Open to win it while never being out of first place at any time during the four rounds.

The last to do that was Tiger Woods so many years ago.

Speaking of the aforementioned Woods, he was his typical petulant self during the tournament and following a solid start he managed to stumble around the links the rest of the way.

In the press conference at the end he told reporters he was encouraged by how he played and there may be a few who would believe him but most wouldn’t.

This was the same man who answered with a straight face a question about his realistic chances at the Open and he said “win.”

Then to serve up the mundane, mistake-filled golf he played after that statement has to be a tell-tale sign that Woods is maybe ready to play but certainly not to win. You can’t count him out because he has that sort of talent but this latest performance, based on his standard of play, was not pretty.

Yes he hit 66% of the fairways over four days but many of those were irons. When he pulled out the driver, he was all over the place like a drunken sailor.

If what we saw between those two men at the Open was any indication of the future to come, then Tiger should be very concerned, other young guns can stay positive and Rory can keep that glint in his eye.

Slainte!