Rory McIlroy back at No. 1 makes it feel like order has returned

October, in places like Scotland and Rory McIlroy’s homeland of Northern Ireland, has been pretty wet. Pulling open the curtains each morning and being greeted by a wearisome, grey ceiling of overwhelming misery has been a bit like waking up in some dank Dickensian prison. It’s been so damp, even the clouds that are throwing down relentless torrents have started to rust at the edges. In fact, the all-around moistness is at such a level, this column just about had to be etched into papier mache.

We could do with a little bit of respite to lift the morale, couldn’t we? Thankfully, the world of golf can easily transport us to some distant land where the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

Switching on the TV on Sunday to see McIlroy returning to the summit of the global order in shimmering South Carolina was a timely tonic. It also felt like something of a return to normality.

Let’s face it, the last few months at the top end of men’s professional golf have been so stormy, you half expected the ongoing saga involving LIV Golf and the established tours to appear on the nightly local news.

Rather like glimpsing a port in the midst of a raging tempest, seeing McIlroy back as world No.1 is a comforting sight. I’m sure LIV supremo Greg Norman doesn’t think that but there you go. McIlroy has been a strong voice for golf’s traditional powers against the backdrop of rancor and recrimination in the game’s civil war. This rise back to his rightful perch has emboldened his statesman-like standing.

It’s been quite a year for McIlroy and, in the wake of his successful defense of the CJ Cup, the 33-year-old offered a little insight into the transformation of his campaign. The healthy eating gurus in our midst always hiss that “you are what you eat.”

In McIlroy’s case, it was a case of what he didn’t eat after a missed cut in the Valero Texas Open back in March.

“I’d missed the cut and, for some reason, I couldn’t get out of town that night,” McIlroy explained. “The hotel was busy and when I rang down for room service they said it would be a two-and-a-half-hour wait. So, I’d basically missed the cut, gone to sleep on an empty stomach and I was like, ‘let’s just wake up tomorrow and start again.’ At that stage, if you’d have told me I…