THREE SHOTS AHEAD with six holes to play on Sunday, Rory McIlroy felt like he had the Players Championship at his mercy.

Then he had to come back to TPC Sawgrass on Monday morning and win it all over again, beating JJ Spaun in a three-hole playoff to add a second Players title to his 2019 win.

“I would say I was a little disappointed last night,” McIlroy said after sealing the 28th PGA Tour win of his career.

“But I also was mindful that I couldn’t feel that way, that I needed to reset. Once I got back to the hotel, I just tried to sort of forget about it and had some room service, watched a little bit of Devil Wears Prada and went to bed. That was basically it.

Then when I woke up this morning — I woke up at 3:00 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I was — I was as nervous as I can remember.

“So yeah, there’s a lot of thoughts that are racing through your head and you’re trying not to look at your phone and you’re trying to sleep, but I was up.

“I was a little anxious this morning, and I just knew I needed to get off to a good start, especially I knew the wind was going to be up. I knew some of those shots were going to be really, really tough. I just — I was just really focused on trying to make good swings.

“I said it last night, but I really just needed to make five good swings today, and I made three good swings on 16 and 17, and that was basically enough to get it done.”

McIlroy tried to keep his routine as normal as possible, arriving on course at the same time as he would for an 18-hole round, hitting the gym at 6.15am, and then working through the full range of shots he thought he might need to contend with the strong Sawgrass winds.

“Standing over that tee shot on 16 this morning is the most nervous I’ve been in a long time. So I think that will stand to me, feeling like that and being able to hit the golf shots that I need while your stomach is sort of not feeling great and your legs are a little shaky and your heart rate is racing.

To have to go through that today, it’s nice to have that in recent memory for some of the tournaments coming up for sure.

“Then I would have preferred not to have played in such gusty conditions this morning. I’m definitely thankful that we didn’t have to play 18 holes in that. It was only three.

“But yeah, that was as tough as the course had played all week I felt like.”

Asked afterwards if he was surprised by how nervous he felt, McIlroy framed it as a positive.

“It doesn’t surprise me. I think it’s a really good thing. People say pressure is a privilege, and it really is. You want to feel like that on the course. That’s why I spend the time that I do practicing and trying to master my craft, that you get yourself in those positions to see what you’re made of.

“Again, super proud of the three swings I made on 16 and 17 to basically get the job done.

“I mentioned something earlier in the week, where how do you drown out the bad thoughts and replace them with the positive ones, and I just think you have to try really hard to make those positive thoughts just a little stronger and a little more powerful than the negative ones.

“We all get negative thoughts, but it’s how do you deal with those and how do you reframe and replace those with what you want to see and what you want to do.

Because like even walking from the 16th green to the 17th tee today, I could see myself hitting it in the water, right? That’s something that crosses your mind, and it’s like, okay, how do I replace that thought with a better one and visualise and get myself into the moment.

“I’ve practiced hard at that, and definitely getting better at it.”

Although McIlroy doesn’t have a confirmed entry for a tournament between now and The Masters, which gets underway on 10 April, he intends to play once more before heading to Augusta National.

And when he does drive down Magnolia Lane, he’ll do it feeling he’s in arguably the best form of his life.

“I’m a better putter. I’m better around the greens. I can flight my ball better in the wind. My ability to shape shots both ways. Yeah, I’d say those are the things.

“Really I’m managing myself more around — by no means did I have my best stuff this week, but I was still able to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a huge thing.”