Feherty weighs in on Rory: 'No. 1 in the universe'

   David Feherty, the brilliant golf announcer and social commentator, walked the final round of the PGA Championship with Rory McIlroy and was blown away by what he saw.

   Here's a portion of what Feherty told a handful of reporters standing outside the Ocean Course clubhouse after the championship:

   "This was better (than McIroy's U.S. Open performance at Congressional in 2011). Congressional didn't have the disaster potential on every single hole. Out here you hit one loose shot, you're not talking about a one-shot swing or two-shot swing. You could lose three or four. He never gave anybody even the vaguest whiff on the breeze. No, he was locked up so tight

   "He made every single putt that mattered and when he missed a green, he missed it in the right place. It was perfect under the severest of pressure. He did what all great players can do. He played the best possible golf as if it had the least possible consequence. That's what great players do. They make it seem like it doesn't matter when it matters more than anything else to them.

   "I think it's the greatest round of golf I've seen and I've seen Tiger Woods play a lot of great rounds of golf but that was something special."

   Asked about McIlroy regaining the world No. 1 ranking, Feherty said;

   "He's No. 1 in the universe right now, not No. 1 in the world. It's not close. Tiger's not where he was. People keep asking is Tiger Woods back? Back where? Yeah, he's back. He's won three times this year. He's not back where he was at the turn of the century. I think it will be another century before anybody gets there. It's an unreasonable standard to hold anybody to. 

   "The way (McIlroy) swings the club and the way he thinks about the game of golf and his attitude on the course, both good and bad, I've never seen anybody more evenly balanced and more beautifully suited to play golf for a living. He looks like a slightly less energetic Tom Watson."