Perhaps it was in response to the recent ascension of potential under-30 challengers Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler, or perhaps he was motivated by returning to the site of his maiden PGA Tour victory in 2010.  But whatever the reason, the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship will be remembered as one of those weeks when Rory McIlroy loudly reminded everyone that not only is he the world’s best golfer but also that when he’s on his game, the rest of the field really is playing for second.  Such may not have been immediately apparent, as McIlroy’s opening 70 stood him five shots behind Robert Streb, and a bogey-free Friday 67 left him within three of halfway leader (and Quail Hollow member) Webb Simpson.  But on Saturday McIlroy simply exploded, parring the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th, but reeling off a remarkable 11 birdies among the 14 holes in between, his final run of five straight birdies from the 12th through the 16th seeing him home in course record 61, and staking him to a four-stroke lead over Simpson, who managed a 68, yet saw himself left in the dust.  What remained on Sunday was anti-climactic, with McIlroy bogeying the 2nd hole before methodically posting five birdies on his way to a 69 and, in the end, a seven-shot runaway victory which stated, yet again, that all roads to the top very much run through Holywood, Northern Ireland.............Thirty-year-old Englishman James Morrison claimed his second career European Tour victory at the Open de España, outdueling a range of talented E Tour regulars to march methodically home to a four-shot triumph in Barcelona.  Having previously won the light-field 2010 Madeira Islands Open, Morrison began his week on quiet terms, opening with a six-birdie, four-bogey 70 that left him five shots behind South Africa's Trevor Fisher Jr.  A Friday 71 moved him within four of halfway leader Edouard Espana of France before Morrison nearly became derailed by double-bogeying the 574-yard 2nd early in his third round on Saturday.  But a bounce-back birdie at the 205-yard 3rd, followed by three more at the 5th, 6th and 7th quickly put things right, and Morrison would eventually return a 68, good enough to tie countryman David Howell for the 54-hole lead.  Howell would struggle on Sunday, however, turning in 39 and only nosing his way into a second place tie via three birdies over his final five holes.  Conversely, Morrison played very steady golf, meticulously posting three birdies en route to a 69 which left him comfortably clear of the field.  Especially worthy of mention among the quartet which shared second was 51-year-old defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez, who agelessly eagled the 465-yard par-4 4th on his way to a closing 67............Thirty-two-year-old Australian Adam Bland claimed his biggest victory as a professional at the Japan PGA Championship, where he cruised home to a relatively easy three-shot triumph over South Korea's Sang-Hee Lee, in Saitama.  A former winner on both the Canadian and Australasian circuits, Bland was in the hunt right from the beginning, trailing only South Korean K.T. Kwon (by one) after opening with a Thursday 64, then taking a two-shot halfway lead over Kwon via a second round 68.  But it was on Saturday that Bland put his imprint irreversibly on the event, making eight birdies over his first 13 holes en route to another 64, and building a whopping six-shot lead over a pair of homestanding players, Hiroshi Iwata and Masahiro Kawamura.  This allowed Bland the luxury of playing steady, conservative golf on Sunday, and it was only his closing bogeys at the 71st and 72nd that caused the margin of victory to slip from a runaway to three shots............Thirty-two-year-old Kyong-Jun Moon scored one of the least-probable victories in recent regional history at South Korea's long-running Caltex Maekyung Open, surviving a harrowing 72nd-hole collapse to to claim a two-shot triumph in Seoul.  Previously winless in his professional career, Moon began Sunday's final round two shots behind Australia's Jason Norris, who was attempting to become the first non-Korean since Mark Calcavecchia in 2004 to claim the title.  Norris, however, turned in 38, then later added two double-bogeys en route to a closing 77, allowing several players into the mix.  Moon, for his part, stood even on the day through 12 holes, then added birdies at the 13th and 14th to build what seemed an insurmountable lead.  But at the tough par-4 18th, he took four shots to reach the green, then promptly three-putted, a collapse which might well have cost him the title had his three closest pursuers - homestanding Do-Hoon Kim and  New Zealanders Ryan Fox and Gareth Paddison - not all bogeyed the hole themselves, tying them with Norris, two shots behind the winner.

PGA Tour - Wells Fargo Championship  -  Rory McIlroy  (267)
European Tour - Open de Espana  -  James Morrison  (278)
Japan Tour - Japan PGA Championship  -  Adam Bland  (268)
OneAsia Tour - GS Caltex Maekyung Open  - Kyong-Jung Moon  (284)
LPGA Tour - Kingsmill Championship  -  Minjee Lee  (269)
JLPGA Tour - Hoken No Madoguchi Ladies  -  Bo-Mee Lee  (206)
Champions Tour - Regions Tradition  -  Jeff Maggert  (274)
Web.com Tour - BMW Charity Pro-Am  -  Rod Pampling  (261)
E Challenge Tour - Made In Denmark Challenge  -  Max Orrin  (285)
LatinoAmerica - Mexican Open  -  Justin Hueber  (265)
PGA Tour China - Eternal Courtyard Open  -  Shih Chang Chan  (279)
Symetra Tour - Mission Health Wellness Classic  -  Jimin Kang  (201)

Finally beginning to make the transition from talented, frequently contending marketing icon to a player capable of joining the game's elite, 26-year-old Rickie Fowler scored a career-altering victory at The Players Championship, beating Kevin Kisner and Sergio Garcia in a three-hole aggregate playoff which ultimately required sudden death.  For most of the week, Fowler was just one of many big names to pack one of the denser leaderboards in recent memory, and while this was a field replete with thoroughbreds, it seemed that for most of the first 54 holes, the biggest names were lingering on its second page.  But as the more experienced inexorably edged forward and the longer-shots slipped back, Sunday afternoon developed into a slugfest that might well have seen any of a dozen players emerge victorious.  Fowler, for his part, made the first and loudest statement, for after birdieing the 13th and 15th, then eagling the reachable 16th, he proceded to record ultra-clutch birdies at the TPC Sawgrass's famed 17th and 18th, thus playing his final six holes in six under par to post a 12-under-par total.  Names like Haas, Na and Martin would all fail (narrowly) to catch him, but both Kisner and Garcia were able to make the crucial birdies needed at the 16th and 17th to draw even (Garcia after being heckled by a handful of drunken idiots), with Kisner narrowly missing a putt to win outright at the last.  The three-hole playoff did manage to eliminate Garcia before Fowler and Kisner returned to the island-green 17th where, for the third time that afternoon, Fowler rolled in a must-have birdie putt - and, spectacularly, the game's fifth biggest title was his..................Entering the week as the tournament's highest-ranked player, George Coetzee continued the trend of South Africans winning European Tour events contested on African soil by beating Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen in a playoff at the inaugural Mauritius Open.  Played along the island nation's southern shore, the event made history as the first to be tri-sanctioned by the European, Asian and Sunshine circuits, though as it was contested head-to-head against the PGA Tour's Players Championship, the field was predictably light.  And while Olesen parlayed rounds of 65-68 into a one-shot halfway lead, Friday's top moment was reserved for Spain's Javier Colomo who, needing a birdie at his final hole of the day (the 334-yard 9th) to make the cut, promptly recorded the first ace of a par 4 in E Tour history to jump the bar by three.  Coetzee, meanwhile, had started 70-67 to trail Olesen by four before recording four birdies and an eagle on his way to a Saturday 65 that vaulted him atop the board, one ahead of both Olesen and Thomas Aiken.  But on Sunday, it would indeed come down to Coetzee and Olesen, with a 16th-hole Coetzee bogey drawing them even, a 17th-hole Olesen birdie moving him ahead, and an 18th-hole Coetzee birdie forcing extra holes.  The playoff saw Coetzee birdie the 572-yard 18th twice, with Olesen unable to match on the second go-round..................Seven months removed from his maiden Sunshine Tour victory, 30-year-old P.H. “Power House” McIntyre found the winner's circle for a second time at the Investec Royal Swazi Open, edging Morne Buys by two points under the event's modified Stableford scoring.  McIntyre began Sunday's final round one point behind 54-hole leader Tyrone Mordt, who would ultimately amass only 7 final round points to fall into a tie for fourth.  But as Mordt stumbled, McIntyre charged, accumulating six points over the course of a four-birdie, two-bogey outward half, then birdieing the 10th and eagling the 504-yard 12th, the latter earning five points on its own and building something of a cushion for a march home blemished only by a bogey at the 549-yqard 17th.  Buys, meanwhile, was one of two players to accrue a Sunday-high 17 points, an up-and-down round which included eight birdies and and an eagle (also at the 12th), but also four bogeys, the last coming at the 191-yard 18th where a birdie would have won the event outright.

PGA Tour - Players Championship  -  Rickie Fowler  (276)
European Tour - Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open  -  George Coetzee  (271)
Asian Tour - See European Tour (Above)
Sunshine Tour - Ivestec Royal Swazi Open  -  P.H. McIntyre  (45 pts)
LET - Buick Championship  - Shanshan Feng  (271)
JLPGA Tour - World Ladies Championship  -  Chun In Gee  (276)
Challenge Tour - Turkish Airlines Challenge  -  Rhys Davies  (274)
Symetra Tour - Women's Health Classic  -  Alejandra llaneza  (278)

In what was a quick and significant response to Jordan Spieth’s Masters arrival as a potential rival for the world number one spot, Rory McIlroy claimed his second career World Golf Championship title via a 4 & 2 final round victory over Gary Woodland at the WGC-Cadillac Match Play, in San Francisco.  With the event debuting a new format that required round robin play within 16 groups of four in order to determine 16 knockout round participants, McIlroy was required to win seven straight matches in order to raise the trophy – and, in a WGC first, actually won three separate matches on Sunday as his quarterfinal tilt with Paul Casey had been suspended due to darkness on Saturday evening.  McIlroy initially emerged from a group which included Jason Dufner (whom he beat 5 & 4), Brandt Snedeker (2 up) and Billy Horschel (20th hole) before heating up to rout Hideki Matsuyama 6 & 5 in Saturday morning's round of 16.  Following his overnight victory over Casey (whose extended Saturday play forced him to cancel a planned evening trip to Las Vegas to watch the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight), McIlroy then vanquished Jim Furyk 1 up in a spirited match in which Furyk repeatedly put on late pressure, only to lose when McIlroy finished birdie-birdie-eagle.  Woodland, meanwhile, emerged from a group which included Jimmy Walker, Webb Simpson and Ian Poulter before beating Marc Leishman 2 & 1 in the round of 16, John Senden 5 & 3 in the quarterfinals, and England's Danny Willett in 3 & 2 in the semis.  But with the exception of a few brief moments early in the back nine, the final was all McIlroy, as he rode three birdies to win four consecutive outbound holes, building up a lead which would eventually prove insurmountable.  Among other notable facts, the win made McIlroy only the third player (after Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods) to log 10 PGA Tour victories at age 25....................Forty-two-year-old I.J. Jang recorded his third career victory on the Japan Golf Tour, cruising home to a four-shot triumph at The Crowns, in Aichi Prefecture.  Jang spent most of his week near the top of the field, trailing Kyoung-Hoon Lee by one after opening with a 66, then stood three behind Lee, after posting a Friday 69.  Lee would stumble to a back nine 40 on Saturday, however, and with four birdies over his first 13 holes, Jang found himself out front - at least until late bogeys at the 16th and 18th left him tied for the lead with 28-time Japan Tour winner Shingo Katayama, who bounced back from an opening 72 with rounds of 65-66.  Katayama would falter on Sunday, however, bogeying four of his first seven, and with veterans like Kazuhiro Yamashita, Hideto Tanihara and Tomohiro Kondo charging, things might have gotten exciting.  But instead, Jang steadily recorded three birdies over his first 10 holes Sunday, and steadily pulled away to victory...................Forty-year-old veteran Vaughn Groenewald broke a nine-year victory drought on the Sunshine Tour, cruising home to a four-shot win over a relatively light field at the Zambia Sugar Open.  A two-time winner during a 2006 season which saw him finish a career-high 18th in the Sunshine Order of Merit, Groenewald has since played the journeyman's role, though he did accumulate four runner-up finishes during the interceding years.  But this week in Zambia would prove a different story, even if his being tied for the halfway lead (with rounds of 68-65) was largely overlooked due to a spectacular Friday 62 carded by Andrew Georgiou - a round which beat the field by three shots.  But after holding himself steady with a Saturday 71, then bogeying the par-5 2nd to begin his Sunday round, Groenewald bounced back with birdies at the 3rd and 4th before turning on the jets on the final nine, birdieing the 10th, 13th, 16th and 18th to open up his final margin of victory.  Jean Hugo closed with a 68 to take solo second, while recent Zimbabwe Open champion Dean Burmester claimed third.

PGA Tour - WGC-Cadillac Match Play  - Rory McIlroy  (4 & 2)
Japan Tour - The Crowns  -  I.J. Jang  (270)
Sunshine Tour - Zambia Sugar Open  -  Vaughn Groenewald  (272)
LPGA Tour - Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout  - Inbee Park  (269)
JLPGA Tour - Cyber Agent Ladies  -  Jiyai Shin  (208)
Champions Tour - Insperity Invitational  -  Ian Woosnam  (205)
Web.com Tour - United Leasing Championship  - Smylie Kaufman  (278)
LatinoAmerica - Lexus Panama Classic  -  Rodolfo Cazaubon  (276)

Two weeks removed from a second-place finish at The Masters, Justin Rose continued his fine play by charging home to his seventh career PGA Tour victory at rain-delayed the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.  Scoring was low throughout the week at the Pete Dye-designed TPC Louisiana and with both the second and third rounds suspended by heavy rain, Sunday’s long day of golf was thus contested under lift, clean and place conditions, making for some aggressive shotmaking down the stretch.  Rose, for his part, started the week relatively slowly as his opening 69 left him five shots behind Thursday leader Boo Weekley.  He then added rounds of 66-65 which, after all of the delays, left him tied for the 54-hole lead with one of the field’s other marquee entries, Jason Day.  But Day would bogey the par-5 2nd hole on Sunday after driving into the woods, and despite bounce-back birdies at the 5th, 6th and 7th, was unable to pull close enough to have a realistic chance towards the close.  Rose, on the other hand, played very steady, bogey-free golf and stood on 20 under par through 13 holes, tied with Cameron Tringale who was playing ahead of him.  Still seeking his first PGA Tour victory, Tringale rattled off four straight pars before carding a much-needed birdie at the par-5 finisher to move to 21 under.  But Rose, perhaps energized by the event’s sponsor also being his primary sponsor, answered the bell by holing birdie putts 10 and 14 feet at the 17th and 18th to clinch the title..................Twenty-nine-year-old Zangzhou native Ashun Wu made history by becoming the first homegrown player to win a European Tour event on Chinese soil, squeaking out a one-shot triumph over England's David Howell at the Volvo China Open in Shanghai.  Having primarily played on the Japan Tour (where he had won twice), Wu had previously made only 25 career E Tour starts prior to this week, and when an opening 73 left him five shots behind Howell, New Zealand's Michael Hendry and Wales' Bradley Dredge, his 26th initially looked like a blind alley.  But Wu carded six birdies (against no bogeys) during a fine Friday 66 which pulled him within three of Julien Quesne at the halfway mark, then bounced back from a 16th-hole bogey to birdie the 17th and 18th en route to a Saturday 69 that left him tied for the 54-hole lead with Howell, Alexander Levy  and China's top young prospect, 19-year-old Hao-Tong Li.  Unfortunately, Li's first time in major tour contention resulted in a Sunday 74 (a round marked by five bogeys and an eagle at the par-5 13th) while Levy could do little better, double-bogeying the 182-yard 8th en route to a disappointing 73.  As might be expected of a five-time E Tour winner, Howell held up more ably, turning in 35, then adding a birdie at the 371-yard 11th to move one ahead of Wu and three up on 22-year-old Argentinean Emiliano Grillo, who'd turned in 33.  But thereafter, Wu marched mechanically home with eight straight pars while also receiving help from Grillo (who double-bogeyed the 216-yard 17th) and Howell, who came to the 590-yard 18th needing a birdie to win and instead made six, to hand Wu the title..................For a man born and raised in Worksop, England, Lee Westwood has clearly felt most comfortable playing golf in far away Asia, for his victory at the 2015 Indonesian Masters represented his 13th career triumph in the region - no small feat given that this represents nearly one-third of his career major tour wins, and that his visits to the region are actually quite infrequent.  But while several of these victories have been by memorably imposing margins, this particular triumph in Jakarta (his third in this event) actually required a bit of work.  Indeed, Westwood's opening rounds of 69-74 (the latter in windy conditions) left him three strokes off the halfway lead before a Saturday 65 (anchored by an incoming 29) suddenly cast him five shots ahead of Thomas Bjorn and a resurgent Y.E. Yang.  Despite turning in 38, three early back nine birdies seemed to cement Westwood's position before he uncharacteristically stumbled, bogeying both the 16th and 17th.  This opened the door for Thailand's Chapchai Nirat, who'd begun the day seven shots in arrears before roaring home in 66 to tie Westwood on 271 - but Westwood promptly birdied the first playoff hole and, in seemingly predictavble fashion, the trophy was once again his...................Ending a major tour victory drought that had reached six years, England's Ross McGowan mounted a late Sunday charge at the Zambia Open to nip Danie van Tonder at the wire and claim his first Sunshine Tour victory.  A 2009 winner on the European Tour, McGowan battled wrist problems for several years thereafter and has since traveled the golfing backwaters, actually winning the Middle East and North Africa Tour's Dar es Salam Open in early April.  He began Sunday two strokes behind third round leader Rhys West, then trailed West by three after turning in 35.  But West would stumble on the final nine, carding fouyr bogeys en route to a 38 that would drop him to solo third.  This left the door open for the up-and-coming van  Tonder, who eagled both back nine par 5s on his way to a 66 and the clubhouse lead.  But well aware of where he stood, McGowan roared home with birdies on the final three holes to claim the title.

PGA Tour - Zurich Classic of New Orleans  -  Justin Rose  (266)
European Tour - Volvo China Open  -  Ashun Wu  (279)
Asian Tour - CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters  -  Lee Westwood  (281)
Sunshine Tour - Mopani/Redpath Zambia Open  -  Ross McGowan  (275)
LPGA Tour - Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic  -  Lydia Ko  (280)
JLPGA Tour - Fujisankei Ladies Classic  - Hikari Fujita  (209)
Champions Tour - Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf  -  Billy Andrade/Joe Durant  (159)
E Challenge Tour - Challenge de Madrid  -  Nacho Elvira  (267)
Symetra Tour - Guardian Retirement Championship  -  Rachel Rohanna  (211)

At an age where winning on the PGA Tour can hardly be considered a given, 44-year-old Jim Furyk rode a wave of splendid Sunday golf to break a four-and-a-half-year drought, claiming the RBC Heritage in a playoff with Kevin Kisner, at Harbour Town.  Given that Furyk had failed to convert a remarkable nine consecutive 54-hole leads since claiming his last win at the 2010 Tour Championship, perhaps it was time to try a Sunday charge as an alternate means of attack, and charge Furyk did.  Indeed, after rounds of 71-64-68, he found himself four shots out of a lead held by Troy Merritt, who’d drawn considerable attention on Friday when, following an opening 69, he posted 10 birdies en route to a bogey-free 61.  Merritt, for his part, came home with a Sunday 69 – though he needed to eagle the par-4 16th and birdie Harbor Town’s famed 18th to do it.  Furyk, meanwhile, came out of the gate firing, posting six front nine birdies to turn in 30 before a bogey at the 11th briefly stemmed his momentum.  Bounce-back birdies at the 12th and 13th quickly followed, however, and one more at the par-5 15th eventually saw him home in 63.  In the end, Kisner was the lone man with a chance to catch him, and that he did with a clutch birdie at the long 18th.  The playoff then began with both players birdieing the 18th, but when Furyk posted yet another birdie at the par-3 17th, it was all over...................Bouncing back from a moderately disappointing 2014 campaign, 25-year-old Thai star Kiradech Aphibarnrat rode a late rally to a playoff victory over 19-year old Chinese star Hao-Tong Li in the inaugural Shenzhen International, in Shanghai.  Ending a victory drought of nearly two years, the 2013 Asian Tour Order of Merit winner was never far from the lead throughout the week, initially playing his first nine in 31 and standing one back on Thursday night, then adding a Friday 69 to trail American Peter Uihlein by one at the halfway point.  The tournament then looked on the verge of a runaway as Aphibarnrat posted nine birdies (against two bogeys) over his first 13 holes on Saturday, but a late stumble (in the form of a double-bogey, bogey finish) reduced what might have been a comfortable 54-hole lead to two.  Bu Aphibarnrat was only able to play his first 10 holes on Sunday in even par, and with none of his closest pursuers mounting a charge, the door was left open for Li, China's top professional prospect and a Web.com Tour player, to make a move.  Five birdies in his first 14 holes moved the teenager into position, and when he birdied the 575-yard 17th, Li found himself with a two-shot lead and on the verge of a breakthrough victory.  But with time running out, Aphibarnrat struck boldly with an eagle at the 17th to tie and then, after narrowly missing a birdie putt at the last to win, carded a birdie on the first hole of sudden death to steal the title..................Thirty-five-year-old New Zealander Michael Hendry began his third season on the Japan Golf Tour in style, charging home with a closing 64 to claim his first victory on the circuit at the season-opening Token Homemate Cup.  Previously a winner on the Australasian and OneAsia Tours, Hendry began his week with a 67 which trailed first round leader Kodai Ichihara by three, then added a 69 which, owing partially to some tougher scoring conditions on Friday, moved Hendry within one of halfway leader I.J. Jang.  Another 69 on Saturday lost ground, however, leaving Hendry to begin Sunday tied for fourth, three behind South Korea’s Hyun-Woo Ryu.  Ryu would hold things together effectively in the final round, shooting 69, while veteran Kazuhiro Yamashita mounted a charge, closing with 66 to finish on 270.  But Hendry was not to be headed, particularly over the final nine wherein he birdied the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 17th, all of which proved just enough to win by one.

PGA Tour - RBC Heritage  -  Jim Furyk  (266)
European Tour - Shenzhen International  -  Kiradech Aphibarnrat  (276)
Japan Tour - Token Homemate Cup  -  Michael Hendry  (269)
LPGA Tour - Lotte Championship  -  Sei Young Kim  (277)
JLPGA Tour - Banterin Ladies Open  -  Erika Kikuchi  (207)
Champions Tour - Greater Gwinnett Championship  -  Olin Browne  (132)
Web.com Tour - El Bosque Mexico Championship  -  Wes Roach  (271)
LatinoAmerica - Abierto OSDE El Centro  -  Tommy Cocha  (275)
Symetra Tour - Chico's Patty Berg Memorial  -  Augusta James  (206)