PGA Championship 2013: Rory McIlroy Finally Finding His Groove at Oak Hill

Rory McIlroy is back where we expected him to be all along in 2013. He's in the conversation on the final Sunday of a major.

Heading into the final round, McIlroy is six shots behind the leader, Jim Furyk, at the 95th PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y.

After hanging around for most of the first three rounds, the two-time major champion looked confident in his game for the first time all year when he birdied No. 17 and hit a highlight-worthy chip-in on No. 18 to bring the crowd to their feet.

While many things will still have to fall his way for the 24-year-old to defend his title, his three-under 67—which tied him for seventh on the leaderboard on Saturday—is a step in the right direction.

This time last year, he was the top-ranked golfer and on top of the world. In the final round of the 2012 PGA Championship, the golfer from Northern Ireland cemented his status as a superstar by winning the second major of his career by a record-setting eight strokes.

To top things off, in January of 2013, the worst-kept secret in sports was announced with pomp and circumstance before a tournament in Abu Dhabi. Nike, the longtime home of Tiger Woods, had signed McIlroy to a blockbuster deal that was reported to be worth as much as $20 million annually.

All eyes were officially on McIlroy.

McIlroy's first dip into the all-out frenzy of being a sports superstar has not gone smoothly.

He created controversy in early March, just over a month after the big Nike deal was announced, when he walked off the course just nine holes into his second round of the Honda Classic.

He spoke to a few reporters in the parking lot after his exit, telling them, "I'm not in a great place mentally. I can't really say much, guys. I'm just in a bad place mentally." 

The official reason for his withdrawal was said to be tooth pain.

Things didn't get better from there.

McIlroy has zero wins on the PGA Tour this year and only one second-place finish. Woods replaced him at the top spot of the rankings in April, and McIlroy started off the major season by tying for 25th at the Masters and 41st at the U.S. Open, snapping his iron in half along the way. 

The rock bottom, if there is such a thing for a healthy 24-year-old multimillionaire, came at the British Open last month. At the major closest to home, he failed to make the cut. When Phil Mickelson won the title, McIlroy dropped to No. 3 in the rankings.

To top it all off, golfing legend Gary Player created a media firestorm when he suggested that McIlroy's struggles were due to his high-profile relationship with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki. 

But through it all, McIlroy kept working hard and even managed to have a few laughs at his own expense along the way.

Still, all of the focus this week heading into the PGA Championship was on Woods and Mickleson. In a matter of months, the defending champion had gone from main event to afterthought. 

But McIlroy trusted in himself and his struggling game to do something he hadn't done in this year's previous majors—he stayed steady throughout the first two rounds, shooting a 69 and 71, respectively. 

On Saturday, he took the name "moving day" seriously. He started tied for 28th and ended tied for seventh. 

Most importantly, he looks to have his swagger back.

No matter what happens on Sunday, that's a scary thought for the rest of the PGA Tour.