Fourteen years after Tiger Woods won his first major with a evidence score at The Masters, Rory McIlroy has done the same at the US Open. And even if the edge was not quite as great - eight shots as different to 12 - the declaration was just as loud.
There is a new kid on the block and, as Ernie Els was forecast only last Tuesday, he is capable of re-writing history. But what made the 22-year-old's runaway victory at Congressional on Sunday all the more extraordinary were two things above all else - he is the second succeeding Irish victor and he suffered that golfing frightening at Augusta in April.
It will probably take a little bit of time to sink in,said McIlroy after a closing 69 had taken him to an hard to believe 16 under par and had made him the youngest European major champion since 1872.Just to sit here, knowing that I've just won that trophy and follow in the footsteps of one of my best associates Graeme McDowell last year at Pebble, it's a great feeling.
There seems little hesitation about that the way he knock down the world's best - minus the injured Woods - and became only the third player to win the title with four rounds in the 60s.Whereas Woods broke the Masters record by only one McIlroy lower the US Open mark by four - and this after only two previous expert take-over and in the very next major after a closing 80 when four clear.
Augusta I felt was a great chance to get my first major and it obviously didn't quite work out. To come back straightaway is nice,added McIlroy.I can always call myself a major winner now - and with any luck in the not-so-distant future I'll be able to call myself a manifold major champion.
Jack Nicklaus, whose 18 majors is now starting to look a tough asks for Woods after he has been stuck on 14 for three years, surely believe in the young Ulsterman. Reminded that McIlroy is a few months younger than he was at the 1962 US Open - his first major - the Golden Bear said:He's ahead - and his score is way ahead of my pace.
The youngest winner of the title since part-time legend Bobby Jones in 1923 was not going to go wild last night because he was up early for a corporation day at Cape Cod near Boston.I know a few of my friends will be partying and I can't wait to get home and join them,he said.
As McDowell did last year, McIlroy is predictable to pull out of next week's French Open to first of all rejoice and then adjust to his new life before the next major - The Open on July 14-17.McDowell played the Scottish Open as a warm-up, but his Ryder Cup partner may well not fight again until Sandwich.
He has a lot to reflect on - nobody before had got to 13 under in the finals let alone the 17 under he reached before he had his only three-putt of the week on the last but one green. Three ahead after an gap 65, a record-equalling (with Woods) six clear at halfway and eight in front with a round to go, he birdied the first and fourth to make his lead twice figures.
It was back to eight by the turn and looked as if it might be seven when Korean playing partner YE Yang hit his tee shot to three feet on the dangerous short 10th.McIlroy, though, almost holed-in-one and the tap-in two - five strokes fewer than he took on Augusta's 10th - was the crucial blow that efficiently ended the hopes of those chase him.