Open Championship Round 4 grades

— -- No matter that Adam Scott came into this week at Hoylake as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, Rory McIlroy is the best golfer on the planet. With a wire-to-wire victory at Hoylake, McIlroy answered any lingering questions there might be about his management decisions, his club changes, his nerve or the impact of his recent breakup with former fiancée Caroline Wozniacki.

McIlroy's performance should serve notice to all the players on my board and the entire golf world that he is the new face of the game to lead the sport into a new era that will define its own terms and goals, and not by what Tiger Woods accomplished in his prime.

This is Rory McIlroy's time.