Rory McIlroy Winner of 2014 PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy put a very public week from hell behind him to win the PGA Championship at Wentworth, his first European Tour title in almost 18 months.

The 25-year old had been seven shots behind tournament leader Thomas Bjorn going into the final round, after the Dane had earlier hit a course record ten under par 62.

But a dramatic collapse by Bjorn and a stunning final round of 66 by McIlroy saw him finish top of the leader board at 14 under par, one shot ahead of close friend, Irishman Shane Lowry.I played well, I played solid but I struggled Friday,” McIlroy admitted afterwards.

“I was fortunate today a few people made mistakes ahead of me, and I took advantage of that,” he added, referencing Bjorn’s collapse from taking a five shot lead into the final round to finishing joint third.Yet the tournament had been overshadowed by the media storm that followed McIlroy’s announcement he was to split from his fiance, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki.

The on-off relationship had been followed as keenly in gossip columns as it had on the sports pages, but the announcement, coming shortly after the wedding invites had been sent out, had created a cloud of publicity that stubbornly followed McIlroy around Wentworth.

“The wedding invitations issued at the weekend made me realize that I wasn’t ready for all that marriage entails,” McIlroy said in a statement released to the press.