(Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports)

Rory McIlroy won the 2015 WGC Match Play Championship on Sunday, and in doing so, became just the third player in golf history to win at least 10 PGA Tour victories before the age of 26. You probably guessed the other two: Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

Put to him after his victory, Rory does what he almost always does in the situation: he politely batted the question away and returned focus to his own game.

Every time I have a win, I keep hearing those guys’ names come up.  It’s great to be mentioned with the likes of Tiger and Jack, the two greatest players that I think have ever played this game. But I’m on my journey, I’ll see where I get to.  But right now I’m really happy with my 10th win. And I’m going to go after my 11th next week at TPC.

It must get annoying for Rory because every time he does anything notable, it’s immediately couched in a world where Tiger and Jack are king. Rory is undoubtedly a transcendent talent — the best we’ve seen since Tiger in his prime — but forcing him to assuming the Tiger-role going forward is as unfair on Rory as it is on fans.

Tiger, after all, had won 29 times when he was Rory’s age. Jack had won 17. Rory may have claimed his 10th won on Sunday, but he can’t replace Tiger on his own. If the golf industry manages to do it at all it’ll be in the aggregate — Rory, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson and others all competing against each other, drawing lots of different fans from lots of different pools. Asking Rory to play the role of a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon is totally unreasonable, and leads to exhausted answers like this.