One year after winning the pro-am portion of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory McIlroy etched his name into the portion of the wall of champions reserved for individual winners at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach,

For Rory McIlroy, it's all about location. He won at Pebble Beach and that was important to him. He already was looking ahead to major championship venues like Quail Hollow and Royal Portrush.

Rory McIlroy will be making his PGA Tour season debut this week, but Pebble Beach is not the golf course to deploy him. Pebble is one of the least driver-heavy golf courses on the PGA Tour, and it consistently mitigates McIlroy’s advantage off the tee, which properly explains his porous 66th-place finish at this event last year.