Rory McIlroy close to first win in a year after second-placed finish behind Dustin Johnson in Mexico

Rory McIlroy insists he is on the cusp of his first win in almost a year after finishing second behind Dustin Johnson at the WGC-Mexico Championship.

The result moved McIlroy up two places to No6 in the world but, starting the day four strokes back from Johnson, he was never in contention to claw back the deficit as the American recorded a five-under-par 66 to win by five shots.

“It was a good tournament for me,” said McIlroy. “My game has been good, really solid. I need to get into positions to challenge and sooner or later things can go my way.”

McIlroy’s last PGA Tour win came at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March last year, but his runner-up placing was his fourth consecutive top five finish, the longest such streak of his career.

Johnson meanwhile, moves up to No2 in the world, and should return to No1 next week, based on two-year computations, with neither himself nor current No1 Justin Rose in action.