Two days before his 21st birthday, Rory McIlroy came of age Sunday. After having barely made the 36-hole cut, McIlroy, the curly-haired phenom from Northern Ireland, put on an unforgettable weekend show, earning his first PGA Tour victory with a 10-under-par 62 to come from four strokes off the pace to beat Phil Mickelson by four strokes and Angel Cabrera by five in the Quail Hollow Championship. In a performance that combined sensational shot making with a flair for the dramatic and the sheer exuberance of youth, McIlroy dominated the final 36 holes, shooting the lowest round in the field on Saturday (66) and adding a round of eight birdies and an eagle Sunday on the demanding Quail Hollow Club layout for a 15-under total of 273. Although Mickelson and Cabrera each shot 68 in the final round, they could not unnerve McIlroy. 'You know, the last two days it seemed as if everything had just gone right,' said McIlroy, who became the youngest winner on the tour since Tiger Woods won the Las Vegas Invitational at age 20 in 1996. 'You get yourself into sort of a mind-set like that, and you just keep going.' As easy as McIlroy made that sound, he made it look even easier. In fact, the script authored by the young man from Holywood, Northern Ireland, probably would have been turned down by the dream factories in Hollywood as being, well, too dreamy. But he made believers out of his fellow professionals, the sellout crowds at Quail Hollow and an international television audience. And he wasted no time doing it. A brisk player who was, he said, 'in the zone,' he birdied four holes -- including the seventh through the ninth -- to go out in 32 and tie for the lead with Cabrera at nine under. As McIlroy walked off the 11th tee, his caddie, J.P. Fitzgerald, told him, 'Let's try to get to 13 under.' He then hit a 9-iron from the rough to within 3 feet and brushed in the putt to get to 10 under, his original target. He birdied No. 14, and at the par-five 15th, he hit two shots that all but won it. Mickelson had birdied the 13th and 14th to reach 10 under, and thought he might still have a good chance to catch McIlroy. But not for long. McIlroy had hammered his drive at the 557-yard 15th hole right in the middle of the fairway, 352 yards off the tee. He then feathered a 5-iron from 206 yards to a flat spot some 3 feet away. As Mickelson was walking to the tee at 15, McIlroy made the putt for eagle. When Mickelson made par on the 15th, the shouting was all that remained. And there was plenty of it. Because when McIlroy took a stroll down the famed Green Mile, where plenty of rounds have gone to die during the eight years of this tournament's existence, he did so without fear. He birdied the 16th from the fairway bunker with the sweetest 7-iron from 167 yards imaginable. He nearly dropped a 54-footer for birdie at the par-three 17th and actually did make a 40-footer for birdie at the last. As the putt worked its way up the slope toward the hole, McIlroy was raising his left hand, putter aloft. And when it went in, the roar that went up could be heard all the way to Japan, where the 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa had stormed back earlier in the day with a round of 58 to win the Crowns. Two of the world's youngest pros, on the same day, closing the deal. 'You knew he was going to come out and win out here,' Mickelson said. 'He's won in all the other places in the world. At 20 years old, it's remarkable. He is some kind of player.' McIlroy was grinning as he walked to the scorer's area, where he was met by Padraig Harrington of Dublin, and was thumped on the back by his fellow pros Jim Furyk, Lee Westwood, Aaron Baddeley and others. Not that he was gloating, but he could not resist a playful jab at Westwood, who finished second at the Masters to Mickelson. 'I told him, 'That's how you close out a tournament,'' McIlroy said with a smile. He had arrived. And he knew it. 