KIAWAH ISLAND-- Spectators parted for golf royalty.

At Kiawah Island's Ocean Course, Sunday on the 10th tee, where major championships begin, Rory McIlroy pulled his drive left into the rough beyond the rope dividing the fans from their golf idols. McIlroy -- red shirt and red belt with a gleaming Oakley buckle -- marched to his golf ball.

Marshalls waved spectators to each side, clearing a path for McIlroy to blast his next shot toward the green.

Fans filed in behind him as McIlroy took off in his familiar stride. Make way for Rory, who can wear one name like another once so dominant.

The 23-year-old Northern Irishman won the 94th PGA Championship, shooting a final-round 66 to finish 13 under, winning by eight shots and coasting to his second major in the same fashion he won his first. His eight-shot victory, cemented with a birdie at the 72nd hole, broke Jack Nicklaus' PGA Championship record seven-shot margin set in 1980.

"I said, 'Look, if I get to 12 under par, no one is going to catch me,'" said McIlroy, who won $1.445 million. "And I was able to go one better than that."

David Lynn, an Englishman playing his first PGA Championship, sneaked into the runner-up spot with a pair of 68s on the weekend.

McIlroy is the youngest PGA champion since the event went to stroke play in 1958 and reached two major victories quicker than another man in red on Sunday, Tiger Woods.

Several minutes before McIlroy's shot on 10, Woods also pulled his drive on the hole, but farther left. He walked down below the fairway to the sandy path, where his ball rested on the opposite side of a partition where trash was collected from the nearby skyboxes on No. 17.

Woods followed his shot down the path and over the hill back to the green, where he saved par.

The crowd watched, but not all followed. They waited for McIlroy.

At 36, Woods is not done, but he's not McIlroy, who owns many of the attributes that once made Woods invincible.

"But he went on the incredible run like 2000, 2001, 2002 and won so many," McIlroy said. "I'd love to sit up here and tell you that I'm going to do the same thing, but I just don't know."

As he did at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional, where he also won by eight shots, McIlroy overpowered a long, soft golf course. He pulled away during Sunday's 27-hole finish with aggressive shotmaking and a cooperative putter.

When his birdie putt on No. 12 dripped into the right edge of the cup, no one was going to catch him. Not Ian Poulter, the surprising Englishman who birdied six of his first seven holes and, after two birdies on the back, was only two shots off McIlroy's pace.

Bogeys on four of his final six holes dropped Poulter from contention.

Lynn was the only player other than McIlroy to post two rounds in the 60s on the weekend.

"I missed a couple of putts in the last four holes, but you sort of sit here and you think, 'I'm lying second at the moment in the PGA,' and you can't be disappointed with that," Lynn said.

RBC Heritage champion Carl Pettersson's bid for a first major title ended early, when his swing caused a leaf to quiver in a hazard and led to a two-stroke penalty. Four birdies on the front nine could not undo the damage.

Vijay Singh, co-leader when the third round resumed Sunday morning and looking to become the oldest player to win a major, sputtered to the finish with a 74-77 on the weekend.

And there was Woods, who was five shots back to begin his final round after his 36-hole lead dissolved with third-round struggles. The mystique, the closing mentality has been shed. On Sunday, it was left to Rory to pour it on when the 7,800-yard Pete Dye design wouldn't allow others to charge, despite good conditions.

With the course and the weather the story much of the week, McIlroy's finish ensured his game was the focus.

As he walked off the green on 18, McIlroy grabbed fistfuls of his curly hair with each hand and looked to the ground. He hugged his father, Gerry McIlroy, before climbing the metal stairs to the scoring area.

McIlroy's caddie, JP Fitzgerald, carried a Heineken and talked about his man. He said McIlroy had maintained his confidence since his last major victory and wore the look Sunday of someone who knew he was running away with another major championship.

McIlroy turned to Fitzgerald on No. 18 tee and told him he wanted the same margin as Congressional, wanted a birdie at the last to reach 13 under, one better than the number he targeted all day.

His approach spun to a stop 20 feet below the hole and McIlroy delivered. The crowd, which had leaked into the fairway to form a ring around the green, chanted his name.

The 2012 PGA champion brought his trophy to a dune overlooking the ocean and posed for a picture he later posted to his Twitter account. McIlroy said when he arrived Monday and surveyed the property from his locker overlooking the putting green and ocean, that he told those close to him he had a good feeling about the week.

He visited the beach each day, with the exception of a stormy Saturday afternoon. The course didn't play the same as his links courses back home, but McIlroy felt at home on Kiawah Island.