ATLANTA — Rory McIlroy, the strongest voice for the PGA Tour in a tumultuous yr, had the ultimate say together with his golf equipment Sunday when he rallied from 6 pictures behind to win the Tour Championship and seize the FedEx Cup for the third time.
McIlroy gained $18 million, pushing his PGA Tour earnings over $26 million for the season. He closed with a 4-under 66 to overhaul Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, who made just one birdie in a 73.
Scheffler hoped to cap off the most effective yr in golf with the FedEx Cup title. As an alternative, his entry within the report guide was tying a PGA Tour report for dropping the biggest 54-hole lead. The final one to try this was Dustin Johnson in 2017 on the HSBC Champions.
Sungjae Im fell again with a double bogey on the 14th gap and nonetheless managed a 66 to tie for second with Scheffler.
McIlroy referred to the ultimate spherical as a “spectacle,” and never simply due to the pro-McIlroy crowd that chanted his title alongside the closing holes.
“Two of the most effective gamers on the earth going head-to-head on the most effective tour,” he stated.
McIlroy wanted loads of assist from Scheffler, the No. 1 seed, who started with a 2-shot lead and by no means trailed till the seventieth gap. Scheffler, who birdied 4 of six holes Sunday morning to complete the third spherical and construct a 6-shot lead, misplaced it within the first seven holes.
After which it was a nail-biter to the very finish, a surprising afternoon at East Lake that turned on two pictures.
McIlroy holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 fifteenth gap to tie for the lead. After he flew the inexperienced by some 20 yards, his pitch was working quick and headed off the entrance of the inexperienced when it hit the pin and settled 7 ft away.
He saved par. Scheffler blasted out of a bunker to only inside 10 ft and missed, making bogey that put him behind for the primary time all week. Scheffler badly misinterpret a 10-foot birdie likelihood on the seventeenth to tie, sending the Tour Championship to the ultimate gap with $18 million on the road.
Scheffler’s 4-iron on the par-5 18th sailed quick and proper and right into a bunker, and he blasted out over the inexperienced. McIlroy went left in opposition to the grandstand, took reduction and bought onto the inexperienced for a simple par.
Scheffler and Im every gained $5.75 million.
“The cash undoubtedly did not creep into my thoughts. I wished to win the season-long title,” Scheffler stated. “I’ve had a very nice yr and I wished to complete it off with a win right here, and sadly I wasn’t in a position to try this.”
McIlroy gained in 2016 in a playoff. He gained the FedEx Cup once more in 2019, the primary yr of a staggered begin. However this may need been the sweetest of all, coming off a yr during which the PGA Tour has been in a nasty battle for gamers with Saudi-funded LIV Golf.
It was McIlroy who has declared fierce loyalty to the PGA Tour over the previous few years, and who joined Tiger Woods in main a momentous players-only assembly final week that led to important modifications forward.
“I imagine within the recreation of golf. I imagine on this tour, specifically. I imagine within the gamers on this tour,” McIlroy stated within the trophy presentation. “It is the best place on the earth to play golf, bar none, and I’ve performed throughout.”
Even on the Tour Championship, sometimes a celebration of the tip of the yr, there was discuss all weekend of extra defections coming within the subsequent few days. The Day by day Telegraph reported three weeks in the past that British Open champion Cameron Smith was leaving for LIV Golf, and sources confirmed his anticipated transfer to ESPN.
Harold Varner III, Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri are also anticipated to depart, sources advised ESPN. Cameron Tringale introduced his resolution on Twitter.
Nonetheless to be decided is Joaquin Niemann, whose supervisor stated the Chilean golfer would talk about the choices together with his father later Sunday.
“Everybody on tour has needed to cope with loads. Even the fellows which have went to LIV have needed to cope with loads. It is simply been a really tumultuous kind of period in our recreation,” McIlroy stated. “That is the most effective place on the earth to play golf. It is essentially the most aggressive. It is bought the most effective gamers. It is bought the deepest fields. I do not know why you’d need to play anyplace else.”
With all that hypothesis, the Tour Championship that seemed to be a runaway changed into a dynamic present. Most of that fell to Scheffler, who seemed like a unique participant when he returned Sunday morning and after a two-hour break earlier than the ultimate spherical.
He could not get something going and let 4 others into the sport. Scheffler hit solely 9 of 18 greens in regulation.
McIlroy seized on the prospect early with three straight birdies, the final one from 30 ft on No. 7 that led to pockets of cheers from company hospitality tents throughout the course.
Scheffler fought again, displaying superb grit with out the sport to go along with it. He had three huge par saves early on the again 9 and took the lead for the final time when McIlroy missed the 14th inexperienced with a brief iron from the green and made bogey.
McIlroy started the event six pictures behind because the No. 7 seed. He opened with a tee shot out of bounds for a triple bogey and after one other bogey, he was 10 behind earlier than Scheffler even began. And on the finish, the tour’s largest voice had its largest trophy.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
