Tour Championship: Rory McIlroy storms from 6 back to win

ATLANTA –

This 12 months it turned straightforward to miss Rory McIlroy’s 4 majors, 30 wins on 4 continents and two years at No. 1 on the earth. He has been seen largely because the strongest voice and staunchest defender of the PGA Tour in its battle in opposition to Saudi-funded LIV Golf.

So maybe it was solely becoming {that a} most tumultuous 12 months for the PGA Tour culminated Sunday with McIlroy holding its greatest prize.

He had the ultimate say together with his golf equipment.

Six photographs behind earlier than the Tour Championship began, 10 photographs again after two holes, McIlroy rallied from a six-shot deficit within the last spherical in opposition to the No. 1 participant on the earth and closed with a 4-under 66 to change into the primary three-time winner of the FedEx Cup.

“It’s been a tumultuous time for the world of males’s skilled golf particularly,” he stated. “I have been within the thick of issues. I assume each likelihood I get, I’m attempting to defend what I really feel is the very best place to play elite skilled golf on the earth.

“It’s in some methods becoming that I used to be in a position to get this carried out as we speak to type of spherical off a 12 months that has been very, very difficult and completely different.”

It got here on the expense of Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 participant on the earth who birdied 4 of six holes Sunday morning to complete the storm-delayed third spherical at 66 and construct a six-shot lead. Not even McIlroy, who birdied the final two holes within the morning to get into the ultimate group, thought he had an excellent likelihood.

However then Scheffler by no means regained his groove, lacking fairways and greens and par putts. He made just one birdie in a closing spherical of 73 and tied the PGA Tour report for dropping a six-shot lead within the last spherical.

“I simply didn’t get off to a great begin early, however after that I grinded as arduous as I may,” Scheffler stated. “For no matter motive my swing wasn’t the place it had been the primary few days this week.”

McIlroy had a 17-under 263 for his uncooked rating, the very best of the week. He began at 4 below because the No. 7 seed and completed at 21 below to seize the US$18 million bonus.

Sungjae Im fell again with a double bogey on the 14th gap and nonetheless managed a 66 to tie for second with Scheffler. They earned $5.75 million.

McIlroy referred to the ultimate spherical as a “spectacle,” and never simply due to the pro-McIlroy crowd that chanted his identify alongside the closing holes.

“Two of the very best gamers on the earth going head-to-head for the most important prize on the PGA Tour, and I hope everybody at dwelling loved that,” he stated.

McIlroy wanted loads of assist from Scheffler, who by no means trailed till the seventieth gap. Scheffler appeared out of types early, and McIlroy capitalized. With three straight birdies, he tied him on the seventh gap. After which it was a nail-biter to the tip.

It was a surprising show at East Lake that turned on two photographs.

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 on the sixteenth, his pitch was working quick and headed off the entrance of the inexperienced when it hit the pin and settled 7 toes away. He saved par. Scheffler blasted out of a bunker to simply inside 10 toes 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 aid and obtained onto the inexperienced for a straightforward par.

“I wished to win the season-long title,” Scheffler stated. “I’ve had a very nice 12 months and I wished to complete it off with a win right here, and sadly I wasn’t ready to do this.”

McIlroy gained the FedEx Cup in 2016 in a playoff. He gained the FedEx Cup once more in 2019, the primary 12 months of a staggered begin. This may need been the sweetest of fall, coming off a 12 months through which the PGA Tour has been in a nasty battle with LIV Golf, which already has attracted some two dozen gamers and now’s a part of an antitrust lawsuit in opposition to the PGA Tour.

It was McIlroy who has declared fierce loyalty to the PGA Tour over the previous couple of years when rival leagues have been coming right into a view. And it was McIlroy who joined Tiger Woods in main a momentous player-only assembly final week that led to vital adjustments forward for the tour.

So, sure, this had an additional stage of satisfaction.

And no, he did not thoughts the burden he carried because the de facto voice of the tour.

“In case you imagine in one thing I believe you need to converse up, and I imagine very strongly about this. I actually do,” McIlroy stated. “I hate what it’s doing to the sport of golf. I hate it.

“I believe once you imagine that what you’re saying is the fitting issues, you’re completely satisfied to stay your neck out on the road.”

Even on the Tour Championship, usually a celebration of the tip of the 12 months, there was speak all weekend of extra defections coming in subsequent few days. The Every day Telegraph reported three weeks in the past that British Open champion Cameron Smith was leaving for LIV Golf, and renewed studies over the weekend confirmed as a lot.

Two individuals conscious of the strikes stated Harold Varner III, Marc Leishman and Anirban Lahiri are leaving. They spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of it has not been introduced. Cameron Tringale introduced his choice on Twitter.

Nonetheless to be decided is Joaquin Niemann, whose supervisor stated the Chilean would talk about the choices together with his father later Sunday.

“Everybody on tour has needed to cope with so much. Even the fellows which have went to LIV have needed to cope with so much. It’s simply been a really tumultuous type of period in our sport,” McIlroy stated. “That is the very best place on the earth to play golf. It’s probably the most aggressive. It’s obtained the very best gamers. It’s obtained the deepest fields. I don’t know why you’d need to play wherever else.”

With all that hypothesis, the Tour Championship that seemed to be a runaway became a dynamic present. And ultimately, the tour’s greatest voice had its greatest trophy.