Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy won the FedEx Cup this Sunday and pocketed the succulent prize of 18 million dollars, culminating a comeback against the American Scottie Scheffler that could have ended in disgrace due to the errors of both in the last hole.
Rory McIlory, results
There, the South Korean Sungjae Im was waiting for them, to add more emotion to the outcome, since he was able to cause a tiebreaker by having closed his participation with -20, an identical card to the one that Scheffler would finally sign.
McIlroy’s -21 ended up giving him the final victory. It’s the third FedEx Cup title for McIlroy, who overcame a six-shot deficit to a Scheffler who defended his lead but ended up giving up on the closing holes. Card of 66 hits for the Northern Irishman, same numbers in the final round as Sungjae Im.
Neither of them was the best on Sunday, both the Americans Tony Finau with 64 and Jordan Spieth with 65, as well as the Norwegian Viktor Hovland also with 65 shots, signed the best cards of the day, although all of them started from too far away to caress the ultimate triumph.
Rory McIlroy was very pleased when he received the championship trophy: “What a week and what a day. I’m really sorry about Scottie today, he’s had an incredible season. He’s a great golfer and a better person.
At least he’s already won one in Georgia with the Masters” Nor did the Northern Irish golfer miss the opportunity to vindicate the PGA Tour with respect to LIV Golf: “This victory means a lot, I believe in this circuit and in its players.
We are the best players in the world playing golf. It is an incredible moment of pride for me, but also for the PGA. The best players in the world playing against each other.” The duel between Scheffler and McIlroy was very exciting because in addition to the direct face-to-face for the final victory, neither could forget that there was another candidate, a very precise Im who played a hole later and provoked the cheers of the fans that could be heard in the distance, very early joined the list of favorites.
One of the key moments was on the 12th hole, when McIlroy’s birdie put him co-leader with Scheffler at -21 overall. The North American closed the 16th with a ‘bogey’ and gave up the lead alone in favor of the Northern Irishman.
Both players felt the pressure and in the last two holes they got very complicated with balls to the public, to the bunkers and against the structures of the stands. But they managed to save at least par on the course thanks to ‘approachs’ and ‘putts’ that showed their quality.
It was an especially good day on the green for McIlroy, on four occasions he finished with the putt more than ten feet away. One of them, at 16, caused Scheffler to lose his lead for the first time all week. Rory McIlroy accumulates a total of 28 million dollars in circuit prizes this season and makes history by becoming the first golfer to add three victories in the FedEx Cup, leaving behind a legend like Tiger Woods.
He is world number two and closes the course with three titles, having previously won the CJ Cup and the Canadian Open. Jon Rahm lost his options in the morning at the end of his third day, with two ‘bogeys’ in 14 and 17 he was already very far from the head.
Already in the fourth round he again accumulated four ‘bogeys’ and without the pressure he played looser, culminating with two birdies on 15 and 18, closing at least with a better taste in his mouth. The one from Barrika finished fifteenth, 10 strokes behind McIlroy, far from what could be expected and behind the other Spanish-speaking representative, the Chilean Joaquín Niemann, who closed the last day with a card of 69 strokes as eleventh classified in the tournament.
