The win has earned McIlroy a winner’s cheque of over 1.5 million dollars and sends him up to fourth place in the FedEx Cup standings.
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McIlroy ended his 16-month title drought on the United States tour with his two-shot victory from overnight leader Paul Casey (73) as he defied blustery conditions to finish at 15-under 269.
This latest victory was unlikely on a number of counts, given he laboured in his first round on Friday and was four-over through only three holes.
The Northern Irishman carded five birdies on the front nine, which was highlighted by up-and-down bunker birdies at the fourth and seventh holes and an 18-foot birdie putt at the eighth.
McIlroy navigated the windy conditions with relative ease while playing his opening nine holes at 5 under with five birdies, three straight at Nos. 7-9. A new putter. The old Rory McIlroy.
Having made significant inroads into Casey’s lead, McIlroy appeared to have blown his opportunity to claim the win after dropping a shot on the 17 after finding the sand.
He had been ranked 130th for putting after a disappointing summer. “I struggled a little bit from the get-go and it’s hard to regain rhythm and make your birdies if you started out that way, so I found it incredibly difficult”.
“Wow, very impressive. Yeah, that’s a mighty round of golf”, said Paul Casey, who had to settle for a runner-up finish.
The four time major champion striped his ball down the middle of the fairway and was left with 255 yards to the green, into the wind.
“I came off the back of a rough couple of weeks”, McIlroy said. “That’s something I feel like I’ve got better at over the last three or four years”.
He knocked his shot from the sand to inside of 2 feet for a tap-in birdie.
Mired in a run of uncharacteristically poor play in 2016, it was an ecstatic McIlroy who hoisted the trophy in the second of four FedEx Cup playoff events.
His hard day started with a bogey 6 at the second when he had a wedge spin off the right side of the green and was unable to get up and down. He missed a par putt from 5 feet on the 11th that put him two shots behind, and he fell back again with another three-putt bogey on the 14th. I think when people make judgements or criticisms without being educated on the subject that they’re criticizing, I think that’s like for me getting in the gym, for example, that’s my pet peeve. “There’s a lot that can happen, and I proved that to myself this week”.
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Jimmy Walker was third on 12 under, with Adam Scott a shot further back ahead of Patrick Reed, Fabian Gomez and James Hahn, who tied for fifth on 10 under.
