Such a victory looked out of reach when McIlroy triple-bogeyed his third hole in the opening round to slip to four-over par on Friday, but he backed up his impressive long-game with a vastly improved putting display to clinch his 12th PGA Tour title and his first since winning the Wells Fargo Championship in May previous year.
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The Northern Irishman brought his own hard summer to an emphatic close with a wonderful final round 65 to win by two over Casey and complete a stunning recovery from the depths of being four over par after just three holes of his first round on Friday.
McIlroy, who shot an incredible 19 under for his final 69 holes, told Sky Sports: “From three holes in – four over par – there were a lot of things going through my mind, and one of them was not winning this tournament”.
Casey needed an eagle at No. 18 to tie McIlroy after his par at No. 17, but missed a 58-foot putt that would have forced a playoff and parred the hole. “His strong putting continued today, as he splashed home three putts from outside nine feet including an 18-footer for birdie at the par-3 eighth and a 22’5” birdie bomb at the par-4 14th.
One week after working with a new putting coach and changing putters, results came quickly for McIlroy. The win in Boston has jumped him from 38th on the FedEx Cup standings up to fourth, with just the BMW and Tour Championship to go. McIlroy, PGA Champion Jimmy Walker and James Hahn were the only players in the last four groups to shoot under par for the final round.
A first win on the PGA Tour for 16 months.
Casey was trying to win on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2009. McIlroy made one tweak all on his own, moving his right hand more on top of the grip to make sure the face of the putter didn’t open. Adam Scott jumped from T-23 to solo fourth at 11 under thanks to a closing 65, while last week’s victor of The Barclays, Patrick Reed, came in a tie for fifth at 10 under after a final-round 69.
Starting times have been moved forward to give the tournament the best chance of finishing. McIlroy, 27, is the third-fastest to reach 12 Tour wins, with only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus reaching the mark at younger ages. I came here off the back of a rough couple of weeks and I was thinking ‘Here we go again, ‘ and that it was going to be a little bit of a grind and a bit of a struggle.
The result puts Scott at fifth in the points standings after two of the four playoffs tournaments as players battle for the FedEx Cup and its $US10 million bonus payment.
“I think he overdid the weight room, I don’t that helped him at all”, Miller said during the Open Championship broadcast.
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“I think if you had said to me after three holes on Friday that I would be sitting up here addressing you guys as the victor of this tournament, I would have told you to go somewhere, I think”, McIlroy said Monday.
