Johnson, who led after day two, endured a topsy-turvy display on Saturday, making six birdies, three bogeys and one double bogey to sign for a one-under-par 69.
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Scott carded one-over par 71 at East Lake today with a triple bogey, a double bogey and five birdies and at one-over overall, is nine shots back from the lead shared by Dustin Johnson and Kevin Chappell.
Rory McIlroy survived a grueling four-hole playoff against Ryan Moore and Kevin Chappell to win the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup.
The first one he didn’t even see go in.
Along with the Tour Championship’s $AU2.01 million winner’s cheque, McIlroy banks the FedEx Cup’s $AU13.14 million bonus prize.
“I came here this week to win a golf tournament and I’m 100 percent focused on that”, Moore said.
USA captain Davis Love planned to make the announcement during halftime of “Sunday Night Football”, – just hours after Moore was beaten by a birdie from European Ryder Cup star Rory McIlroy on the fourth extra hole at East Lake Golf Club.
His only hope was to win the Tour Championship and have Dustin Johnson finish worse than second alone.
” … Coming close so many times this year and not getting a win yet, you know, it fuels me”.
In spite of becoming a better finisher this year, Johnson said he still feels nerves both at the start of a round and when he’s in contention down the stretch. He made few mistakes: a three-putt from 70 feet on No. 13, a missed fairway on the next hole, enough that his ball was buried so deep even Johnson and his power couldn’t advance more than about 135 yards.
If you can nitpick the game’s top players for particular performances, most would take some combination of Jordan Spieth’s putter, McIlroy’s driver and Jason Day’s long irons. He had to putt for par before McIlroy made birdie, and Moore drained it to force McIlroy to make his.
“I’ve made it no secret that it’s one of the last things I feel like I had left on my golfing CV, and I made it a big goal of mine especially after the summer had gone, to win it. I just didn’t make anything”, he said. I felt like I hit some good putts.
“It’s definitely a championship I haven’t won before, the Tour Championship or the FedEx Cup championship. I knew I controlled my own destiny”.
McIlroy had control of this all along once he got into the playoff, except for one nervous moment.
With the crowd waiting anxiously for him to putt, McIlroy reared his putter and sunk his birdie to a decibel-shattering roar from the crowd, forgetting they were just jeering the soon-to-be Ryder Cup competitor a couple of holes earlier.
He did so and after gaining a 55-yard advantage off the tee on the par-4 16th, the fourth playoff hole, McIlroy stuck his wedge inside the approach of Moore to gain the upper hand.
Nothing was bigger than that birdie at the end. “I wish it was”, Johnson said. It’s the first time the Irishman has won the FedEx Cup. In the nine previous years of the playoffs, Jim Furyk and Bill Haas were the only champions who were outside of the top five entering The TOUR Championship. USA captain Davis Love III has one more wild-card selection to make after the Tour Championship.
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And he doesn’t need a degree in math to figure out the easiest scenario – just win. Jason Day took himself out of the mix by withdrawing because of more back issues.
