Rory McIlroy saved his best for the end of the PGA Tour season, and it netted him an enormous payday on Sunday at the Tour Championship.
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Almost two hours later, he holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth extra hole to win at East Lake in a playoff and claim the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus.
“Probably the most hard round I played this week in terms of ball control and positions that I was in”, Chappell said. The American led the tournament by as much as four shots during the third round before Chappell reeled him in.
Dufner had made the biggest move of the day with five birdies in his first 13 holes, while Moore had picked up four shots before a bogey on the 11th.
“I was so proud of myself the way I hung in there (and) I was able to turn it around (with a chip-in birdie at the 12th)”, said Chappell, who has just one bogey in 54 holes.
The pair finished their final rounds locked on -12 along with Kevin Chappell, forcing a three-way playoff to decide the last tournament of the PGA Tour calendar.
Johnson surprisingly was never a factor and he hit too many errant shots on the front nine and never recovered. That year afforded us one of the game’s most awkward photos of all time, with Tiger Woods holding his FedEx Cup trophy while standing next to Phil Mickelson holding his Tour Championship trophy.
Even on the final hole, Moore gave McIlroy everything he had. He looked to put the ideal finish onto his big day when he hit over the water to 6 feet for an eagle putt on the par-5 18th in the first playoff hole. Moore had already holed a 10-foot birdie putt to continue the playoff.
A stunning eagle at 16 proved the turning point for McIlroy. He nabbed the first birdie of the day at the par-four 16th, hitting his approach from 147 yards to 12 feet and draining the putt.
Nothing was bigger than that birdie at the end.
Rory McIlroy has fixed his putting and his swing to surge into contention at East Lake. Jordan Spieth is No. 7 in the FedExCup, the highest seed by a defending FedEx Cup champion. You can follow along all round on the PGA Tour’s live leaderboard. A new putter he put in play two weeks ago when he won the BMW Championship is giving him a better feel for alignment.
The TOUR Championship runs through Sunday.
Asked about trying to earn USA captain Davis Love’s final wild card, the world number seven said: “The golf tournament is the only pressure because he’s been saying, and also when he talked to me a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t about play, it was about who fits the team and pairs up nicely”.
Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton was tied for third at 6 under after a 69.
Both times he was overtaken for the FedEx Cup because he didn’t win the Tour Championship. Matsuyama also birdied the final hole to salvage a 71.
Murray will be 23 on Saturday.
He also said after Thursday’s opening round that he had felt pain on a few shots, but not constantly.
THE FedEx Cup needs to be factored into the thinking of every in-running punter when they are assessing the Tour Championship at this stage. Tway was 27th on the Web.com money list.
Matthew Southgate was one of the players to complete his round and the Englishman held the clubhouse lead on nine-under-par. The last PGA Tour card went at $33,650 in 2013, $36,312 in 2014 and $32,206 a year ago.
US Open champion Johnson, the hottest player in the game after three victories since June, carded a three-under-par 67 in the season-ending event at East Lake.
Johnson has slowly but surely got to grips with East Lake through the years, finishing fifth in his last two visits, and he appears to have peaked for this week. He’d ground out 11 straight pars before chipping in for birdie at the 12th – a result that brought an emotional fist-pump from the American seeking his first United States tour title.
“I thought I played pretty well, just a couple of loose drives on the back side and made a couple bogeys and that double on 17”.
They played the 18th a second time and McIlroy did it again.
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Levy completed a 9-under 62 in the morning in the delayed first round and was 17 under with one hole left when the second round was play was stopped because of darkness. Austin has three victories this year.
