“I know that I hadn’t won on the PGA Tour in a while, but over the past 12 months, I’ve still had three wins worldwide”.
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Only an emotional win at the Irish Open was the saving grace.
He ended it in style, too.
He ended his round in style, hitting an exquisite bunker shot to within two feet at the par-five 18th for a tap-in four, his seventh birdie of the day, as he clinched his 12th USA tour victory.
Now, he just had to wait and see if he’d be caught.
The Englishman hit a monster drive on the par 5, leaving himself 223 yards, from where he knocked a 4-iron almost 60 feet from the pin.
He was clean over the final nine holes, collecting birdies when he made a 2-footer on No. 4 after narrowly missing an eagle putt and on the next hole when he made a putt of just outside 19 feet. This win not only gets him PGA Tour title No. 12, it also gets him past Jordan Spieth in the Official World Golf Ranking. That is all except McIlroy and Adam Scott, who both fired the lowest round of day.
Olympic gold medallist Justin Rose was in the thick of the action as he got to 11 under through 10 holes but then played the final eight holes in 10 over, including triple bogies at the 13 and 16 holes along with a double bogey at the par-4 12.
“I found my game a little bit on the back nine”, said Scott.
“It is unbelievable to think how I started this tournament and what was going through my mind after three holes”.
He went to the turn in 5-under to apply pressure to Casey and eventually signed for a 65, the equal best round of the day alongside Scott.
The world No 5 did well to get up and down to save par at the sixth, and his sublime bunker play set up another birdie at the next before his new-found confidence on the greens shone through when he holed from just inside 20 feet at the eighth. 8 and 9 to go out in 5-under 31.
McIlroy’s victory moves him from 38th to fourth in the FedExCup standings ahead of the BMW Championship later this week. Actually, the Northern Irishman could have gone even lower than 65 on Monday, as he missed 7-foot birdie putts at Nos. That club has given him fits all year as he has switched and then un-switched grips and still only ranks 130th on Tour in strokes gained: putting, giving up.135 shots per round on the green.
He hired Phil Kenyon, who works with Henrik Stenson among others, as his putting coach.
“Wow, very impressive”, Casey said of McIlroy’s finish.
Englishman Casey, hunting his second career win on the United States circuit, led by three strokes after 54 holes but had to settle for second place after closing with a 73. 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.
Casey’s finish moved him from 59th to 10th in the FedEx Cup, ensuring a spot in the Tour Championship.
Could we see another McIlroy run in the near future? “It is pretty cool”.
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“Things can turn around quickly in this game and they did for me this week”.
