He was 38th in the Cup standings after tying for 31st last weekend at The Barclays, but rose to fourth after his third-career Playoffs victory.
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This time, McIlroy is aiming to bring the momentum all the way to the Tour Championship and to put the icing on the cake by claiming the playoff title.
The victory capped a remarkable turnaround for McIlroy, who was 3 over through his first four holes of the tournament Friday, including a triple bogey on 12. “I just went with the momentum”. If you don’t believe him, just take a look at his PGA Tour ranks: Entering this week, he was 117th in putts per round, 130th in strokes gained putting, 165th in total putting, 189th in putting inside 10 feet and 193rd in three-putt avoidance.
McIlroy was four-over par after his first three holes on Friday before recovering to lead the field in both driving distance and putting average to finish 15-under par.
PGA champion Jimmy Walker finished three adrift of McIlroy after shooting a 70.
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. Despite slipping to fifth in the world rankings over the a year ago and a half, he is still regarded by many as the best player in the world. After missing the cut at the PGA Championship, McIlroy fell to fifth as Stenson, who was T7, moved up.
History is now on McIlroy’s side.
“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”, he said.
“I found it incredibly hard out there …”
McIlroy trailed the US-based Englishman by six shots heading into the final round at TPC Boston, but a brilliant six under par 65 propelled him to a morale-boosting two shots win.
With tee times moved up due to predicted high winds, McIlroy got things going early in the morning, birdieing Nos.
Having played his first four holes of the week in 4-over McIlroy, who recently hired a new putting coach, caught fire to be 19-under for his last 69 holes. I just had to do something with the putting.
England’s Casey, 39, missed an eagle putt on the final hole at TPC Boston that would have forced a play-off. “I wasn’t getting impatient, I wasn’t searching for things”.
Incredibly, McIlroy had been 4-over par after three holes of the championship, before racing back into contention.
Since that is a course where he won in 2012, he will feel confident he can do enough to stay in the top five of the FedEx standings for the final event and in touching distance of the $10mn overall prize.
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Uh oh, U.S. Ryder Cup enthusiasts.
