But it stubbornly refused to drop, leaving the Northern Irishman with a three-foot putt which he duly knocked in for a five-under-par 66 at the TPC Boston.
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Adam Scott: “He’s remarkable because he’s a bit Teflon-coated, Rory”.
McIlroy claimed his first PGA Tour event of the season in spectacular fashion, coming from six behind to overhaul 54-hole leader Paul Casey.
With strong winds and rain forecast, PGA Tour officials moved the final round tee times forward to avoid any delays.
Chappell is the only player from the top 10 on the leaderboard who has yet to win on the PGA Tour. But even he admitted later: “If it was like this at home, I’d be reluctant to play”.
The Deutsche Bank Championship begins Friday morning and runs through Labor Day on Monday.
Knowing his lead was just 1 shot, McIlroy pulled out his 3-wood for his second shot from 255 yards out in the fairway, easily clearing the hazard that breaks up the fairway and green.
“Over the last few days he’s obviously been playing pretty well”.
In his case, it only took 69 holes. Starting the third round just three shots behind, Johnson stumbled to a 75 and was 11 shots back.
The final group -Casey (73), Smylie Kaufman (76) and Brian Harman (77) – were a combined 13 over for the round.
He had been ranked 130th for putting after a disappointing summer.
One week after working with a new putting coach and changing putters, results came quickly for McIlroy.
The 27-year-old suffered a bogey on the 17th, but he made up for it as he birdied the final hole, leaving him two shots clear in the field.
He caught Casey by the time he hit the back nine of the second FedEx Cup Playoff event on Monday at TPC Boston. I played some really solid golf and holed a lot of nice putts. “I’m really proud of myself the way I hung in”.
“It is one of the last things I would like on my golf CV – to win the FedEx Cup”, said the four-time Major victor.
McIlroy judged his four-iron approach shot nearly perfectly, the ball landing about six feet in front of the pin before rolling up and catching the lip of the hole.
It was McIlroy’s first victory since clearing Patrick Rodgers and Webb Simpson by seven shots at the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship.
He had an eagle putt at the last to force a play-off, but ended up parring the hole.
Rory McIlroy has set his sights on the $10 million prize – and on this form you wouldn’t bet against him.
“It was absolutely an wonderful round of golf in those conditions”, said Casey in tribute to McIlroy’s performance.
“Massive”, he said. “That is what makes Rory’s round so good”.
“It is fantastic to think how I started this tournament and what was going through my mind after three holes, and then all of a sudden standing here four days later with a trophy”, he said about the bogey and triple that featured in his opening three holes.
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Westwood commented: “I didn’t feel like I had anything to prove because I felt I’d done more than enough this year to deserve being picked for Hazeltine”.
