Rory turns on the style to take it to the wire on final day
RORY McILROY forced his way into a sudden death play-off last night and the chance to win $11.88million with a stunning final round 64 on a marvellous final day to the PGA Tour season. McIlroy holed his second shot for an eagle at the 16th, then almost holed a bunker shot for an eagle at the last to catch American playing partner Ryan Moore and unheralded Kevin Chappell. With Dustin Johnson stumbling to a 73, it meant McIlroy put himself in the hunt for $1.88m for the Tour Championship and the $10m FedEx Cup bonus. Otherwise it would be Johnson who won the big jackpot and Rory’s earnings for the day would plummet by about $7.5 million. McIlroy burst into contention over the back nine after being outplayed by Moore over the front nine. The Northern Irishman started the back nine with
two straight birdies before exploding into life with that stroke of genius at the 16th. It left Moore, who had holed a series of gutsy putts, with an eight-footer to win but his effort lipped out. Chappell, playing behind, couldn’t birdie the last either. As for Englishman Paul Casey, he rounded off a tremendous FedEx Cup play-off series with a 64 to finish fourth in the tournament and sixth in the bonus pool. His rather lucrative reward for his month’s work was $3m. No wonder he plays nearly all his golf in America. Johnson wasn’t the only American Ryder Cup player competing here, of course. He just happened to be the only one who didn’t stink the joint out over the first three rounds. There were seven others and between them they were a combined total of 26 over par after 54 holes. In a 29-man field, no fewer than half the US team were occupying spots in the bottom nine. On Friday, American captain Davis Love had provoked hilarity when he described his team as ‘maybe the finest ever assembled’. Were they trying to make him look even more ludicrous? It’s safe to assume the 1981 US Ryder Cup team will hold on to their mantle as the best of all time. For the record, 11 of the 12 players were major champions who won an aggregate of 48 Grand Slam titles. This lot have five major winners and 11 blue-riband titles between them. At least the group raised the skipper’s spirits somewhat in the final round. True, there was nothing to play for and they were under no pressure, but they put some scores in the sixties on the board. Leading the way was Phil Mickelson, who hit just one out of 14 fairways on Thursday. Here he recovered from a triple bogey seven with a back nine played in just 29 shots for a 66. Mickelson then had a good whinge about the course set-up. ‘We’re not going to have rough like this at the Ryder Cup, so why have it here?’ he said. ‘You’d never see the European Tour set up a course differently the week before a match.’ Jordan Spieth shot 68 and he and playing partner Patrick Reed, who shot 70, were at least encouraged to get in the mood as chants of ‘USA! USA!’ followed them. As for the others, Brandt Snedeker shot 67, Jimmy Walker 68 and Matt Kuchar 69, with only JB Holmes (72) letting the side down. Owing to world No 1 Jason Day’s withdrawal on Friday, there were an odd number of players competing and Kevin Na was out first on his own. He is known as the slowest player in the game. On this day, he showed that he also has a sense of humour. Running between some shots, he birdied his last four holes for a round of 70 completed in less than two hours. ‘Maybe I should run around more often,’ he said. Yes Kevin, you should.