McIlroy wins Wells Fargo Championship
Rory McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday, but he had to hold off former OU star Abraham Ancer and former OSU standout Viktor Hovland to do it,
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy found his comfort zone at Quail Hollow and left with a trophy he badly needed.
McIlroy closed with a 3-under 68 and made it tough on himself at the end Sunday, driving into the hazard left of the 18th fairway and needing two putts from 45 feet for a one-shot victory in the Wells Fargo Championship.
What mattered was ending 18 months since his last victory in the HSBC Champions in Shanghai, along with finding a strong semblance of his game as he prepares to return to Kiawah Island for the PGA Championship.
“It's never easy,” McIlroy said. “It felt like a long time.”
It showed. McIlroy seemed to be on the verge of choking up at winning on Mother's Day, thinking of his mother, Rosie, and wife Erica. She was at Quail Hollow with their daughter, Poppy, and McIlroy doted on them before signing his card.
McIlroy seized control with two splendid bunker shots, getting up-anddown for birdie on the reachable par-4 14th and the par-5 15th, and then holding on at the end.
Abraham Ancer ran off three straight birdies and nearly closed with a fourth one, posting a 66 for a runner-up finish, the fourth of his career as the Mexican seeks his first PGA Tour title.
McIlroy finished at 10-under 274 for his 19th career victory, and his third at Quail Hollow.
“This is one of my favorite places in the world,” said McIlroy, who picked up his first PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow in 2010. “The break the drought and win here, it's awesome.”
It was a tough finish for Keith Mitchell, who started the final round with a two-shot lead and quickly stretched it to three shots with a 6-iron out of a fairway bunker into a stiffening breeze to 12 feet for birdie.
But his short game let him down all day, leading to bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes that cost him the lead, and on the 14th hole and 15th holes when he had to settle for pars after being in position for birdies.
Mitchell, whose only victory was the Honda Classic just over two years ago, needed to finish alone in second to qualify for the PGA Championship through the money list. But he dropped a shot on the 17th and closed with a 72 to tie for third with Viktor Hovland, who had a 67.
Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland had a share of the lead early on the back nine until he went through a bad patch of back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 12 and 13, and settling for pars on the next two scoring holes. He shot 71 and finished fifth.
Bryson DeChambeau managed a tie for ninth following a 68-68 weekend that began with him flying home to Dallas thinking he had missed the cut.
McIlroy, along with going 18 months without a win, slipped to No. 15 in the world, his lowest position in more than a decade. He brought on swing coach Pete Cowen for an extra set of eyes. They worked hard last week in Florida as McIlroy tried to get back to understanding what he does so well with the golf swing.
Winning is not an instant cure. He hit only three fairways on Sunday, and the last one nearly got him in trouble. His ball landed on the hill left of the winding creek, just short of the water, in a deep hole of shaggy grass. He wisely chose to take a penalty drop instead of gouging it out, and he sent an 8-iron towering toward the green, landing safely in the fat of the putting surface.
That brought out of the loudest cheers of a day filled with them. The Wells Fargo Championship had more energy than any tournament since golf returned from the pandemic.
Just what McIlroy needed. He thought he would enjoy some quiet of no spectators. It didn't take long for him to realize he missed the energy. “To bring out the best in myself, I needed this,” he said.
And when it was over, he turned and heaved his golf ball toward thousands of fans.
LPGA Tour
PATTAYA, Thailand – Ariya Jutanugarn shot a 9-under-par 63 in the final round to win the LPGA Thailand by one stroke and become the first home winner of the tournament in 14 years.
Jutanugarn's overall total of 22 under 266 just edged out her fellow Thai Atthaya Thitikul, 18, who missed a fourfoot birdie putt at the last to force a playoff. Jutanugarn's unblemished round included nine birdies and went some way to making up for her collapse in 2013 when she blew a two-shot lead on the 18th hole with a triple bogey that handed victory to South Korea's Inbee Park.
Thitikul, who held the tournament lead from the sixth hole until she made a bogey on the 17th, had to be content with second place, her best finish on the LPGA Tour.
PGA Tour Champions
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alex Cejka won the Regions Tradition in only his third PGA Tour Champions start, beating defending champion Steve Stricker with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff.
A childhood refugee from communist Czechlosovokia (now the Czech Republic), the 50-year-old Cejka made a 14-foot birdie putt on No. 18 and Stricker missed a 9-footer with a chance to extend the playoff at Greystone Golf & Country Club.
Cejka had turned a three-stroke deficit into a two-shot lead over the final nine holes for a 5-under 67. His winning putt was from a similar spot to the one Stricker made for birdie in regulation to force the playoff.
Stricker, who won the last time the event was held in 2019, closed with a 68 to match Cejka at 18-under 270.
European Tour
TENERIFE, Spain – Garrick Higgo matched Tiger Woods' record to become joint quickest to three tournament wins since 1990 with victory at the Canary Islands Championship.
The 21-year-old South African had a hole-in-one on his way to a 7-under 64 that secured him his third European Tour title – and second in three weeks.
He aced the par-3 seventh hole and and made seven birdies to finish at 27 under for the tournament in Tenerife, matching Woods for the fewest number of events needed to claim three European Tour or PGA Tour wins since 1990.