Mcilroy ties Horschel for lucrative lead
Rory McIlroy made up a two-shot deficit on Billy Horschel at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Saturday, setting up a $10 million showdown to end the PGA Tour season.
McIlroy overcame two three-putt bogeys by rolling in a 25-foot eagle putt on the 15th hole and closing with a tough chip from thick grass behind the 18th green that allowed him to save par for a 3-under-par 67.
Horschel led by as many as three shots during the third round at East Lake until he dropped two shots on the back nine and had to settle for a 69.
Theywere at 9-under 201. Andthey had plenty of company in what was shaping up as one of the most enticing finishes in the eight-year history of the FedExCup.
Jim Furyk, winless since he took the FedEx Cup four years ago, had a 67 andwas two shots behind. Hewould have to win to have any chance of joining Tiger Woods as the only multiple winners of golf’s biggest bonus.
Rickie Fowler (67), Justin Rose (66) and Jason Day (70) were three shots behind.
“It’s going to be an exciting day,” Horschel said after posting his 11th consecutive round in the 60s during the FedEx Cup playoffs.
McIlroy has been losing a little energy since major titles in the British Open and PGA Championship, with a World Golf Championship sandwiched in between. He knows he already has had the best year, and hewould like nothing better than to end with a win.
“I’ve come here with the ultimate goal of trying to cap it off and trying to put an exclamation point on it or the icing on the cake or whatever you want to call it,” McIlroy said. “Would it be poetic justice? I’d feel really good about it.”
McIlroy says he hasn’t been playing his best, certainly not at the same level as Hoylake or Valhalla, where hewon his twomajors. He still was good enough. He threeputted the par-3 second hole, missing a 3-foot putt. He had tomake a 4-footer to avoid his third fourputt in twoweeks.
All was forgotten when he drilled a 5-iron from 209 yards up the hill on the par-5 15th to the back collar of the green, just more than 25 feet from the flag.
He knocked in that one for a share of the lead, then finished with pars.
The top five seeds at the Tour Championship— Horschel is No. 2, McIlroy is No. 4— only have to win the Tour Championship to take the FedEx Cup. This is the first time that two top-five seeds are in the final group of the final tournament of the year. LPGA Tour: South Korean teenager Hyo-Joo Kim emerged from a third round riddled with errors by contenders to lead the Evian Championship at Evian-les-bains, France.
Kim had four bogeys on the front nine before recovering for a 1-over 72. That she regained the lead was a legacy of her 61 on Thursday, the lowest score inmajor history, and her rivals falling back.
Karrie Webb mixed four birdies with three bogeys in a 1-under 70, leaving the 39-year-old one shot behind Kim and with a great chance of an eighth career major. European Tour: Romain Wattel of France shot his third consecutive round in the 60s to take the KLM Open lead at 14-under as Paul Casey narrowly missed the first-ever 59 on the European Tour in Vandvoort, Netherlands.