Jhonattan Vegas defends title at RBC Canadian Open

ORLANDO – Rory McIlroy was in the Bay Hill clubhouse when he saw a few people asked to remove their hats. If it wasn’t obvious before, he knew then that he was back at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. RELATED: Leaderboard | Featured Groups, tee times “There’s so many nice little traditions here,â€� McIlroy said after going 7 under for his final 12 holes and signing for an opening-round 66 to take the early lead. “… Still having to take your hat off when you walk into the clubhouse, that’s something that I really like.â€� Two years ago, McIlroy came to Bay Hill slightly overdue for a win. He shot a final-round 64, holing the famous, left-to-right slider on 18, and donned the winner’s red cardigan. Starting with that victory, McIlroy has finished in the top 10 in just under 70% of his starts (27/39), including a PGA TOUR-leading 14 top-10s last season and five in five starts so far this season. His round Thursday featured a bogey on his second hole, the par-4 11th, but he called it a good bogey – he made a putt from just under eight feet. It was his only wobble. At the par-4 fourth hole, he hit a 3-iron from the fairway bunker 254 yards onto the green, his ball stopping just under 24 feet from the hole. He made the eagle putt. “Harry (Diamond, his caddie) said that’s the best shot I’ve hit all year, so, you know, high praise from him,â€� McIlroy said of his 3-iron shot, which came out perfectly and rolled up to pin high. He said he feels more comfortable at Bay Hill than Club de Golf Chapultepec, where he led after the opening round of the WGC-Mexico Championship only to wind up in fifth place. The style of golf, the greens – it’s all familiar here. And to think he didn’t put Bay Hill on his schedule early in his career. What was it like to don the red cardigan two years ago? “It was special. It was warm. Alpaca isn’t as comfortable as you think,â€� McIlroy said. “But it was nice. I mean, for me at that point just to, just to win a tournament again, it was 520-whatever days, and so I think just the, I don’t know, the joy in winning again was really, really special. “You could have given me a neon cardigan and I would have worn it all the way home.â€�

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Rory McIlroy finished the year as Europe’s top-ranked golfer for the fourth time – and first since 2015 – despite Jon Rahm winning the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday. The Spaniard’s two-shot victory over England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Sweden’s Alex Noren was his third in six years at Jumeirah Golf Estates. But McIlroy finished the season top of the DP World rankings after Matt Fitzpatrick, his only rival for the Harry Vardon Trophy, blew up around the turn. The U.S. Open champion needed to win and McIlroy to not finish runner-up, or to finish second and the Northern Irishman to be outside the top seven. But neither of those scenarios transpired as Fitzpatrick, three off the lead when playing the eighth, double-bogeyed and then dropped another shot at the 10th to end his chances. McIlroy did not need any of the fireworks of the previous day, when he powered himself into contention with a 65, and while he could have tied Rahm on 20 under had he eagled the last he could only manage par for a 68 that included six birdies and four bogeys to finish fourth. “It means a lot. It’s been seven years since I’ve last done it. I’ve won three FedExCups since I last won,” McIlroy, who lifted his third PGA TOUR FedExCup in August, told Sky Sports television. “It would have been nice to get one win in there at the end of the year but Jon played an incredible tournament and fully deserved it.” Rahm, who became the first player to win the tournament three times, began the final day with a one-shot lead and opened with two successive birdies to double his advantage. Fitzpatrick’s 28-foot birdie at the third got him to 15 under and within two but things started to unravel with a bogey at the short sixth and even though he immediately clawed back that dropped shot, the calamitous eighth ultimately did for his hopes. His drive landed in a deep rut in a waste area, his out shot failed to clear the rough and having flown the green and duffed his chip he two-putted from the fringe for a six. That put him five behind and after missing the fairway at the 10th he dropped another shot and his challenge was over as he finished 13 under, seven adrift. The only trouble McIlroy, who had three birdies and a bogey in his first four holes, had at the eighth came from the flagstick which kept out his 56ft birdie effort. He three-putted the ninth green but was not the only one as Hatton did the same for his only bogey in a round of 66.

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