Monday Finish: Rory McIlroy ends on high note at TOUR Championship

Rory McIlroy fires a 4-under 66 on a marathon Sunday to cruise to a four-shot victory at the TOUR Championship, locking down his second FedExCup title. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where McIlroy not only completed his comeback from five behind top-seeded Justin Thomas at the start of the week (in the new Starting Strokes format), he shot the best score over the four days at East Lake and wound up winning by four over Xander Schauffele (70).   FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Player of the Year just got more interesting. There was little question at the end of last season that Brooks Koepka was Player of the Year. This time around, though, McIlroy at least stirred the pot a little with his victory at East Lake, where he took control with a three-shot swing at the seventh hole. (McIlroy birdied and Koepka drove into the trees and double-bogeyed.)  “His game is in great form right now,� Koepka said afterward. “It’s really impressive to watch.� Because of the way players are sent out during the FedExCup Playoffs, McIlroy and Koepka played together eight times over the last five weeks on TOUR. McIlroy shot the lower round four times, Koepka three, and they tied once. Who will be Player of the Year?  Koepka seems to have the inside track. His three wins included a major (PGA Championship), the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational, and THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES. And he contended in every major, finishing no worse than tied fourth in any of them.  McIlroy, though, also had three wins (THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open and FedExCup). What’s more, his 14 top-10s (in 19 starts) were the most on TOUR, and he was No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Total (+2.55), the margin by which he beat the field average each day. “The Holy Grail is three,� he said, because only Tiger Woods has reached that exalted number. For more on the comparison between Koepka and McIlroy this season, click here. 2. McIlroy’s perseverance paid off. Success gets in the way. If you put your head down and keep doing the work (despite whatever obstacles might come your way), often you achieve your objectives in the long run. McIlroy came to East Lake with two wins (THE PLAYERS Championship, RBC Canadian Open) but 11 other top-10s in which he did not win. Among those was his deflating experience at the World Golf Championships – FedEx St. Jude Invitational, where he went into the final round with a one-shot lead over Brooks Koepka but had his doors blown off, 71 to 65. Although he could have sulked, McIlroy did not; instead, he vowed to be more like Koepka next time. Indeed, the tables turned at the TOUR Championship, with Koepka the one taking a one-shot lead into the final round, and McIlroy blowing his doors off, 66 to 72. “I think some of the work that I’ve put in on the mental side of the game, … I think you’re starting to see the fruition of that,� McIlroy said. For more on arguably McIlroy’s greatest season, click here.       3. The new format was a home run. With the new Starting Strokes format, top-seeded Justin Thomas took a two-stroke lead into the tournament, and joked that he had never slept on a Wednesday lead. How would it go? In retrospect, quite well. With Shauffele carding an opening 64, Koepka a 67 and Thomas an even-par 70, you suddenly had three tied at the top at 10 under. McIlroy, who shot an opening-round 66, was just a shot off their lead. This was anything but a runaway victory for Thomas. We now know that a two-stroke lead, or even a five-stroke lead, can mean very little. (McIlroy, who started five behind Thomas, would beat the top seed by 10 over 72 holes.) The action was much easier to follow, with one leaderboard and one trophy (the FedExCup), and prominently featured the two players who had had the best season in McIlroy and Koepka. Change is good.  4. Timing was everything. True, McIlroy had played in the TOUR Championship’s final group with Tiger Woods the previous year, and played poorly. True, McIlroy had lost to Koepka at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational just four weeks earlier. He wanted to atone for both disappointments.   Whether or not that desire for retribution played into it, McIlroy found his peak form at one of the most important tournaments of the year while the others just didn’t. “Just didn’t put the ball in play,� said an uncharacteristically wild Koepka. “I hit it horrible,� said Schauffele. “I scrambled. I hung in there.� “Just really had a couple freakish, bizarre, stupid mistakes this week,� said Thomas. Speaking of odd mistakes, Paul Casey (72, solo fifth, nine back) and his caddie had one when Casey accidentally hit the wrong club. You don’t see that every day. In the end, McIlroy let them all self-destruct while hitting it better than anyone from tee to green. 5. We can’t wait for next season. Koepka has dominated for much of the past two years, but McIlroy is climbing back into peak form and offering glimpses of the dominant player he was circa 2014. Each player is full of praise for the other, and they keep facing off in high-pressure situations.  Is this a rivalry? With others – Thomas, Schauffele, Casey, Woods, Dustin Johnson, 2018 FedExCup champion Justin Rose – unlikely to let them have the stage to themselves, the game is must-see TV.   FIVE INSIGHTS 1. McIlroy led the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (+5.314), SG: Tee to Green (+10.968), and Driving Distance (314.6 yards average). He also was the only player in the field to post four rounds in the 60s, and joined Koepka as a three-time winner this season (TOUR Championship, RBC Canadian Open, THE PLAYERS Championship).  2. With his second TOUR Championship victory, McIlroy has finished inside the top 10 in five of six starts at East Lake (1st/2019, 1st/2016, T2/2014, T7/2018, T10/2012). He also becomes the first to win THE PLAYERS and the TOUR Championship in the same season, and his final-round 66 looks even better considering only eight of 30 players broke par in the final round.  3. Xander Schauffele, who played a total of 31 holes Sunday (13 in round three), recorded the first ace of his PGA TOUR career at the ninth hole in round three. With the hole playing 240 yards, it was also the longest ace of the season on TOUR. (Chez Reavie became the first player to make a hole-in-one at the ninth in the second round, and said it was the 21st of his life.)  4. World No. 1 Brooks Koepka (72, T3) shot his first over-par score in his last 16 rounds on TOUR. Like Schauffele, Koepka played 31 holes on Sunday and struggled with his ball-striking. He hit just five of 14 fairways in the final round, and just 28 of 56 overall (T24). 5. Top-seeded Justin Thomas (68, T3) finished five back and faulted his double-bogey in the first round and triple-bogey in the third, both after short-iron approach shots. He ranked first in Strokes Gained: Around the Green (+3.736) and second to McIlroy in SG: Off the Tee (+3.586).

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