Winner’s Bag: Jon Rahm, BMW 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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In the final round of the 2018 Valspar Championship, Paul Casey birdies seven of his first 13 holes, then pars in for a 65 and a one-shot win over Patrick Reed (68) and Tiger Woods (70). Welcome to the Monday Finish, where amid great Tiger fervor, Casey won for the second time on the PGA TOUR and the first since the 2009 Houston Open, moving from 39th to eighth in the FedExCup. Here are some further thoughts on the Valspar: FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1- If you want to get more out of your game, sometimes it helps to try less. Casey got into contention a lot last year only to struggle on Sundays. At the TOUR Championship, he was in the mix to win before shooting a final-round 73 to finish fifth. Eventually he realized he was grinding so hard, especially on the greens, that his perfectionism was getting in the way. He was even shutting and de-lofting the putter face. This year, Casey has tried to open the putter face while not getting himself so worked up on the greens. (Jordan Spieth would call it free-rollin’.) It certainly worked at the Valspar. Casey took just 21 putts Sunday, the lowest single-round total of his PGA TOUR career, and was +1.660 in strokes gained: putting on the day. “The way I strike the golf ball … I don’t stress about technique, I never have,â€� Casey said. “I figure everything out and I pick the target and hit it. If it’s a good shot, great. If it’s a bad one and went slightly off line, maybe I make a small adjustment and try not to do the same with the next one. I’ve never done with that the putting. I’ve always been super critical and try to have a great stroke. I’m approaching it the same way I approach the rest of the game. It’s carefree. “If it’s not, I’m not beating myself up,â€� he added. “I’m now striking the ball much better. My speed is infinitely better and I’m not shutting the putter face. And starting on line I can now read putts again. It’s pretty simple, but for so long I just couldn’t see it and trying to be perfect and trying to be better and the trying wasn’t getting anywhere. Getting in my own way.â€� 2- Birdies get the glamour, but pars save the day. Casey sizzled with the seven birdies and one bogey (at the difficult par-4 third hole), but after signing his card and beginning the long wait in the clubhouse, he was most delighted with his par saves at 16, 17 and 18. He missed all three greens in regulation, but chipped up and made knee-knocking par putts of 3 feet, 5 inches; 2 feet, 4 inches; and 5 feet, 2 inches. “The reason I’m happy, the way I cleaned up,â€� Casey said. “I putted brilliantly, the thing that has been holding me back for a couple seasons. Really good to hole the putts at 16, 17 and 18. It’s been a long time since I’ve holed three pressure putts like that in a row. I’m ecstatic about it.â€� 3- Tiger Woods (70) at least enjoyed some smaller victories. He moved to 43rd in the FedExCup and posted four straight sub-par rounds for the first time since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2013. He also registered his 30th runner-up and 187th top-10 finish in 332 TOUR starts, and this week he heads to the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, which he’s won eight times. (For more on his comeback and his performance at the Valspar, click here.) 4- Woods wasn’t the only player enjoying a big comeback at the Valspar. Jim Furyk, the 2010 Valspar champion, was playing on a sponsor invitation and shot a final-round 66 to finish solo seventh. It was the first top-10 finish for the 17-time TOUR winner since he finished T6 at The RSM Classic in 2016. At 47, Furyk is trying to bounce back from a disappointing 2017 even as he makes preparations to captain the U.S. Ryder Cup Team in Paris in the fall. 5- Sergio Garcia’s eight birdies Sunday was a tournament best for a single round, but he was left to lament what might have been were it not for his two bogeys, everything adding up to a 65 that left him in solo fourth. Garcia also didn’t capitalize on his first three rounds (70-72-69). “Unfortunately, I left myself too much to do today,â€� he said. “Played really, really nicely. I played nicely all week. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get anything out of my rounds the first three days and today could have been a really, really special round. You know, I probably wasted at least three shots on the front nine with a three-putt and a couple short misses for birdies.â€� FIVE INSIGHTS 1- Casey scrambled exceptionally well, getting up and down 82.14 percent of the time, third best in the field. He was also +.865 in strokes gained: putting (15th), and near the top in driving distance (301.6 yards, 17th) and proximity to the hole (35’ 10’’ for T22). His worst stat was driving accuracy (46.15 percent, T68). 2- Perhaps the winner’s nerve on the greens (just 21 putts in the final round) was helped by the fact that he hit nine of 13 fairways, by far his best of the week. Casey, 40, had hit just six, five and four fairways over the first three rounds, respectively. 3- Woods was attempting to match fellow 40-something Phil Mickelson’s victory at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship the week before. In no particular order, Woods and Mickelson have won in back-to-back weeks on TOUR 10 times, most recently at the 2013 Farmers Insurance Open (Woods) and Waste Management Phoenix Open (Mickelson). 4- Patrick Reed (68) logged a lot of driving range time at the WGC-Mexico Championship, and it paid off at the Valspar. He matched Casey at 10-under before making bogey at the last. Reed’s sixth TOUR win, and first since THE NORTHERN TRUST in 2016, will have to wait. So, too, will atonement for the 2015 Valspar, when Reed and Sean O’Hair lost a playoff to Jordan Spieth. 5- Sam Burns came into the Valspar with 122 non-member FedExCup points, needing no worse than a two-way tie for third to earn the 147 points that would equal No. 150 on last year’s list (Rick Lamb, 269 points). Alas, Burns finished T12 and remains 88 points of Special Temporary Membership. He’ll play on a sponsor invitation at this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. TOP VIDEOS

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Spieth wins Open for 1st time after wild back 9

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