It doesn’t get any better than this — doesn’t get any better than the head-to-head battle down the stretch at East Lake on a steamy Atlanta Sunday that saw Rory McIlroy chase down Scottie Scheffler to win the 2022 FedEx Cup.
This season finale, this Tour Championship was packed with pressure, tension, drama and clutch play and the world’s No. 3 came from behind to edge the world’s No. 1 with everything on the line.
The day started exactly the way Scheffler hoped it would when he finished off his third round with birdies on four of his final six holes to shoot 66 and put six shots between him, Xander Schauffele and Rory. McIlroy’s third round 63 got him into that coveted spot in the final pairing with Scheffler.
But then again, in big arenas, six shots can vanish into thin air (isn’t that right, Greg Norman?).
Scottie’s dream morning start turned into an afternoon struggle. Three bogeys over the first nine holes and four birdies for McIlroy made it game-on at the turn.
“I didn’t really give myself much of a chance teeing off today (for the final 18),” McIlroy said. “I thought six behind, I thought it was going to be really tough to make up. But my good play and Scottie’s not-so-great play, and it was a ballgame going into the back nine.”
With a cool $18 million on the line, things got even more tense over those final nine holes. There was a wild-card in the action. Up ahead of Scheffler and McIlroy, Sungjae Im was making his presence felt. He was in the thick of it until he made double-bogey at the 14th. He fought back with birdies at 15 and 17 but will look back and know he botched his chances when he couldn’t birdie 18. He posted 20-under (final round 66), just to let the final pair know he was there.
The entire tournament turned on two holes — the frightening, water-covered 15th and the par four 16th. It was at 15 where McIlroy made the putt he needed in Scotland. He ran home a 31-footer to tie Scheffler at 21-under. Then at the 16th, both were in trouble. Scheffler’s approach from the left rough found the greenside bunker short. Rory, from 130 out, saw his second fly way over the green, leaving him in problem-city. Scheffler’s bunker shot left him just inside of nine feet. It was then that McIlroy got the break he needed. His pitch came out hot and was destined to stop somewhere over the green. But his ball smacked the flagstick squarely and left him just inside eight feet for par. Scheffler missed, Rory made it — Mongolian Reversal.
Rory had the lead and the par five 18th to go. Both hit pure drives but hit seconds that were pure pressure misses. Sheffler couldn’t make birdie from a bunker 30 yards short of the hole and Rory hooked his second short of the spectator stands. As fate would have it — two pars and PGA Tour history for McIlroy as he became the first three-time FedEx Cup winner. Rory’s 66 was seven better than Scheffler’s closing 73.
“What a week, what a day. Firstly, there’s one thing I want to say. I feel like Scottie deserves at least half of this today. He has had an unbelievable season. I feel sort of bad that I pipped him to the post, but he’s a hell of a competitor. He’s an even better guy,” said McIlroy, whose tournament started on Thursday with his opening drive sailing out-of-bounds left and that led to a triple-bogey seven.
“It was an honor and a privilege to battle with him today,” McIlroy went on. “And I’m sure we’ll have many more. I told him we’re one-all in Georgia today: He got the Masters; I got this.”
It was Rory’s third time in the final pairing over the past five years. Yeah,” Rory reminded, ” you know, I’ve been in the final group here three of the last five years, starting with Tiger in 2018 and that incredible scene, and then to get the better of Brooks in ’19 was awesome. And then another final group here — I didn’t really give myself much of a chance teeing off today. I thought six behind, I thought it was going to be really tough to make up. But my good play and Scottie’s not-so-great play, and it was a ballgame going into the back nine.”
Scottie didn’t have his best stuff. He did in the morning, but final rounds are often a different story.
“A tip of the cap to Rory. He played a really good round of golf. A really solid four days here. I don’t know exactly what he started the week off, but I’m sure he was pretty close to winning the tournament individually, as well. He played a great round of golf today and played good enough to win.”
McIlroy did, in fact, shoot the low 72-hole score. Without the stagger start, he was 17-under, Im was 16. Scheffler would have finished 10-under.
It was the prefect end to a testy year for McIlroy. Second at The Masters and the near-miss at the Open Championship. Add the fact that he’s been the face and spokesman for the PGA Tour with the LIV situation.
And all of that came out when Rory summed up his week, his season:
“It means an awful lot. I believe in the game of golf. I believe in this Tour in particular. I believe in the players on this Tour. It’s the greatest place in the world to play golf, bar none, and I’ve played all over the world. This is an incredibly proud moment for me, but it should also be an incredibly proud moment for the PGA Tour.
“They’ve had some hard times this year, but we’re getting through it. That was a spectacle out there today, two of the best players in the world going head-to-head for the biggest prize on the PGA Tour, and I hope everyone at home enjoyed that.”
8 Comments
Ed@Floridaexecutiverealty.com
As I have stated before, this is a perfect example of why they play 72 holes for a true golf tournament. Congratulations to Rory for his amazing comeback and for having the low gross score.
Tom Edrington
Ed, hopefully that will sink in on Baxter and Forky, who think 54 holes and LIV is a great thing…..if the majors were 54 holes, Norman would have won the career grand slam….lol
petertelfer
exciting finish.
strange that golf rewards best players with an advantage .
scotty played well, but would have been 5th with a level playing field.
handicapping in horse racing penalises the best horse by adding weight.
LIV will not be exciting, but why does PGA feel threatened?
Tom Edrington
It’s basically a threat when a foreign entity, bankrolled by a murder-condoning regime, throws massive amounts of money to create a rival tour with no business plan and tries to take away some of your biggest names….then said entity turns around and sues you for anti-trust violations…..the PGA Tour did not stop anyone from leaving….the anti-trust lawsuit will go the way of the previous legal action that tried to get three defectors back into the FedEx Cup playoffs.
baxter cepeda
Omg it ends when it ends.
This is like saying a college basketball game doesn’t count because it’s not as long as an nba game (which are probably too long) because the other team could have had more time to come back win.
Competitions are played with rules, rules which can vary greatly.
A soccer game need not be 90 minutes; much less extra time.
An nfl game Need not be 4 quarters of 60 total minutes.
The nhl need not be 3 random periods of 20 minutes.
And golf definitely need not be only 72 holes over 4 days. One of my idols
Steve strickers win Sunday was a legitimate win over 54 holes.
But today isn’t about the number of holes.
Today is about Rory proving to be Monahans white knight yet again saving the day again for the mess ex cup.
Btw Im not calling Rory Monahans brown noser (caddy shack) anymore —not because it’s super rude and a nasty visual— but because Rory has been now promoted ahead of Monahan at the pga tour headquarters.
Today is about the embarrassment of losing when you are the number 1 player in the world and cannot hold an advantage.
Rory apologized to Scottie, mainly because it’s embarrassing what happened.
Norman may have built a 6 shot lead on Faldo at the masters before losing it. But at least he didn’t start with a 2 shot lead.
What I find ridiculous is hearing my boy Damon hack compare this drama to a major. Give me an effing break. That is the most hacker golf comment in a while.
Saturday and Sunday I was at Puakea on Kauai. The busy restaurant had 4 TVs and they weren’t even putting the coverage until I asked. And when it was one no one seemed to care.
As the groups of locals drank beers after their round, the coverage on tv caused some small talk about LIv and controversy. But soon after their attention again went away from the fed ex cup finale. And Sunday was basically no different.
Even with Rory constantly buying the fed ex cup finales (as they are) time, it’s still evident even regular golfers are more interested in their beer and their post round stories than the stories being created in the fed ex cup playoff and finale.
And imo it should NOT be that way.
Golf channel will unfortunately spend today and probably the next few weeks justifying the mess ex cup thanks once again to Tigers deputy commissioner.
It it’s still an issue.
Scottie didn’t deserve the fed ex cup. But he also didn’t deserve ending the season losing despite a head start.
We heard a lot of players —practically every player —express their distaste in the mess ex cup.
Rory winning is great for the pga tour. But as usual it’s the worst thing ever for this organization finally getting this right.
Rory or not, it is still the worst finale in sports. The least representative of its usual competition.
Golf can be competed in various ways, but at the highest level should always starts even Steven.
But of course this continued nonsense is to be expected from the tour which will now officially call its most popular players it’s “top players”.
What a mess!
Tom Edrington
Baxter, thanks for another Enclopedic post!
JimmyD5cc
Rory is hard not to like, and he lit up the golf course yesterday. His never say die attitude paid off for him big time!
Tom Edrington
Rory has become the face and voice of the PGA Tour and Tiger has given his blessing