Fleetwood And Phipps Deny McIlroys The Dunhill Team Victory

This one was a heartbreaker for team McIlroy — young Rory and father Gerry.

There they were, playing their Irish behinds off down the stretch on The Old Course on Sunday, Rory desperately wanted to win the team title at the Dunhill Links for his dad.

What son wouldn’t?  They were playing in the event as a present for Gerry’s 60th birthday.  Rory wanted some icing on the cake — a win.

They started the final day a shot behind Tommy Fleetwood and billionaire partner Ogden Phipps II.  More on Phipps later.

Suffice to say that Fleetwood carried his money-bags partner.  Tommy came up with a closing 64 that got the team to a whopping 39-under par, 10 of that over the final 18 — Ogden helped out on two holes.

Meanwhile, the McIlroys had their work cut out for them.  They started the final 18 a shot behind and needed a rally down the stretch.  They started off the 10th hole — Rory was on-and-off over that nine with a double-bogey at 16.  No worries, Gerry had them covered on that hole.  Where he didn’t cover the team was at the famous Road Hole where both made bogey — team bogey — and that would come back to haunt them.

Rory put his foot on the pedal after the turn, he finished with six straight birdies to tie the Fleetwood-Phipps team at 39-under.  There was a chance for the outright win at the driveable ninth, where both Rory and Gerry were just short of the green.  Rory pitched to three feet then Gerry pulled his putter. He gave it a good wack from 10 yards off the green and his ball was on a bee-line to the hole.  Alas, it clipped something that altered its course by just a hair — just enough to miss the hole.  It was knocked off line by Rory’s marker.  The victory eagle was not to be and two teams finished at 39-under.

It was afterward when Rory got the bad news.  In event of a tie, the pro’s score is the tiebreaker and it was Fleetwood’s 64 to Rory’s 67.

Rory wasn’t thrilled to learn about the tiebreaker process.

“We played as good as we could,” Rory said. “We shot 61, 62, 61 over the last three days. My dad played great. I did what I could for the team. I didn’t have my best this week. I could have maybe found a few extra shots in there.  We had a great time. Going into today all we were wanting to do was to try and win the team event, and we gave it a really good run.

“We didn’t actually know that it was the lowest pro’s score, which I think is a little unfair – it should be the lowest team score and we would have won.”

Rory recounted how well his father played.  “He’s had four or five net eagles this week, and he’s only been getting three shots,” Rory pointed out proudly.   “He shot 3-under gross at Kingsbarns on Friday. He must have shot two or three under on his own ball on the back nine yesterday and it was the same today. He’s had a great time, as we both have.”

Meanwhile, Phipps and Fleetwood claimed the winner’s hardware.

For the record, Phipps is the great-grandson of Harry Phipps.  Harry Phipps was Andrew Carnegie’s right-hand man and accountant for Carnegie.  When Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan back in 1901, Phipps (the company second-largest shareholder) made a cool $50 million.  Keep in mind, there were no federal income taxes back then or any other sort of taxes.  Phipps started the Bessemer Trust to manage all that money and today the Phipps family is one of the wealthiest in the United States — worth a cool $6.6 billion according to Forbes.

So yeah, Tommy and his well-heeled partner got the unlikely nod over the McIlroys — Fleetwood Phipps shot 62, Rory and dad shot 61.  And as Rory thought — it should have been the team score that broke the tie.

Will there be a return for the McIlroys next year?

“I’m not sure,” Rory said. “Look, if he wants to, then I will. But I don’t have any real ambitions to play again. I’m happy enough with what we’ve done.”

Happiest of everyone was European tour rookie Victor Perez from France.  He won for the first time, outdueling England’s Matthew Southgate.  Southgate lost it when he missed a three-footer for par at the 14th then three-putted the Road Hole for another bogey.  Perez finished 22-under, Southgate 21.

Final Dunhill Links Results: