Golfer McIlroy wins Tour Championship and FedEx Cup
- by Belinda Burton
- in Sport
- — Sep 28, 2016
The Englishman was fascinated by the prospect of going down in history as the first golfer in the modern era to compete and win in the biggest sporting spectacle in the world.
Rory McIlroy celebrates with the FedEx Cup Trophy and the Tour Championship Trophy after the final playoff round of the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
McIlroy then squandered a golden chance to win it at the first extra hole when he missed a six-footer.
The world No 3 and Moore both completed the next two in regulation, before McIlroy holed a 15-footer at the fourth extra hole for the birdie needed to claim a second PGA Tour title of the season and leapfrog Dustin Johnson at the top of the FedExCup standings. Moore and McIlroy parred the next two holes (the 18th and 15th holes) before moving onto the par-4 16th, which McIlroy owned once more.
Johnson, who never recovered from a tough start on the front nine with some errant tee shots and closed with a 73, was out of it at this point. He realized a Moore victory would bring him the FedEx Cup, and that would have been fine.
McIlroy had control of this all along. He looked to put the flawless finish onto his big day when he hit over the water to 6 feet for an eagle putt on the par-5 18th in the first playoff hole. In my showreel, that birdie which Justin Rose drilled in on the 72nd hole in Rio to edge out Henrik Stenson for the gold was the highlight of the year.
With the crowd waiting anxiously for him to putt, McIlroy reared his putter and sunk his birdie to a decibel-shattering roar from the crowd, forgetting they were just jeering the soon-to-be Ryder Cup competitor a couple of holes earlier. However, the putt that would have won it all lipped out, so McIlroy and Moore continued the playoff.
The win sets McIlroy up perfectly for Hazeltine and he reckoned beating the U.S. at home this week will be "all the sweeter" because the Americans are so desperate to win back the Ryder Cup.
The TOUR Championship runs through Sunday.
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South Korean Kim Si-Woo was among three finalists named for the tour's Rookie of the Year award, joined by Argentina's Emiliano Grillo and American Smylie Kaufman. US captain Davis Love III has one more wild-card selection to make after the Tour Championship.
Meanwhile, Alexander Levy of France beat England's Ross Fisher on the second playoff hole to win the Porsche European Open at Bad Griesbach. From here on in it was an absolute nail-biter, with nothing to separate Moore and McIlroy through the second and third. Davis Love III was to announce his decision during halftime of the Sunday night National Football League game.
Murray lost in a three-man playoff in August in the Web.com Tour event in Wichita, Kansas.
But then having been a member on three straight winning European sides McIlroy is now mature enough to realise that defeat could be as close as a few days away. Bubba Watson was among those to match McIlroy's 66, the lowest of the day, to catapult himself into a share of 14th. Chappell's closing rounds in those runner-up finishes were 67, 69, 69 and 66.
VICTORIA, British Columbia (AP) Colin Montgomerie won the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship, outlasting Scott McCarron with a birdie on the third hole of a playoff.
Five dropped shots in two holes saw Scott plummet to 3-over, effectively ending his hopes of FedEx Cup glory.
The American led the tournament by as much as four shots during the third round before Chappell reeled him in.
The PGA Tour will get lucky once again if Johnson is as good for the season's final 18 holes as he's been all year.
At Medinah I was 23 and I was No. 1 in the world but I still didn't feel I was a veteran or someone who could raise their hand and say something in the team room.
