ATLANTA – Rory McIlroy rolled in the last fairway Sunday at the Tour Championship with less theater than the walk last year, when he was nearly swallowed up by the swarm of spectators who fell in line behind Tiger Woods, which closed its first victory since 2013.
When McIlroy played with Woods in the final combination, he sank back to the background and finished six strokes back in a tie for the seventh. McIlroy was back in the last combination this year and played alongside the number 1 in the world, Brooks Koepka. This time he finished head and shoulders above everyone.
McIlroy, who started a blow behind Koepka in the final round, won the tournament and the FedEx Cup for the second time in four years. He placed a four-under 66 pairing Adam Scott, the sixth-place finisher, for the low final score – for a 72-hole total of 18-under.
McIlroy, the 2016 champion, finished four strokes for Xander Schauffele (70) to receive the $ 15 million bonus. In the 13-year history of the play-offs, McIlroy is the second player, after Woods in 2007 and 2018, who won multiple FedEx Cup championships.
Five battles back on 13-under was Koepka, who closed with 72 to reach third place with Justin Thomas and confused the player of the year.
Will Koepka's three wins – including a World Golf Championships tournament and his fourth major, at the P.G.A. Championship – trump the three victories of McIlroy – including Sunday's season finale and the signature event of the tour, the Players Championship?
McIlroy, 30, came in fifth place in the FedEx Cup rankings during the week, meaning he was the first round at 5-under, five strokes behind Thomas and two behind Koepka, who was third in the play-off race.
He said on Wednesday that a win should bring him player of the year, given that it would be his 14th top-10 finish in 19 tour start.
"I feel that I have been very consistent," said McIlroy, who did not exactly show the arrogance of his argument in his stump speech to the tour members who will vote on the prize.
McIlroy checked Koepka's performance and added, "I would fully understand if people were going that way." finished in second place with Schauffele, who won the Tour Championship as a rookie in 2017. Schauffele, 25, threw the second to take a part of the lead briefly, but a bogey two-hole delayed his load later.
The tournament ran on the 490-yard seventh, a simple par-4. McIlroy hit a 334-meter ride, reached his approach to 23 feet, and lowered the birdie putt. Koepka, who carried a two-stroke lead to the tee box, lost his ball to set up a double bogey that effectively defeated his title hopes. He bounced back with a birdie on the eighth par-4, but lost ground on the back nine with three consecutive bogeys.
McIlroy said at the start of the week that his goal was to shoot 67 each round for a 12-under total. "No one can beat me if I do that," he said.
For purists for whom the score is par with par, McIlroy shot 13-under (66, 68, 67, 66) one shot better than his victorious total in 2016.
"So & # 39; n cool way to end what has been a great season for me," McIlroy said in a television interview on the 18th green after his last putt.
He added: & # 39; I feel I could have won more. But to win the FedEx Cup again, to persist throughout the year, to keep giving myself chances, even when I was kicked back and not to be refused, I am very proud of myself.
McIlroy entered the week with nearly $ 50 million in career earnings, so the $ 15 million payday will not change his life. But the amount of money on the line seemed to seep into McIlroy's consciousness on the 14th and 15th holes when he made consecutive bogeys to narrow his lead to two.
He straightened himself up with a nine-foot par at number 16, and then galloped with a 16-foot birdie at 17 and a six-footer for birdie at 18.
McIlroy and Koepka reached the final green, after which the theater began, with fans streaming up the fairway. Soon to sing “Rory! Rory! & # 39;
He walked off the green and rubbed his fingers over his fingers in a & # 39; show me the money & # 39; gesture.
McIlroy described the scene that came out last year at 18 as "clearly a great moment for golf and cool to belong, I assume." But he did not express ambiguity about what the Sunday finish meant to him.
"To play alongside Brooks and to win, win the FedEx Cup, yes, it's great," McIlroy said. "It's amazing how different things can be in a year."