TERRIFIC VICTORY AT VALHALLA
RORY McILROY ANSWERS THE CALL
TO WIN ANOTHER MAJOR
TO WIN ANOTHER MAJOR
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- FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM
- FROM THE US PGA TOUR WEBSITE
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Rory McIlroy leads the PGA TOUR in back-nine scoring average. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky -- As Rory McIlroy stood on a muddy hill behind the
18th green at Valhalla Golf Club and awaited another major trophy
presentation, the bottoms of his white pants filthy from slugging it out
with some of the biggest names in golf, a lone voice rose from the
crowd and out of the darkness.
“Rory!” the male voice shouted. “You’re the man!”
He is indeed. Take a good look because the 25-year-old Northern Irishman transformed right in front of us with his victory Sunday at the US PGA Championship.
If his major triumph a few weeks ago at Royal Liverpool was for his "mum" Rosie, and the one two years earlier at Kiawah Island for his dad Gerry, then this one was for him.
The first major he won at Congressional was a spectacle, but this victory was a statement.
It was stamped with a low, cutting 3-wood that McIlroy necked off the soggy green fairway to reach the par-5 10th in two.
“The ball flight was probably around 30 feet lower than I intended, and the line of the shot was probably around 15 yards left of where I intended,” McIlroy admitted. “It was lucky, it really was.”
But the best always make their own luck and that’s why this win was the most satisfying of them all to McIlroy.
His first three majors were basically blow-outs -- two of them by eight shots, another by an easy two. This one required him to fight.
Fight through coming out flat, playing his first six holes in 2 over and watching a one-stroke lead evaporate.
Fight through body blows from Phil Mickelson, fellow boy wonder Rickie Fowler and reigning FedExCup champ Henrik Stenson, all of whom charged past him at one point or another with birdies of their own.
Fight through a slow slog around a waterlogged golf course, the mental and physical fatigue of trying to win for a third straight start and second consectuive major and a wacky finish as players raced to beat the disappearing daylight.
“I just knew,” McIlroy said. “I knew that I'd have my chance.”
And he took it. Unlike when he blew it by playing prevent defence at Augusta in 2011, McIlroy didn't get conservative this time.
He bounced back from a messy bogey on the sixth with a must-make birdie on the easy par-5 seventh. Then he really started throwing haymakers: An eagle at 10 after slinging his ball to 7 feet and a birdie from a couple of feet on 13.
The three-shot deficit he faced at the turn was gone. The knockout blow - for his challengers - came on 17 when he threw a dart from a fairway bunker and rolled in a 10-footer for another birdie on his way to a final-round 68 to end the week 16 under.
“That was all heart, really, coming down the stretch,” his caddie J.P. Fitzgerald said.
“He saw guys were 15 under and knew he had to respond or he was beat. When you’re three behind with four or five guys in front of you, you really have to find something, step it up.”
Or step on them, which is what the 5ft 10in, 160lb curly-haired kid with the quaint accent from Holywood, Northern Ireland, did.
Don’t let the charm fool you. He is, as David Feherty put it, a baby-faced assassin in a golfing context.
MORE FROM VALHALLA: The Upshot | McIlroy's Sunday round | Rory on top of FedExCup | Final leaderboard | Latest video
Just how good is McIlroy? Jack Nicklaus thinks he is capable of winning 15 or 20 majors.
Heady praise, but if hyperbole isn’t your thing just listen to what Mickelson had to say when asked about McIlroy after getting beat by boy wonder on Sunday.
“Better than everyone else right now,” he said of McIlroy, No. 1 in the world and No. 1 in the FedExCup. “Yeah, he's good. Really good.”
McIlroy became just the fourth player in the last century to win four majors by age 25 or younger. The others were Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Bobby Jones. And that's just the beginning.
He has more majors than Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff, Billy Casper, Nick Price, Hale Irwin and Vijay Singh. He has as many as Ernie Els, Ray Floyd, Young Tom Morris and Old Tom Morris. And now he’s within one of Byron Nelson, Seve Ballesteros and Mickelson.
Only four others have won an Open Championship and a PGA in the same year -- Woods, Price, Walter Hagen and Padraig Harrington.
“It's beginning to look a little Tiger-esque I suppose,” Graeme McDowell said. “I didn't think we were going to see the new Tiger era, as in someone creating their own kind of Tiger-esque era just yet.
"I'm not eating my words but I'm certainly starting to chew on them right now. ... Pretty special stuff, yeah.”
So was the way McIlroy chewed up another major.
“To win it in this fashion and this style, it means a lot,” he said. “It means that I know that I can do it. I know that I can come from behind. I know that I can mix it up with the best players in the world down the stretch in a major and come out on top.”
Which is exactly where McIlroy is now and will be for the foreseeable future.
FINAL TOTALS (par 284: 4x71)
“Rory!” the male voice shouted. “You’re the man!”
He is indeed. Take a good look because the 25-year-old Northern Irishman transformed right in front of us with his victory Sunday at the US PGA Championship.
If his major triumph a few weeks ago at Royal Liverpool was for his "mum" Rosie, and the one two years earlier at Kiawah Island for his dad Gerry, then this one was for him.
The first major he won at Congressional was a spectacle, but this victory was a statement.
It was stamped with a low, cutting 3-wood that McIlroy necked off the soggy green fairway to reach the par-5 10th in two.
“The ball flight was probably around 30 feet lower than I intended, and the line of the shot was probably around 15 yards left of where I intended,” McIlroy admitted. “It was lucky, it really was.”
But the best always make their own luck and that’s why this win was the most satisfying of them all to McIlroy.
His first three majors were basically blow-outs -- two of them by eight shots, another by an easy two. This one required him to fight.
Fight through coming out flat, playing his first six holes in 2 over and watching a one-stroke lead evaporate.
Fight through body blows from Phil Mickelson, fellow boy wonder Rickie Fowler and reigning FedExCup champ Henrik Stenson, all of whom charged past him at one point or another with birdies of their own.
Fight through a slow slog around a waterlogged golf course, the mental and physical fatigue of trying to win for a third straight start and second consectuive major and a wacky finish as players raced to beat the disappearing daylight.
“I just knew,” McIlroy said. “I knew that I'd have my chance.”
And he took it. Unlike when he blew it by playing prevent defence at Augusta in 2011, McIlroy didn't get conservative this time.
He bounced back from a messy bogey on the sixth with a must-make birdie on the easy par-5 seventh. Then he really started throwing haymakers: An eagle at 10 after slinging his ball to 7 feet and a birdie from a couple of feet on 13.
The three-shot deficit he faced at the turn was gone. The knockout blow - for his challengers - came on 17 when he threw a dart from a fairway bunker and rolled in a 10-footer for another birdie on his way to a final-round 68 to end the week 16 under.
“That was all heart, really, coming down the stretch,” his caddie J.P. Fitzgerald said.
“He saw guys were 15 under and knew he had to respond or he was beat. When you’re three behind with four or five guys in front of you, you really have to find something, step it up.”
Or step on them, which is what the 5ft 10in, 160lb curly-haired kid with the quaint accent from Holywood, Northern Ireland, did.
Don’t let the charm fool you. He is, as David Feherty put it, a baby-faced assassin in a golfing context.
MORE FROM VALHALLA: The Upshot | McIlroy's Sunday round | Rory on top of FedExCup | Final leaderboard | Latest video
Just how good is McIlroy? Jack Nicklaus thinks he is capable of winning 15 or 20 majors.
Heady praise, but if hyperbole isn’t your thing just listen to what Mickelson had to say when asked about McIlroy after getting beat by boy wonder on Sunday.
“Better than everyone else right now,” he said of McIlroy, No. 1 in the world and No. 1 in the FedExCup. “Yeah, he's good. Really good.”
McIlroy became just the fourth player in the last century to win four majors by age 25 or younger. The others were Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Bobby Jones. And that's just the beginning.
He has more majors than Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff, Billy Casper, Nick Price, Hale Irwin and Vijay Singh. He has as many as Ernie Els, Ray Floyd, Young Tom Morris and Old Tom Morris. And now he’s within one of Byron Nelson, Seve Ballesteros and Mickelson.
Only four others have won an Open Championship and a PGA in the same year -- Woods, Price, Walter Hagen and Padraig Harrington.
“It's beginning to look a little Tiger-esque I suppose,” Graeme McDowell said. “I didn't think we were going to see the new Tiger era, as in someone creating their own kind of Tiger-esque era just yet.
"I'm not eating my words but I'm certainly starting to chew on them right now. ... Pretty special stuff, yeah.”
So was the way McIlroy chewed up another major.
“To win it in this fashion and this style, it means a lot,” he said. “It means that I know that I can do it. I know that I can come from behind. I know that I can mix it up with the best players in the world down the stretch in a major and come out on top.”
Which is exactly where McIlroy is now and will be for the foreseeable future.
FINAL TOTALS (par 284: 4x71)
| 1 | Rory McIlroy | 66 | 67 | 67 | 68 | -16 | 268 | $1,800,000 | |
| 2 | Phil Mickelson | 69 | 67 | 67 | 66 | -15 | 269 | $1,080,000 | |
| T3 | Henrik Stenson | 66 | 71 | 67 | 66 | -14 | 270 | $580,000 | |
| T3 | Rickie Fowler | 69 | 66 | 67 | 68 | -14 | 270 | $580,000 | |
| T5 | Jim Furyk | 66 | 68 | 72 | 66 | -12 | 272 | $367,500 | |
| T5 | Ryan Palmer | 65 | 70 | 69 | 68 | -12 | 272 | $367,500 | |
| T7 | Ernie Els | 70 | 70 | 68 | 65 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T7 | Jimmy Walker | 69 | 71 | 68 | 65 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T7 | Victor Dubuisson | 69 | 68 | 70 | 66 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T7 | Hunter Mahan | 70 | 71 | 65 | 67 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T7 | Steve Stricker | 69 | 68 | 68 | 68 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T7 | Mikko Ilonen | 67 | 68 | 69 | 69 | -11 | 273 | $263,000 | |
| T13 | Brandt Snedeker | 73 | 68 | 66 | 67 | -10 | 274 | $191,000 | |
| T13 | Kevin Chappell | 65 | 74 | 67 | 68 | -10 | 274 | $191,000 | |
| T15 | Charl Schwartzel | 72 | 68 | 69 | 66 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Brooks Koepka | 71 | 71 | 66 | 67 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Marc Warren | 71 | 71 | 66 | 67 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Lee Westwood | 65 | 72 | 69 | 69 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Adam Scott | 71 | 69 | 66 | 69 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Graham DeLaet | 69 | 68 | 68 | 70 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Jason Day | 69 | 65 | 69 | 72 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Louis Oosthuizen | 70 | 67 | 67 | 71 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T15 | Bernd Wiesberger | 68 | 68 | 65 | 74 | -9 | 275 | $127,889 | |
| T24 | Justin Rose | 70 | 72 | 67 | 67 | -8 | 276 | $84,000 | |
| T24 | Jamie Donaldson | 69 | 70 | 66 | 71 | -8 | 276 | $84,000 | |
| 26 | Joost Luiten | 68 | 69 | 69 | 71 | -7 | 277 | $78,000 | |
| T27 | Jerry Kelly | 67 | 74 | 70 | 67 | -6 | 278 | $71,000 | |
| T27 | Kenny Perry | 72 | 69 | 69 | 68 | -6 | 278 | $71,000 | |
| T27 | Bill Haas | 71 | 68 | 68 | 71 | -6 | 278 | $71,000 | |
| T30 | Thorbjorn Olesen | 71 | 71 | 70 | 67 | -5 | 279 | $62,000 | |
| T30 | Alexander Levy | 69 | 71 | 68 | 71 | -5 | 279 | $62,000 | |
| T30 | Danny Willett | 68 | 73 | 66 | 72 | -5 | 279 | $62,000 | |
| T33 | Cameron Tringale | 69 | 71 | 71 | 69 | -4 | 280 | $53,000 | |
| T33 | Daniel Summerhays | 70 | 72 | 68 | 70 | -4 | 280 | $53,000 | |
| T33 | Nick Watney | 69 | 69 | 70 | 72 | -4 | 280 | $53,000 | |
| T36 | Hideki Matsuyama | 71 | 72 | 70 | 68 | -3 | 281 | $42,520 | |
| T36 | Vijay Singh | 71 | 68 | 73 | 69 | -3 | 281 | $42,520 | |
| T36 | Richard Sterne | 70 | 69 | 72 | 70 | -3 | 281 | $42,520 | |
| T36 | Jonas Blixt | 71 | 70 | 68 | 72 | -3 | 281 | $42,520 | |
| T36 | Sergio Garcia | 70 | 72 | 66 | 73 | -3 | 281 | $42,520 | |
| T41 | Koumei Oda | 74 | 68 | 71 | 69 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T41 | Jason Bohn | 71 | 71 | 71 | 69 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T41 | Brendon de Jonge | 70 | 70 | 72 | 70 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T41 | Luke Donald | 70 | 72 | 68 | 72 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T41 | Brian Harman | 71 | 69 | 69 | 73 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T41 | Ryan Moore | 73 | 68 | 67 | 74 | -2 | 282 | $32,000 | |
| T47 | Shane Lowry | 68 | 74 | 74 | 67 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Robert Karlsson | 71 | 69 | 74 | 69 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Marc Leishman | 71 | 71 | 72 | 69 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Graeme McDowell | 73 | 70 | 71 | 69 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Pat Perez | 71 | 71 | 71 | 70 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Fabrizio Zanotti | 71 | 70 | 71 | 71 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Matt Jones | 68 | 71 | 72 | 72 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Scott Brown | 71 | 70 | 70 | 72 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Geoff Ogilvy | 69 | 71 | 71 | 72 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Branden Grace | 73 | 70 | 68 | 72 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Edoardo Molinari | 66 | 73 | 71 | 73 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T47 | Chris Wood | 66 | 73 | 70 | 74 | -1 | 283 | $24,792 | |
| T59 | Brendan Steele | 71 | 70 | 73 | 70 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T59 | Gonzalo Fernandez-Casta | 71 | 70 | 72 | 71 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T59 | Francesco Molinari | 71 | 71 | 71 | 71 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T59 | Ian Poulter | 68 | 73 | 71 | 72 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T59 | Patrick Reed | 70 | 71 | 70 | 73 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T59 | Billy Horschel | 71 | 68 | 69 | 76 | E | 284 | $20,417 | |
| T65 | Chris Stroud | 70 | 73 | 73 | 71 | +3 | 287 | $18,700 | |
| T65 | Bubba Watson | 70 | 72 | 73 | 72 | +3 | 287 | $18,700 | |
| T65 | Kevin Stadler | 71 | 70 | 72 | 74 | +3 | 287 | $18,700 | |
| T65 | J.B. Holmes | 68 | 72 | 69 | 78 | +3 | 287 | $18,700 | |
| 69 | Shawn Stefani | 68 | 75 | 72 | 73 | +4 | 288 | $18,200 | |
| T70 | Fredrik Jacobson | 72 | 69 | 73 | 75 | +5 | 289 | $17,900 | |
| T70 | Colin Montgomerie | 70 | 72 | 72 | 75 | +5 | 289 | $17,900 | |
| T70 | Zach Johnson | 70 | 72 | 70 | 77 | +5 | 289 | $17,900 | |
| 73 | Brendon Todd | 70 | 73 | 75 | 75 | +9 | 293 | $17,700 | |
| 74 | Rafael Cabrera-Bello | 69 | 71 | 74 | 80 | +10 | 294 | $17,600 | |
| WD | Jason Dufner | WD | WD | WD | WD | WD | WD |
Labels: US PGA TOUR
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Sunday, August 10, 2014
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