Monday, September 05, 2016

Rory McIlroy overcomes six-shot deficit to win Deutsche Bank Championship


Rory McIlroy earned his 12th PGA Tour victory on Monday.
Rory McIlroy earned his 12th PGA Tour victory today (Getty Images)

Heading into this week, it had not been a banner 2016 for Rory McIlroy. He was without a win on the PGA Tour for the year, dropped from No. 1 at last year’s U.S. Open to No. 5 in the world and had been blasted for his comments about golf in the Olympics.
Only an emotional win at the Irish Open was the saving grace. Now, he can look back on the season with more glee.
McIlroy fired a 6-under 65 Monday in windy final-round conditions at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass., to storm from six behind to a much-needed victory at the Deutsche Bank Championship.
He ended it in style, too. After a bogey on 17 dropped his lead to one, McIlroy hit a beautiful greenside bunker blast to two feet and tapped in the putt for a closing birdie to sign for 15 under and put himself two up.
Now, he just had to wait and see if he’d be caught.
Paul Casey, the overnight leader by three, struggled all day in the TPC Boston breezes, recording four bogeys versus two birdies in his first 17 holes, but he still had a chance to catch McIlroy at the last.
The Englishman hit a monster drive on the par 5, leaving himself 223 yards, from where he knocked a 4-iron nearly 60 feet from the pin. He would need that eagle effort to drop to force a playoff. Alas, his eagle putt would scurry by the hole (and he would miss the 11-foot comebacker) and McIlroy was the champion.
The win was McIlroy’s 12th career PGA Tour title, and his first since the 2015 Wells Fargo Championship. McIlroy, 27, is the third-fastest to reach 12 Tour wins, with only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus reaching the mark at younger ages.
On top of this being a statement victory in a year of struggles, McIlroy did it in a sublime manner. The Northern Irishman made a triple bogey on his third hole (No. 12) of the tournament Friday to drop himself to 4 over early.
“I’d come off the back of a rough couple of weeks. I was like here we go again,” McIlroy said.
Somehow, he would fight to even par by the end of the first round, despite that big blow.
And he would only continue to rocket from there, posting rounds of 67, 66 and 65 to follow and play his final 69 holes in 19 under.
Still, even with a near-albatross to end the third round, McIlroy began the final day 9 under and six back.
With tee times moved up due to predicted high winds, McIlroy got things going early in the morning, birdieing Nos. 2 and 4 with small putts, adding another short birdie at No. 7 and then rolling in 18- and 10-footers at Nos. 8 and 9 to go out in 5-under 31.
The birdies would slow on the back nine, but already 14 under, McIlroy would just need a steady hand over the final nine to get the job done. He indeed did that with a birdie at 12 followed by the bogey-birdie finish. The 65 tied McIlroy for low round of the day, and earned him his largest final-round comeback of his PGA Tour career (he did overcome a seven-shot deficit to win the 2014 BMW PGA Championship on the European Tour). Actually, the Northern Irishman could have gone even lower than 65 today, as he missed 7-foot birdie putts at Nos. 11 and 14.
Regardless, it was also a monumental week for McIlroy with the putter. That club has given him fits all year as he has switched and then un-switched grips and still only ranks 130th on Tour in strokes gained: putting, giving up .135 shots per round on the green.
He changed his putter – from a Nike Method Origin blade to a Scotty Cameron M1 prototype – last week at The Barclays and recently brought on a new putting coach – Phil Kenyon, Henrik Stenson’s guy. How’d that work out? Well, this week, he gained 1.325 strokes per round with the flatstick, finishing seventh in the field in that statistic. Talk about quick results.
On the flipside of McIlroy’s glee, Casey squandered a chance at his long-awaited second US PGA Tour win. The 39-year-old Englishman counts the 2009 Shell Houston Open as his only Tour victory, and was unable to add to his win total, thanks to a final-round 73 that left him 13 under and in solo second.
US PGA champion Jimmy Walker closed with 70 to finish solo third at 12. Adam Scott jumped from T-23 to solo fourth at 11 under, thanks to a closing 65, while last week’s winner of The Barclays, Patrick Reed, came in a tie for fifth at 10 under after a final-round 69.
Reed retains the FedEx Cup lead after this week, but McIlroy jumps from 38th to fourth, ensuring a trip to the Tour Championship in a year that had given him so much trouble.
Could we see another McIlroy run in the near future? At the very least, his spirits are up again.
“It’s pretty cool (to win),” McIlroy said. “Things can turn around really quickly in this game and they did this week.”

FINAL TOTALS 
 par 284 (4x71)

1




71 67 66 65 269



2


66 66 66 73 271



3



68 64 70 70 272



4




67 71 70 65 273



T5




68 67 70 69 274



T5


66 71 68 69 274


T5




65 74 66 69 274



T8


70 68 71 66 275


T8




68 66 75 66 275



T8


67 69 69 70 275



T8




68 68 69 70 275


T8


71 69 64 71 275



T8




67 64 71 73 275



T8




65 70 68 72 275



T15


73 67 69 67 276



T15 18 -8 F* -4 69 66 74 67 276 21 24 3
T15 18 -8 F -4 70 71 68 67 276 2 2 --
T15 8 -8 F -3 69 69 70 68 276 61 82 21
T15 7 -8 F -2 67 71 69 69 276 18 22 4
T15 5 -8 F -1 69 70 67 70 276 16 17 1
T21 2 -7 F -2 68 68 72 69 277 6 5 1
T21 21 -7 F* -4 67 71 72 67 277 73 100 27
T21 21 -7 F* -4 66 69 75 67 277 52 66 14
T24 1 -6 F -1 67 69 72 70 278 53 64 11
T24 1 -6 F -1 68 68 72 70 278 25 28 3
T24 18 -6 F* -3 68 69 73 68 278 64 79 15
T24 13 -6 F 2 71 66 68 73 278 48 50 2
T24 13 -6 F 2 67 69 69 73 278 76 97 21
T24 13 -6 F 2 70 68 67 73 278 47 49 2
T24 17 -6 F 3 67 69 68 74 278 38 37 1
T24 22 -6 F 6 68 65 68 77 278 57 67 10
T24 21 -6 F 5 68 66 68 76 278 33 34 1
T33 -- -5 F* -1 67 71 71 70 279 42 42 --
T33 10 -5 F E 68 69 71 71 279 41 39 2
T33 9 -5 F* -2 66 72 72 69 279 29 29 --
T33 10 -5 F E 70 69 69 71 279 66 75 9
T33 10 -5 F E 71 68 69 71 279 19 20 1
T33 13 -5 F 2 71 70 65 73 279 80 98 18
T33 15 -5 F* -3 67 71 73 68 279 8 6 2
T33 22 -5 F 3 71 65 69 74 279 75 87 12
T41 8 -4 F* E 67 68 74 71 280 31 30 1
T41 18 -4 F 1 68 70 70 72 280 24 21 3
T41 7 -4 F* -2 70 71 70 69 280 58 62 4
T41 7 -4 F* -2 67 71 73 69 280 44 41 3
T41 23 -4 F* -5 72 68 74 66 280 37 33 4
T46 13 -3 F 1 69 71 69 72 281 22 16 6
T46 13 -3 F 1 70 69 70 72 281 17 12 5
T46 4 -3 F* E 70 67 73 71 281 28 23 5
T46 2 -3 F* -1 71 67 73 70 281 74 76 2
T46 10 -3 F* -2 71 68 73 69 281 11 9 2
T46 15 -3 F* -3 68 72 73 68 281 85 91 6
T46 18 -3 F* -4 68 72 74 67 281 70 71 1
T53 30 -2 F 3 71 68 69 74 282 20 15 5
T53 5 -2 F* E 70 71 70 71 282 71 68 3
T53 3 -2 F* -1 72 69 71 70 282 35 31 4
T53 3 -2 F* -1 70 67 75 70 282 89 94 5
T57 15 -1 F* 2 69 67 74 73 283 94 96 2
T57 9 -1 F* 1 68 72 71 72 283 63 57 6
T57 9 -1 F* 1 67 71 73 72 283 86 84 2
T57


68 67 69 79 283 50 45 5
T57 11 -1 F* -3 72 69 74 68 283 30 26 4
T57 11 -1 F* -3 68 70 77 68 283 56 52 4
T63 2 E F* E 69 68 76 71 284 78 69 9
T63 5 E F* -2 71 70 74 69 284 65 58 7
T65



70 71 72 72 285


T65 1 1 F* E 71 69 74 71 285 95 90 5
T67 11 3 F* 4 69 72 71 75 287 67 56 11
T67 11 3 F* 4 69 69 74 75 287 46 36 10
T67 5 3 F* -1 75 66 76 70 287 69 60 9
70 6 4 F* 3 70 66 78 74 288 43 32 11
71 23 5 F* 7 68 71 72 78 289 49 40 9
72 4 6 F* 4 70 71 74 75 290 54 46 8

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