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.”
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