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McIlroy pockets $15 million after winning Tour Championship and FedEx Cup


(Reuters) – Rory McIlroy won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup in style in Atlanta on Sunday, collecting the biggest first prize in the sport, $15 million.

Aug 25, 2019; Atlanta, GA, USA; Rory McIlroy celebrates with the FedEx Cup after winning the Tour Championship golf tournament at East Lake Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports

Northern Irishman McIlroy emphatically outduelled Americans Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele with a four-under-par 66 in the final round at East Lake.

He finished at 18 under par, four shots ahead of Schauffele to claim the season-long FedEx Cup points competition for the second time on the PGA Tour, after his 2016 win.

It was a sweet stroll up the final hole for McIlroy, who last year had to make the walk alongside a victorious Tiger Woods as the heaving gallery chanted, “Tiger, Tiger.”

This time the chants were for McIlroy.

“It was pretty cool,” McIlroy said in a greenside interview.

“I must say I didn’t enjoy that walk last year like everyone else did. I never took the fight to Tiger.

“It’s amazing how different things can be in a year.”

McIlroy took the fight to Koepka just four weeks after being given a lesson by the American when they were paired in the final round at a World Golf Championships event in Memphis.

“Going up against the number one player in the world today, he got one over me in Memphis and I wanted to get some revenge,” McIlroy said.

“To play like that alongside Brooks, get the win, win the FedEx Cup, it’s awesome.”

Schauffele shot a closing 70, while Koepka was unusually error-prone in a 72 to tie for third with Justin Thomas, five shots behind.

McIlroy, who teed off one stroke behind Koepka, hit the ball long and straight as he split fairway after fairway, keeping the pressure on his opponent.

Koepka, on the other hand, was often wayward. At the par-four seventh he lost the ball after hooking a tee shot into the trees and took a double-bogey.

McIlroy picked up three shots there with a birdie and from that point Schauffele was his main challenger.

The Northern Irishman opened the door slightly with bogeys at the 14th and 15th holes, but slammed it shut again with a clutch eight-foot par putt at the 16th.

It was the third win of the year for McIlroy, following the Players Championship and Canadian Open, though his performances in the majors was disappointing, particularly a missed cut at the British Open in his homeland at Royal Portrush.

“To win three times is awesome,” he said.

“I feel like I could have won more but to win the FedEx cup again, to persist the whole way throughout the year, to keep giving myself chances, even when I was getting knocked back and not be denied, I’m very proud of myself.”

The Tour Championship used a staggered scoring system for the first time, based on accumulated points. Hence top seed Thomas started at 10 under, the second seed at eight under and so on down to even par for the 26th-to-30th ranked players in the field.

This was done to ensure that the winner of the season-long FedEx Cup points race and the winner of the Tour Championship were guaranteed to be the same person.

Fifth seed McIlroy, who started on five under, shot the best score of the field anyway, 13-under-par 267.

Slideshow (9 Images)

“My goal was to shoot the lowest score of the week,” he said.

Mission accomplished.

Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Ian Chadband and Pritha Sarkar



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