Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy once again found his best game and finished this Sunday a grand final in the fourth round of the CJ Cup to become champion and clinch his 20th PGA Tour title since turning pro.
The mastery of his blows allowed him to overcome the American Rickie Fowler, who had started the Sunday day as leader provisional with two strokes of advantage, and soon it held the final attack of another local, the young Collin Morikawa.
That forced him to play down the stretch with no margin for error. not to lead to the playoffs.
Former world number one McIlroy took control with an 11-meter eagle putt from the green on par 5 of hole 14 and then he played without errors in the final stretch that allowed him to deliver a signed card of 66 (-6) and ensure victory with a cumulative 263 (-25), one less than Morikawa (264, -24) after he finished the round with a record of 62 (-10), including an eagle on the 18th hole.
McIlroy is the 39th player to win at least 20 times on the PGA Tour, and it is his fifth consecutive season on the tour with at least one win. That this time he left him a cash prize of 1,765,000 dollars and 500 points for the classification of the FedEx Cup.
While Morikawa, a member of The Summit Club, where the tournament was held, received a check for $ 1,053,000 and 300 points for FedEx Cup qualification.
Fowler, who had to settle for the third place he shared with fellow countryman Keith Mitchell, He had a record of 71 (-1), his worst tour of the tournament, and finished with a cumulative 266 hits (-22).
“It’s a big carrot,” McIlroy said of the 20 wins. “I didn’t know what it would be this week.”
He entered the weekend nine shots behind the leader, regained a lot of ground with a 62 (-10) Saturday and then walked away taking advantage of the scoring holes.
It was similar to his first PGA Tour win in 2010 at Quail Hollow. McIlroy was nine shots behind before the weekend at that tournament and closed with rounds of 66-62 to win.
Morikawa was watching from the balcony overlooking the 18th green to see if he had a chance to make additional holes, although he was asking a lot of McIlroy to drop a shot on the closing hole of par 5.
McIlroy leaned back from the tee, played close to the green and hit the wedge on the back pin to secure a pair of two putts. and another trophy.
Part of it was sparked by a disappointing Ryder Cup, when he didn’t win a point until Sunday in singles., when it was too late and he was choking with excitement talking about it.
He wanted to go back to his roots as a player, and it worked very well against a strong field that allowed McIlroy to pass from No. 15. in the world to get back into the top 10.
“Being me is enough,” he declared. “Being me can allow me to do things like this.”
Regarding the Latin American participation, the last day was positive with the Argentine Emiliano Grillo who shone by achieving the best record of all the participants after delivering a signed card of 61 strokes (-11).
While the Venezuelan veteran Jhonattan Vegas and the Mexican Abraham Ancer finished with signed cards of 66 (-6) and 71 (-1), respectively, that allowed him to accumulate 269 (-19) and share the fourteenth place with two other players, the Americans Webb Simpson and Chris Kirk.
Grillo’s great journey allowed him to climb to eighteenth place by adding 270 strokes (-18) and sharing it with six other golfers.
The Spanish Sergio García and the Mexican Carlos Ortiz with final records of 67 strokes (-5) and 68 (-4), respectively, accumulated 271 (-17), which left them in twenty-fifth place of the classification, the same one that also occupied five more players.
The Chilean Joaquín Niemann finished in 45th place with a cumulative 274 strokes (-14) and the Colombian Sebastián Muñoz was placed four places below (49) with 275 (-13).
