Rory McIlroy won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup champion, capping off one of the most dominant seasons on the PGA Tour in recent memory
Rory McIlroy finished the PGA Tour’s season of champions the same way he began, by lifting a big trophy.
McIlroy won the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup for the second time on Sunday, shooting a final-round 66 at East Lake to finish four shots ahead of runner-up Xander Schauffele. With the win, the first under the new FedEx Cup format, McIlroy takes home the $15 million first prize, the largest in golf history.
The FedEx Cup is a season-long competition, so it’s fitting that the player who dominated from the start of the year should be the one hoisting the trophy at the end. McIlroy didn’t have just a good year; it was a historic performance in 2019 by the 30-year-old Northern Irishman.
McIlroy tied Brooks Koepka with his third PGA Tour victory of the season. He’s now finished in the top-10 in 14 of 19 events he’s played in, a 73.7 percentage. That’s the highest rate since Tiger Woods in 2009. He led the tour in numerous categories, including strokes gained: off the tee and tee to green. His total strokes gained was the best since Woods from a decade ago.
It was the kind of season that McIlroy could be proud of, even if he didn’t win as often as he would’ve liked.
“I’ve given myself so many chances,” he told NBC after finishing off the victory on Sunday. “You know, to win three times is awesome. I feel like I could’ve 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, and I’m going to enjoy this one tonight.”
The year had a number of dizzying highs—winning the Players Championship, shooting 61 on Sunday to win the RBC Canadian Open—but also it’s share of frustrating lows. For how good McIlroy played this year, he failed to add to his haul of major championships. None were more disappointing than the missed cut he had at home in the Open Championship, on a course, Royal Portrush, that he grew up playing. Instead, he’ll head into the 2020 season six years removed from his last major championship.
The lack of a major is the biggest reason why McIlroy, despite all his success in 2019, likely won’t be player of the year. That honor will belong to Koepka, whose three victories include the PGA Championship. But on Sunday at East Lake, it was McIlroy who looked like the most dominant player in the game.
While Koepka was making double-bogey on the seventh hole after losing his ball in the trees, McIlroy was rolling in a 22-foot putt for birdie, a three-shot swing after going into the last round a shot behind. McIlroy got a break on the eighth hole after pulling his approach. His ball started to quickly roll down a steep bank to the left of the green and toward the water hazard. On its way, however, it struck a drain, which proved to be just enough to slow it down and stop it short of the water. McIlroy got up-and-down for par from there, his chances at winning the tournament saved by the most fortuitous of breaks.
And while Koepka was making bogey on three straight holes beginning at the 12th, McIlroy birdied the 12th and holed a fast, downhill 11-footer at the 13th to take a three-shot lead. McIlroy, though, bogeyed the next two holes but regained his trademark swagger by making an eight-foot par putt at the 16th, giving a big fist pump as he realized it was now his tournament to win.
McIlroy closed with two more birdies on the 17th and the par-five 18th. A year ago on the same hole, McIlroy was playing with Woods when the 15-time major champion won the Tour Championship. This time around the crowd that rushed to surround the green clamoring for a glimpse of him and chanting his name.
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The PGA Tour revamped their schedule this year for just this kind of finish. The tour’s biggest events would now be played out over six straight months, beginning with the Players Championship in March. McIlroy won that and is now the first player to win both the Players and FedEx Cup in the same year.
He may not have won a major, but McIlroy did triumph in the next two biggest events. And for that, combined with his prolonged excellence from the moment he teed off in 2019, his season was surely one that will be remembered in the annals of golf history.