Just minutes ago, the PGA Tour capped off its exciting season this year with two of its best players, and good friends, playing in the last twosome and battling it out down the stretch. Crowd-favorite and four time major winner Rory McIlroy came from six strokes behind to defeat leader Scottie Scheffler by one stroke to win both the season-ending Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia. In doing so, the Irishman became the only player to win the FedEx Cup three times. These two guys had had a similar battle months ago and just up the road, in Augusta in the Masters Tournament, Scheffler had won.
Scottie Scheffler–also a crowd favorite and who had won the most tournaments on the PGA Tour this year, four tournaments–was certainly in the driver’s seat by starting the day with a six stroke lead on three players tied for second place, which included McIlroy. But Scheffler, this year’s Masters champion, had a poor start, backing up from 23 under par to 21 under par two thirds of the way through the round, where McIlroy pulled even with him.
McIlroy then took the lead at the par four 16th hole for the first time with a ten-foot par putt after Scheffler missed his par putt of a slightly longer distance badly to the right to take a bogey.
So, Scheffler was one stroke behind McIlroy when they approached the final, 18th hole, a 570-yard par five. Both drove long and into the fairway. But both missed their long iron shots to the green, with Scheffler in a sand bunker to the right of the green and McIlory in rough to the left of the green. Scottie played first. Ordinarily a very good player from sand bunkers, this time Scottie blew it over the green in thick rough and a difficult shot. Rory then played conservatively to less than twenty feet from the hole. Realistically, Scheffler needed to hole his difficult fourth shot for a birdie. Both men parred and therefore McIlroy won by one stroke, with Scheffler tying Im for second.McIlroy winning the FedEx Cup gave him a bonus of $18 million.
It was a sweet finish for the PGA Tour because of the tumultuous season caused by the disruption of startup LIV Golf. Plus, Roy McIlroy had taken it upon himself to become the leader of the PGA Tour in speaking out against LIV Golf and on behalf of the PGA Tour. A lawsuit has been filed by LIV Golf and some of its players against the PGA Tour, claiming it is a monopoly. It remains to be seen how this will work out. We will have to wait a while to find out. The trial date for this lawsuit is set for January, 2024.
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