PGA TOUR Players
Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy
RANK 3 |
OWGR 8.24
McIlroy shot a four-under 68 in the final round to finish in a tie for 25th place at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
While McIlroy did shoot four rounds in the 60's, the conditions were ripe for the taking this week and the Northern Irishman just didn't convert enough on the greens to challenge the leaders. McIlroy has never won won the Dunhill Links before, but he did finish top-five on three previous occasions. McIlroy continues to pace the Race to Dubai standings by a hefty margin and is on track to win it for a sixth time. McIlroy will likely close out his year with the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the DP World Tour Championship.
McIlroy was defeated in a playoff by Billy Horschel after shooting a five-under 67 in the final round of the BMW PGA Championship.
It looked as if it was going to be McIlroy's time to get back into the win column after he rolled in a long eagle putt on 17, but only managing a par on the short par-5 18th meant he would have to go to a playoff with Horschel and Thriston Lawrence. McIlroy and Horschel would make routine birdies on the first playoff hole, while Lawrence was eliminated with bogey. After a great second shot on the second playoff hole, McIlroy's eagle putt would just slide by. Unfortunately for him, Horschel continued his hot putting week and rolled in another long putt for eagle and the win. McIlroy has now had to settle for silver the last two weeks in some big DP World Tour events. The good news is that he continues to build a massive lead in the Race to Dubai standings, as McIlroy is trending towards a third straight European Tour Order of Merit victory. It would be his sixth overall and put him closer to Collin Montgomerie's record of eight Order of Merit titles. McIlroy will look to get back in the win column at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Oct. 3-6.
McIlroy finished one shot shy of forcing a playoff with Rasmus Hojgaard at the Amgen Irish Open after a two-under 69 in the final round.
McIlroy was looking to win his national open for the second time and was in great position coming into Sunday with the solo lead. He was in control for much of the day, but a blistering finish from Hojgaard that included birdies on four of the last five holes really turned up the heat. McIlroy made bogey on the par-4 17th to force himself to need an eagle to get to a playoff. He hit an amazing second shot to about 10 feet, but another putt in crunch time just slid by the hole. McIlroy still seems like he is trying to recover from the disappointment of his finish at the U.S. Open and getting a win in his home country would have gone a long way to helping that. It just wasn't to be and now McIlroy will look to put that behind him and try to win the BMW PGA Championship for the second time.
McIlroy settled for a share of ninth place at the TOUR Championship after a five-under 66 in the in final round.
McIlroy was looking to come back again from starting six shots off the pace at the TOUR Championship to win his fourth FedExCup, but the Northern Irishman never really challenged that this week. McIlroy only hit 50 percent of the fairways this week and lost strokes on approach, but he did rank fifth in SG: Putting. McIlroy made comments early in the week that next year he may look to cut down on the number of events he plays because he felt like he hit a wall after the U.S. Open. That certainly seemed to take something out of McIlroy, but he's going to complete his season on the DP World Tour likely playing five more events before the end of the year. He will next tee it up at the Irish Open.
McIlroy posted a one-under 71 on Sunday at the BMW Championship to finish in a share of 11th place.
McIlroy had an uneven final round with five birdies to go along with four bogeys to post his fourth consecutive under-par round of the week - one of only two players to do so this week. He didn't stand out statistically in any specific category but did gain shots in every strokes gained category for the week. McIlroy will enter the Tour Championship in sixth place in the FedExCup Standings.
