The tremendous cockfight that the last round of the CJ Cup from Las Vegas, in which Rickie Fowler (-22) He started with an advantage, he ended up crowning the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy (-25) as the new winner of the tournament. A triumph based on his extraordinary 62-stroke lap on Saturday, with which he climbed to second place in the standings, and on his precision with the putter in the decisive moments on Sunday.
As in holes 2 and 8, achieving birdies with putts of between three and four meters, or especially in the 14, hole from outside the green with the putter from more than 11 meters for eagle leaving the event practically seen for sentence. A success that surely has had a lot to do with Brad Faxon, his ‘guru’ on the greens, with whom he worked intensively over the past week.
Rory is rolling it. @McIlroyRory opens up a 3-shot lead with an eagle from off the green at 14. ???? pic.twitter.com/x64XLWxHgV
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 17, 2021
The victory has a double prize for the Northern Irishman. On the one hand, the large check for 1,755,000 dollars reserved for the champion of this tournament is taken home, which for the second consecutive year, due to the restrictions of the covid-19, has changed its traditional headquarters in the Nine Bridges from Jeju Island, on South Korea, on American soil. On the other, get a lifetime exemption on the PGA Tour… For which you will still have to wait.
The US tour grants this condition to all players who reach 20 victories in their tournaments and have been playing the circuit for 15 years or more. Rory McIlroy, who started playing regularly in the PGA Tour Since 2009, he will still have to wait at least three more years (until the 2022-23 season ends) for this lifetime exemption to take effect, something that he does not seem to have problems in complying given his youth and trajectory.
A winner in Las Vegas. ????@McIlroyRory captures win No. 20 at THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT. pic.twitter.com/ULt8t2H686
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 18, 2021
By the way, speaking of youth, with this triumph in Las Vegas the Northern Irishman becomes the second-earliest non-American player to reach 20 victories in the PGA Tour. He has achieved it with 32 years of age, one more than English Harry Cooper, born in Leatherhead, son of a father and mother professional golfers and who moved to Texas when I was just a kid. In 1936 he achieved the 20th triumph of the 30 that he would end up adding in his career on the circuit.
For McIlroy It is the first victory of this new season, which catapults him to fourth place in the FedEx Cup, and the second that he has achieved so far this year, after winning last May in the Wells Fargo Championship a Abraham Ancer (-19) by a stroke of advantage. The Mexican, precisely, was one of his companions in today’s stellar match in The Summit Club, although he was soon removed from the title fight.
Something else held Rickie Fowler, despite the extremely painful double bogey that fell on the par five of hole 6. Murrieta’s seems to have straightened the course after a couple of very irregular years. But who was closest to leaving Rory without victory he was one of his rivals a few weeks ago in the Ryder Cup from Whistling Straits, the American Collin Morikawa (-24), who completed a simply extraordinary Sunday with a 62-stroke card certified with a tremendous eagle at 18, putting pressure.
A dart and an eagle on 18.@Collin_Morikawa cards a final-round 62 and posts 24-under.
He’s 1 back. pic.twitter.com/54H4Lithdb
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 17, 2021
It was not enough for the de The Angels before the excellent performance of McIlroy, to which a round of 66 strokes helped him to prevail with one advantage, climbing to No. 8 of the World Golf Ranking and join the select group of players who have won 20 tournaments or more in the PGA Tour, in which until today there were only 38 players in history. There are already 39 with the Northern Irishman, who joins among others Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Dustin Johnson, Gary Player, Davis Love III…
The Spanish Sergio Garcia (-17) he said goodbye to the tournament with a good round of 67 shots, second best for him of the week, which allowed him to climb five positions in the classification and get into the top 25. After his bye week after the Sanderson Farms, that of Borriol completed a good tournament in Las Vegas, in which only the putter prevented him from being higher, and that will bring him just over $ 70,000 and good points for the FedEx Cup and the world ranking.
