Golfer Rory McIlroy won the final of the Tour Championship season in Atlanta and dominated the FedEx Cup rankings for the third time in his career.
In the final round on Sunday, he dumped a six-shot deficit and collected a bounty of $18 million (447 million kronor) for victory. He earned over $26 million on the PGA Tour this year.
McIlroy, 33, became the first golfer in history to win the FedEx Cup three times. He went on to win in 2016 and 2019, surpassing two-time winner Tiger Woods. “It’s great to finish the season at the highest level and do something no one else has done before,” McIlroy rejoiced.
Scotty Scheffler, who entered the final tournament at number one and was hoping to end his season of life with a FedEx Cup victory, spoiled the final round.
The Masters winner fired 73 shots and lost the final standings to McIlroy with a header. Korea’s Im Sung Chi had the same balance and both won $5.75 million to take second place.
McIlroy achieved a record-breaking finish at the end, eliminating the largest final round loss in Tour Championship history. To date, Camilo Villegas has made the biggest comeback in the tournament, which in 2008 made up for the -5 shortfall. He had only words of praise for Scheffler, with whom he completed the final round.
McIlroy, who owns the FedEx Cup Finals points system, added: “I feel like Scotty deserved at least half of it. He probably deserved it more than I did. He had a great season. I feel bad that I beat him.” He started with a record of -4 compared to Scheffler -10.
“I wanted to win this title all season long,” he said. “I had a really great year and I also wanted to finish it off with a win, unfortunately I couldn’t. I didn’t play well in the end.” Scheffler after the final record crash.
Only seven players missed such a big lead in the final round on the PGA Tour.
