Rory McIlroy misses £7m payout as Billy Horschel wins Tour Championship
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Version 0 of 1. This proved the round too far for Rory McIlroy. The world No1’s year will not be defined by his failure to win the FedEx Cup, but the level of his summer exertions showed here on Sunday. McIlroy had pointed out even before the fourth round that he was short of his best and, unlike on the previous three days, the 25-year-old was unable to belie such a factor with fine scoring. “I’m looking forward to a few days off and not seeing my golf clubs for a little while,” McIlroy said. “I’ve been in the gym every day this week and that’s fine, but mentally I’m a little fatigued. Billy deserved it, he played the best golf all week.” As McIlroy slipped to a tired 71, Billy Horschel celebrated the greatest triumph of his career. His 11-under-par total ensured victory at both the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup in continuing a brilliant, and lucrative, run of form. Horschel won by three from Jim Furyk and McIlroy. The raw numbers make staggering reading. Horschel, 27, has pocketed $13.48m (£8.29m) in three weeks. That’s $640,000 a day. Fine work if you can get it, especially with his wife due to give birth on 27 September. Lesser mortals would have struggled to focus on golf shots. That impending family matter will no doubt be mentioned by Tom Watson as he attempts to justify the non-selection of Horschel as a Ryder Cup wildcard pick. Two of the players Watson did turn to, Webb Simpson and Hunter Mahan, ended the Tour Championship at eight over par. Horschel, meanwhile, displayed a fantastic ability to handle pressure, not least in playing 36 holes in the company of McIlroy. “I’m on cloud nine. This is unbelievable,” Horschel said. “From what I’ve heard, kids are very expensive, so the more money I can make, the better.” Horschel Jr will not want for much, it seems fair to infer. When McIlroy, who began the day in a share of the lead with Horschel, birdied the 4th hole the general expectation was that he would kick on from there. The opposite transpired. McIlroy gave a rueful look after hitting a horrible tugged tee shot at the par-three 6th; it found water and resulted in a double bogey. Horschel hit the centre of the green, just as he seemed to have been doing since the event began. The generous par-five 9th provided an opportunity for McIlroy to atone for that error but this time he launched a drive so far right it may well have entered a different zip code. Cue a dropped shot, the first of three in a row. At the 10th, McIlroy’s recent propensity to miss short putts continued; he was to throw his putter at his golf bag in anger. In typical McIlroy fashion, he recorded birdies at 15, 16 and 17 rather than let matters come to a somewhat meek ending. It seemed, however, that he was delighted to reach the salvation of the locker room before the week’s rest which will precede the Ryder Cup. “I just got really frustrated and just couldn’t muster the energy to try and get something going again,” said McIlroy of his mid-round trouble. “And even when I was hitting good shots, I was hitting bad putts. I’m happy I made those three birdies coming in. It jumped me up the leaderboard a little bit and at least finished the day respectably.” With Furyk breathing down his neck, Horschel crucially holed out from 30ft for par at the 16th. Furyk may have won the FedEx Cup before but he struggles to shake off the tag of a perennial bridesmaid. The failure to get up and down at the 71st hole after leaving an approach shot short, followed by another bogey at the last, did for him this time around. He has not tasted victory since his 2010 FedEx success. Justin Rose threatened to gatecrash the party at the top of the leaderboard but was ultimately undone by four bogeys in a round of 69. Rose will be happy, though, with a tie for fourth place. Sergio García, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day also earned top 10 Tour Championship places. |