McIlroy awaiting birth of first child: "We're really excited and can't wait for her to get here"
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland watches his shot from the ninth tee during the third round of the BMW Championship on the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club on August 29, 2020 in Olympia Fields, Illinois. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Impending fatherhood is just one of the challenges Rory McIlroy will have to deal with today after a third-round 73 left him three shots behind leaders Dustin Johnson and Hideki Matsuyama heading into the final round of the BMW Championship in Chicago.
Rumours that the Co Down man’s wife Erica was expecting a child had been circulating for weeks and he confirmed the news yesterday after the imminent arrival of a baby girl was mentioned on-air by Golf Channel’s Steve Sands.
“She is, yes,” McIlroy said at Olympia Fields. “We're about to be parents very soon, so we're obviously super excited. Yeah, we've been sharing the news with friends and family, obviously, but I didn't think it was something that I really particularly needed to share out here. It's a private matter, but we're really excited and can't wait for her to get here.
Waiting for the call… Rory McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond wait on the fifth fairway during the second round of the BMW Championship. Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images
“I'm just waiting for a phone call. I was waiting for a phone call last week and it didn't come, and then Harry has been keeping his phone in his pocket just to make sure, but nothing as of yet.”
If that call comes?
“I'm out of here. Yeah, out of here,” said McIlroy, who refused to blame his recent indifferent form entirely on his wife’s pregnancy.
“I think from the get-go my mind has been wandering the last few weeks, and now you guys sort of know the reason why,” he said.
“Not so much the first few weeks, but the last couple of weeks, when you're sort of -- you're going out to play and maybe not knowing whether you're going to finish the round or not.
“Look, it's definitely not an excuse. I just haven't played well enough. But again, it's a nice. I keep talking about perspective. If you do play bad, I've got some awesome stuff coming up on the horizon, which is really cool, and it makes the bad days a lot easier to handle.”
McIlroy’s peers and tour insiders and European Tour officials have known about the pregnancy for weeks but when asked for official confirmation on August 11, a member of McIlroy’s team had no comment.
The Co Down man battled hard yesterday but he could only make two birdies and a fifth dropped shot of the day at the 18th left him tied for sixth on two-over.
“I played okay,” said McIlroy, who his seven fairways compared to nine and six on the first two days but lost strokes putting, using the blade 35 times yesterday.
“I probably didn't drive it as well as I did the first couple of days, which put me out of position. And then from there, it's so tough to get it close. I had nine birdies through the first two days and only had two birdies today. So yeah, I just didn't drive it in the fairway enough to give myself enough looks.
“Felt like I hung in there and I was sort of scrappy, some good two-putts on the back nine. Sort of got on a nice run of pars there after 11, and then it was just a shame to bogey the last.
“It would have been nice to go into tomorrow one closer to the lead, but I think I'm still right in the thick of things. If I can get off to a decent start tomorrow, hopefully I'll be right there.”
On his putting, he said: “I had a couple tentative ones on the front nine, but once I got the speed down a little bit more I felt like I actually putted okay, even though not much dropped.”
A win would put him at the top of the FedEx Cup standings but he insisted he could pull out of the Tour Championship at East Lake if the baby still hasn’t arrived.
“Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely, just depending on what happens. I'm going to play in many more Tour Championships and it's only going to be the birth of your first child once. That trumps anything else.”
Matsuyama sand Johnson shot one-under 69s to lead by two strokes on one-under from Chile’s Joaquin Niemann (68), Canadian Mackenzie Hughes (69) and Australia’s Adam Scott (70) with McIlroy tied for sixth on two-over with Spain’s Jon Rahm (66), Colombia’s Sebastián Muñoz (67), Kevin Kisner (70), Bubba Watson (70) and Brendan Todd (71).
Third-Round Leaderboard
Hideki Matsuyama 67-73-69—209 (-1)
Dustin Johnson 71-69-69—209 (-1)
Joaquin Niemann 72-71-68—211 (+1)
Mackenzie Hughes 69-73-69—211 (+1)
Adam Scott 72-69-70—211 (+1)
Things to Know
Fewest (2) players under par through 54 holes in a non-major on the PGA TOUR in the last 20 years
1-under is the highest 54-hole score in relation to par in a non-major in the last 20 years
Dustin Johnson has held the 54-hole lead/co-lead in his last three starts
Hideki Matsuyama holds the 54-hole lead/co-lead for the fourth time on the PGA TOUR
Last non-major won with an even-par score was the 1995 TOUR Championship (Billy Mayfair/Southern Hills)
Last non-major won with an over-par score was the 1981 AT&T Byron Nelson (Bruce Lietzke/Preston Trail GC/+1)
Tiger Woods opens a non-major with three over-par rounds for just the third time in his career (sixth overall)
Rounds of the week (4-under 66) turned in Saturday by Jon Rahm (despite a one-shot penalty) and Kevin Streelman
Current projections of players to move into top 30: Joaquin Niemann, Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Scott
Current projections of players to move outside top 30: Cameron Champ, Adam Long, Kevin Streelman
Three players have two rounds in the 60s: Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama, Mackenzie Hughes
Dustin Johnson (T1/-1)
World and FedExCup No. 1 poised for his third BMW Championship title (2010, 2016); only Walter Hagen (5), Tiger Woods (5), Willie Anderson (4) and Billy Casper (4) have more
Marks 23rd 54-hole lead/co-lead, with last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST the most recent of 12 wins in those events (Note: three of the above-mentioned 12 wins came in 54-hole weather-shortened tournaments: 2009 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, 2011 THE NORTHERN TRUST, 2013 Sentry Tournament of Champions)
54-hole leading score comparison last two weeks: THE NORTHERN TRUST (191/-22), BMW Championship (209/-1)
Won last week’s THE NORTHERN TRUST for his fifth FedExCup Playoffs title, tying Rory McIlroy for most
Has won back-to-back starts twice, when he won three in a row in 2017: The Genesis Invitational, WGC-Mexico Championship, WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; has never won in back-to-back weeks
Last to win in back-to-back TOUR starts: Brendon Todd (2019 Bermuda Championship, Mayakoba Golf Classic)
Has two wins and a runner-up finish in his six most recent starts entering the week
Last week’s win was his 22nd on TOUR (T27 on the all-time victory list with Jim Barnes, Johnny Farrell and Raymond Floyd); a win this week would move him into solo 27th place, one behind Gary Player and Macdonald Smith’s 24 wins
A win on Sunday would come in his 273rd start at the age of 36 years, 2 months and 7 days
Hideki Matsuyama (T1/-1)
Fourth third-round lead/co-lead on TOUR: 2014 Charles Schwab Challenge (T10), 2015 Sentry Tournament of Champions (T3), 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions (won), 2020 BMW Championship (TBD)
Prior to first- and third-round co-leads this week, last lead after any round on TOUR came in the 2019 BMW Championship (R2/finished third)
In search of sixth PGA TOUR win and first since 2017 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational (at Bridgestone)
Victory would come in his 169th PGA TOUR start at the age of 28 years, 6 months, 4 days
Has advanced to the TOUR Championship all six seasons on TOUR; one of three players with an active streak of six or more consecutive seasons qualifying for the TOUR Championship (Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed)
Leads the field in Strokes Gained: Tee To Green (7.772) and Strokes Gained: Around The Green (5.084)
Tiger Woods (T55/+10)
With scores of 73-75-72, the BMW Championship is the third non-major, and sixth event overall, he has opened with three over-par rounds; only once did he post an under-par final round (2007 THE PLAYERS Championship).
Miscellaneous Player Notes
Joaquin Niemann (T3/+1) entered the week No. 31 in the FedExCup standings and is currently projected No. 18; in search of second win of the season (2019 A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier)
Mackenzie Hughes (T3/+1) is in search of his third top-10 in the Return of Golf (Travelers Championship/T3, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide/T6); owns one victory (2016 The RSM Classic) in 108 TOUR starts
Adam Scott (T3/+1) trails by two strokes as he seeks his second win of the season (The Genesis Invitational)
Jon Rahm (T6/+2) had his only bogey of the day on the par-4 fifth hole where he was assessed a one-stroke penalty for picking up his ball before marking it (Rule 9.4); rallied with three birdies for a 4-under 66; marked his 13th round in the 60s out of 15 at the BMW Championship (opened 75-71 this week)
Second-round co-leader and 2012 BMW Championship winner Rory McIlroy (T6/+2) posted a 3-over 73; two-time FedExCup champion (2016, 2019) seeks to become first player to win the FedExCup in consecutive seasons; tied with Dustin Johnson for most wins in FedExCup Playoffs (five)
Second-round co-leader Patrick Cantlay (T15/+4) turned in a 5-over 75; currently projected No. 34 in the standings as he seeks to advance to the TOUR Championship for the fourth consecutive season
Corey Conners (T21/+5) recorded his first ace on TOUR with a 9-iron from 150 yards on the par-3 sixth hole; represented the 24th ace in BMW Championship history and the 26th in FedExCup Playoffs history
2014 FedExCup champion Billy Horschel (T21/+5) is projected to remain No. 30 in the FedExCup standings
Defending champion Justin Thomas (T43/+8) trails the leaders by nine strokes
Rookies in the FedExCup Playoffs
Eight rookies qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs and four remain. Only one rookie (Sungjae Im) qualified for the TOUR Championship in 2019.
Pos. Rookie R3 Position Projected FEC position
14 Scottie Scheffler T47 19
24 Viktor Hovland T37 28
48 Harry Higgs T47 54
67 Maverick McNealy T55 69
