McIlroy snatches Scottish Open: "Hopefully this win breaks the seal for me, especially going into next week"
Rory McIlroy celebrates after putting in for a birdie on the 18th green to win the tournament during Day Four of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy produced a sensational birdie-birdie finish to cruelly snatch the Genesis Scottish Open from Robert MacIntyre and head to The Open as the red-hot favourite to end his near nine-year Major drought.
The Co Down man, who moves to second in the world behind Scottie Scheffler, found himself two strokes behind MacIntyre with five holes to play before he birdied the 14th, 17th and 18th to card a 68 and win by a shot from the left-hander on 15-under par.
His four-under back nine of 31 matched MacIntyre's , giving him his 24th PGA TOUR win.
It also helped him become the first player to win the Irish Open, The Open and the Scottish Open, overtaking Pádraig Harrington as the most successful Irish player in European Tour history with 16 DP World Tour wins.
"Really proud," McIlroy said after making a five-footer at the 17th and a 13-footer at the last to pip MacIntyre, who had birdied the last for a 64 to set the target at 14-under.
"That was such a tough day, I mean so tough, especially the back nine. I bogeyed my last two holes on the front nine to go to two over, and I saw Tyrrell was making a run, obviously, and Bob was making a run as well and had an unbelievable finish to play that back nine and four under par to win the tournament. "Yeah, really proud of how I stuck in there. I hit some amazing shots down the stretch and was able to finish it off with a really nice putt up there.
The twirl 💯@McIlroyRory | @ScottishOpen pic.twitter.com/TXqem7M9Yb
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"It feels incredible. It's been a long six months, I feel, since I won in Dubai; I've given myself tonnes of chances, and hopefully, this win sort of breaks the seal for me, especially going into next week as well."
One stroke clear of Korean Tom Kim overnight, McIlroy had to dig deep throughout the day to keep his challenge alive.
With the wind gusting over 25 mph, he had to make a 13-footer for par at the first, then birdied the third to get back to 13-under.
He three-putted the fifth from nearly 70 feet, but after making a 13-footer at the seventh for birdie, he bogeyed the eighth and ninth to find himself in a dogfight for the title.
He turned for home a shot behind MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton, tied with Tommy Fleetwood on 11-under.
But he produced a sensational back nine of four-under 31 to overhaul MacIntyre, who eagled the 10th to get to 12-under.
McIlroy responded by following a birdie at the 11th with a nine-footer for par at the 12th and a 38-footer for a two at the 14th to tie the Scot, who followed birdies at the 14th and 15th with a bogey at the 16th to fall back into a tie for the lead on 13-under.
The left-hander made a great par at the 17th, then produced the shot of the week at the 18th after his sliced tee shot missed the heavy rough and finished on a spectator path.
Facing 213 yards into the teeth of the wind, he hit a sensational fairway wood to three and a half feet and rolled in the putt for only the second birdie of the day at the 18th.
His six-under 64 was the best score of the day by two strokes from Corey Conners, setting the target at 14-under.
But McIlroy is not a four-time major winner for nothing, and he produced one of the great finishes of his career to snatch the title at the death.
While he missed a nine-footer for birdie at the par-five 16th, he drilled a 192-yard tee shot to less than five feet at the 17th and rolled in the putt to draw level.
Needing a par to force a playoff and a birdie to win at the 454-yard 18th, he broke Scottish hearts in spectacular style, ripping a 204-yard two-iron to 11 feet before rolling in the putt to win.
"I was right between four iron and two iron, and I took three iron at the start of the week," McIlroy said with a grin. "It probably was the perfect three-iron. But four iron was only getting to the front edge of the green. And two iron, I had to sort of cut it and try to get it up into the wind a little bit. And I just hit this two-iron, and it came off absolutely perfectly. Probably the best shot I've hit all year.
"It was exactly the way I wanted to play it. And you know, when you hit a shot like that, I felt like I deserved the hole that putt to finish it off."
Up to third in the FedEx Cup standings, McIlroy added: "To hole that putt on 17 to at least give myself, you know, that the opportunity to win and regulation and then to do that on the last, I'll take along from that, not just going into next week, but going into the rest of the year.
"It's amazing for the Race to Dubai, for the FedEx Cup, for my confidence in general, for all those things that I talked about at the start of the week and trying to win the title on both sides of the Atlantic again this year, you know, this will go a long way."
Shane Lowry lost all his momentum with two opening bogeys, carding a 73 to tie for 12th on seven-under, with Tom McKibbin tied 35th on four-under after a 71.
Harrington shot 74 to finish tied 42nd on three-under while the three spots in The Open went to Ben An and David Lingmerth, who tied for third with Scheffler on 10-under, and Dane Nicolai Hojgaard, who shot 67 to finish tied sixth.
