Mixed week for McIlroy and Lowry as Kokrak breaks PGA Tour duck
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 18: Jason Kokrak of the United States plays a shot from a bunker on the fourth hole during the final round of The CJ Cup @ Shadow Creek on October 18, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
Jason Kokrak clinched his first PGA Tour win in his 233rd start in the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry continued their countdown to the Masters with mixed results.
As Lowry saved the best for last and closed with a 67 to tie for 45th on five-under, McIlroy had a messy finish, dropping six shots in his last five holes.
The Co Down man had high hopes of making the leaders sweat on Sunday after carding a 66 in the third round to move up to tied 10th.
After picking up birdies at the fourth, sixth, seventh and 10th, he bogeyed the 14th (missed fairway), double-bogeyed the 15th (missed fairway, lay up and missed green), bogeyed the 16th (missed fairway with drive and lay-up) and double-bogeyed the 149-yard 17th (overshot green long, then chipped through the green into rough before missing 6 footers).
It all added up to a two-over 74 that left McIlroy tied for 21st on six-under, 14 shots behind winner Kokrak, who shot 64 to win by two strokes from Xander Schauffele on 20-under.
McIlroy was making his first appearance since the US Open and having worked on his swing with coach Michael Bannon for only the second time this year, he admitted that Saturday’s 66 was the first time he had kept swing thoughts out of his head.
“You know, the last two weeks every swing that I've made, every ball that I've hit has been with at least two or three swing thoughts,” he said. . “So first day was sort of similar, yesterday was a little better and then today again I hit the ball pretty good, especially off the tee again. That was a big plus
“I've been sort of complaining about my driving and off the tee, but this week's been really good. So if I can just keep continuing to see progress there into tomorrow, you know, it would be great to shoot another low one and get myself right up there. But I feel like I've made some good strides in my game this week.”
He has another chance to knock some more rust off his game in this week’s ZOZO Championship at Sherwood Country Club near Los Angeles, where Tiger Woods will make his lone warm-up performance before the Masters.
2020 THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK (6th of 50 events in the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season)
Las Vegas, Nevada October 15-18, 2020
FedExCup Points: 500 (winner) Shadow Creek Par/Yards: 36-36--72/7,527
Purse: $9,750,000/$1,755,000
Final-Round Notes -- Sunday, October 18, 2020
Weather: Sunny. High of 92. Wind SE 4-8 mph.
Final Leaderboard
1 Jason Kokrak 70-66-68-64--268 (-20)
2 Xander Schauffele 66-64-74-66--270 (-18)
T3 Tyrrell Hatton 65-68-73-65--271 (-17)
T3 Russell Henley 66-68-67-70--271 (-17)
5 Talor Gooch 70-65-69-68--272 (-16)
T21 Rory McIlroy 73-69-66-74—282 (-6)
T28 Shane Lowry 72-74-70-67—283 (-5)
Things to Know
Jason Kokrak earns his first career PGA TOUR victory in his 233rd career start
Kokrak is the third consecutive PGA TOUR winner aged 35 or older; longest such streak since June 2019
Kokrak led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting for the first time in his career and made a career-best 14 putts outside of 10 feet
Runner-up Xander Schauffele earned his third consecutive top-five on the PGA TOUR
Si Woo Kim earned the best result among the 11 South Korean players in the field
