McIlroy upbeat after strong finish as Morikawa wins at Pebble Beach and Lowry tops Irish challenge

Rory McIlroy left Pebble Beach with his tail up but knows he has to cut out “the big numbers” if he's to break his duck at Tiger Woods’ Genesis Invitational this week.

The world number two felt his bogey-free, eight under 64 sets him up well for this week’s signature event at Riviera Country Club.

But he still finished five shots behind winner Collin Morikawa (29) on 17 under as a trending Shane Lowry grabbed a tie for eighth with a bogey-free 67 and Scottie Scheffler charged through the field to finished joint third after a spectacular 63.

While he felt he might have retained his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, having made two eagles and 25 birdies, McIlroy was left to rue three double bogeys and one triple bogey over the first three days.

“I wish I could have those four holes back this week,” said the Holywood star, who finished tied for 14th and admitted that some poor decision-making and a couple of destructive drives cost him dear.

“I played 68 really good (holes)… and if even you turn those three doubles into bogeys and that triple into a bogey, that's five shots and all of a sudden you're looking at having a three-shot lead.

“But all in all, some really good stuff this week. Pretty encouraged going into next week for sure.” 

Lowry enjoyed another solid week, closing with a 67 to finish eighth on 18-under as his putter warmed up on the back nine and he came home in four under 32. 

Sunday’s final round also showed that world number one Schefler remains a class apart.

Despite finding himself 10 shots off the lead after the first round for the second week running and eight shots behind 54-hole leader Akshay Bhatia- fifth in the end after a 72- he made his third eagle of the day from just two-and-a-half feet at the 18th to shoot a nine-under 63 that set the clubhouse target at 20-under.

Had the 30-40mph gusts predicted by the weather forecasters turned out to be accurate, that total might have been good enough to win.

But he had to settle for a tie for third with Tommy Fleetwood as Morikawa came through on the final day to win for the first time in more than two years.

“A frustrating start to both of the last couple of weeks,” Scheffler said. “But I think these are some of the weeks when you look back, I'm very proud of sticking with it, not giving up even when I felt like things were going against me this week.”

Former PGA and Open champion Morikawa overtook Scheffler with a birdie at the 15th. After moving two clear with another birdie at the 16th, he bogeyed the 17th to fall back into a tie for the lead with Australia’s Min Woo Lee, who birdied the last to shoot 65 and set the target at 21-under.

Needing a birdie to win, Morikawa had 235 yards to the pin, and after waiting almost 29 minutes to play his approach as Jacob Bridgeman found trouble up ahead, he found the green and two-putted from 26 feet to shoot 67 and win his seventh PGA Tour title by a shot from Lee and Sepp Straka on 22-under.

“It's special for a lot of reasons,” Morikawa told Sky Sports Golf. “I've left countless hours and nights and probably too many hours thinking about golf and it takes up so much of our life, and it's part of who I am. It really is.

“But, you know, we're thankful for the people around me. I'm gonna just keep believing in me. I kept believing in myself. And honestly, at the beginning this week, it didn't really feel like this was going to be possible, but with the right steps and the right belief, it just was able to kind of put one step in front of the other, hit some great shots and make some great putts.”

As for his long wait to hit his approach to the 18th, he said: “I tried not to think about the shot. I might have thought about it once honestly in that 20 minutes.

“I think if you catch yourself doing that, you're going to start saying, I need to do this, I need to do that.

“I really try to wait for that moment. I tried to look down the ocean as many times as I can.

“I love being out here. Pebble Beach, I mean, there's not many places that you can be in the world that are like this place.

“So to hoist this trophy, I’m very happy.”