Rory McIlroy saved his season, and perhaps the game of golf

Ethan Kilbreath

Sometimes, in sports, the stars align perfectly.

Not always, not usually, but sometimes, we’re gifted with a storybook ending.

Last Sunday, when Rory McIlroy, golf’s brightest star and the PGA Tour’s primary spokesperson, erased a six-shot final round deficit over Scottie Scheffler to win the Tour Championship, it certainly felt like one of those moments.

The stars didn’t align for McIlroy in mid-July, when he devastatingly conceded a final round lead to Cameron Smith in the 150th Open at St. Andrews. They weren’t aligned at the Masters, PGA Championship, or any other majors since 2014 that have so narrowly eluded McIlroy.

McIlroy didn’t win his fifth major on Sunday. But what he did accomplish, becoming the PGA Tour’s champion of the year, was arguably more fitting. In a turbulent year for the PGA Tour and American golf, McIlroy has been the frontman of the PGA Tour, and the most vocal in his criticism of LIV, the Saudi-backed rival tour which gained a head of steam in 2022.

For all his outspokenness, Rory didn’t sacrifice his performance on the course. And holding the FedEx Cup trophy, he was able to take a victory lap.

“It means an awful lot,” McIlroy said. “I believe in the game of golf, I believe in this tour, in particular, I believe in the players in this tour. It’s the greatest place in the world to play golf, bar none. And I’ve played all over the world.”

To say that Rory McIlroy saved the game of golf is, most assuredly, sheer hyperbole. McIlroy, while no doubt heroic, is unable to eradicate any and all threats facing professional golf.

Still, there’s little doubt that McIlroy, who leads active PGA golfers with 22 career victories (omitting Tiger Woods), has become the undisputed face of professional golf. McIlroy’s Tour Championship win secured his third FedEx Cup victory, a feat that hadn’t yet been reached, not even by Woods.

McIlroy and Woods also recently announced a new business venture, a Monday night golf competition that will begin in 2024.

The Tour Championship, and FedEx Cup title, capped off another stellar season for the 33-year old, who has been the best golfer in the world for the past decade. McIlroy won three tournaments, including the CJ Cup last fall and the RBC Canadian in June, finished top-10 in all four majors, and won his fourth Vardon trophy-given to the golfer with the lowest scoring average of the season.

His season, however, would have somehow felt incomplete without last weekend’s spectacle. Coming off a brutal loss at the Open in July, and after missing the cut at the St.Jude Championship, his first event back, there was a bitter taste for Rory, one that only a thrilling victory would extinguish.

He got his victory, and then some.

When he started the tournament with a triple bogey, it appeared that Rory was in for a disappointing end to the season. With a staggered start format, posting a seven on hole one made a molehill into a mountain with a nine shot deficit to Scottie Scheffler. Rory recovered to shoot a 67 on Thursday, but had an uphill climb, seven shots back of Scheffler.

He shot another 67 on Friday, this time in a much more conventional fashion than the twists and turns of Thursday. On moving day, Rory was certainly moving up the leaderboard, shooting a blistering 63 to finish Saturday tied for second. Scheffler, however, the world’s No.1 ranked player, was unrelenting, and began a final round pairing six shots ahead of McIlroy.

On Sunday, finally, Scheffler relented.

After an opening bogey, Rory went on a stretch with four birdies in five holes, and with Scheffer sliding, a historic comeback became plausible. By the time the front nine concluded, McIlroy and Scheffler were neck-and-neck.

“I thought, six behind, I thought it was going to be really tough to make up,” McIlroy said. “But my good play, and Scottie’s not-so-good play, it was a ballgame going into the back nine.”

With the crowd very much on his side, McIlroy drained a long birdie putt on the 15th hole, Scheffler continued to sputter, and a McIlroy win became not only plausible, but probable.

On the 18th green, all that was left was a six-inch tap-in for a Tour championship, and Fed-Ex Cup clinching, putt for par.

Rory was already golf’s greatest champion, and he now had the title to show for it.

“That was a spectacle right there today,” McIlroy said. “Two of the best players in the world going head to head for the biggest prize on the PGA tour, and I hope everybody at home enjoyed that.”

McIlroy still has bigger mountains to climb. The weight of the majors drought is yet to leave his shoulders, and a win at Augusta national still stands in the way of a historic Rory-slam. The LIV ceases to fizzle out, and the threat of more PGA players being poached by LIV is increasingly potent.

But for now, McIlroy, fittingly, is a champion.