There will be jokes, snickers, one-liners and cliches about how Rory McIlroy broke his winless streak on the links by breaking off his engagement to tennis star Caroline Wozniacki earlier this week.
The simple truth of the matter is, that McIlroy has been playing very well for the past 18 months or so, and was finally able to focus all his attention on golf.
The result? A victory on the most prestigious field of the European Tour by a single stroke over Shane Lowry on Sunday, and a cool check to go with it worth more than $1 million.
It was McIlroy’s first win since the 2013 Australian Open, and his first on the European Tour since taking the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November of 2012.
He was 7 strokes behind to start the day, but rallied as Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, who had at least a share of the lead on all three prior days, fell apart with a fourth-round 75, opening the door for others.
McIlroy was just 1-under through the front nine, an uneven mix of two bogeys, a birdie an an eagle, but scintillating down the stretch, recording five birdies, including back to back on No. 17 and 18 to nip Lowry, who saw his chance for at least a playoff slip away when he double bogeyed No. 13 and bogeyed 15. Lowry birdied 18 to get within a stroke, but it wasn’t enough.
After setting the course record with a 62 on Thursday, Bjorn entered the final round at 15-under, but saw a big chunk of that slip away with a bogey on No. 5 and a disastrous triple bogey 7 on the par-4 No. 6. Bjorn had two pars and a birdie on three consecutive trips to the hole.
Four-over at the turn, Bjorn shot himself in the foot again with consecutive bogeys on No. 14 and 15, before rallying to birdie 16 and 17.
McIlroy won the tournament with a 68-71-69-66 – 274, 14-under par. Lowry was 13-under with Bjorn winding up tied for third with Luke Donald at 12-under.
Tying McIlroy for the best round of the day was Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher, who used his own 6-under 66 to leapfrog from 22nd to a tie for fifth at 9-under for the weekend. Gallacher notched four straight birdies on No. 11-14. He tied England’s Simon Dyson, ranking 187th in the world, coming in, who himself shot a 67 on Sunday.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson finished tied for seventh at 8-under, but was unable to move up to No. 1 in the world because of Adam Scott’s victory at The Colonial in Texas.
GolfBlogger.co.uk 