McIlroy shatters tourney record
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rory McIlroy had one word to his play on the back nine Sunday at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“Boring,” the world’s top-ranked golfer said with a laugh.
That’s sort of what it has come to when McIlroy is playing it at the top of his game. Few in the world can challenge him when he’s driving the ball and putting the way he is right now.
On Sunday, he became the first two-time winner at the Wells Fargo Championship with an impressive seven-shot victory over Webb Simpson and Patrick Rodgers. It was his second win in the last three weeks.
McIlroy closed with a 3-under 69 to finish at 21-under 267, shattering the tournament record by five strokes. That came after he fired a course-record 61 on Saturday to take a commanding four-stroke lead.
McIlroy said it was “boring” on the back nine compared to his win here in 2010, when he carded 3s on the last six holes to finish 15 under.
He played the last half-dozen holes in 1-under on Sunday and the outcome was never in question. McIlroy had set himself up to win with his big round Saturday when he made a run at 59.
So McIlroy didn’t need to be outstanding because there was nobody was chasing him.
As he said, he just had to get to the finish line.
“It was a more controlled run,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I’m a more controlled player these days. I’ve learned how to finish things off.”
McIlroy also won Match Play Championship two weeks ago in San Francisco and has 11 PGA Tour titles. He has six top-10 finishes in his last eight PGA Tour starts.
Phil Mickelson called McIlroy’s performance this week “impressive.”
“Everything is firing on all cylinders for me,” McIlroy said.
Rodgers, playing on a sponsor exemption, was the only player to mount any type of a challenge, getting within three shots after a birdie at No. 15. But there was too much ground to make up, and he played the final two holes in 3-over and finished with a 68. Simpson shot a 72.
McIlroy almost didn’t play at Quail Hollow this week, but decided he needed to play more because he needed the FedEx Cup points after the Masters.
The win moved him into third place in the standings.
McIlroy got off to a shaky start with a three-putt bogey on No. 2 — his first in 167 holes — but quickly pulled it together. He didn’t have another bogey until the 17th hole, when he had built a seven-stroke lead and the outcome was already decided.
Simpson failed to capitalize on McIlroy’s early mistake, shooting 37 on the front nine that included a double bogey on the par-3 sixth when he three-putted from 8 feet. That dropped the Charlotte resident six shots back.
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