PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Seems Rory McIlroy wanted solely three good swings to win the Gamers Championship on Monday in a playoff over J.J. Spaun.
McIlroy blasted his opening tee shot and hit a pitching wedge to the par-5 sixteenth to arrange birdie, after which he discovered the island inexperienced on the par-3 seventeenth with a 9-iron into a chilly, crackling wind at TPC Sawgrass that successfully gave him a second title at golf’s richest occasion.
Spaun posed over his 8-iron till he heard the groans of the spectators lined up behind the seventeenth inexperienced. His ball minimize by the wind and sailed clear over the inexperienced into the water, resulting in a triple bogey that ended his hopes.
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“It was an ideal shot … good if it was the suitable distance,” he stated. “I simply could not imagine it was lengthy. Simply not my luck of the gust.”
McIlroy grew to become the eighth a number of winner of the Gamers Championship, having additionally received in 2019. And it is the primary time in his profession he has received twice heading into the Masters. He received the AT&T Pebble Seashore Professional-Am final month.
The primary three-hole playoff in 10 years on the Gamers was brought on by a four-hour rain delay Sunday. McIlroy needed to make a 4-foot par putt on the 72nd gap. Spaun had a 30-foot birdie putt for the win that stopped inches brief.
McIlroy, upset and having misplaced a three-shot lead on the again 9, regarded forward to the playoff by saying, “Make 5 good swings tomorrow morning and get this factor finished.”
The 336-yard drive on the sixteenth. The pitching wedge to only inside 35 ft. The 9-iron that discovered dry land. That is all he wanted to beat Spaun and declare the $4.5 million prize from the $25 million purse.
“These three swings had been mainly what determined the championship,” McIlroy stated. “I really feel for J.J. He is had an ideal week. To have it finish that means for him was onerous to see.”
It was harking back to a 2008 playoff between Sergio Garcia and Paul Goydos, again when the seventeenth was utilized in sudden dying. Garcia hit the inexperienced. Goydos got here up brief and into the water, and there’s no lonelier stroll than to the drop zone realizing it is over.
McIlroy now has 39 wins worldwide, and loads of momentum on his aspect with the Masters a month away. A inexperienced jacket is all that is protecting McIlroy from the profession Grand Slam, probably the most unique membership in golf. He hasn’t received a serious since 2014.
The Gamers Championship is reputed to be the subsequent smartest thing to a serious, and McIlroy managed Sawgrass regardless of lacking barely greater than half of the fairways this week.
“I really feel like I am a greater participant now than I ever have been, and it is good to see the fruits of my labor paying off,” McIlroy stated.
Spaun received $2,725,000 for his runner-up end and moved to No. 25 on this planet rating, excessive sufficient that he’s assured a spot within the Masters.
