McIlroy, Horschel tied for lead heading into final day of Tour Championship
ATLANTA, Ga. - All day long at East Lake, everyone seemed to be waiting for something, anything, to happen. The skies wavered between blinding sunshine and foreboding cloud cover. The gallery had at least one ear ready for the impending Georgia-South Carolina game. The players burbled around the leaderboard, with all major swings taking place well away from the leaders.
And then came 15, and Rory McIlroy's eagle putt, and all of a sudden, the game was afoot. McIlroy shot a 67, while Horschel fumbled a bit on the back nine and ended with a 69. It's his 11th straight round in the 60s, but it was enough to erase his two-shot lead on McIlroy coming into the day.
Horschel and McIlroy now find themselves 18 holes away from golf's richest prize: the $10 million FedEx Cup. All each player needs to do is win the tournament and the Cup and payday is his. Both are -9, and will once again be paired with each other on Sunday.
A little further down the leaderboard is Jim Furyk at -6, whose last win was the Tour Championship in 2010. Furyk can win the FedEx Cup as long as Horschel or Chris Kirk don't finish in solo second place.
One stroke behind Furyk are Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose, and Jason Day. All three can only win the FedEx Cup with a series of college-level algebraics determining where their pursuers must finish. At the moment, it's McIlroy or Horschel's to lose.
"Can we go tee it up right now?" Horschel said afterward. "I'm serious. That would help me out a lot. I'm ready to go. It's going to be so fun."
The big mover of the day in the positive direction was Gary Woodland, who rode a 7-under round to a -1 tournament just outside the top 10; not bad for a guy who started the tournament in dead last. On the other end of the spectrum was Jordan Spieth, who shot a horrendous 10-over 80. Spieth did not blame injury woes; he simply couldn't hit a fairway all afternoon. He, and the rest of the field, will get one last chance at glory, or at least redemption, on Sunday.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.
