Rory McIlroy reveals 'external pressures' caused u-turn on early season finish
Rory McIlroy signed off his mediocre year on the PGA Tour admitting that it was only “external pressures” that persuaded him to ditch his plan to take off the rest of the season and play in the FedEx Cup.
McIlroy’s level-par 71 left him on two-under and down in a tie for 58th in the 70-man field BMW Championship. His performance at Conway Farms in Chicago was not nearly good enough to see him qualify for the top 30 which have gone forward to the Tour Championship in Atlanta, beginning on Thursday.
Last year, McIlroy won the event at East Lake to scoop $11.2m. It will be a rather less lucrative next Sunday for McIlroy this time around.
In truth, the Northern Irishman did not crave to play in the PGA Tour’s play-offs, which began three weeks ago. After the USPGA - where he finished 22nd- McIlroy intimated that, because of his ongoing rib injury, he might not play again this year to ensure he was fully recovered.
But then he surprisingly teed up in the first FedEx Cup event in New York three weeks ago and tied for 34th. He proceeded to miss the cut in Boston and then his display at Conway Farms was not nearly good enough to see him advance.
McIlroy declined to state specifically whether it was the direct wishes of his sponsors or the Tour which persuaded him to play, but it was clearly not solely down to his ambitions as a golfer. He signed a $10m-a-year clubs deal with TaylorMade at the start of this campaign and also has a similar endorsement to wear and promote Nike products.
“Some decisions aren’t completely up to the individual,” McIlroy said. “There were outside expectation from elsewhere. I played these events for two reasons: thinking that I still had a chance, but also trying to fulfil obligations elsewhere. So there were two parts of it.”
McIlroy is not quite finished for 2017, as he will be seen at the Dunhill Links in Fife in two weeks’ time. If he does not prevail there, it will be the first time that McIlroy has gone a season without lifting a title since 2008 - when he was 18. Hardly panic stations. But not what he imagined.
At the Evian Championship, the Swede Anna Nordqvist became the first European woman to win a female major title since 2009 by coming through a play-off against the American Brittany Altomare.
In torrential rain on the French layout overlooking Lake Geneva, Nordqvist won on the first extra hole with a bogey five.
England's Georgia Hall was the highest-placed Briton with a 72 on four-under in a share of 11th place. The British No 1, Charley Hull, shot 70 to finish on one-over in joint 33rd.
On the European Tour, France's Romain Wattel claimed his maiden victory when the Thai Kiradech Aphibarnrat double-bogeyed two of the last four holes at the KLM Open in Holland. Lee Westwood finished in a tie for third alongside fellow Englishman Eddie Pepperell.
