Rory McIlroy’s week off could turn into a win-win situation.
McIlroy skipped The Barclays, the opener of the FedEx Cup playoffs, to further heal the left ankle he injured while playing soccer July 4. He will be back on the PGA Tour this week for the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston in Norton, Mass.
Jordan Spieth, who took the No. 1 ranking in the World Golf Rankings from McIlroy by finishing second in the PGA Championship, missed the cut in the Barclays, giving top spot back to the Irishman.
Spieth pointed out that McIlroy, or almost anyone else high in the standings, can claim the FedEx Cup by winning the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta in three weeks.
“It’s pretty much, did you win East Lake?” said Spieth, who built a huge lead in the standings during the regular season that basically was a mirage. “For the most part, if you win East Lake, (you win the Cup). The guys that have won have been, I think Bill (Haas, 2011) came from way behind, but the guys have been up there because they played well leading into the Tour Championship (and then won it).”
It wasn’t always that way.
Vijay Singh captured the Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship in 2008, then coasted the rest of the way to the Cup by tying for 44th in the BMW Championship and tying for 22nd in the Tour Championship.
The rules were changed, and any player who is in the top five heading into the finale and wins at East Lake takes home both trophies.
McIlroy felt the sting of that rule change in 2012, when he captured the Deutsche Bank and the BMW to take the lead in the standings, but he tied for 10th in the Tour Championship and watched Brandt Snedeker take home all the loot by winning the tournament.
“It is disappointing,” McIlroy said when it was over. “I feel like the last month of golf has been obviously very good, starting with (winning) the PGA. …
“I played well. I finished in the top 10 here, but it wasn’t enough.”
McIlroy had another brilliant end to the regular season last year, when he captured the Open Championship, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship in consecutive outings.
Even though he might have been worn down by that incredible stretch, he tied for 22nd in the Barclays, tied for fifth in the Deutsche Bank, tied for eighth in the BMW and tied for second in the Tour Championship to wind up third in the FedEx standings.
“It’s been a long four weeks,” McIlroy said at the end of the playoffs last year. “If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have taken a week off somewhere in this stretch of tournaments.
“But you know, it’s tough because, these sponsors that are sponsoring the tournaments and the FedEx Cup playoffs, they’re putting up an awful lot of money to get the best players in the world there to their event.
“Not that you feel obliged, but you want to support the events and you want to show up and give the sponsors something to be happy about and proud of.”
Thus, his absence last week might not have been solely about the ankle.
Earlier this year, McIlroy tightened his grip on the No. 1 spot by winning the Wells Fargo Championship and the WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, and he probably would have stayed on top had he not gotten hurt and Spieth not gotten hot.
The 22-year-old American has won four times this season, including the Masters and U.S. Open, and he eventually ended McIlroy’s 93-week run atop the World Golf Rankings.
Having McIlroy in the field this week at TPC Boston, and with Spieth coming off a missed cut, might give the Texan a little extra incentive this week. Wouldn’t it be something to see the top two players in the world battling it out on Sunday?
However, they also have to deal with No. 3 Jason Day, the PGA champion who took the lead in the FedEx Cup standings by winning the Barclays by six strokes for his third victory in four outings and his fourth of the season.
McIlroy’s ankle injury prevented him from defending his titles at St. Andrews and Firestone. After he finished 17th as Day won the PGA at Whistling Straits while Spieth took the No. 1 spot, the Irishman was gracious.
“2 inevitable things happened today, @JDayGolf winning a major and @JordanSpieth getting to 1 in the world!” he wrote in a Twitter post. “Congrats guys!! Inspiring stuff!”
Still, you know McIlroy already is plotting to stay at the top, and he figures to be fresher than the other top players near the end of a long season.
“I’ve always said that winning golf tournaments takes care of all of that stuff,” said McIlroy, who captured the European Tour’s Race to Dubai for the second time last year and is leading the point standings again this season with tournaments in China and Dubai still on his schedule.
“Right now I’m focused on just getting my game the way I think it has to be to win tournaments.”
Or in some cases, win-win.
–Story courtesy of The Sports Xchange, TSX Golf Editor Tom LaMarre
