Right on time for Rory with victory at Deutsche Bank Championship

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

IT HAS been a long time coming but, finally, Rory McIlroy has won again on the PGA Tour. Finally.

And boy has he picked the right moment to rediscover his touch. Victory in the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, the second of the FedEx Cup playoffs, means that he has put himself in position to win the whole shooting match and the $10m prize that goes with it.  He is now in fourth place and knows that a decent performance at the BMW Championship, followed by victory in the Tour Championship, when only 30 golfers will make it to East Lake, ought to be good for McIlroy to finish his season on a high and go into the Ryder Cup with his confidence sky-high.

Image Credit: Twitter @RoryLegion_GC

McIlroy began the final round six shots behind England's Paul Casey, who had opened with three rounds of 66 and said he had never swung the club better. But Casey, who had attacked the course all week, started defensively, dropped two shots early on and was always struggling from that point.

Meanwhile, McIlroy birdied the second, fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth to reach the turn in 31. He then birdied the 12th and although he dropped a shot at the 17th, he bounced straight back with a brilliant bunker shot at the par-five 18th for a closing birdie, a round of 65 and a 72-hole total of 269, 15 under par. It meant that Casey, two holes behind, had to birdie the final two holes to draw level with McIlroy. When he came up short at the 17th and walked off the green with a par, it meant he needed an eagle at the 18th. He hit a perfect drive and his second shot, with a three iron, found the back of the green. He needed to hole a 40-foot putt across the humps and hollows of the 18th green to draw level with McIlroy but was unable to do so, running his eagle putt fully 10 feet past the hole and then missed the birdie putt. He finished with a 73 and a 13-under-par total. His consolation is that his runner-up finish saw him leap from 59th to 10th place in the FedEx standings.

The Northern Irishman's victory is all the more remarkable when you consider that he was four over par after three holes on the first day before battling back for a level par round of 71. He followed that with rounds of 67, 66 and 65. Most encouraging of all for McIroy was that the best part of his game was hit putting, which has given him so many problems this year. He has changed his stroke and his putter and holed everything he has looked at.

It was a day of contrasting fortunes. Justin Rose was 11 under par when he stood on the 11th tee, still in with a chance of winning, but then came a run of bogey, double-bogey, triple-bogey, par, bogey, triple-bogey. He came home in 45 shots and finished on one under par.

Russell Knox raced to the turn in 30 to get to 10 under after birdies at the first, second, fourth, sixth, seventh and ninth. He also birdied the 11th and 18th holes - unfortunately, Knox mixed all that with four bogeys on the back nine. His 67 saw him finish on eight under par. He is seventh in the FedEx standings. Patrick Reed still leads the way, with Jason Day second, Dustin Johnson third, McIlroy fourth and Adam Scott fifth.

Jimmy Walker was third on 12 under, with Adam Scott fourth on 11 under.

Marc Leishman had a final round of 67, which was good enough to see him finish the tournament in 70th place in the FedEx Cup standings and secure his place in the field for the BMW.