Free Rory's Glory by Justin Doyle Page A

two shots from Westwood.
    A late birdie from Mickelson lifted him to a share of second place with the valiant Englishman on -18. Tiger Woods was a further shot back tied for fourth on -17. Rory, in just one week, hit winning scores of -20 to win the Deutsche Bank and BMW – 40 under par!
    Two wins in a week and three wins in a month. Rory McIlroy was in dreamland. Never mind winning $2.9 million in that week, he was now leading the Fedex Cup rankings and was in line for a cool $10 million if he remained top by the end of the following week.
    The press conferences were now becoming almost giddy. Rory probably entered those rooms seeing the same faces and running out of things to say. If the truth is known, so were the scribes! For the record, this was his reaction after the BMW win:
    I’m on a great run at the minute. I actually had to scramble a bit out there but I drove the ball beautifully today. It’s great to be able to win events like these when the quality [of the field] is so good. I came here with the mindset from Boston that I just wanted to keep going on this roll. Some suggested that I could take a week off and still be in the Top 5 of the Fedex Cup going into Atlanta but I felt I was playing really well and didn’t want to stop. I sort of picked up from where I left in Boston, shooting 64 the first day here, and I’m playing with a lot of confidence right now. I’m confident in my ability and with the shots that I’m hitting and confident on the greens. I’m making the right decisions out there and everything is just going to plan at the minute. I want to try and keep it going for as long as possible.
    Alas Rory was to be floored by a knockout uppercut at the season’s final event, the Tour Championship. The rains had been to Rory’s advantage in the previous event but the winds put a huge dent in his challenge and in his bid to win the Fedex Cup.
    After four quick bogeys on the front nine, the writing was on the wall. Brandt Snedeker, who had been most consistent in the four Fedex Cup events, came through to win by three shots from Justin Rose and claim the whopping $10 million prize.
    An argument could have sprung up and raged as to the merits of ‘consistency’ versus ‘wins’ to decide the outcome of the Fedex Cup. After all, Rory had won twice. But it is as it is and similar parameters can be drawn with boxing – a win by knockout or points.
    Snedeker was runner-up in The Barclays when Rory only tied 24 th and he was a consistent high finisher in the previous two that Rory won. A final round 74 from Rory and tied 10 th was his undoing. He hid his severe disappointment afterwards when saying:
    I’m a little disappointed, but at the same time, Brandt really deserves to win. He played the best golf out of anyone. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to come in here and win. He controlled his own destiny, just like I did. And he was able to come and do that. So because of that, he really deserves it.
    Make no mistake about it, Rory is a winner and this hurt – big time. The key words in that statement, which showed that he felt he should have been the victor, and perhaps that the Fedex Cup should be on a ‘win basis’, was his ‘just like I did’.
    McIlroy would dearly love to have joined Tiger Woods (twice), Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk and Bill Haas as the only men to have won the Fedex Cup since its inception in 2007. But it was Brandt Snedeker, and in another respect, Brandt was a most deserving winner.
    In these modern times when there is a growing worldwide call for millionaires and billionaires to give away some or most of their fortunes (as they can still live securely on the rest of it) to worthwhile causes, then the Tennessee golfer was a real winner.
    This is what he said after his win and it was really one of the quotes of the year:
    I’m not by any means a flashy guy. Of anybody that I know, I do not need $10 million.