- Rory McIlroy.
Now that Rory McIlroy is king of the golf mountain, people want to start comparing him to Tiger Woods. Fair enough. McIlroy, as did Woods the week before, came from far behind to make a late charge that fell short in the Cadillac Championship at Doral in Miami.
McIlroy began the final round at Doral eight strokes behind the leader, Bubba Watson, but drew into contention on Sunday thanks to his own stellar play and seeming attempts by Watson and Keegan Bradley to give the tournament away. Both rivals seemed totally out of synch, Watson especially on the front nine.
McIlroy birdied three holes going out on Sunday and when he blasted out of a greenside bunker into the hole for eagle at 12, he drew to within a stroke of Bradley, who then held the lead. Bradley, soon thereafter, 3-putted the 10th green to join McIlroy at 15-under-par.
But Justin Rose soon emerged atop the leaderboard and managed to stick there. McIlroy helped him in that regard by driving into the left rough at 14, leading to a bogey to fall two strokes behind. He got back to within one when he sank a right-to-left putt from five feet for birdie at 16.
Another bogey at 18, resulting from an errant drive into the gallery along the right side of the fairway, sealed McIlroy’s fate. He finished third, two strokes behind Rose and one behind Watson, who got his game together late to take second place.
The 14th and 18th holes, both par-4s, were the biggest irritants to McIlroy; he bogeyed each hole on three of the four days. The par-5s were another matter. He picked up eagle at three of the four during the course of the event and clipped 15 strokes off par there without so much as a single bogey.
McIlroy shot 274 (73-69-64-67) for the tournament, which was 14 strokes under par.
“Starting the day eight shots behind, even just to give myself a chance to win was a pretty good effort,” McIlroy said of Sunday’s adventure. “I just couldn’t close it out the way I wanted to.”
McIlroy also shot down any notion that he could rest on his laurels.
“There’s no room for complacency out here at all,” McIlroy said. “Every week’s an opportunity to win, every week’s an opportunity to play well, and even though I didn’t play my best over the first couple of days, I fought back nicely at the weekend and posted a couple of good numbers.”
McIlroy now shuts down to prepare for the Masters, which concludes on Easter Sunday. He will be based in south Florida with an exploratory trip to Augusta to plot strategy.
Graeme McDowell strung together three fine rounds to claim a share of 13th place at 9-under-par 279 (75-67-67-70). The opening round found him birdieless, while racking up three bogeys. But he would suffer only four blemishes over the remaining 54 holes.
Darren Clarke also had a spotty beginning, firing consecutive rounds of 74, only to find his groove over the weekend, when he shot 68 and 69. He tied for 43rd place at 3-under-par 285, which was 13 strokes off Rose’s winning score.
Just like McIlroy, Clarke lost big time at 18. He played that hole seven strokes over par for the tournament, picking up triple bogey and double bogey there on Thursday and Friday, respectively. The rest of the course could only pin six bogeys on him over the four days.
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Fergal Rafferty tied for 43rd place in the Pacific Open at the Sandpiper in Santa Barbara, Calif. He sandwiched rounds of 74 around rounds of 73 to finish the 72-hole event six strokes over par at 294. Chris Devlin (76-75) missed the cut by four strokes and was joined on the sidelines for the final 36 holes by Tom Conran (77-76). The low 72-hole score of 277 was shared by Scott Harrington and Nick Delio; Harrington won the playoff.
