Rory McIlroy spoilt a double 30th birthday and third victory celebration starring in yet another Sunday horror show at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte.
There was no cork-popping champers, no birthday cheers though plenty of calls for pain-killers with McIlroy posting yet another awful-watching display in a final round 73 to share eighth place at se.ven under.
A one-hour suspension to play at 5.10pm (Local time) momentarily halted the hurt with Mcllroy finding a greenside bunker at the par-5 15thand at the time slipping back to a share of 12th place at six-under par.
Mcllroy, and in his final event ahead of next week’s second major of the season, headed to the security of the clubhouse trailing nine shots behind American Max Homa, and with the 28-year old Californian on track for a maiden Tour title in leading the field by three shots and with five holes to play.
Homa emerged after just over an hour’s delay to hold on to win by three shots with a final round 67 for a 15-under par tally.
Two years ago, Homa earned just $18,008 from his 17 starts in 2017 and in a season he was 61-over par.
Now he’s headed home with a whopping $1.4m prize cheque.
Nine years ago, and then two days prior to McIlroy’s then 21st birthday, he posted an eagle and 17 birdies over the weekend in shooting scores of 66 and 62 to win a first PGA Tour title by four shots.
Now in turning 30 on Saturday and combined with his final round shocker, McIlroy had manage just six birdies over the last two days but sadly also posted two bogeys and a double.
“It was a bit of a stop-start weekend,” he said.
“I finished well yesterday to give myself a chance going into today. Played the first six holes well today, sort of pretty steady,
what you need to do. Could have made a couple there. And then the three-putt on 7 sort of derailed any sort of momentum that I had.
I ended up birdieing the eighth hole and then 9 and 10 was basically my own doing. I think of the — of my play over the last few days; if anything, I hit a couple drives left over the weekend, but then my short game sort of just cost me a few shots. So go back home this week, work on that a little bit and get a little bit sharper in those areas and get ready for a couple weeks’ time”.
There had been a chorus on ‘Happy Birthday’ on Saturday for McIlroy on the first tee but heading into his closing nine, and the sprint to the Euro 1.16m first prize cheque, his round was turning into a wake.
McIlroy’s final round never really got out of first gear.
He pared his opening eight holes, including three-putting the par-5 seventh from 21-feet and with the writing very clearly on the wall when he bogeyed the ninth hole in three-putting from around 50-feet.
And if there was one hole to epitomise McIlroy’s anguish it was the par-5 10th hole where he had been three-under for the week with three prior birdies.
His second shot rolled-up close to pin-high right just 48-feet from the flag but with McIlroy making a mess of his chip shot that failed to clear the slope on the edge of the green and with his ball rolling back down to still be well shy of the ‘dance floor’.
Inexplicably, he did the same again with his fourth before two-putting from six-foot for a double-bogey ‘7’ and his second double for the week.
The double sent McIlroy outside the top-10 and into a then share of 12th.
It was not par-3 13h McIlroy finally turned on the brilliance switch landing his tee shot to just three-feet for a first birdie since the 15th on Saturday.
Though the horror show continued with McIlroy sending his tee-shot at 14 into the water for the second bogey of his round and now a distant nine shots off the lead.
He then played ‘The Green Mile”, and Quail Hollow’s three closing holes, with three pars and praised Homa, the new Wells Fargo champion.
“I think even from some of the comments Max made yesterday, he said he felt calm out there and it was sort of — he said he was surprised at how calm he felt,” said McIlroy.
“So if you can get into that environment and play really good golf and feel that way, then that’s great for him going forward. I was very impressed with him yesterday. He hit the ball really well, putted it pretty good. As you said, stayed level headed and he’s played really well this week. If he pars the last, he shoots 15 under par for the week and that’s really good golf around here”.
For a second straight tournament, and after his lowly T21st Augusta finish, the four-time Major winner again has plenty of soul-searching ahead of the years’ second major and starting May 16th at Bethpage Park outside of New York.
And if there is any comfort for McIlroy, he returns to the famed ‘Black Course’ at Bethpage Park having captured the 2012 Barclays Championship in his first appearance on the public golf course.
