Rory McIlroy won his 3rd major championship, by winning The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, England. McIlroy, 25, led after every round, and won by 2 strokes over Sergio Garcia of Spain, and Rickie Fowler of the United States.
Each of McIlroy’s major championships are at different golf tournaments. He now just needs the Masters to win all 4 majors. He is the 3rd youngest in history, behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, to win 3/4 of a career grand slam. Woods barely made the cut, finishing in 69th place, 23 shots back, his largest deficit in a major ever. This was the first major tournament since back surgery for Woods.
Adam Scott finished tied for 5th, and remains the #1 ranked player in the world. McIlroy moves up to #2 with his championship this weekend. Winning the Open Championship is particularly gratifying for him, since he is from Northern Ireland. McIlroy will have to wait until next April to attempt to finish off a career grand slam with a victory in the Masters.
After 3 rounds McIlroy had a 6-shot lead, but it dwindled down to 2, with Garcia and Fowler making a strong push in the last round. But McIlroy held strong, even chipping out of a bunker on the 18th hole, and finishing with a par. Fowler shot in the 60s in every round, but it still wasn’t enough to catch McIlroy. Garcia has now finished as a runner-up in major tournaments 4 times.
Interestingly, Rory wasn’t the only McIlroy that was a big winner on Sunday. His father made a wager 10 years ago, along with 3 friends, that Rory would win The Open Championship before he turned 26. Each person put up 100 pounds ($170) at 500-1 odds. That’s $85,00o for each of them. Rory did win $1,665,788 for his efforts, in winning what used to be called The British Open, or maybe it was just called that by Americans.
Look for McIlroy to win several more majors in his career if he stays healthy. When he’s on, like he was this week in England, he’s almost impossible to beat. There are several other good young golfers coming up, but McIlroy is the best.
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