Rory Goes 7-0 En Route To WGC-Match Play Win
- Dan Hauser
- 4 May, 2015
It certainly wasn’t a normal week on the PGA Tour. Then again, that’s to be expected when the Match Play rolls around on the calender. The four day stroke play event with 150 golfers and a 36-hole cut gets tossed aside for one week as the top 64 golfers in the world gather for a winner take all bracket style event that lasts five days, going from 64 on Wednesday and culminating with one winner Sunday afternoon.
This year’s WGC-Match Play came with a little bit of a twist. In was a new sponsor, Cadillac, as well as a new format. Gone were the days of win or go home and the most exciting Wednesday in all of golf. After too many of the top names were sent packing on Wednesday’s in the past, the PGA Tour decided to tinker the event, making it less March Madness and more World Cup. 16 groups made up Pool Play which was contested over the first three days. All four golfers in each pool played each other once, with the golfer with the best record advancing to the Round of 16. From that point on, it became single elimination until a winner was crowned on Sunday.
That winner just happened to be the World # 1 Rory Mcllroy, who defeated Gary Woodland 4&2.
“I played some great golf this week and got the job done, which was the most important thing,” McIlroy said. “Great to get the first win stateside this year and move to next week and try and do the same.”
Rory went 7-0 on the week to get his 10th win on the PGA Tour, but a few breaks the other way and he could have been sent home early on. Mcllroy was two down with two to play on Friday against Billy Horschel with the winner advancing out of the pool. He came back to tie it up and sent it to extra holes before winning in 20. The next day, he found himself once again trailing coming down the stretch, this time to Englishman Paul Casey in the quarterfinals. This time he was one down heading to the 17th hole. Once again, he managed to tie it up sending it to extras. They played until it got dark out, coming back Sunday morning before Rory finally came through in 22 holes. He had to stage the same comeback to get to the championship match, defeating Jim Furyk with a long eagle putt on the final hole.
“I’m really proud of myself with how I showed a lot of character early on with coming back from deficits,” McIlroy said. ”I played really solid golf. I couldn’t be happier.”
What made the week even stranger for Rory was the curve ball the overtime match with Casey threw in his plans for Saturday.
Mcllroy was originally supposed to jet off to Las Vegas after his round Saturday to catch the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight. He had managed to get some tickets for an undisclosed amount of money. He had been looking forward to the fight all week, but as the match with Casey went later and later into the day, it became less and less likely that he would be able to get to the fight on time.
Instead, Rory watched the fight with some of the assembled media in the Media Center at TPC Harding Park and that was probably the best decision he could have made all week. In addition to the fight lacking any sort of real excitement, Mcllroy was in store for a long day Sunday.
His day started at 6:45AM local time (9:45 ET) when he and Casey finished their match from Saturday. He then had to turn around and face Furyk in the semifinals before turning around once again and squaring off against Woodland in the title match. Whatever he paid for the tickets will most certainly be negated by his $1.5 million check that he received for the win.
2,945 total views, 2 views today
About Dan Hauser
As an avid golfer and sports enthusiast, Dan has had a passion for sports starting at a very young age. Dan’s other passion has always been writing. Since the time he could write, he has always enjoyed sharing information with people and telling stories through writing. In middle school he combined his two loves by joining the school newspaper in the sports department.
