PGA Tour Championship: Rory McIlroy’s ‘comeback of comebacks’ in Atlanta

With one round to go at the Tour Championship, Rory McIlroy looked as if he didn’t have a hope, said James Corrigan in The Daily Telegraph. The Northern Irishman had a chance of finishing second, but he lagged six shots behind the man who’d led all tournament, world No.1 Scottie Scheffler.

Yet defying the odds, the 33-year-old mounted the “comeback of comebacks”, said Kieran Gill in the Daily Mail. His final round of 66 was enough to secure victory by a single shot over Scheffler, whose challenge hit the buffers with an error-strewn 73. Never before has a player made up so many shots on the final round of this Championship – the PGA Tour’s “grand season-ender” held each year in Atlanta, Georgia. It gave McIlroy a record third victory at the tournament.

Almost as striking as McIlroy’s fightback was the amount he pocketed for winning, said Alan Blinder in The New York Times. The Tour Championship isn’t one of golf’s four major titles, but it’s easily the sport’s best-remunerated event: McIlroy’s prize was $18m. Yet despite the eye-watering sums on offer, top players are abandoning the PGA tour for the new, Saudi-backed LIV tour. Already this year some of the biggest names – including Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood – have signed up for LIV, lured by the promise of even greater riches (sign-up fees are rumoured to be $150m).

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This week, the tour announced its “next raft of recruits”, including world No. 2 Cameron Smith (winner of this year’s Open), and Joaquín Niemann, the “highest-ranked player in the world aged under 25”. All this, not surprisingly, has plunged the sport into a civil war, said Ewan Murray in The Guardian. What a pity that the “exploits” of a player like McIlroy, an outspoken critic of LIV, are being overshadowed as a result.