Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland continued his superb run of form to win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Ohio by two strokes from Spain’s Sergio Garcia.
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland continued his superb run of form to win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Ohio by two strokes from Spain’s Sergio Garcia.
Just two weeks after his victory in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, McIlroy has moved to the Number 1 spot on the Official World Golf Ranking.
McIlroy began the final round three shots behind Garcia but when the Northern Irishman birdied four of his first five holes, and the Spaniard played the same stretch in one-over-par, McIlroy moved two clear.
Garcia clawed his way back to level terms after nine holes but McIlroy moved ahead once more with a birdie on the 11th. When Garcia failed to get up-and-down from beside the 15th green, the lead was two once more and McIlroy held on to that advantage to the finish. Just as at Royal Liverpool, Garcia had to settle for second place.
"What I am really proud of this week is following on from The Open with a performance like this," McIlroy said. "I said straight after Hoylake I did not want any let down, I wanted to keep going and performing until the end of the season. It's great to come to one of my favourite tournaments of the year and to perform like this I am pretty satisfied."
Australia’s Marc Leishman produced a solid round of 67 to end the week alone in third.
After rain had softened the course, there was some low scoring at Firestone on Sunday. Charl Schwartzel and Patrick Reed climbed the leaderboard with final rounds of 64 and 65 respectively. They finished tied for fourth with Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose.
Earlier, Phil Mickelson produced 10 birdies and only two bogeys in a round of 62.
With two weekend rounds of 66, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland edged himself closer to one of the automatic qualifying spots for the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational Firestone CC, Akron, Ohio Jul 31 – Aug 3, purse $9,000,000, par 70
1 Rory McIlroy (NIR) 69 64 66 66 265 $1,530,000 2 Sergio Garcia (Esp) 68 61 67 71 267 $900,000 3 Marc Leishman (Aus) 64 69 68 67 268 $522,000 T4 Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 65 69 73 64 271 $308,000 T4 Patrick Reed (USA) 67 68 71 65 271 $308,000 T4 Keegan Bradley (USA) 68 67 67 69 271 $308,000 T4 Justin Rose (Eng) 65 67 70 69 271 $308,000 T8 Graeme McDowell (NIR) 71 70 66 66 273 $170,000 T8 Rickie Fowler (USA) 67 67 72 67 273 $170,000 T8 Ryan Moore (USA) 65 73 68 67 273 $170,000 T8 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 68 65 71 273 $170,000
Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage
