After five hours of an exquisite battle among Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Louis Oosthuizen, the pivotal moment was when Schauffele reached into a hat on the 18th tee for a white slip of paper with “2? written on it. That meant McIlroy would go first in the playoff.
Rory followed a soaring drive down the middle of the fairway with a 4-iron from 223 yards into the wind to 25 feet that set up a two-putt birdie for the victory.
McIlroy did everything right, closing with a 4-under 68 and going bogey-free over the last 39 holes he played.
Schauffele made him do a little more with birdies on two of the last four holes for a 66 to force a playoff at 19-under 269. That was as close as it got. Schauffele tugged his tee shot into thick rough near a bunker, laid up and narrowly missed a 12-foot birdie putt.
McIlroy won for the fourth time this year. It was his third World Golf Championships title, and his first since the Match Play at Harding Park in 2015.
McIlroy moves a little closer to Brooks Koepka at No. 1 in the world with one tournament left, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai the week before Thanksgiving to close out what already has been a special year. This is the fourth time McIlroy has won at least four times in a season.
Louis Oosthuizen birdied his opening two holes to set the early target, and he was tied with McIlroy until a tee shot into the trees on the ninth, and a chip that didn’t reach the fairway, leading to bogey. Oosthuizen made another bogey on the 11th that effectively dropped him out of the race.
McIlroy took a two-shot lead with a bit of fortune on the par-5 14th. His second shot landed near the back pin but bounced hard into thick rough. His chip looked to be running some 10 feet by the hole, except that it hit the pin and left him a short birdie putt.
More fortune awaited on the 18th hole. One shot ahead of Schauffele, who was in the fairway, McIlroy went right and watched the ball bound off the hill and settle in thick rough a foot from the red hazard line. He punched out to the fairway, but his approach was 25 feet short and he missed a birdie putt for the win.
Phil Mickelson closed with a 68 and tied for 28th. With Shugo Imahira finishing second on the Japan Golf Tour, Mickelson will drop out of the top 50 in the world for the first time since Nov. 28, 1993, the longest consecutive streak in the top 50 since the Official World Golf Ranking began in 1986.
Patrick Reed made one last audition as a captain’s pick for the Presidents Cup with a 66 to tie for eighth. He has finished among the top 20 in 10 of his last 13 starts, including a victory in the FedEx Cup playoffs. U.S. captain Tiger Woods announces his selections on Thursday.
McIlroy now gets a two-week break before wrapping up his year in Dubai.
