Sports

McIlroy rolls to win at BMW Championship

CARMEL, Ind. — Rory McIlroy faced the strongest collection of contenders at any golf tournament this year at the BMW Championship yesteday. It was no contest.

Even more disconcerting for everyone else, Boy Wonder was expecting to win all along.

McIlroy fine-tuned his swing and missed only one fairway at soggy Crooked Stick, powering his way to a 5-under 67 to win his second straight FedEx Cup playoff event. They followed a record win at the PGA Championship, giving him three wins in his last four starts to establish himself as the dominant player in golf.

He became the first player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win in consecutive weeks on the PGA Tour, and with his sixth career tour win, he joined Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win that many at age 23.

“The more you put yourself in this position, and the more you win and the more you pick up trophies, it becomes normal,” McIlroy said after his two-shot win over Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood. “And it feels like this is what you’re supposed to do.”

For the longest time, this was what Woods used to do.

“I don’t think I’m quite there yet,” McIlroy said. “But I’m getting to that stage where I’m thinking, ‘This is what I should be doing. I should be lifting a trophy at the end of the week.’ It’s been great.’’

“I’m going to try and keep the run going for as long as possible.” Never mind that Mickelson and Vijay Singh — Hall of Famers with 74 tour wins and seven majors between them — were one shot ahead. Or that Westwood, a former world No. 1, was playing alongside. Or that Woods was right behind.

McIlroy made back-to-back birdies around the turn to emerge from a four-way tie, and he turned back one last challenge from Westwood and Mickelson with clutch pars. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland didn’t make a bogey until the 18th hole.

Westwood, who lost to McIlroy in the semifinals of the Match Play Championship in February, wound up with a 69. Mickelson, tied for the lead going into the final round, closed with a 70.

“I played with him when he was 13, and you could see it then,” Westwood said. “He’s just maturing all the time, as he will do. And he’s a very, very good player.

Woods was never seriously in the mix. Five shots behind with seven holes to play, he made three late birdies and shot 68 to tie for fourth with Robert Garrigus (69).

McIlroy’s work is not done. He is the No. 1 seed going into the FedEx Cup finale in two weeks at East Lake, but any of the top five seeds can win the Tour Championship and capture the FedEx Cup with its $10 million bonus. The other four seeds are Woods, Nick Watney, Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker.

“Rory is putting on a show out there,” Woods said. “And we’ve got one more tournament. He’s going out there and is up near the lead and posts a good number. He’s doing the things he needs to do, and as he said yesterday, he’s feeling very confident about his game. Right now he’s just really played well, and he’s making a ton of putts. That’s a great combo.”

Any of the top 30 players who advanced to the Tour Championship have a mathematical shot at winning the $10 million prize. One guy who won’t have that opportunity is Singh, who started the final round tied for the lead with Mickelson. The 49-year-old Fijian fell apart on the back nine with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch to fall out of the top 30. A birdie on the final hole gave Singh a 73, but by then it was too late.

McIlroy finished on 20-under 268 and earned $1.44 million, pushing him to over $7.8 million for the season to effectively lock up the money title and all but assured being voted by his peers as the PGA Tour player of the year.

He has four wins on tour this year — one more than Woods — and that includes a record eight-shot win at the PGA Championship.

This doesn’t rate as highly as winning a major at Kiawah Island, though the All-Star cast that he beat made it satisfying — Mickelson, Singh, Westwood, Woods, Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott all were within range of the lead going into the final day.

McIlroy not only beat them all, he managed to take the drama out of the final hour with a towering 4-iron from 226 yards that landed softly and set up a two-putt birdie from 15 feet on the 15th. He followed that with another birdie putt from just inside 15 feet on the next hole to build a three-shot lead.