Rory McIlroy posts another Wire-to-wire victory at the lucrative Shanghai Masters
Raging Rory McIlroy, who had been leading the lucrative Shanghai Masters from the very first day, had a close niche with a disaster on Sunday, when he started throwing away his lead in the final round. He averted what many started predicting as the “Masters
meltdown”, on a tight Playoff hole lock down with the American Anthony Kim. The young Irishman clinched one of the richest winner’s prize cheque in the sport, weighing up to a whooping $2-million.
"It's something that I feel like I can still get better at is winning and putting yourself in the position to win when you're not playing your best," McIlroy said. "Even if it's scrappy golf where you grind it out, you're going to win a lot more tournaments
by doing that rather than playing your best golf the whole week. I was very happy I was able to pull this one out."
The day started off as the 22-year-old Irishman, bustling with confidence with his wire-to-wire lead, fell for a terrible bogey on the first hole. American Kim capitalizing on the loss, edged past McIlroy with consecutive three birdies on his opening front
nine. McIlroy regained the lead at the seventh but lost it again at par-four, 9th, giving Kim another chance to move ahead. The nail-biting showdown lingered till the last hole where McIlroy lost a chance to win the event on the 18th
when he failed to sink an 8-footer birdie putt. Both players finished 18-under, 270 to call in a Playoff. While both players shot into bunker on the first hole, McIlroy was able to sink his as Kim missed the putt.
"It was an exciting final day and a tough finish for me personally," Kim said. "We had a lot fun out there today."
American Hunter Mahan (70) who had been in share of the lead in the opening round, and South Korea's Noh Seung-yul (73) finished for a joint third. World number two Lee Westwood finished for a joint fifth with his final round score of 67.
The multi-million event is not sanctioned by any of the international tours and does not have points either on the Race to Dubai or FedExCup points table. The purse of the event organized by the International Management Group (IMG) was a massive $5-million.
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