Viktor Hovland hit a closing spherical 63 at East Lake in Atlanta to win the Tour Championship by 5 pictures – and the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup title –and decide up the winner’s examine for a cool $18m.
The in-form Norwegian, who received the earlier week’s BMW Championship, led by six pictures going into Sunday’s closing spherical, after capturing 68, 64 and 66, however was pressed by Xander Schauffele, who shot a 62 and closed to inside three strokes with six to play. Nevertheless, Hovland birdied the ultimate three holes to win by 5 strokes on 27 underneath.
“It’s fairly surreal to be standing right here proper now,” mentioned Hovland, who strikes as much as world no.4 with the win. “The gameplan earlier than beginning was to hit the center of the inexperienced, make lots of pars and make Xander get after it, which he did early so I needed to change my gameplan a little bit bit.”
Hovland and Schauffele had equally quick begins, each choosing up 4 birdies of their opening six holes after a close to two-hour delay due to lightning and heavy rain. The American holed additional birdie putts on 8, 11 and 12 to scale back the deficit to 3 as Hovland missed possibilities of his personal but in addition made some essential par putts.
It seemed like Hovland’s benefit could also be additional decreased at 14 after he hit a poor chip, however he sensationally holed a 23-foot putt to avoid wasting par. “That was simply enormous for momentum as a result of two pictures with 4 holes to go is rather a lot completely different from three pictures,” Hovland mentioned. “And after that I actually relaxed.”
His fifth birdie of the day got here on 16, to finish a run of 9 pars, and he added two extra on the 17 and 18 to seal his sixth PGA Tour victory and the largest win of his profession within the season-ending event.
Schauffele additionally had a bogey-free spherical as he completed on 22 underneath to say the $6.5m runner-up prize from the $75m bonus pot. US Open champion Wyndham Clark completed third on 16 underneath.
World no.1 Scottie Scheffler, who began the week two pictures forward of Hovland on 10 underneath par as chief of the FedEx Cup standings, had a disappointing week and closed with a level-par 70 to complete on 11 underneath. Three-time champion Rory McIlroy, who had been battling a again damage all week, closed with a 65 to complete fourth on 14 underneath.
“Because the week went on it received looser and as we speak it was fairly near 100%,” the Northern Irishman mentioned. “I want I had felt like this the remainder of the week, however even with out a unhealthy again I’m undecided I’d have been capable of dangle with the 2 guys in entrance.”
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