McIlroy Not Moved by Fedex Cheque

Rory McIlroy has said he does not care about the $10m bonus that could come with victory at the Tour Championship.

The 26-year-old, whose season has been interrupted by injury, just wants to get back to winning and is more motivated by adding the FedExCup to his list of trophies.

"Luckily, that amount of money doesn't sort of mean much to me anymore," said McIlroy on the eve of the season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta that caps the FedExCup playoffs and awards the bonus to the points leader.

"It will go in the bank and if I want to buy something nice, I will. I mean, like, it's nice to think that you could win $10m this week, but that's not what excites me.

"It excites me to play well and to try and win. And the FedExCup is... one of the only things that I haven't put on my golf CV and that would be more exciting to do that rather than walk away with a cheque."

The young Northern Irishman has already won financial security for generations of family to come.

In 2013, McIlroy signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Nike Golf worth a reported $200m, and he's earned more than $28m in his PGA Tour career, not counting tens of millions more from European Tour earnings and more still from other endorsements.

However, the 26-year-old Northern Irishman regrets the loss of a chunk of his year after he injured his ankle playing football with friends.

McIlroy said he had learned some lessons from 2015, including that he should avoid putting extra pressure on himself as he believes he did when he was trying to extend his run to three majors in a row at the Masters in April.

"I'll still work as hard as ever in trying to get prepared and trying to get my shape in the best place possible to play those (major) tournaments, but not work at it for the reason of 'I can make history here'.

"There was just this expectation of and knowing what was at stake, what could happen, instead of just going out and playing and trying not to think about all that stuff."

There is another lesson McIlroy said he learned.

"Don't play football in the middle of the season."

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McIlroy Finishes Second in Atlanta

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Rory McIlroy finished in share of second place in the season finale Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday with Billy Horschel securing a £7million payday at East Lake in Atlanta.

The American's closing 68 gave him a three-shot victory in the PGA Tour's season-ending tournament and with it the first prize of £880,000, the overall FedEx Cup title and an incredible £6.2million bonus.

McIlroy's hopes went up in smoke due to a terrible run sparked by a double bogey at the sixth after he drove into water.

The world No 1 bogeyed 9, 10 and 11 to drop right away before rallying with birdies at 15, 16 and 17.

McIlroy blamed his double-bogey on the sixth on a tired swing, adding on Sky Sports 4: "I was making bad swings at the wrong time and getting punished for them.

"When Billy was making bogey on 10 I thought I had a decent chance and then I three-putt there for the second day in a row and I felt like any chance I had to win the golf tournament went."

Asked about his season overall, McIlroy added: "To win two majors, my first WGC event and give it a real good run in these FedEx events, I'm really proud of myself the way I hung in there and dug deep the last few weeks.

"When I look back on the year as a whole it's been my best year to date so I can't complain."

Jim Furyk was tied for the lead with three to play but faltered at the finish and shared second place with McIlroy.

On a dramatic final day, the key moment came at the 16th hole when Horschel looked set to fall back into a tie with Furyk before sinking a 31 foot putt for par.

When Furyk bogeyed 17 after a poor approach, Horschel had breathing space and a three-putt at the last from the veteran American meant Horschel, who also won last week's BMW Championship, teed off at the last with a three-shot lead.

Horschel closed out victory in style with a lovely tee-shot into the heart of the green and two-putted to land his monster payout with a winning score of 11-under. 

Chris Kirk, Justin Rose and Jason Day tied for fourth.

Rose twice got within two shots of the lead on the back nine but bogeyed the 13th and 17th at crucial moments on his way to a closing 69.

Things seemed to be going McIlroy's way when he hit a wild drive on the fourth but had a clear shot to the green and ended up holing from 18 feet for birdie.

Horschel followed McIlroy in from 11 feet to remain tied for the lead before edging ahead on the next, where he holed from 18 feet as McIlroy had to settle for par.

Perhaps the decisive moment arrived on the treacherous par-three sixth, where Horschel hit a superb three iron into the heart of the green and then saw McIlroy, attempting to hit two clubs less, pull his tee shot into the water surrounding the green.

From the drop zone McIlroy pitched to 12 feet and two-putted for a double-bogey five and the four-time major winner found more trouble on the ninth, the 25-year-old's wild drive finishing up against a fence separating the par-five from the practice ground.

After weighing up his slim options, McIlroy told caddie JP Fitzgerald: "I'm just going to blast it, see where it goes", and proceeded to try to hit his second shot over a group of trees just a few yards in front of him.

The ball inevitably made contact but rebounded out towards the fairway, but having laid up with his third shot, McIlroy missed the green with his approach and in the end did well to get up and down for a bogey six.

Horschel looked to have given McIlroy a glimmer of hope when he found thick rough off the tee to bogey the 10th, only for McIlroy to then three-putt from 20 feet and also bogey the 11th to effectively end his chances.

Despite winning the final two FedEx Cup play-off events, Horschel will not be heading to the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in two weeks' time having only struck his golden patch of form after skipper Tom Watson had already announced his wildcard picks.

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Rory Defends Tiger and Lefty Comments

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Rory McIlroy has defended his comments about Tiger Woods andPhil Mickelson being in “the last few holes of their careers”.

McIlroy first addressed the issue during his pre-tournament press conference at theTour Championship in Atlanta, which will not feature either Woods or Mickelson for the first time since 1992.

The 25-year-old was asked if that represented a changing of the guard in golf and said: “Not really. I mean, Phil has played well in parts this year. He came really close to winning the PGA (finishing second behind McIlroy). I feel like he’s gotten a little better as the year has went on.

“But it’s a lot of golf for him to play in such a short space of time. So you could see he was getting a little tired the last couple of weeks. And, I mean, Tiger’s not here just because he’s been injured or he is injured. He hasn’t had the opportunity to play.

“But I think if he gets back and when he gets back to full fitness, you’ll see him back here again. So I’m not sure... they’re just getting older. Phil’s 43 or whatever (actually 44) and Tiger’s nearly 40 (Woods turns 39 in December).

“So they’re getting into the sort of last few holes of their career. And that’s what happens. You get injured. Phil has to deal with an arthritic condition as well. So it obviously just gets harder as you get older. I’ll be able to tell you in 20 years how it feels.”

Despite simply stating the facts, McIlroy’s comments inevitably generated comments on social media and the four-time major winner later wrote on his Twitter account: “Got a question today about Tiger and Phil... Gave an honest answer, was very complimentary about the two best golfers of this generation.

“Golfers on average have a 20-25 year career, both into the back 9 of their careers... Don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying that.”

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