Comment ATLANTA — A period of worry on the PGA Tour ended with a bang in the heat here early Sunday afternoon, leaving everyone involved to take a nap after the last few months had doubled as a freak slog. It ended with a fade to faded chants of “Ror-eeee! Ror-er!” across East Lake Golf Club — and with new three-time Tour Championship and FedEx Cup winner and PGA Tour defending champion Rory McIlroy rallying wildly while also saying of the season: “I hate what’s going on in the game of golf . I hate it. I really do.” Sunday had brought a rumble and confusion. After months of stress fatigue with the serial poaching of players from the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series and some players cringing after being questioned about this lavish organization — and some of the same players who subsequently defected nonetheless — the events on Sunday in the old The PGA Tour managed to highlight an old topic: golf. Golf was in turmoil as McIlroy rallied from a six-shot deficit to No. 1 Scottie Scheffler through the first seven holes, then passed Scheffler to win all the trinkets, including just the $18 million bonus that comes from this less-money tour . In some pretty exciting stuff, McIlroy and Sungjae Im shot 66s to Scheffler’s 73, leaving McIlroy at 21 under par and the other two at 20 under in a week that started with Scheffler six shots behind ahead of the other two in the multi-week ladder. scoring system. “Honestly, I wasn’t giving myself much of a chance to get into the fourth round,” McIlroy said, projecting Masters champion Scheffler as the undisputed player of the year and saying: “I think he deserves this maybe more than I do. the.” This thing had heard the PGA Tour’s loudest voice throughout the slog, and so he said, “It’s going to be hard for me to go to Wentworth [in England] in a few weeks and I see 18 [LIV players at the DP World Tour’s flagship event]. This just doesn’t sit well with me. So, yes, I feel strongly. I believe the things I’m saying are the right things, and I think when you believe the things you’re saying are the right things, you’re happy to put your neck on the line.” LIV Golf joins its players in lawsuit, intensifying dispute with PGA Tour With that said, the weekend could turn into weekdays and the LIV games – the supposed repeat of who could distance themselves next to the exhibition-style series, which had already snared 10 of the current top 50, though none of the top 10. Saturday’s reports pegged world No. 2, British Open champion Cameron Smith of Australia, along with players ranked 18th (Joaquin Niemann), 44th (Harold Warner III), 53rd (Cameron Tringele), 63rd ( Marc Leisman) and 93rd (Anirban Lahiri). Smith, 29, headlined that list and played an 87 here, finishing 20th out of 29 competitors. He reached the No. 18 tee with Billy Horschel, and they drew limited attention and limited reactions other than the usual vocal shout, “Woooo!” Next, Horschel spoke about a phenomenon rarely mentioned: missing children. It turns out there might be. So Horschel played No. 18 trying to shake off a tinge of sadness as he figured it might be the last hole he plays — except maybe the majors — with his friend and fellow Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., resident. “I think there are guys missing guys, maybe,” Horsell said. “You know, I miss Ian Poulter. … He’s a guy I’ve enjoyed being around. He’s a guy I enjoyed playing with.” However: “If Cam goes, he’ll be the one I’ll miss the most.” As he spoke after a week of announced PGA Tour changes following a meeting of 23 PGA Tour players in Delaware, golf roared out there. It had started the morning with a weather-delayed end to the third round, with Scheffler birdieing four of his remaining six holes to extend that six-shot lead. Then there was a break before the fourth round, so Scheffler and McIlroy and Jon Rahm and others had lunch together. “We talked about the restaurants in Dubai,” McIlroy said, adding shortly, “I don’t know, I mean, anything but golf and money.” The fourth round started two hours after the end of the third round and the tilt started moments after the start of the fourth round. McIlroy went in at No. 1, but so did the playing Scheffler, three-putting after leaving his first putt at six feet. Briefly: “He left a tee shot on the fourth that just didn’t look like Scottie Scheffler’s car,” McIlroy said. “For whatever reason, my swing wasn’t where it was the first few days of the week,” Scheffler would say, his 73 built with four bogeys and a single birdie. The PGA Tour is making bold changes aimed at curbing the threat of LIV Golf By the time they got to No. 8, they were tied, and in the middle of the back nine, Im had elbowed right there, between them, all within one shot. Then came McIlroy’s birdie putt that rolled just down the fairway to the cup from 30 feet on the par-3 No. 15, tying him again with Scheffler, and then came No. 16, which would decide the issues between two. Both played Halloween golf throughout the hole to reach tough fairways, McIlroy breaking from a lousy spot behind the green and putting one off the stick, but with McIlroy making his from 7 feet and missing Scheffler since he was nine. It was the first time all week that Scheffler trailed 70 holes in. Soon everyone was off, and hugging on No. 18, and McIlroy almost didn’t know what to say because Scheffler had been so great for so long this year – and that, too, A mix. McIlroy soon told the assembled crowd, “I believe in the game of golf. I strongly believe in this tour. I believe in the players on this tour. It’s the best place in the world to play golf, bar none, and I’ve played everywhere.” And soon even Scheffler said, “Playing professional golf for a living is such a gift. For me, I don’t play golf for money. I play to win tournaments and I play to have fun and do my best and see where the game can take me. Today money was definitely not on my mind. I wanted to win the season title. I’ve had a really great year and I wanted to end it with a win here, and unfortunately I couldn’t. But at the end of the day, it’s such a gift to be out here playing golf for money, and I can’t — I’m just so grateful to be out here.” This is over some day – and some season.
