adminRory McIlroy has joined the pantheon of golfing greats by winning his first Open title — and his third in total — at the age of 25 following a thrilling final round at Hoylake.
In the history of the game only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — the two greatest players of them all — had won three majors by that tender age, but that is the exalted company McIlroy is now keeping.
McIlroy had to hold off a charge from Sergio Garcia to lift the Claret Jug for the first time, and is now three quarters of the way to a career grand slam in majors, having already won the US Open and US PGA Championship.
Only the Masters remains to be conquered, and given that Augusta National is almost tailor-made for McIlroy’s huge hitting game, surely it is only a matter of time before the Northern Irishman completes the full set.
McIlroy began the day with a huge six-shot advantage over Rickie Fowler but the orange-clad American was not able to challenge his playing partner. Instead the man who came closest to hunting McIlroy down was Garcia, who imploded here dressed in yellow eight years ago when Tiger Woods won and then told friends he had just “bludgeoned Tweety Pie”.
But despite Garcia’s brilliant round of 66, McIlroy closed out a two-shot victory with a closing 71 and a winning total of 271 strokes — 17 under par.
If McIlroy was feeling any nerves as he stood on the first tee those were immediately settled when he crunched a bullet drive down the first fairway before draining a putt from 15 feet for an opening birdie and stretched his lead to seven strokes.
But Garcia also birdied the first, and two more followed at the third and fifth holes as the Spaniard overtook Fowler as McIlroy’s nearest challenger. McIlroy dropped two shots in successive holes at the fifth and sixth, but still led by four heading into the back nine after picking one back at the short ninth.
The Spaniard, however, made his big move by eagling the long 10th hole and by the 13th McIlroy’s lead was just two strokes. But once Gaarcia left a bunker shot in the sand at the 15th victory was all but assured. Hoylake stood to acclaim McIlroy as he walked down the 18th fairway. They knew they were witnessing the latest step on McIlroy’s path to golfing immortality.
“It feels incredible,” McIlroy told the BBC. “Today wasn’t easy. There were a lot of guys making runs at me and I just needed to stay focused, keep in the present and concentrate on what I was doing out there. To be three legs towards the career grand slam at the age of 25 is a pretty good achievement. It’s not going to sink in for a while.”
Asked if he always felt in control, McIlroy added: “The lead never got less than two. I always felt I had that little bit of a cushion. I knew I had some holes where I could make birdie and 16 was the real hole for me which I think settled the championship.” — Daily Mail.
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