Rory McIlroy achieved a magnificent final round of 62 to retain his Canadian RBC Open title before joining Greg Norman, the leading figure in the LIV Golf Series, backed by Saudi Arabia.
McIlroy, who started the day with some of the lead with Tony Finau, hit 10 birdies in his round of eight below par to finish with two shots ahead of the American with 19 under and get his 21st crown of the PGA Tour. This is one more that Norman, the general manager of the groundbreaking series LIV, managed in his career.
“This is a day I will remember for a very, very long time,” McIlroy told CBS immediately after his victory at St George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto. “Twenty-one PGA Tour wins, one more than another, this has given me a little extra incentive today and I’m happy to do it.”
McIlroy, who ended up with stray birds on the 17th and 18th, doubled down on his criticism at the subsequent press conference. When the moderator introduced the world number 8, saying he had won a PGA Tour title for the 21st time, McIlroy said, “And one more than Norman.”
McIlroy added, “I had it [the] additional motivation for what is happening across the pond. The guy leading this tour has 20 wins on the PGA Tour. I was tied up with him and wanted to advance one. And I did. So it was really great for me, just a little bit of pride in that. “
He continued: “It’s amazing to play with Tony [Finau] and JT [Justin Thomas, who came third] today, two of the best players in the world and they all play like we did.
“I think after Covid I just needed a full recovery, I kind of got back to playing the game a little bit. I realized what made me happy, and that makes me happy.”
Rory McIlroy with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who also hit the run on Sunday. Photo: Canadian Press / Shutterstock
Sunday also saw PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan offer his first public reflections on the separate series since announcing that he was suspending all PGA Tour members who joined.
Monahan declined to say how long the suspension would last, but offered a scathing evaluation of the series in a 12-minute appearance on CBS during the Canadian Open. Describing LIV Golf as nothing more than a series of exhibition matches, Monahan said the pure and true competition was on the PGA Tour.
“I would ask any player who has left, or any player who is considering leaving, ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?'” Monahan added.
Monahan also suggested that players who had joined the new tour were essentially benefiting from the state provided to them by the PGA Tour. When asked why players like Mick Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau could not play both tours, he answered with a question of his own.
“Why do they need us so much?” said Monahan. “These players have chosen to sign lucrative, multi-year contracts to play a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again. Look at this compared to what we see here today.”
One day after LIV Golf finished its 54-hole event with Charl Schwartzel winning $ 4.75 million ($ 4 million for her score, $ 750,000 as part of the winning team), the Canadian Open it had a huge crowd with thousands of people around the 18th green when McIlroy and Finau finished. their rounds.
“It’s a real, pure competition that creates the profiles and presences of the best players in the world,” Monahan said. “It simply came to our notice then. That’s what we do. “