Rory McIlroy had to chase down a red-hot Jim Furyk at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday. Furyk went out and had himself a day and finished the final three holes at two-under, including one of the best drive and second-shot combos we’ve seen on the 18th hole in a long time.
So much sauce here! As much as we all like to poke fun at Jim Furyk, the man can play.
McIlroy got a little bit of help on the 17th when both Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood found the water with their tee shots, removing them from any chance at catching either Furyk or himself.
Golf is hard.
Fleetwood and Rahm both find the water on 17. pic.twitter.com/Sz2fumvA6G
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 17, 2019
McIlroy handled the 17th easily and then put on a show of his own on 18.
Although he didn’t birdie the 17th hole, his back-to-back birdies on the 15th and 16th were enough to give him a one-stroke lead over Furyk.
This has been coming for McIlroy all season. He’s finished T4, T5, T4, 2, T6, and 1 in his last six PGA Tour events dating back to January at the Tournament of Champions. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained off-the-tee, strokes gained tee-to-green, and strokes gained total.
It was only a matter of time before McIlroy claimed a win this season. I’m not sure if it came just a little too early, or if he’ll just continue playing this red-hot type of golf for the next five weeks and finally walk away with a green jacket.
According to Jeff Sherman, McIlroy is now the favorite to win the Masters at 8/1 odds over Dustin Johnson, who also had a great week at Sawgrass and finished T5 at 13-under.
Masters updated
R McIlroy 8/1
D Johnson 10/1
J Rose 12/1
T Woods 12/1
J Thomas 14/1
J Rahm 16/1
B Koepka 18/1
R Fowler 18/1
J Spieth 20/1
B DeChambeau 20/1
J Day 25/1
T Fleetwood 25/1
B Watson 30/1
P Mickelson 30/1
T Finau 30/1
F Molinari 35/1
H Matsuyama 35/1
X Schauffele 35/1— Jeff Sherman (@golfodds) March 17, 2019
Here’s a full look at the leaderboard, which was about as good as anyone could ask for on a Sunday at a big tournament.
| POS | PLAYER NAME | TOTAL | THRU | ROUND | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | STROKES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rory McIlroy | -16 | F | -2 | 67 | 65 | 70 | 70 | 272 |
| 2 | Jim Furyk | -15 | F | -5 | 71 | 64 | 71 | 67 | 273 |
| T3 | Eddie Pepperell | -14 | F | -6 | 72 | 68 | 68 | 66 | 274 |
| T3 | Jhonattan Vegas | -14 | F | -6 | 72 | 69 | 67 | 66 | 274 |
| T5 | Dustin Johnson | -13 | F | -3 | 69 | 68 | 69 | 69 | 275 |
| T5 | Brandt Snedeker | -13 | F | -3 | 69 | 72 | 65 | 69 | 275 |
| T5 | Tommy Fleetwood | -13 | F | 1 | 65 | 67 | 70 | 73 | 275 |
| T8 | Hideki Matsuyama | -12 | F | -5 | 71 | 72 | 66 | 67 | 276 |
| T8 | Justin Rose | -12 | F | -4 | 74 | 66 | 68 | 68 | 276 |
| T8 | Brian Harman | -12 | F | -2 | 66 | 69 | 71 | 70 | 276 |
| T8 | Jason Day | -12 | F | E | 70 | 66 | 68 | 72 | 276 |
| T12 | Adam Scott | -11 | F | -2 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 70 | 277 |
| T12 | Joel Dahmen | -11 | F | -2 | 69 | 71 | 67 | 70 | 277 |
| T12 | Abraham Ancer | -11 | F | E | 69 | 66 | 70 | 72 | 277 |
| T12 | Jon Rahm | -11 | F | 4 | 69 | 68 | 64 | 76 | 277 |
| T16 | Nick Taylor | -10 | F | -5 | 73 | 69 | 69 | 67 | 278 |
| T16 | Webb Simpson | -10 | F | -4 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 68 | 278 |
| T16 | Keegan Bradley | -10 | F | E | 65 | 73 | 68 | 72 | 278 |
| T16 | Ollie Schniederjans | -10 | F | E | 71 | 70 | 65 | 72 | 278 |
| T20 | Ryan Moore | -9 | F | -3 | 67 | 74 | 69 | 69 | 279 |
| T20 | Bryson DeChambeau | -9 | F | -1 | 70 | 69 | 69 | 71 | 279 |
| T22 | Sergio Garcia | -8 | F | -5 | 69 | 70 | 74 | 67 | 280 |
| T22 | J.T. Poston | -8 | F | -2 | 68 | 69 | 73 | 70 | 280 |
| T22 | Tony Finau | -8 | F | E | 69 | 71 | 68 | 72 | 280 |
| T22 | Kevin Kisner | -8 | F | 1 | 68 | 68 | 71 | 73 | 280 |
| T26 | Emiliano Grillo | -7 | F | -6 | 70 | 72 | 73 | 66 | 281 |
| T26 | Billy Horschel | -7 | F | -3 | 69 | 70 | 73 | 69 | 281 |
| T26 | Matt Kuchar | -7 | F | -2 | 69 | 70 | 72 | 70 | 281 |
| T26 | Byeong Hun An | -7 | F | -1 | 66 | 71 | 73 | 71 | 281 |
| T30 | Gary Woodland | -6 | F | -4 | 72 | 69 | 73 | 68 | 282 |
| T30 | Tiger Woods | -6 | F | -3 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 69 | 282 |
| T30 | Matt Wallace | -6 | F | -2 | 69 | 73 | 70 | 70 | 282 |
| T30 | Lucas Bjerregaard | -6 | F | E | 70 | 70 | 70 | 72 | 282 |
| T30 | Tom Hoge | -6 | F | E | 69 | 71 | 70 | 72 | 282 |
| T35 | Charles Howell III | -5 | F | -3 | 69 | 70 | 75 | 69 | 283 |
| T35 | Seamus Power | -5 | F | -3 | 74 | 67 | 73 | 69 | 283 |
| T35 | Brice Garnett | -5 | F | -2 | 71 | 69 | 73 | 70 | 283 |
| T35 | Justin Thomas | -5 | F | -2 | 71 | 72 | 70 | 70 | 283 |
| T35 | Rory Sabbatini | -5 | F | E | 68 | 69 | 74 | 72 | 283 |
| T35 | Russell Knox | -5 | F | E | 70 | 68 | 73 | 72 | 283 |
| T41 | Thorbjørn Olesen | -4 | F | -3 | 70 | 69 | 76 | 69 | 284 |
| T41 | Martin Trainer | -4 | F | -2 | 73 | 69 | 72 | 70 | 284 |
| T41 | Matthew Fitzpatrick | -4 | F | -1 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 71 | 284 |
| T41 | Denny McCarthy | -4 | F | -1 | 69 | 72 | 72 | 71 | 284 |
| T41 | Corey Conners | -4 | F | 2 | 72 | 70 | 68 | 74 | 284 |
| T41 | Vaughn Taylor | -4 | F | 4 | 67 | 70 | 71 | 76 | 284 |
| T47 | Bud Cauley | -3 | F | -2 | 69 | 70 | 76 | 70 | 285 |
| T47 | Jason Kokrak | -3 | F | -2 | 73 | 68 | 74 | 70 | 285 |
| T47 | Andrew Landry | -3 | F | -1 | 73 | 68 | 73 | 71 | 285 |
| T47 | Sung Kang | -3 | F | E | 73 | 66 | 74 | 72 | 285 |
| T47 | Kelly Kraft | -3 | F | -1 | 73 | 70 | 71 | 71 | 285 |
| T47 | Keith Mitchell | -3 | F | 2 | 71 | 65 | 75 | 74 | 285 |
| T47 | Richy Werenski | -3 | F | 2 | 72 | 71 | 68 | 74 | 285 |
| T47 | Rickie Fowler | -3 | F | 4 | 74 | 67 | 68 | 76 | 285 |
| T47 | Patrick Reed | -3 | F | 6 | 69 | 69 | 69 | 78 | 285 |
| T56 | Louis Oosthuizen | -2 | F | -2 | 73 | 70 | 73 | 70 | 286 |
| T56 | Brooks Koepka | -2 | F | -2 | 72 | 71 | 73 | 70 | 286 |
| T56 | Cameron Smith | -2 | F | -1 | 72 | 70 | 73 | 71 | 286 |
| T56 | Chris Kirk | -2 | F | -1 | 74 | 69 | 72 | 71 | 286 |
| T56 | Scott Piercy | -2 | F | E | 74 | 68 | 72 | 72 | 286 |
| T56 | Francesco Molinari | -2 | F | E | 72 | 70 | 72 | 72 | 286 |
| T56 | Si Woo Kim | -2 | F | 1 | 73 | 68 | 72 | 73 | 286 |
| T56 | Bubba Watson | -2 | F | 1 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 73 | 286 |
| T56 | Luke List | -2 | F | 2 | 69 | 68 | 75 | 74 | 286 |
| T56 | Ian Poulter | -2 | F | 4 | 69 | 66 | 75 | 76 | 286 |
| T56 | Brian Gay | -2 | F | 3 | 76 | 67 | 68 | 75 | 286 |
| T67 | Scott Langley | -1 | F | -1 | 69 | 72 | 75 | 71 | 287 |
| T67 | Jimmy Walker | -1 | F | -1 | 75 | 68 | 73 | 71 | 287 |
| T67 | Daniel Berger | -1 | F | 2 | 75 | 68 | 70 | 74 | 287 |
| 70 | Michael Thompson | E | F | 4 | 69 | 71 | 72 | 76 | 288 |
| 71 | Martin Kaymer | 3 | F | 6 | 71 | 69 | 73 | 78 | 291 |
| T72 | C.T. Pan | 4 | F | 4 | 72 | 70 | 74 | 76 | 292 |
| T72 | Branden Grace | 4 | F | 5 | 73 | 70 | 72 | 77 | 292 |
| MDF | Jason Dufner | 1 | — | — | 70 | 73 | 74 | — | 217 |
| MDF | Anirban Lahiri | 1 | — | — | 70 | 71 | 76 | — | 217 |
| MDF | Tyler Duncan | 1 | — | — | 70 | 71 | 76 | — | 217 |
| MDF | Patrick Rodgers | 2 | — | — | 72 | 70 | 76 | — | 218 |
| MDF | Kevin Na | 3 | — | — | 71 | 70 | 78 | — | 219 |
| MDF | Adam Long | 4 | — | — | 71 | 72 | 77 | — | 220 |
| MDF | Patton Kizzire | 4 | — | — | 71 | 70 | 79 | — | 220 |
