Rory McIlroy’s wait for a second victory at the DP World Tour’s flagship event will extend at least another 12 months after the world number two came up a couple of shots shy of JJ Spaun in the final round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
McIlroy entered the final round two shots behind the leading duo of Manuel Elvira and Filippo Celli and felt he needed to go low if he was to ascend to the top of a heavily bunched leaderboard.
Birdie chances came and went on two and three before he got a red number on the board with a tidy up-and-down on the par-5 fourth.
A second birdie came on the seventh after a superb approach from the right-hand rough to tap-in distance, but he reached the turn having missed birdie putts from five, nine, 12 and 15 feet.
Having found the fairway bunker on 11, he made a mess of it greenside from an awkward lie and had to clean up a six-footer for bogey, but that was his first and only dropped shot of the day.
He birdied the par-5 12th, missed a four-footer for birdie on 13, made amends from similar range to birdie the par-3 14th, but couldn’t get himself close enough on 15 or 16 to have a real good chance to make another.
That left him needing to birdie 17 and 18 to pass Aaron Rai who’d set the clubhouse target at -15, and he knew that he’d need to reach 16-under at least to have a chance with the other leading contenders all coming behind.
He did the first part and birdied 17, but any hopes of a repeat of Saturday and a walkoff eagle at the last disappeared when he caught the fairway bunker and had to layup. He wedged to eight feet, but as had been the story of the day, he couldn’t hole the birdie putt and though he tied the clubhouse lead, JJ Spaun birdied four of the last five holes to overtake him and win by two.
“I had my chances out there,” McIlroy said afterwards. “I putted okay for the most part this week but I missed a lot of putts. I feel over the weekend, or at least today.
“And yeah, I wish I had some of those putts back but I have to be encouraged with where my game is at. Hit the ball really well today. Hit the best I hit it during the course of the week and encouraged with the signs that my game is going and just have to keep working at it.”
McIlroy admitted to keeping a close eye on the leaderboard on the back nine, and felt like he’d have a chance if he got to 16- or 17-under, but rightly believed that 15-under wasn’t going to be enough.
“Yeah, I saw Aaron [Rai] was playing the last at 15 and wasn’t able to make a birdie. So yeah, I thought 16, 17, was going to have a really good chance.
“When I got to 14-under after the 14th hole, I thought if I can birdie 15 or 16 just before the last two par 5s, when I wasn’t able to do that, if I can finish 16, birdie the last two and give the leaders something to think about.
“Didn’t quite pan out that way. Didn’t hit a very good putt at the last. Overall, it’s been positive.”
With Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed being forced to withdraw in round two, McIlroy’s T2 finish saw him close the gap significantly and he’s now just over 300 points behind the American and they look set to duel it out in the season-ending events in the Middle East.
“Yeah, I’m excited,” McIlroy said. “I have three events until the end of my DP World Tour season. I’m not sure what Patrick’s schedule looks like coming up, but I feel like I have enough opportunities.
“And I’m going back to-golf course in India that I played for the first time last year, so I’ll know it a little bit better; and then going to Abu Dhabi and Dubai where I had a lot of success in my career. Excited for the opportunity, and it would be obviously amazing to match Monty’s record.”
Shane Lowry closed out with a second successive four-under 68 to lift him into a tie for 21st and he moved up one place to 16th on the Race to Dubai rankings.
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