RORY McIlroy won an incredible £15.3m prize by claiming Tour Championship to also top the FedEx Cup in Atlanta.
McIlroy remarkably overturned a six-shot deficit in the final round of the Tour Championship to become the first player to win the FedEx Cup three times.
Rory McIlroy celebrates holing the winning putt
Rory McIlroy hoists the FedExCup
McIlroy carded a closing 66 at East Lake to finish 21 under par, a shot ahead of Sungjae Im and Scottie Scheffler, who had been an odds-on favourite to secure his fifth win of the season and the £15.3million first prize.
However, Scheffler struggled to a 73 and McIlroy took full advantage to claim an extraordinary victory.
He started the week six shots behind the world No1 under the handicap scoring system and making a triple bogey on his first hole.
McIlroy has now earned £36.6million for his three FedEx Cup victories. Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) is the only other player to have won it more than once.
McIlroy won the FedEx Cup in 2016 in a playoff.
He won the FedEx Cup again in 2019, the first year of a staggered start.
But this might have been the sweetest of fall, coming off a year in which the PGA Tour has been in a nasty battle with Saudi-funded LIV Golf, which already has attracted some two dozen players and now is part of an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
“What a week, what a day,” McIlroy said at the prize presentation.
“Firstly I want to say I feel like Scottie deserves at least half of this (trophy).
“He has had an unbelievable season. I feel sort of bad that I pipped him to the post.
“He’s a hell of a competitor, he’s an even better guy, it was an honour and a privilege to battle with him today and I’m sure we’ll have many more.
“I told him we’re one-all in Georgia this year; he got the Masters, I got this.
“I didn’t really give myself much of a chance teeing off today, I thought six behind was going to be really tough to make up but my good play and Scottie’s not-so-great play meant it was a ball game going into the back nine.”
Asked what it to meant to win in a season in which he has emerged as one of the PGA Tour’s biggest advocates in its battle with LIV Golf, McIlroy added: “It means an awful lot.
Rory McIlroy tees off the 13th hole during the final round of the Tour Championship
“I believe in the game of golf, I believe in this Tour in particular, I believe in the players on this Tour.
“It’s the greatest place in the world to play golf, bar none, and I’ve played all over the world.
“This is an incredibly proud moment for me but it should also be an incredibly proud moment for the PGA Tour.
“They have had some hard times this year but we are getting through it and that was a spectacle out there today.
“Two of the best players in the world going head to head for the biggest prize on the PGA Tour and I hope everyone at home enjoyed that.”
McIlroy admitted his win would help “soften the blow” of failing to win the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews, where he shared the lead after 54 holes but finished third behind Cameron Smith, who is expected to join LIV Golf imminently.
“St Andrews was really hard for me,” McIlroy said.
“It was a tough one to get over. This softens the blow a little bit.
“It doesn’t make it that much easier to get over, but it’s great to end the season on a high note like this.
“Everyone on Tour has had to deal with a lot. Even the guys that went to LIV have had to deal with a lot.
“It’s just been a very tumultuous sort of era in our game.”
