Rory McIlroy wins Open Championship

The final round of the 143^rd Open Championships turned out to be a pulsating contest between Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy. The Spaniard played some sensational golf to chase down his young opponent across the serene links at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, but McIlroy kept his nerve and composure to do what he needed to clinch victory by two strokes. The Irishman produced a final round 71 to avert any real challenge from Garcia or his playing partner Rickie Fowler to claim the Claret Jug and take the third major title of his promising career.

It wasn’t all easy though – after a birdie at the first saw him add to his already substantive cushion of six strokes, McIlroy soon found himself in trouble. Lying just off the green at the fifth, he left himself too much to do for par, to slip one back.

To his horror, McIlroy pushed too far, from just five feet to bleed another shot and suddenly the lead was down to three. Garcia, who made birdies at 1, 3 & 5, was at 12-under and adding a layer of intensity and drama to the final round.

The Spaniard started to breathe down McIlroy’s neck, having made a sensational eagle at the 10^th to inch closer to the lead. The Northern Irishman was teasing fate when he slid one into the rough, going on to make bogey at the 13^th hole.

A final test awaited the young man at the 16^th hole. Garcia had already made birdie to get back to within two of McIlroy. The 25 year old showed remarkable composure to keep it right in the middle of the fairway, before nearly making an eagle. He settled for a birdie, but that stretched the cushion back to three and there wasn’t much left in it after that.

Tiger Woods had no fairytale return in his first major since back surgery. Instead, it was a reality check for the man who finished no worse than 19 shots off the leader at any major as a professional or amateur. Woods finished this Open, 23 shots behind the winner McIlroy.

“It feels incredible. Today wasn’t easy, a few guys were making runs at me, I needed to stay focused and concentrate. To win three legs of the four majors at 25 is a pretty good achievement, it is not going to sink in for a while,” said McIlroy just after he got off the final hole.

-17 McIlroy (NI); -15 Garcia (Spa), Fowler (US); -13 Furyk (US); -12 Leishman (Aus), Scott (Aus); -11 D Johnson (US), Schwartzel (SA), E Molinari (Ita)

Report by Anand Datla

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