BMW Championship 2019: Rory McIlroy returns to Medinah with “good memories”

Rory McIlroy heads to the 2019 BMW Championship at Medinah with a little more than the FedEx Cup standings on his mind.

Rory McIlroy returns to Medinah Country Club for the BMW Championship with positive feelings about the location and the golf course.

“This place holds some pretty good memories for me and obviously a few of the other Euros that are here,” he said to media ahead of the championship.

It was there that the European Ryder Cup team defeated the U.S. in 2012 after an amazing Sunday comeback bolstered by the play of England’s Ian Poulter and finished off with a putt by Martin Kaymer.

However, one of the most dramatic situations occurred off the course when McIlroy needed a police escort to make his singles tee time on Sunday. He got his time zones confused. The tee sheet said 12:25 P.M., but he forgot that they were in the central time zone, which meant he would tee off at 11:25 A.M..

With the police assist, McIlroy arrived with just ten minutes to spare. That didn’t stop him from defeating Keegan Bradley 2 and 1. When asked about the police detail at the time, he quipped that at least he didn’t show up in the back seat of the squad car.

The 2012 Ryder Cup was special for personal reasons, too, because that’s where he met his wife Erica, then Erica Stoll, who was working for the PGA of America, the organization that runs the Ryder Cup in the U.S..

"“Erica, that week, was always the one that was checking us in and out,” McIlroy explained. “She was there at transportation, so she was always in the car park.”"

The two became a couple some time after the event and were married in 2017.  But 2012 was seven years ago, and as McIlroy noted, he’s played in three Ryder Cups since then.

This week he’s in the middle of the FedEx Cup Playoffs with another good chance to win the FedExCup. He’s No. 3 on the points list, behind Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed. He’s won twice this season, at The Players and RBC Canadian Open.

His stats have improved this year. He’s currently first in stroke gained off the tee, strokes gained tee to green and strokes gained, total.

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"“This has been my most consistent year of my career by far,” McIlroy said about his performance. “It’s my best strokes gained numbers, my best stats. I’m not outside the top 20 in any stat that I really look at.”"

However, it’s not his most prolific winning season.

"“In 2012 I won five times, but I also missed like four or five cuts and had a real bad spell in there,” he noted. “But this year it’s just been week after week, playing pretty solid golf, and just sort of being patient, waiting for my time to try to pick off the wins.”"

If he wins the BMW Championship this week, he could vault to the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings. And while he already won the FedEx Cup in 2016, he really has his eye on hoisting the  trophy again. The best way to do that is to be the points leader going into the Tour Championship, because the leader this year gets a 10-shot advantage over the person in 30th place.

"“I want to be 10-under par standing on that first tee in Atlanta next week,” he said. “It’s hard enough to win golf tournaments when you’re all starting on a level playing field, but whenever it’s staggered like that, it’s a tough proposition if someone like Brooks Koepka or Patrick Reed or whatever is starting two or three shots ahead of you.”"

Under the new format, the FedEx Cup points leader headed into the Tour Championship will start the tournament at 10-under par. The rest of the field will have other numbers pre-assigned, based on their finish in the points race.

The No. 2 player will be 8-under par; the No. 3 player will be 7-under, and so forth until reaching the Nos. 6 through 10, who will all start at 4-under. The Nos. 11 to 15 start at 3- under par; Nos. 16-20, 2-under par; Nos. 21-25, 1-under par and Nos. 26-30, even par. It is certainly different, but at least people will know where they stand and so will the fans.

After the Tour Championship, McIlroy heads to Switzerland to play in the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre GC. Omega is one of his sponsors. Then he will take a few weeks off before returning to Europe for the BMW PGA and the Dunhill Links Championship.