PGA Championship 2011-2019: A decade of dominance
By Bill Felber
8. Rory McIlroy, 2014, -2.18
Valhalla outside Louisville was the setting for the second of McIlroy’s PGA titles in 2014, and his fourth (and to this date final) major win.
Ranked as the world’s No. 1 player entering the tournament and coming off a victory at that summer’s British Open, McIlroy performed up to his billing with a first round 66 that positioned him in a tie for fourth just one stroke behind the tri-leaders, Kevin Chappell, Ryan Palmer and Lee Westwood.
While all three of the first round leaders gave ground Friday, McIlroy followed that 66 with a 67 to jump in front at 133, one stroke ahead of Jason Day and Jim Furyk. His hold on the tournament was tested Saturday when Bernd Wiesberger turned in a 65 for a 12-under 201, but McIlroy responded to the challenge with birdies at three of the closing four holes to retain that one-stroke margin.
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Still the leaderboard set up a potentially tense closing round, with eight players – among them Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Jason Day – looming four strokes or fewer behind McIlroy.
The tension ramped up when McIlroy bogeyed the third and sixth holes to slip two strokes behind Fowler, one in back of Mickelson and Henrik Stenson. But a birdie at the par 5 seventh stabilized his play, and an eagle three at the par 5 10th closed him within one stroke of Fowler, the leader at the turn.
When Fowler and Stenson both birdied the par 3 13th, they created a four-way tie with Mickelson and Fowler coming down to the final five holes. Stenson and Fowler both bogeyed the 14th, , then Mickelson bogeyed the 16th, and when McIlroy ran in a birdie putt at the par 4 17th he found himself with a two-stroke margin.
That enabled him to withstand Mickelson’s closing birdie and win by one stroke at 16-under par. It also made Mickelson the first player since Padraig Harrington in 2008 to win consecutive majors.