2021 Tour Championship: Top 10 power rankings at East Lake
Rory McIlroy is familiar with getting the job done at East Lake. This time, the job is more difficult than before.
The Northern Irishman won the Tour Championship in 2016 and 2019. His 2016 title came in the old format where he fired 68-70-66-64 to get into a playoff he won over Kevin Chappell and Ryan Moore.
McIlroy doubled up in 2019 when he overcame a five-shot deficit to open the tournament’s new format to win by four over Xander Schauffele. McIlroy carded 66-67-68-66.
Overall, this is Rory’s eighth tournament appearance. He has never finished worse than T-16th in 2015 and ended up T-8th (T-7th gross, 64-71-70-67) a year ago.
He summed up what it takes to play well at East Lake in a 2018 press conference transcript from ASAP Sports.
“You’ve got to hit it in the fairway,” McIlroy said. “Just the holes that I struggled on today are the holes where I missed the fairway. Put your ball in play, make life a lot easier for yourself.”
McIlroy played well at Caves Valley last week to give himself a puncher’s chance to come all the way back this week. Rounds of 64-70-65-67 netted him solo fourth at the BMW Championship.
The 32-year-old also tied for fourth at the Olympics and has top-12s in four of his last eight starts.
McIlroy has a win in 2021 at the Wells Fargo Championship. He’d love to pick up another to give the Europeans some momentum heading into the upcoming Ryder Cup.
McIlroy ranks sixth on the PGA Tour in total strokes gained (1.457). He’s fourth in SG off the tee (.72) and is one of the best drivers in the world when clicking.
Only Bryson DeChambeau (323 yards) is outdistancing McIlroy (319.1) with the driver.