Rory McIlroy on Sunday clinched his first Open Championship and third major title with a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler on a thrilling final day at Hoylake. The Northern Irishman joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win three of golf’s modern majors by the age of 25. McIlroy, 25, now just has the Masters left to complete a career Grand Slam. Starting six clear, McIlroy fired a final-round 71 to finish 17 under as Garcia, who three times got to within two strokes, shot 66 and US Open runner-up Fowler 67. American Jim Furyk, 44, matched his fourth place in 2006 with a 65 to end 13 under. McIlroy added the Claret Jug – and a cheque for £975,000 – to the 2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA titles and became the second Northern Irishman to win the Open in four years after Darren Clarke’s victory at Royal St George’s in 2011. Only five players have won all four majors in their career – Nicklaus, Woods, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen. “It feels incredible,” the BBC quoted McIlroy as saying. “It wasn’t easy – there were a few guys making runs at me and I just needed to stay focused. To win three legs of the Grand Slam at 25 is a pretty big achievement.” Going into Sunday’s final round, many observers suggested the tournament was McIlroy’s to lose after three days of majestic golf over the links of Royal Liverpool. Two stunning rounds of 66 gave him a four-shot lead at halfway and banished talk of “freaky Fridays” after his recent trend of spoiling a low opening round with a bad second one. A spectacular finish to his third round, with two eagles in his last three holes, took McIlroy six clear of Fowler, with Garcia seven back, going into the final day. The post Rory McIlroy Wins 2014 Open Championship appeared first on channelstv. BY Joseph T. Obagbemisoye Send an email to Joseph T. Obagbemisoye 08140584469 or 08086797418 Like JTNNG on facebook facebook/jtnng91 View Joseph T. Obagbemisoyes profile on facebook facebook/jtob91 Follow @jtob91 and get followed also jtnng.blogspot/
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 22:39:44 +0000
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