Rory McIlroy damage his decrease again earlier than arriving at East Lake for the FedEx Cup finale, unhealthy timing for an harm as he tries to chase an $18 million bonus on the Tour Championship with the Ryder Cup a month away.
McIlroy didn’t hit balls and was restricted to about 20 pictures on the vary earlier than deciding to play the opening spherical. He is the No. 3 seed, that means he began the Tour Championship at 7-under par, three behind top-seeded Scottie Scheffler.
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He didn’t point out the harm to the decrease proper aspect of his again throughout his pre-tournament press convention.
McIlroy was instructed upon teeing off that he may get remedy throughout the spherical supplied it didn’t trigger undue delay. His bodily therapist walked outdoors the ropes on the entrance 9, however McIlroy indicated that he didn’t want him.
But regardless of the extent of the harm, its impact was apparent. McIlroy hardly ever completed his swing and twice dropped the membership after following via. He was capable of crouch when studying putts or stick a tee within the floor.
McIlroy made his first birdie on the tenth gap, solely to overlook lengthy and left in gnarly tough on the par-3 eleventh for an additional bogey that dropped him to 2 over for the day, eight behind Scheffler.
If he had been to withdraw, he would acquire a $500,000 bonus. The winner of the FedEx Cup will get $18 million. McIlroy, the one three-time winner, has come from behind in every of his FedEx Cup titles.
He is to play the Irish Open in two weeks, adopted by the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on the European tour. The Ryder Cup is the week of Sept. 25 to Oct. 1 at Marco Simone outdoors Rome.