ite-hot Rory McIlroy has stripped Adam Scott of his world No. 1 ranking and returned to the pinnacle of the game with a chasedown win in the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone.
McIlroy hauled in overnight leader Sergio Garcia to win by two shots with a brilliant, closing 66, four-under par, for a 15-under total.
As a bonus, it lifted him to No. 1 on the rankings for the first time since March, 2013, because Scott, who needed to finish in the top five to hold on the mantle, could only finish tied-eighth after a closing 71.
The Australian, just the second of his countrymen behind Greg Norman to be the No. 1 male player in the world, had held the spot for 11 weeks, and has a chance to regain it at the United States PGA Championship at Valhalla this week.
He was overshadowed today by his playing partner, Victorian Marc Leishman, who played brilliant golf to finish third, his best result in a WGC event. Leishman began the final day needing a low round to challenge, and and produced wonderful, sustained shot-making to card a three-under-par 67.
It was worth a lucrative cheque to the big man from Warrnambool in Victoria, who will leap into the top 50 on the world rankings for the first time later today. He was at No. 51 at the start of the week after his tied-fifth in the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, and is playing the type of golf that had his coach, Denis McDade, predicting his rise to the top 10 several years ago.
It was a quick kill for McIlroy, who started the day two shots behind Garcia and played alongside him. The Northern Irishman birdied the first three holes, bombing his driver past all the trouble and rolling in putts. He already held the outright lead by that point, with Garcia faltering, although the Spaniard momentarily regained a share of the lead with a birdie at the ninth before his game disappeared again. He ended up carding a one-over par 71 on a day when most of the players were shooting low numbers, the greens softened by heavy rain through the week.
But McIlroy is formidable to say the least; right now he is playing easily the best golf of anyone out there, having won the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool at his previous start. "What I'm really proud of this week is just following up the Open with a performance like this,'' he said.
A low from the tournament came as Tiger Woods withdrew because of a back injury midway through the final round. Woods' 2014 playing future is in severe doubt after he reported back spasms after hitting an awkward shot from the bank of a bunker early in his round. He had back surgery in March.
Meanwhile another Australian, Geoff Ogilvy, won the Barracuda Championship to become the sixth Aussie to triumph on the PGA Tour this year.
Ogilvy led throughout the final round at Montreux Country Club in the modified stableford event, completing his first PGA Tour win since 2010. It gives the Melburnian a start in the PGA Championship next week and also will get him into the PGA Tour playoffs later this year. Moreever it is a welcome return to form for the 2006 US Open champion who had his worst season in more than a decade in 2013. He had played 99 PGA Tour events without a win before today.
Bridgestone Invitational results
-15 Rory McIlroy
-13 Sergio Garcia
-12 Marc Leishman
-9 Patrick Reed, Charl Schwartzel, Keegan Bradley, Justin Rose
-7 Adam Scott, Graeme McDowell, Rickie Fowler, Ryan Moore.