As golf fans have learned in recent years, there’s an added bonus when Viktor Hovland wins a PGA Tour event. That, of course, is the tour posting footage from the Norwegian broadcast booth soon after. ELECTRIC footage, that is.

That’s because announcers Henrik Bjornstad and Per Haugsrud, both former pro golfers themselves, get extremely animated during the broadcast.

The Tour getting ready to post the Norwegian booth call of Hovland’s win
pic.twitter.com/GYkhWYPi8s

— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) August 27, 2023

Anyway, Hovland’s latest win on Sunday at the Tour Championship to claim the FedEx Cup had golf fans looking forward to this pair’s take on events. And they didn’t disappoint in footage shared by the tour on Tuesday.

With Hovland beating Xander Schauffele by fives shots, there wasn’t much drama down the stretch at East Lake during the final round. But the 25-year-old did sink a 23-footer for par on the 14th hole that kept his then three-shot lead intact, causing Bjornstad and Haugsrud to go nuts as they nearly high-fived each other’s hands off.

But in that excitement, Haugsrud couldn’t resist blurting out a taunt at Schauffele. Have a look and listen:

The Norwegian announce call we’ve all been waiting for ??@PerHaugsrud and @HenrikBjornstad react to Viktor Hovland making history @TOURChamp. pic.twitter.com/3cABQ2bKkU

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 29, 2023

“That is par! Taste that one, Xander!” Even Xander would have to find that funny. Maybe.

Anyway, great stuff as always from these two, who shared a nice victory hug when it was all over. And we can only imagine their reaction if when Hovland wins a major. Can’t wait!

The post WATCH: The Norwegian broadcast booth got so fired up for Viktor Hovland’s win that they taunted Xander Schauffele appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The post-victory obligations for the winner of the Tour Championship are so extensive that Viktor Hovland ate his dinner on the run Sunday night. “Are you eating Chipotle?” Hovland’s caddie, Shay Knight, is seen asking in a PGA Tour video showing Hovland eating a cup of Chipotle guac and chips on the practice putting green at East Lake.

Viktor Hovland’s first meal after the win? Chipotle. pic.twitter.com/9uX8QyO55Z

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 28, 2023

By the time his to-do list was complete at East Lake, it was after 10pm. As such, the celebrations with Hovland and his team in the player lounge within East Lake’s clubhouse were rather mild.

“We were all waiting upstairs in the locker room and the crew was drinking, but everyone was extremely exhausted after the three weeks on the road,” said Knight, a veteran caddie from Australia. The PGA Tour’s playoffs series consists of three consecutive events. Hovland won the second of those, the BMW in Chicago, and the Tour Championship finale.

Hovland’s first season-long title deserves a more thorough celebration, so the team will rendezvous this Friday night in Edmond, Oklahoma, an hour from the former Oklahoma State star’s residence at Stillwater.

“We’ll have a nice dinner and some drinks to celebrate. It’s going to be a good time,” Knight said. Not only will the Norwegian and his support staff toast the $18 million FedEx Cup victory bonus, but a season in which he rose to another level. The World No. 4 won three times, including a first victory on US soil at the Memorial Tournament (following earlier victories in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Germany and Dubai), as well as two FedEx Cup playoffs events. On the majors stage, the 25-year-old registered a top-10 at the Masters and a career-best T-2 at the PGA Championship.

“Winning a major would have been icing on cake, but the Tour Championship is such a monumental accomplishment. It shows he had an incredibly consistent season and then played out of his mind at the end when it counts,” said Knight, noting as well the fact Hovland didn’t miss a cut all season and also was second at the Players Championship.

While claiming the PGA Tour’s season finale, there’s still plenty of golf remaining in 2023 for Hovland. Next week, Luke Donald will name the six captain’s picks for the European Ryder Cup team to go with the six automatic qualifiers that will be locked up this weekend (Hovland has his wrapped up off the World Points List). After that, Hovland, Knight and his team will head to Rome to play a September 11 practice round with the European Ryder Cup team at host course, Marco Simone. After a dinner and bonding session that night, the Europeans then will head to England the following day for the DP World Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA at Wentworth.

“That Monday in Rome will be about getting a feel for the thickness of the rough, and maybe some talk of pairings,” Knight said. “It’s about together, bonding over dinner. The Europeans do it so well. The feeling we saw for Viktor’s first Ryder Cup [2021 at Whistling Straits] is an energy unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s incredible.”

Hovland then has six weeks off between the Ryder Cup and the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai in November — where he’ll attempt to claim another season-long title in 2023.

The post Before Viktor Hovland gets into Ryder Cup prep mode, one more FedEx Cup celebration awaits appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Schauffele — who started six in arrears — came out swinging, putting up a front-nine 30, yet hardly made a dent as Hovland countered with a 31, starting with a 15-footer for birdie at the first. A dart from 172 yards at the fourth ignited a stretch of three in a row.

The Norwegian used a strong tee-to-green game at East Lake. As he did at the BMW Championship, he led the field in driving accuracy with his 9-degree Ping G425 LST driver with a 45.75-inch Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX shaft. Hovland also used the club to rank first in strokes gained/off-the-tee.

Into the greens, Hovland ranked second in greens in regulation with his Ping i210 irons with KBS Tour-V 120X shafts and Golf Pride MCC grips with one extra wrap of tape underneath.

As Hovland stalled out with a string of nine pars starting at the seventh, Schauffele made inroads with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 to cut the deficit to three. Hovland, however, rolled in a 23-footer for par after a scratchy chip shot at the 14th and then knocked in a 10-footer for birdie at the next to effectively end things. He added a 12-footer for birdie on 17 for good measure then capped it off with another on the 18th hole.

On the greens Hovland uses a Ping PLD DS72 prototype that has a stepless 36-inch shaft and 2.5 degrees of loft. In addition to ranking fifth in strokes gained/putting, he went a perfect 50 for 50 on putts from five feet and in for the week, resulting in a tournament-low two bogeys.

And a season-high pay cheque.

The clubs Viktor Hovland used to win the 2023 Tour Championship
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
Driver: Ping G425 LST (Fujikura Speeder TR 661-TX), 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus, 15 degrees
Irons (3): Titleist U505; (4-PW): Ping i210
Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 (50, 56 degrees); Ping Glide 2.0 (60 degrees)
Putter: Ping PLD DS72 prototype

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The pain was real. On Thursday, just ahead of his first round at the Tour Championship, Rory McIlroy looked as likely to pull out of the finale of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season as he did hit his opening tee shot. The defending FedEx Cup champion tweaked his back earlier in the week before arriving at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, and struggled with his swing on the range as he tried to figure out if he was healthy enough to play or not. Ultimately, he gave it a go, grinding things out with an opening one-under 69 in hope he would feel better later in the week.

The decision seems worth it now. While McIlroy hasn’t been 100 per cent, he has still been impressive, a second-round 67 extending his streak of sub-par rounds at East Lake to 30 before seeing it come to an end with a one-over 71 on Saturday. Even more impressive, he’s been averaging 334.9 yards off the tee to lead the field in driving distance.

Cynics might question exactly how that could be. Cynics and smartie-pants, such as Charles Barkley, the basketball Hall of Famer who was around on Saturday at East Lake.

Barkley exchanged hellos with McIlroy after Rory’s round had finished, with this interesting exchange:
Barkley: “How is your back?”
McIlroy: “It’s … it’s OK.”
Barkley: “You got your speed up on one of these drives today. So I think you’re lying.”

When Charles Barkley and Rory McIlroy meet up, it's must see TV ? @TOURChamp pic.twitter.com/pRflOOnM7E

— Golf on CBS (@GolfonCBS) August 27, 2023

Barkley’s joke got laughs from those around, But just in case he wasn’t joking, McIlroy seemed to try to defend himself.

“But I can’t hit the ball up in the air, I got to keep it low,” McIlroy said.

Before letting McIlroy get away, Barkley wanted to make sure they were still all good.

“Good luck at the Ryder Cup,” he said.
“You mean that?” McIlroy replied. “Do you really mean that?”
“I really mean that,” Barkley said. “Hey, I don’t pull for teams, I pull for guys like yourself.”

The post Charles Barkley can’t help but give Rory McIlroy grief in the most Charles Barkley way appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Xander Schauffele shot eight-under 62 on Sunday at the Tour Championship and lost. Lost being relative, as he topped 28 others, but could not make much of a dent on the lead from the man ahead, a man who is playing better than anyone else on the planet.

Schauffele, an East Lake lover, has played some of the best golf of his career on these famed fairways and this week was no different even though he entered the final round six shots behind Hovland in the race to the $18 million first-place prize.

Settling for $6.5 million isn’t a bad consolation prize.

After the first six holes on Sunday, Schauffele was four-under par. But Hovland was too. Schauffele made the turn in 30. Hovland made the turn in 31. Both men were three-under on the last nine holes, but Hovland’s were on the last three holes to win by five shots after shooting 63. A par save from 23 feet on the 14th hole by Hovland was the final dagger.

“I thought 62 would have let me get close to him, but I think the closest I got to was three shots back,” Schauffele said. “He played unbelievably well. He made important putts and he’s just played like a champ.”

Speaking of champ — although Schauffele has not won a FedEx Cup, he has three second-place finishes and six top-five finishes in seven attempts. He won the 2017 Tour Championship at East Lake but finished third in the standings when the format was different than it is now.

“Yeah, I’ll hold my head up high,” he said. “It was the most fun I had losing in quite some time. It’s such a weird feeling. I shot 62. I lost by five.”

Again, losing is relative.

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To the winner goes the spoils. But the spoils that come with winning this week’s Tour Championship for Viktor Hovland … well they’re the spectacular variety.

Try $18 million.

Yep, that’s the pay day the 25-year-old from Norway collected (after earning $3.6 million for his win last week at the BMW Championship) by closing with a Sunday 63 at East Lake Golf Club (after shooting a Sunday 61 for his win last week at the BMW) to claim a five-shot triumph over Xander Schauffele. Officially, the money on the line this week in Atlanta is not tournament prize money, but rather the payout for the $75 million FedEx Cup bonus pool that players are receiving for their finishes in the season-long points race. (No player’s career earnings increases as a result of their performance in the 2022-23 season finale.)

But that doesn’t mean the cash isn’t crazy. We’ve noted this in the past, but we think it’s worth repeating: For their entire PGA Tour careers, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, winners of 25 majors and 135 tour titles, earned a combined $7,595,888. The difference between finishing first and second this week alone is more than that ($11.5 million).

Here then is the prize money payout for each golfer in the final FedEx Cup standings after the conclusion of the Tour Championship. As with regular PGA Tour events, money is split equally among players if there are tied for different places in this last event of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season.

Win: Viktor Hovland, -27, $18,000,000
2: Xander Schauffele, -22, $6,500,000
3: Wyndham Clark, -16, $5,000,000
4: Rory McIlroy, -14, $4,000,000
5: Patrick Cantlay, -13, $3,000,000
T-6: Tommy Fleetwood, -11, $2,000,000
T-6: Scottie Scheffler, -11, $2,000,000
T-6: Collin Morikawa, -11, $2,000,000
T-9: Sam Burns, -10, $990,000
T-9: Matt Fitzpatrick, -10, $990,000
T-9: Max Homa, -10, $990,000
T-9: Adam Schenk, -10, $990,000
T-9: Keegan Bradley, -10, $990,000
T-14: Russell Henley, -9, $780,000
T-14: Sepp Straka, -9, $780,000
T-16: Rickie Fowler, -8, $710,000
T-16: Tyrrell Hatton, -8, $710,000
T-18: Jon Rahm, -7, $670,000
T-18: Lucas Glover, -7, $670,000
T-20: Si Woo Kim, -6, $620,000
T-20: Tony Finau, -6, $620,000
T-20: Tom Kim, -6, $620,000
23: Brian Harman, -4, $580,000
24: Sungjae Im, -3, $565,000
25: Nick Taylor, -2, $550,000
26: Corey Conners, -1, $540,000
27: Jordan Spieth, +1, $530,000
28: Jason Day, +3, $520,000
T-29: Emiliano Grillo, +6, $505,000
T-29: Taylor Moore, +6, $505,000

The post Here’s the FedEx Cup prize money payout for each golfer at the 2023 Tour Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

At the 2019 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands, Hovland made his pro debut following a stellar amateur and college career at Oklahoma State. He was low amateur at the Masters and US Open at Pebble Beach earlier that year. The PGA Tour rolled him out alongside Collin Morikawa, Matthew Wolff and Justin Suh for a joint press conference showcasing the tour’s next generation. After 10 minutes of questions about the California connection between Morikawa, Suh and Wolff — natives of the Golden State — Hovland was asked about his upbringing in Norway.

“Growing up in Oslo, Norway, or ‘California 2.0’ as we call it, it’s a completely different situation,” Hovland said as a pack of reporters burst into laughter.

Hovland, now 25, has been one of the most popular characters on the PGA Tour since. But while his goofy sense of humour won over fans, his play did not, at first. Instead, it was Morikawa and Wolff who enjoyed meteoric rises. Both won in their first handful of starts on the PGA Tour, while Hovland took until the following year to win his maiden title in the US. He also won twice in Europe. Morikawa broke away from them all with majors at the 2020 PGA and 2021 Open Championship.

History for Hovland! ?? pic.twitter.com/sCHcyfbcVx

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 28, 2023

The past two years, however, and especially this summer, Hovland has begun to fulfil the potential most knew he had. Last year, he played in the final group at the Open at St Andrews and finished T-4. This year, he registered a top-10 at the Masters and a career-best T-2 at the PGA Championship.

In 2023, though, Hovland has taken off. The Tour Championship and FedEx Cup victory at East Lake was his third of the season, following the Memorial Tournament in June and the BMW Championship last week, when he shot a final-round 61.

Hovland slept on a six-shot lead going into Sunday’s final round. Showing no nerves, he posted a bogey-free 63 to finish at 27-under par using the Tour Championship’s adjusted scoring system. The victory secured an $18 million FedEx Cup bonus, after winning $3.6 million outside Chicago last week.

“It’s a lot of cash we’re playing for, it’s in the back of your mind,” Hovland said of his riches. “I live in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Money goes a long way there. It’s nice to have that, but it’s not something that drives me.”

Viktor Hovland. Kevin C Cox

Xander Schauffele, once a winner at East Lake and never worse than seventh, posted a valiant 62 to be runner up at 22-under, earning a second-place cheque of $6.5 million.

“The game plan was trying to play as boring as possible, just trying to play like Tiger back in the day when he would post the 69 or a 70 in a major championship and walk away with a victory,” Hovland said. “I was four-under through six, but Xander just kept pouring [putts]. He put up a 62 today. It was very special. Certainly he made today a lot more stressful than I felt like it should have been after that start.”

A prolific ball-striker, Hovland has turned around his short game from ranking 99th in strokes gained/around the green last year to 60th this year. It’s what saved him at East Lake. He began the week at No. 2 on the FedEx Cup leaderboard, two shots behind pre-tournament leader Scottie Scheffler.

Hovland couldn’t afford mistakes. And there weren’t many, especially around the greens. On the 14 times Hovland missed the green this week, he saved par 12 times. After a near two-hour storm delay Sunday, Hovland returned to drain a 15-foot par putt at the par-3 second after having hit a poor bunker shot.

The biggest par save of the week, though, was at No. 14 when playing partner Schauffele was within three shots. An improved short game briefly deserted Hovland as he left his pitch shot 23 feet short but made the putt. “That putt was huge. Two shots with four [holes] to go is a different [mindset] than three shot,” he said.

Viktor Hovland is a simple guy. pic.twitter.com/RrUVi3FFgq

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 28, 2023

Rory McIlroy says that’s where Hovland has blossomed as an elite player. “He’s one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world and a hell of a player,” said McIlroy, who finished fourth despite problems with his back all week. “I think as we all know he’s improved around the greens this year. That’s been the difference from being a top-10 player in the world to what he’s done this year.”

Hovland’s Ryder Cup teammate, Matt Fitzpatrick, agreed, saying, “He is just so straight and so accurate. Tee to green he is phenomenal.”

Tommy Fleetwood, who finished T-6, reminded reporters that despite being on tour for four years, Hovland was still only in his mid-20s. The best, Fleetwood said, was likely yet to come.

“He’s not that old,” the Englishman said. “Nobody’s going to be the finished package at that age, really. Apart from maybe Tiger Woods. But he’s, I think he’s showing how good he truly can be.”

It is only a month until Hovland has a chance to show how good he is on one of the biggest stages he’ll face — a Ryder Cup on European soil. McIlroy welcomed any possibility of a pairing in Rome at Marco Simone.

The World No. 2, emphatically said: “Four-balls, foursomes [wouldn’t matter] … if someone said to any of us on the team: ‘We’re going to put you out with Viktor today,’ I don’t think anyone would say no.”

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It’s unlikely an ice bath will cool Viktor Hovland down, but that’s how he planned to spend Saturday night. As Altanta boiled, Hovland’s play at East Lake was nearly as hot. He tapped in for a 66 just after 8pm —the late finish due to a 75-minute weather delay — and took a six-shot lead after 54 holes in the Tour Championship. It left the 25-year-old with 18 hours to waste before a tee time that should yield a FedEx Cup victory and $18 million pay day.

“[I’m going to] jump in the ice bath, get some physio done and just go to bed,” Hovland said of his rather un-wild Saturday night plans. “The tee time will come around pretty quickly.”

Hovland’s 20-under-par total through three rounds (he began the Tour Championship at eight-under using the adjusted scoring format) left East Lake specialist Xander Schauffele in his wake at 14-under. Schauffele has played some decent rounds at East Lake — 24 of his 27 trips around the layout have been under par. He’s never finished worse than tied seventh in six previous visits. But the 2017 Tour Championship winner conceded his Saturday 68 gave Hovland far too much room.

“Not good enough,” Schauffele said when asked to describe his round. “I missed two short putts on 15 and 18. I wouldn’t have gained anything on the leader.”

Aside from missing short putts, it’s hard to gain anything on a sublimely talented player whose work ethic at the back end of the season has been noticed by Schauffele and other members of the PGA Tour elite.

“He’s just playing unbelievable golf,” Schauffele said. “He’s been working really hard. I saw him working hard through the playoffs. I was out late, and he was one of the guys I always saw until dark as well. So, no surprise.”

That work paid off last week when Hovland won the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields outside Chicago with a final-round 61. Considered one of the game’s best drivers and a fine putter, the five-time tour winner has turned his short game around dramatically in the past 12 months. In his words, he’s a more complete player.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played as well [as] this stretch. I’ve certainly hit the ball this good before,” Hovland said. “I feel like I’ve hit the ball better than I have this week and even last week.

“But it’s just about putting it all together, and it seemed like the good weeks that I’ve had before I’ve always managed to short-side myself or chip [poorly] a couple times and end up out of contention.

“This year, I feel like I’ve just become a little bit more complete, and I don’t have to hit it my best to be in contention. I don’t have to hit every shot pure. I can miss it slightly and get up and down and move on.”

That doesn’t bode well for the chasers. Keegan Bradley (70) and overnight co-leader Collin Morikawa (73), tied at seven back, appear to be playing for Ryder Cup captain’s picks, which will be announced by Zach Johnson Tuesday. Two of this year’s major winners, Masters champ Jon Rahm and US Open winner Wyndham Clark, are 11-under alongside Scottie Scheffler, who squandered his two-shot advantage pre-tournament with two rounds over par, including Saturday’s 73.

“I know what I need to do [Sunday],” Schauffele said. “I need to go out and try and put as much pressure on him tomorrow on that front nine as I can and hope for the best.”

Hope may be Schauffele’s only tool to reel in Hovland, who is determined to add his name to illustrious group to have won the FedEx Cup since its 2007 inception — Tiger Woods (twice) and Rory McIlroy (three), among the champions.

“The list of names that’s been on that trophy is pretty special, and it would be awesome to have my name on there,” Hovland said. “It’s a marathon getting into this week, but [the Tour Championship itself] feels more like a sprint.”

If it’s a sprint, then all signs point to Hovland running away with it.

The post Viktor Hovland is close to putting Tour Championship on ice appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Let’s take Jon Rahm at his word. The Masters champion spoke out Friday at the Tour Championship, arguing essentially that too much attention is paid to how much money is on the line at East Lake Golf Club this week — and by extension in pro golf overall.

“It’s one of the things that frustrates me about watching this broadcast,” Rahm said after shooting a second-round 65 that left him tied for fifth place at East Lake, four shots back of the leaders heading into the weekend. “We’re not thinking if we miss a putt how much it’s going to cost us money-wise. No chance. None whatsoever. From first to second, you’re making a ton of money. You’re trying to finish as high as possible. You’re trying to win a tournament. It’s one of my pet peeves when they make this tournament all about money because I think it takes away from it.”

And yet, there’s no denying that there is A LOT of money at stake. The winner on Sunday will claim $18 million for capturing the FedEx Cup from a bonus fund of $75 million. Second place earns you $6.5 million. Finish last, and you still claim $500,000. Maybe players in the moment aren’t consciously thinking about how much any individual stroke might be worth, but at some point, the realisation of just how much they made this week will hit them if only when they look at their bank account soon after.

Arguably, the best way to contextualize the money up for grabs in Atlanta — and how jaw-dropping/eye-popping the payout will be for whoever wins it on Sunday — is to compare the $18 million to how much any of the 30 players in the field have earned to this point in their PGA Tour careers.

Mind you, technically speaking, the money doled out at East Lake isn’t considered official earnings, but it spends the same way and it goes to show just how large it really is from the perspective of what these guys having been earning year-in and year-out playing on the tour.

So take Scottie Scheffler, who came into the week leading the FedEx Cup standings and thus was given a two-shot lead before the tournament started, giving him a leg up on all others for the $18 million. Scheffler has been playing on the PGA Tour for only four full seasons, but in that time has earned $42.5 million, including a record $21 million this season.

So now compare the $18 million on the line this week to that career $40 million, and it amounts to Scheffler potentially earning the equivalent of 42.3 per cent of his career earnings with a win at East Lake.

Kind of crazy, isn’t it?

It’s even crazier when you look at some of the other young players in the field who are just really starting their tour careers. Take Tom Kim. The 21-year-old from South Korea has had an incredible start as a PGA Tour member, winning twice. And to date he’s earned $9 million in prize money. Not bad for a 21-year-old. So … if he wins this week at Atlanta, well, the $18 million amounts to him DOUBLING his career earnings.

OK, so that is a little jaw-dropping, right?

Given Rahm’s comments, it’s interesting to see that if he were the winner, the earnings would be only 34.9 per cent of his career money ($51.5 million). Only Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day have smaller percentages.

CBS Sports’ Patrick McDonald broke it down for all 30 players and we’ll do the same here too. If you see any of these names on the leaderboard this weekend, this chart might be the best way to truly put in perspective what they may or may not be thinking about at East Lake.

PLAYER: CAREER EARNINGS / PERCENTAGE OF CAREER EARNINGS

Rory McIlroy: $80,095,557 / 22.5 per cent
Jordan Spieth: $60,009,379 / 30.0 per cent
Jason Day: $57,013,845 / 31.6 per cent
Jon Rahm: $51,546,651 / 34.9 per cent
Rickie Fowler: $48,911,847 / 36.8 per cent
Scottie Scheffler: $42,565,229 / 42.3 per cent
Patrick Cantlay: $42,023,361 / 42.8 per cent
Keegan Bradley: $40,429,538 / 44.5 per cent
Xander Schauffele: $38,874,112 / 46.3 per cent
Tony Finau: $37,379,004 / 48.2 per cent
Lucas Glover: $34,367,031 / 52.4 per cent
Brian Harman: $32,873,672 / 54.8 per cent
Russell Henley: $26,761,721 / 67.3 per cent
Viktor Hovland: $26,689,778 / 67.4 per cent
Collin Morikawa: $24,946,135 / 72.2 per cent
Sungjae Im: $23,434,803 / 76.8 per cent
Max Homa: $23,355,720 / 77.1 per cent
Matt Fitzpatrick: $22,259,995 / 80.9 per cent
Si Woo Kim: $22,169,854 / 81.2 per cent
Sam Burns: $21,743,793 / 82.8 per cent
Tyrrell Hatton: $21,490,243 / 83.8 per cent
Tommy Fleetwood: $20,325,273 / 88.6 per cent
Emiliano Grillo: $19,865,434 / 90.6 per cent
Corey Conners: $18,562,777 / 97.0 per cent
Wyndham Clark: $15,679,535 / 114.8 per cent
Nick Taylor: $14,354,618 / 125.4 per cent
Sepp Straka: $13,221,958 / 136.1 per cent
Adam Schenk: $9,714,545 / 185.3 per cent
Tom Kim: $9,185,756 / 196.0 per cent
Taylor Moore: $6,764,699 / 266.1 per cent

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Rory McIlroy opened the Tour Championship with an even-par 70 and proclaimed he was “over the moon” with that result, considering his lower back was seizing up for a couple of days. On Friday, he was three shots better with a 67 at East Lake and, remarkably, finds himself only six shots off the pace set by Colin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland with 36 holes remaining in a sprint for $18 million.

“I’m here grinding away, battling away,” McIlroy said following a round in which he suffered only one bogey while being limited to only a certain number of shots he can execute.

The Ulsterman had a spot-on explanation for what’s happening.

“I can’t hit the ball left-to-right; I can’t swing my irons the way I want to,” McIlroy said. “I can’t turn my right side through the ball. So from the top of the swing, I’m just sort of throwing my arms at it and it’s a lot of face rotation and I can only really hit it one way with the irons.

“I can’t hit the driver the way I usually do. Like, teeing it up I’m teeing it down and just hitting a sort of flat little runner down there. A little limited to the shots that I can hit, but I’m getting by.”

McIlroy is disappointed with the timing of the spasms, but he had a telling answer about suffering through this now rather than when he’s prepping for the Ryder Cup near Rome that is set for September 29-October 1.

“I would rather it pop up now than in three or four weeks’ time,” he said. “… Not great timing, but it could be worse as well.”

McIlroy said he hasn’t considered withdrawing from the Tour Championship, nor does he think he can do further damage to his back. Though there are tricky concerns beyond that.

“I wouldn’t say physical,” he said. “I would say maybe bad habits. … Hopefully it starts to feel better and maybe by the end of next week I’ll be able to hit some balls again and get out of those bad habits.”

McIlroy’s current plans are to take just one week off after the Tour Championship before competing in two DP World Tour events — the Irish open and BMW PGA Championship. Then he’ll have two more weeks off before the Ryder Cup.

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