Rory McIlroy finds his smile again in London, with a spectacular victory at the most important tournament of the European Tour, the BMW PGA Championship. Also very good Francesco Molinari, who conquers seventh place, while Matteo Manassero, winner last year, attends the show from home, as unfortunately he did not pass the cut.
Meanwhile, a few hours later, Adam Scott confirmed himself as number one in the world by winning the Crowne Plaza Invitational, at Colonia in Taxsas, against Jason Dufner on the third hole of the playoffs.
They are two similar successes: both players start quietly and make a wonderful comeback in the last lap. McIlory leads the Wentworth tournament only on the 71st hole, when he hits a birdie on the 17th, after which he guarantees himself a bit of margin by replying with a birdie on the 18th. In total for him there are 274 strokes, 14 under par. Thomas Bjorn and Shane Lowry, protagonists of the tournament for three days, instead "fall" under the blows of two holes: Bjorn leaves three points at 6, where he closes with a triple bogey, while Lowry hits a double bogey at 13. It is above all the Dane, number one in the Race to Dubai, to have the tournament in hand until his Caporetto: in fact, in the third round he is already 15 strokes under par and in the fourth he just needs to manage this advantage to win. But golf is unpredictable. Wentworth is a course where mistakes are always lurking and every player can fall into the trap of a hole. So it is for Bjorn, who like a great gentleman, in the end compliments his rival friend: “I'm happy for Rory – he says – we all know what he went through. Sometimes difficult decisions weigh so heavily that there is nothing left to do but let yourself be totally absorbed in golf".
In fact, on Wednesday the Northern Irishman announced the breaking of his engagement to the tennis player Caroline Wozniacki and, almost in tears, he said he wanted to concentrate only on his game. A feat in which Rory has certainly achieved success. It is his sixth victory on the European Tour, the first of this year. The points scored at Wentworth take McIlory to second place in the Race to Dubai, behind Bjorn, and sixth place in the world rankings, where he was number one, but he had slipped to tenth position.
Meanwhile, Adam Scott's leadership in the World Ranking is consolidated. The Australian became number one in the world for the first time in his career last week, but thanks to yesterday's victory he takes off a bit from number two Tiger Woods and collects the right amount of confidence for the next big round of the season : the Us Open, in three weeks at Pinehurst.
