Why Rory McIlroy’s Last Major Remains One of The Wildest Finishes Ever | Golf Digest

The final hole of the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club remains one of the strangest finishes in recent major history. Featuring Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickleson, Rickie Fowler and multiple rules officials and decisions, the entire tournament culminated on the 72nd hole. Here, Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan breaks down the final day and hole.

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[Music] Rory mroy has now endured 10 years of close calls and near misses at major championships and it’s changed our perception of him it can make it tough to remember the moments when he was the most feared man on the course what finish for make the RO moments like the 2014 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club he’s still a great player today obviously but at that moment in time he was a killer a few weeks earlier he had won his third major championship at the open in Royal Liverpool the winner of the gold medal and the champion golfer of the year is Rory mroy just one week earlier he had captured the WGC Bridgestone by crushing Sergio Garcia on Sunday Rory mooy At His Brilliant best again he was world number one and here at Valhalla he took a One-Shot lead into the final round gr McDow made a TV appearance that afternoon and what he said about Rory gives the best sense of what people were thinking then he said quote it’s beginning to look a little tiger resque I said to the boys at the open I didn’t think we were going to see the new tiger era I’m not eating my words but I’m certainly starting to chew on them end quote rain in the early afternoon delayed the tea times the weather in the Ohio River Valley turned unbearably humid and though almost everyone there that day could have predicted that Rory would win the tournament nobody could have known how bizarre it would be or that the strangest moment of all would come in near Darkness on the 18th hole the leaders finally teed off that Sunday at 4:19 p.m. but Rory started slowly he made a bogey at three and again at six that let three players catch up Henrik Stenson Ricky Fowler and Phil mikkelson fer made Birdie on five to actually pass Rory and for Fowler it was his first ever lead on Sunday at a major but the pace of play was absurdly slow and on the 6t Rory and his partner burn vburger caught up to Phil and Ricky and both pairs had to wait reberger made play conversation with them but Rory sat off by himself seething refusing to engage just glaring ahead not saying a word part of his anger in that moment was his own play but another part which he admitted to David far a couple years later was that he didn’t like how Phil and Ricky were fist bumping and high-fiving and basically acting like teammates instead of players competing against each other for a major it annoyed him and he vowed to catch them and beat them the tide began to turn for him on the par 510th when he tried to hit a draw for his second shot pulled it way left but somehow put a fade on the ball and wound up on the green one of the accidentally great shots of the entire year he made the eagle PT and that put him one shot back of Fowler Nicholson the charge was on and from there things happened fast two more birdies on 13 and 17 and some rough pressure play from his opponents put him two shots ahead of both Phil and Ricky heading to 18 and none of that was a surprise back then it was just Rory being Rory the 18th hole at Valhalla is an uphill par five that runs alongside brush run Creek and there’s a stone Terrace Pond that attracts Wayward drives on the right and the green is guarded by two bunkers a big front bunker and a pot bunker to the left Darkness had fallen on the course by then it was almost 8:30 at night how would you like to try and win a major in that and as he came to the last te Rory desperately wanted to finish the round without delay undoubtedly CBS wanted the same thing and Rory knew that if he hit his drive then they’d have to let him finish the hole if he wanted problem was Ricky and Phil had just teed off and were only just walking away from the tea when the last group arrived that’s when Rory rushed up to Fowler and after a short conversation said to him we want to hit now grantland’s Brian Curtis on the scene described Fowler’s face as confused and semi cowed he asked Rory if he should tell Phil and as he left to do so the Sound of Thunder could be heard in the sky the weather was coming back Phil agreed to let Rory tea off they should just do it now but in the Hast and confusion Rory came within a hair’s breath of sending his drive into the creek on the right side it was David far up ahead who conveyed the message that he was safe just barely Fowler and mikkelson hit their second shots then both of them under the impression that they would probably need to make Eagle to have a chance to tie Rory but as they began their uphill walk to the green Rory threw out his arm in a gesture of protest he asked if he could play up but either they didn’t hear him or they ignored him and they kept walking that’s when Rory appealed to an official who finally agreed to let him hit up when that message was conveyed to mikkelson he had a heated argument with another official not sure Phil is exactly thrilled about the way this is playing out at the 18 he was fine allowing them to tee off as a courtesy but this to him was unprecedented and there are a few reasons why this was a big deal first everybody else had been forced to wait all day but as fer pointed out later because of this ruling Rory would never have to get out of rhythm he’d have the luxury of just walking up to his t-shot and hitting rather than waiting the 10 minutes it might take for Phil and Ricky to finish on the green second either Phil or Ricky could theoretically make eagle and that would put pressure on Rory’s approach shot but even if he only had to watch Phil make a birdie which is what eventually happened it would still add pressure because it would force him to make a par by hitting up before they finish the ho he found a way around those nerves third it was already very dark and it would have been even darker if Rory and burn vburger had to wait to hit their approach shots hence it would be much more difficult both mikkelson and Fowler were diplomatic after the fact with the media but it was obvious blatantly obvious in Phil’s case that they weren’t happy the entire scene and everything that happened seemed to be a case of Rory’s tremendous willpower asserting itself like he almost gave the officials no choice we up they could have said no and some people assert that it shouldn’t have been up to them at all but the sheer force of Rory’s personality was such that he got his way he didn’t want to hit in darkness he didn’t want to come back the next day and one way to look at this is that nobody was strong enough to match his energy and say no the great irony though is that Rory’s General sense of hurry was doing him no favors he hit his approach into the difficult front bunker and mikkelson almost hold his eag pitch his tap in birdie got him to within one shot of Rory while Fowler could only make par and from the bunker Rory had very few good options he was forced to pitch out to 34 ft and with rain starting to fall again and wind whipping the flags above the scoreboard he faced a difficult T putt to win the championship nevertheless this was vintage Rory and it could only end one way his birdie putt stopped 10 Ines from the hole and when he tapped in and we have a shining star at sunset world’s number one golfer had won his fourth major and was the Undisputed king of his generation he came through under the gun by virtue of great skill great pressure play too but perhaps most importantly an extra dash of insistence at the very end and you would have sworn that night as Darkness fell in Kentucky that he’d win many more [Applause]