There was a lot of excitement heading into the final round of the The Honda Classic this past weekend. Rory McIlroy occupied the top spot on the leaderboard and after a rather unorthodox 5-under 65, Tiger Woods had put himself into contention heading into Sunday. But as is the case with most things, the events that unfolded Sunday weren’t exactly what everyone was expecting.
After opening up with a par on the first hole, Woods’ round took a turn for the worst. He bogeyed 2, doubled 3 and then tacked on 2 more bogeys at holes 4 and 6 before recording his lone birdie of the day at 7.
He registered yet another bogey on hole 9 on his way to a front-nine 40 and then after 4 straight pars to open the back nine, he shook his playing partner Luke Guthrie’s hand and withdrew — citing back pain that he began experiencing on the practice range before the round. The same back pain in fact that plagued him throughout the entire duration of the FedEx Cup Playoffs last season.
This week, Tiger was expected to defend his title in the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral — a tournament he’s won 8 times. But in his post round interview Woods said that he was uncertain of whether or not he would be able to participate in the event. Not exactly what we were all hoping to hear.
But enough about Tiger and on to Rory. Riding a hot putter for most of the weekend, many expected McIlroy to do what he usually does when he has a lead heading into the Sunday — run away with the tournament. Instead, he had a roller coster round which he held together fairly well until he came to hole 16.
Needing to just hang on and record a couple of pars on the closing holes, McIlroy took a double on 16 and a bogey on 17 to surrender his lead for the first time since his opening round on Thursday. Needing to make birdie on the final hole to even get into a playoff with Ryan Palmer, Russell Knox and Russell Henley, McIlroy delivered. His high, however, was short lived as Russell Henley came out and birdied the opening playoff hole to take home his second career PGA Tour victory.
Disappointed after his performance McIlroy told reporters, “Even if I had won [in the playoff] it would have felt a little bit undeserved.”
Rory will have a chance to bounce back this week at Doral — a tournament that will feature a field equally as strong as the one he faced this week. The tour will then travel to Innisbrook Resort for the Tampa Bay Championship and then close out with the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida.
After that, it’s on to The Masters.