Rory McIlroy Wins the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play

San Francisco was treated to an excellent and world class display of golf this week at the World Golf Championships Cadillac Match Play at TPC Harding Park. With the new match play format (implemented just this year) we saw more matches being played than any year before, as well as more rounds of golf than any other golf tournament, which brought out a different side of some golfers. But after 7 matches, 3 of witch concluded today, World Number One Rory McIlroy emerged as the winner, defeating Gary Woodland with a 4&2 score. This is Rory's first PGA Tour win this year and his last PGA Tour win since the PGA Championship last year. Ironically, Rory has won 2 of the last 4 WGC events, his last being the 2014 WGC Cadillac Championship, which was also his last non-major PGA Tour win.

Rory remained undefeated all week, but his journey to the final round was not easy. He defeated the likes of Japan superstar Hideki Matsuyama, Paul Casey (a match which concluded early this morning due to darkness yesterday), and Jim Furyk (who finished 4th). In his match against Furyk, Rory was 1 down going into the 16th hole. It wasn't looking good for him, but Rory went on to win the next three holes and beat Furyk, going birdie, birdie, eagle. He drove the green on the 18th and made a huge (albeit unexpected for both him and Furyk) eagle putt to win.

In the final match, Rory took an early lead against Gary Woodland, going 4 up through 7. Both players were playing well, although Gary Woodland battled against errant drives most of the round. But Woodland made a charge on the back nine, taking two points away from Rory on the 11th and 12th. But things turned for the worst for Woodland on the par 3 13th hole, where he was left with a short four foot putt to win the hole after Rory had duffed a chip. Woodland missed and they halved the hole, but from there on, Woodland wasn't the same. He would concede the 16th hole and watch after a poor bunker shot.

The 3rd place match was played between Jim Furyk (surprise, surprise) and young Englishmen and European Tour player Danny Willett. This was a back and fourth match, with Furyk leading going into the back nine, but Willett dominating much of the back nine. By no means did Furyk lose the match, rather, Willett won it. Despite being for 3rd place, Willett probably comes out as the biggest winner this week, as his 3rd place finish was enough to earn him temporary PGA Tour status for the rest of the season.

TPC Harding Park was not forgiving this week, especially the deep (US Open style) rough. On the back nine, many of the par 4s required a tee shot in the fairway, as a second shot from the rough would often result in balls not having enough spin to stay on the green when they landed. We saw this a lot in Woodland's final round, where he was penalized a few times for missing the fairway.

Finally, our lone pick who made it to the knockout rounds, Rickie Fowler, lost in his first match to Louis Oosthuizen, who dominated most of the match.

There you have it, the 2nd WGC event of the season. As I promised, it was filled with excitement and world class golf. Next week is the biggest event of the PGA Tour, the "5th major", the Players Championship from Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Stay tuned for our picks for it.


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

Rory McIlroy Wins the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play