Rory McIlroy blasts Xander Schauffele to win at Wells Fargo

Rory McIlroy waits for his moment on Sunday at Quail Hollow. And when the time came, he didn't stop.

McIlroy cruised through the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship, making two eagles to play the eight-under hole and return one shot behind Xander Schauffele to start the day at five shots. overcome.

World No. 2 finished at 17 under after a final round of 65 for his fourth career victory at Quail Hollow. It was also McIlroy's 26th PGA Tour victory and his second in a row after winning the Zurich Classic team event with Shane Lowry two weeks ago.

The last time McIlroy won his last two majors was before his most recent major title at the 2014 PGA Championship, played at Valhalla, this year's host venue.

McIlroy birdied the first hole on Sunday to quickly pull even with Schauffele, who had held the lead for most of the tournament after opening with a 64. But after Schuaffele converted a middle-length eagle putt on the 7th and McIlroy carded 34. year old Northern Irishman got two back.

That's when he turned on the jets, birdying 8 and 9 to pull even at the turn and then going solo for the first time with a 34-putt eagle on the 10th. He never looked back as he added birdies on 13 and 14 before he holed a shot on 15 for a second eagle, both back to back par-5s for the exclamation point.

On the 18th, he was seven strokes up, meaning that on his second, he bounced straight off the pin and into the water beyond the green. His closing double bogey did nothing to take away from the excitement he received after he holed the final putt on the same green where he clinched his first PGA Tour victory.

Schauffele couldn't keep up with the pace, making three bogeys on the back-nine, but his par 71 was good enough to finish three behind Ben An, who shot a 66 on Sunday to take sole possession of third. It marks another close call for Schauffele, the world No. 4, who has not won since the 2022 Scottish Open. While moving up to second place at the FedEx Cup, he also birdied 54 holes at the Players Championship and now moves to two-for-eight in 54 holes in his PGA Tour career.

For McIlroy, it caps another tumultuous week related to ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund. He indicated this week that he will not rejoin the PGA Tour Policy Board after previously announcing his return following his resignation in the fall.

Instead, it has been reported that McIlroy will serve on the Transactions Subcommittee that will negotiate with the PIF.

He also denied the reported rift between himself and Tiger Woods.

But McIlroy's attention will now turn to Valhalla, where he is looking to win his first title in 10 years, having finished in the top 10 in his last nine majors.

Jack Hirsh

Golf.com Editor

Jack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A native of Pennsylvania, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was the captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as the head coach. Jack is also *still* trying to stay competitive with the local novices. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a reporter/multimedia reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting weather. He can be reached at [email protected].