Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry in FedEx Cup play-off contention
The pair came into this week with very different objectives on the PGA Tour, but East Lake, and the FedEx Cup's season-ending Tour Championship, is on the horizon before attentions turn to the Ryder Cup in Bethpage in six weeks.
For Lowry, he is outside the automatic places for Team Europe at present and his disappointing T59 finish in Memphis at the opening play-off saw him slip to 27th in the FedEx Cup rankings, and he will need to remain competitive in Caves Valley this weekend.
McIlroy finished fourth the last time the BMW Championship was held here, four years ago, and he was paired with World No 1, and Open Champion, Scottie Scheffler for the first two rounds.
READ MORE
Lowry knew he had to make a fast start and had three birdies in his first three holes. His wonderful approach on the Par 4 first, left him with 18 inches for birdie. He slotted a 12-foot birdie putt on the second, and one from just over 8ft on the third.
The Clara native dropped shots on the seventh and 10th, but bounced back on the Par 4 11th, following a brilliant approach and a 16ft birdie putt. A superb long iron provided the platform for another birdie chance from 8ft on the 519-yard Par 4 12th, but he missed.
He then bogeyed 14 and 15 and despite his second birdie of the back nine, on 16, another dropped shot on 17 saw him finish his round on level-par.
McIlroy was wayward off the tee and he had three bogeys on his front nine, losing shots on the second, fourth and sixth. The only highlight was the third, where his tee shot set up a 10ft putt for birdie, which he drained.
While Scheffler had three birdies in the first four holes, McIlroy was forced to chase and he finally made some headway with a brilliant birdie on the ninth.
And just as McIlroy began to find some momentum, the reigning FedEx Cup champion faltered with back-to-back bogeys to fall out of the lead. Meanwhile, McIlroy picked up another shot on the 10th with a putt from just under 10ft.
The Holywood golfer almost holed his second from 201 yards on the 12th, but had to settle for par after his putt from the fringe grazed the hole. He had further pars on 13 and 14 before the klaxon sounded after his tee shot on the Par 4 15th.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Lee Chin draws inspiration from Tipperary's rapid rise as he vows Wexford can bounce back in 2026
CHIN UP Lee Chin draws inspiration from Tipperary's rapid rise as he vows Wexford can bounce back in 2026 THE light went out on Wexford's season much sooner than they had planned – but Lee Chin believes Tipperary's resurgence is proof of how quickly the darkness can lift. Having failed to record a Championship victory in 2024, Tipp won six on the bounce to be crowned All-Ireland champions last month. 2 Lee Chin of Wexford reckons they can bounce back after a poor 2025 season 2 Chin is certain they can gain promotion back to the top tier Wexford skipper Chin said: 'I just think that's what hurling is now. You have a team that potentially might not be at the level they desire one year and they win the All-Ireland the year after. "Tipperary have high standards and their ambition is to win All-Irelands. "I don't think those sorts of goals would have changed for them coming into this year, regardless of how the previous couple of years went. "To come out and go all the way was incredible to see. And of course it gives you some sort of light at the end of the tunnel to think that regardless of how your year went, you can still turn things around the following year.' A win over Kilkenny in May was ultimately irrelevant for Wexford as the game was already a dead rubber. Their Leinster SHC campaign also yielded victories over Antrim and Offaly. Yet the Model men came up short of a top-three finish due to costly defeats to Dublin and Galway. Speaking exclusively to SunSport ahead of his involvement in the 2025 Hurler for Cancer Research match, Chin reflected: "We had to wait for other results to come our way by not getting the victory up in Salthill and obviously the Dublin game had left us under pressure as well. 'If you'd managed to get a win there, you would have put a bit of comfort in your way. Unfortunately we weren't able to go to either of those two venues and get a victory. "We kind of had to keep ourselves out of the relegation picture come the game against Offaly. The Kilkenny game was an odd one then because we knew that was the last day we'd hurl for 2025.' With 20 minutes remaining in their Parnell Park clash with the Dubs, Wexford were in the driving seat with a three-point lead. Scottie Scheffler suffers major blow ahead of PGA Tour playoff event after $43 million season earnings are revealed But a significant moment that turned the game in favour of the hosts was Seán Currie's penalty. While replays showed that the sliotar had not crossed the line, a goal was awarded by ref Michael Kennedy nonetheless. But Chin insisted: "Obviously when things like that do occur, you have to just suck it up and move on. After the game when you reflect, you can be very frustrated. "But as time moves on, you accept that these things happen and that's just sport. 'You get on with it. It's just foolish to be thinking about what could have been. At the end of the day, we didn't do enough in that game against Dublin. "We just need to improve. There are a lot of other areas that we needed to be better in on that day. "Just conceding too many goals, too many scores and ourselves probably as a forward line didn't really get into any sort of a rhythm through the Championship. "There are a lot of things we just need to address in terms of our performances. We can't really put it down to one incident or two incidents. We've got to be accountable for our own performance. We've just got to go searching for better." Next season will be Chin's 14th as a Wexford senior hurler. And with the county board this week proposing that Keith Rossiter be ratified to remain in charge for 2026, the veteran forward reckons they still have the right man at the wheel. He said: "I suppose we've gone through various different changes over the last number of years. As a county and especially as a player who's been around for a while, the one thing you want is continuity. 'You don't want change occurring all the time because any manager who comes into a project like ourselves, they want a year or two to bed in, to figure out players and who's in Wexford. "And obviously just to get everything in order for themselves. 'For someone like me, if that were to start all over again, that's probably not something I have time on my side for anymore. "If change was for the betterment of Wexford, I'd obviously support that. But for ourselves at the moment, we know what quality Keith brings. 'The county board are probably confident in that too and that's the reason he's going into his third year. I'm delighted that's happening." PROMOTION PUSH As well as reaching a first Leinster SHC final since the triumph of 2019, promotion back to the top tier of the National League will be among Wexford's top priorities in a year that will mark the 30th anniversary of their last All-Ireland win. And with Tipperary showing what is possible for teams who have lost their way, Chin is adamant that Rossiter's side can also turn a corner. The Faythe Harries man, who turns 33 in October, said: "I think a lot of teams are capable of bouncing back positively with how much they have at their disposal in terms of preparation and organisation and how detailed managements can be. "It's just fine lines and narrow margins with results or decisions that cause you not to get out of Leinster or Munster. "Small things can cause you to end up on one side or the other and it can make it a completely different year for you. "This was just a year that we were disappointed in. Our ambition would be to get back to Leinster finals and compete and go into an All-Ireland series. 'It wasn't to be and it's something that we'll look to rectify. Obviously getting relegated in the league didn't help with confidence either. "But we'll put our heads down over the winter and we'll work hard on sorting out a few things that we need to address. Hopefully we'll have found the improvements coming into 2026." *LEE CHIN will be one of the stars on show in the annual Hurling for Cancer Research match. Supported by Centra, it takes place at Netwatch Cullen Park in Carlow on Monday at 7.30pm. Tickets – priced €10 for adults and €5 for children – are available from selected Centra and SuperValu stores, as well as online at
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Katie Taylor named Sportswoman of the Month for July
It's often a source of no little puzzlement to non-boxing folk that after knocking seven bells out of each other through a bout, fighters can then bring themselves to embrace at the end and pay lavish tributes to each other. They're made of different stuff, these people. But that's how it all ended up between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano come the conclusion of their epic trilogy at Madison Square Garden in July when the Bray woman made it 3-0 against the Puerto Rican to remain the undisputed world lightweight champion. 'What an amazing champion,' she said of Serrano. 'We created history together three times. My name will always be embedded with hers and I am very happy about that. It's amazing to have a rival like that in the sport.' Serrano, meanwhile, paid a powerful tribute in return. 'Thank you, Katie Taylor, for an incredible three fights and 30 rounds. It has truly been an honour to face you, a true champion and warrior. So blessed to have shared the ring with such an amazing fighter. To be considered the Greatest, you have to act like one. She does that both in and out of the ring. Thank you truly.' READ MORE But both fighters had been warriors through the trilogy. The first of their bouts, in 2022, also in MSG, was named 'Fight of the Year' by Sports Illustrated. Taylor pipped that one by a split decision, Serrano feeling decidedly aggrieved about the result, and she was no happier when Taylor won by a unanimous decision in their second meeting, this time in Arlington, Texas. Brutal and bloody it was too, Taylor rarely having taken that level of punishment through her career. Come the end of fight three? As our own Keith Duggan, who was there that night, put it: ' Taylor managed to erase the question marks and silence the grumbles after their previous two battles to finish with a supremely controlled performance. She owned the night.' The crowd reacts as Katie Taylor is declared the winner of her third fight against Amanda Serrano, at New York's Madison Square Garden. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA It was a conclusive victory, even if one judge called it a draw while the other two scored it an emphatic 97-93 in Taylor's favour. She put this much cleaner win down to her boxing 'smart', rather than 'just ending up in a war'. She's 39 and she's still fine-tuning her craft. As she reflected after, a night such as this, when the famous New York venue hosted its first all-female card, was the stuff of her dreams when she started out in the sport. 'To be headlining an all-female card was an absolute privilege,' she said. 'These are the sort of opportunities that people didn't even think possible a few years ago.' The fight was screened live on Netflix, averaging six million viewers, which put it just behind the NCAA 'March Madness' basketball final in the list of 2025's most watched women's sporting events. The crowd of 19,721 was the biggest ever for an all-women's boxing card and the highest attendance for a female sporting event in MSG's history. Our five-time Sportswoman of the Year, as you'll know by now, is no stranger to making history. Is there more to come? We'll see. If she could sort out that appearance in Croke Park, you'd suspect there's another fight left in her. Previous monthly winners – December : Ellen Walshe (Swimming); January : Hazel Finn (Basketball); February : Lara Gillespie (Cycling); March : Kate O'Connor and Sarah Healy (Athletics); April : Aoife Wafer (Rugby); May : Katie McCabe (Soccer); June : Fiona Murtagh (Rowing).
RTÉ News
7 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Magnificent Robert MacIntyre extends lead as Rory McIlroy rebounds at BMW Championship
Scotland's Robert MacIntyre will take a five-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler into the weekend at the BMW Championship after firing a bogey-free 64 as Rory McIlroy finished strongly on day two. MacIntyre's six-under-par round followed a sterling 62 at Caves Valley Golf Club leaving him at 14-under-par, and halfway home to his third PGA Tour victory after capturing the Canadian and Scottish Opens last year. The bogey free round sees the Scot extend his lead from three shots to five, with world number one and FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler sitting in second place. Scheffler made five birdies and no bogeys in his round of 65, capped with a difficult two-putt par from 73 feet on the last hole. Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama are third and fourth, respectively, after they each shot rounds of 64. Masters champion McIlroy improved by four shots from Round 1 to 2, his 66 lifting him to four under par. The Northern Irishman had a costly double bogey on the par-three third hole, but would make four birdies and an exquisite eagle on the par-five 17th to climb up the leaderboard. Shane Lowry sits in a tie for 16th place after a round of one-under-par 69. The Offaly man mixed three birdies with four bogeys and will be seeking a weekend charge to move into contention ahead of the season finale Tour Championship. Only the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of this tournament will advance to next week's Tour Championship.
