Clark holds off McIlroy fightback to win BMW Championship
Wyndham Clark has won the US Open in two of the past four years
- Published
BMW Championship - final leaderboard
-17 W Clark (US); -14 P Cantlay (US); -13 R McIlroy (NI); -12 G Woodland (US), C Gotterup (US), C Morikawa (US); -10 R MacIntyre (Sco), M McNealy (US); -9 J Bridgeman (US); -8 Im (Kor), M Brennan (US)
Selected others: -7 S Scheffler (US), A Bhatia (US); -6 A Rai (Eng); -5 J Rose (Eng); -3 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); +2 T Fleetwood (Eng)
Wyndham Clark said he is "one of the best players in the world" after he survived a fightback from Rory McIlroy to win the BMW Championship in Missouri.
Clark held a five-shot lead going into the final day, but saw his advantage evaporate as McIlroy drew level with seven holes left to play.
But Northern Ireland's McIlroy could not take several opportunities to move ahead, and while he closed with a bogey, Clark had a run of three successive birdies as he posted a fourth-round 70 to finish the week 17 under par.
Patrick Cantlay also closed his round with three birdies to finish runner-up on 14 under in the second of the three end-of-season FedEx Cup play-off events.
After pushing Clark all the way, McIlroy ended the day one under par to finish 13 under, four shots behind the winner.
"It was weird - I wasn't nervous but I was kind of out of it, making double bogeys. I can't believe I didn't make anything on the greens. But I kept trying to get myself going," said Clark, who picked up a third win of the year.
"I really started to swing free down the end. I was proud I didn't let it get away and was mentally strong.
"I'm one of the best players in the world. Everyone gives me a hard time and roots for other people, but I've come into my own. It's my best season yet coming off my worst year."
After losing his first-day lead with a second-round 69, McIlroy said he needed a "heroic effort" to catch Clark on the final day.
The back-to-back Masters champion fought hard to gain two shots as Clark dropped three, but missed a putt on the 14th with the scores tied - and from there Clark recovered.
"I'm not playing well enough to be too disappointed to not win," McIlroy told CBS Sports.
"I had my chances, but Wyndham stepped up. The way he played the last three holes, he showed a lot of character."
Scotland's Robert MacIntyre carded the joint lowest round of the day, a five-under 65, to jump up to joint seventh on 10 under.
World number one Scottie Scheffler, who won the previous week's opening play-off event by eight strokes, closed with a two-under 68 to finish joint 12th on seven under.
The season ends with this week's Tour Championship at East Lake, Atlanta.
The top 30 in the season-long standings will compete in the no-cut tournament which starts on Thursday and has a prize fund of $40m.
Along with McIlroy and MacIntyre, English quartet Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick and his brother Alex will be in the field.
