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The show is at the rendezvous of the 2nd tournament of the Playoffs of the FedEx Cup. The proof, the exceptional and improbable birdie succeeded by Rory McIlroy. A video that went around social networks in less time than it takes to write it.
Rory McIlroy, results
Thursday Rory McIlroy may have hit just three fairways in the first round of the BMW Championship, but that didn't stop him from grabbing the lead alongside The Open winner Brian Harman. To climb to the controls he needed a fifth birdie and the way he achieved it at 17 of the course at Olympia Fields in Illinois is enough to make you dizzy!
After misplacing his drive in the left rough of this long par 4 of 417 meters he was forced to play his second shot between the trees. “I had a small window,” explained the Northern Irishman. "the risk was to hit a branch but at worst the ball would end up in the bunker with a good chance of saving par" Without catching anything the low ball of the world number 2 crossed the whole green and ended its course in the thick rough at the back of it.
And that's where the magic happened. He was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland where he attended Sullivan Upper School. He belongs to the Holywood Golf Club, where he began his first training sessions followed by Michael Bannon, a coach he has maintained to this day.
McIlroy was part of the Junior Ryder Cup winning team in 2004, while in 2005 he became the youngest winner of both All-Ireland tournaments, the West of Ireland Championship and the Irish Close Championship. Also in 2005, at the North of Ireland Championship, held at The Royal Portrush, he broke the course record with a 61 at the age of 16, a record still unbeaten in 2019 at The Open Championship, held at The Royal Portrush .
In August 2006 he won the stage held at the Le Betulle Golf Club in Biella, Piedmont, of the European Amateur Championship with a score of 274 strokes (65-69-72-68), 3 less than the Englishman Lewton Stephen. In October 2006 he represented Ireland in the Eisenhower Trophy and the Amateur World Team Championship.
On February 6, 2007, he became the second man to lead the World Amateur Golf Rankings, although he lost the lead after just one week. McIlroy had an opening round of 68 strokes, 3-under par, at the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 2007, which moved him to provisional third place, three strokes off the leader.
In the same opening round he was also the only player on the court to finish without even a bogey. In the second round he shot 5 over par bringing him to +2 overall, however gaining access to the third round by overcoming the cut.
In the third round he closed with 2 strokes over par, while in the fourth with 1 stroke more than par, finishing in 42nd place, the best of amateurs. McIlroy was part of the Great Britain & Ireland squad at the 2007 Walker Cup.
His first appearance on the European Tour was at the 2005 British Masters, just days after he turned sixteen. He first cleared the cut on a European Tour at the age of seventeen, at the 2007 Dubai Desert Classic, where he also had to forfeit the €7,600 prize due to his amateur status.