RORY McIlroy recovered from a late speed wobble and answered the $64 million-dollar-question when he held off a final-round challenge from PGA champion Justin Thomas to retain the RBC Canadian Open and head for the US Open with a spring in his step.

Without a win for eight months, the Co Down man (33) claimed his 21st PGA TOUR win with his much-questioned wedge game key to it all as he closed with an eight-under 62 to win by two shots from Tony Finau (64) and by four from Thomas (64), who bogeyed the last two holes, on 19-under par.

Scores

"This is a day I remember for a long long time. It’s my 21st PGA tour win - one more than someone else,” he said referring without much subtlety to LIV Golf’s CEO Greg Norman. “That gave me a little bit of extra incentive today and I’m happy to get it done.

"It’s incredible playing with Tony and JT today, two of the best players in the world and just to play the way we did,” McIlroy said. "I think the worst score in the group was six under par.”

On a day when Justin Rose needed three pars for a 59 and finished bogey-par-bogey for a 60 and fourth place on 14-under, Shane Lowry made an eagle and five birdies in a 66 to share 10th on nine-under.

But the real fireworks came from McIlroy, Thomas and Finau, who put on a show in the final group that made a mockery of the insipid LIV Golf fare of the previous three days as PGA TOUR commissioner Jay Monahan was quick to point out in a CBS interview.

Defending his decision to suspend 17 players for teeing it up at the Centurion Club without releases, Monahan pulled no punches when he was asked why players can’t play both tours.

“Why do they need us so badly? Because those players have chosen to sign multi-year lucrative contracts to play in a series of exhibition matches against the same players over and over again,” Monahan said.

“You look at that versus what we see here today, and that’s why they need us so badly. You’ve got true, pure competition. The best players in the world are here at the RBC Canadian Open, with millions of fans watching, and in this game, it’s true and pure competition that creates the profile in the presence of the world’s greatest players.”

Tied for the overnight lead with Finau, McIlroy birdied eight of his first 12 holes.

He set the tone by ramming in a 25-footer at the first, fired a 200-yard approach to four feet at the fourth, chipped in for a two at the sixth and fired a wedge to four feet at the seventh to move two clear of Finau and Wyndham Clark and three ahead of Thomas.

He added another birdie at the ninth to lead Thomas by two but while the man from Kentucky birdied the 10th and 11th for a run of six birdies in a row, McIlroy extended his lead to three by following birdies at the 10th and 11th with a 40 footer for his fourth in a row at the 12th before wobbling down the stretch,

After missing a three-and-a-half footer for par at the 13th, he had to get up and down from 106 yards at the 14th to remain one ahead but then missed a three-and-a-half footer for birdie at the par-five 15th and bogeyed the short 16th after a visit to sand to allow Thomas to draw level.

It all changed at the 17th, however, as Thomas made bogey after a pushed drive into heavy rough McIlroy got fortunate he came up short of the heavy stuff in the first cut on the left and took advantage, running up a wedge to 30 inches to go two clear.

Another wedge to four feet at the 18th set up another birdie for a win worth $1,566,000, which takes his PGA Tour career earnings to $64 million.

"I think after Covid I just needed to reset,” said McIlroy, who moves up five spots to third in the world. "I sort of re-dedicated myself to the game a little bit and realised what made me happy and this makes me happy.
“So I just put the work in. I’ve got a great team around me and they’re behind me 100% and make it easier for me to just go and do things like I did today.”

He added: “It feels great. I knew I had to go out there today and play really really well. You’ve got JT and Tony, two of the best players in the world right alongside me and the way the wind was the last couple of days the golf course obviously played a lot easier than I did the first two days. So I knew that five, six, seven under was going to be the score I needed to get the job done.

“It's awesome to be back in the winner’s circle in front of all those people and all those crowds and it was a really cool day.”

The final round was the perfect riposte to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series given the raucous Canadian galleries at St. George's Golf and Country Club in Toronto.

“I don’t know what I was like watching but it was pretty entertaining being a part of it,” McIlroy told Sky Sports. “The crowds, the calibre of play, everything about today was just first-class which this tour is.

“I’m sure the PGA TOUR really liked what they saw today and hopefully we can emulate that going forward. But it is the best tour in the world with all the top talent and it feels really good to go out there and beat someone like JT who in my opinion is one of the best players I’ve ever played with. So to go toe to toe with someone like him, with Tony and Sam Burns, it feels really good to come out on top.”

McIlroy admitted the competition brought out the best in him, echoing his comments earlier in the week doubting the “competitive integrity” of the LIV Golf project

“When you have the top guys going up against each other that brings the best out of them,” he said. “And JT for sure, we play together so much at home, even going back to when we played in the final group in Akron in 2018 and he got the better of me there.

“He beat me in the Ryder Cup but he’s the sort of player do you know you have to improve to try and keep one step ahead of him, he’s that good.

“I knew I needed to be that good today.”

As for his wedge play - he was fourth yesterday in play from 100 to 125 yards, averaging three feet, three inches with four attempts — he knew the wedge on the 17th was key.

“It was a cuppy lie, I had 124 and I just tried to play my 105 shot with my sand wedge and I didn’t know how much it was going to release.

“But I knew if I landed it in the front third you had a chance to get back there so it was part execution and part of luck to have it end up that close.

“To make birdie there and for JT to make bogey to have the two-shot cushion going up the last was was lovely.”

US Open boost for McIlroy — “It doesn’t hurt that’s for sure”

As for his US Open chances this week, he sounded upbeat.

“It doesn’t hurt that’s for sure,” he said. “Regardless of whether I won today or not, I think I would’ve felt really good about my game for producing the shots that I needed to produce over those last couple of holes under pressure.

“I lost the lead so to get it back again, the resilience that showed shows where I am with my game and my confidence level. I am really proud of that so I’m feeling good going into next week.”