This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
Rory McIlroy closed out what have likely been the most stressful few months of his career by coming back from six strokes down to win the PGA Tour Championship and the $18 million bucks that come with the FedEx Cup title Sunday in Atlanta.
McIlroy and the man he caught – world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler – put on a thrilling final round that was equal parts collapse (Scheffler had a six stroke lead heading into the fourth round) and heroics (McIlroy drained a number of crucial putts that had the crowds at East Lake going nuts).
In the end the dude who has been leading the charge against the soulless LIV golf league hoisted the FedEx Cup trophy for a third time in his career (which is one better than Tiger Woods) and then correctly told the world there is no better place to play professional golf than the PGA Tour.
McIlroy has always been one of the classiest athletes in all of sports and that showed once again following his victory when he saw Scheffler’s family standing nearby. He actually apologized to Scheffler’s dad, who didn’t want to hear any of that and instead praised McIlroy for his win and his performance and then McIlroy shared hugs with the rest of the Scheffler crew in what was a great moment.
All class.@McIlroyRory apologized to Scottie Scheffler's family after his victory @PlayoffFinale. pic.twitter.com/gJwd05iskF
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 28, 2022
Professional golf is going to continue to be quite messy these next few days and likely months and even years ahead as the PGA Tour does its best to contend with an empty golf league that has all the money in the world some to throw at players in hopes that they’ll be ok with sportswashing.
But for a few hours Sunday in Atlanta the best players in the world were battling it out and reminding everyone watching how great this game can be, especially when they’re playing in tournaments that matter.
And it was only fitting that at the end of the day all of the celebrations centered around their classy leader – Rory McIlroy.
Quick hits: Cardinals manager yells at ump to ‘(expletive) retire’… Yu Darvish throws the sweetest pitch… Wainwright’s awesome mic’d up moment… And more.
– A new lip-reading video of Oliver Marmol’s recent ejection shows him allegedly telling the ump he needs to “(expletive) retire,” which was awesome.
– San Diego’s Yu Darvish did some funky leg movements before firing one of the sweetest pitches of the MLB season.
– Adam Wainwright had one of the best MLB mic’d up moments last night on ESPN.
– A minor league catcher dove into the netting behind home plate to make a ridiculous catch. Seriously, I’ve watched this catch like 50 times.