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At 32-years-old, Rory McIlroy captured his 20th career PGA Tour victory on Sunday at the 2021 CJ Cup in Las Vegas. Twenty is a lot of wins, but for those who have been following his professional career, that number comes as no surprise.

McIlroy has always been an elite ball striker who overpowers courses with his long game prowess. It was only a matter of time until he stacked up 20 PGA Tour wins to go along with his four major championship victories.

While he’s struggled at times, especially over the last few years, McIlroy has regained internal confidence and is officially back to his winning ways.

Ahead of the 2021 CJ Cup, I was lucky enough to be able to go through McIlroy’s golf bag to take in-hand photos of all his golf clubs. It’s always fun to analyze the tools of the best players in the world, and see what they do differently with their equipment setups compared to the rest of us.

Below, I highlight the 7 interesting things I noticed about McIlroy’s gear, and what make his setup unique.

1) An insane wear mark on his hybrid

Throughout his career, McIlroy always gravitated to traditional long irons, driving irons or a 5-wood to fill the gaps at the top end of his set. Actually, he had never tested or tried a hybrid prior to 2020.

At the beginning of 2020, however, McIlroy became a hybrid guy by throwing a SIM Max Rescue 19-degree hybrid in his bag.

From the looks of it, he hasn’t missed the center of the face since he started using it. A wear mark like that doesn’t come from just a few shots; it comes from years of practice, and hitting the ball perfectly flush on the center of the face time and time again.

I guess we shouldn’t be shocked that one of the world’s best ball strikers has a wear mark like that, but for average amateur golfers, it’s still ridiculously impressive. On the sole of McIlroy’s hybrid, he also uses three strips of lead tape to help keeping the ball from hooking too much. For a refresher course on where to place lead tape to fix your equipment issues, check out our recent Lead Tape 101 article.

2) Slightly different shafts for different clubs

The shafts that you use throughout your 14-club setup are an underrated aspect of club fitting. Head models are important, but shafts can help control distance, dispersion, launch angle, spin rate, feel, and how the club head gets delivered to the golf ball. Choosing the right shaft for each club to match your needs and preferences is crucial.

For McIlroy, he makes a few notable shaft decisions. As a high-speed golfer, McIlroy uses Fujikura’s Ventus Black model in both his SIM2 driver and SIM fairway wood. The Ventus black is the lowest launching and spinning of the Ventus series. Interestingly, while he uses a 65-gram 6X version in his driver, he uses an 86-gram 8X model in his fairway wood. The more stout shaft build in his fairway should provide him more control and tighten dispersion.

In his iron setup, McIlroy uses ultra-stiff Project X 7.0 shafts. When he gets into his Milled Grind wedges, though, he goes with a slightly softer Project X 6.5 shaft. A number of pros end up going lighter and softer on their wedge shafts compared to their irons to pick up spin and add a bit of feel for the head.

The lesson to learn here is to pay attention to what shafts you’re putting in each club in the bag. It could make a world of difference.

3) Just a touch of offset

Back in 2019, a photo of Rickie Fowler’s custom Cobra irons went viral for how little offset the irons had and how thin their toplines were. McIlroy commented on social media that the look at address “gives him the shakes.”

Although McIlroy’s custom TaylorMade “Rors Proto” P730 blade irons are far from a game-improvement iron, they do have a semblance of offset. For a deeper understanding of offset and why it helps add forgiveness, check out this recent GOLF.com story.

Another point of note with his irons is just how worn down they are from years of practice and play. If you really want to get comfortable with the performance of your irons and how far each iron flies, remember not to change out your iron setup too much. New technology can always be helpful, but once you find something you like, stick with it.

4) The power of the sole

A look at McIlroy’s wedges shows he has three different wedges for three different purposes. He has a standard-bounce TaylorMade MG3 46-degree wedge, a 56-degree MG2 wedge with the same grind that Tiger Woods uses, and a 58-degree wedge with low bounce and leading edge relief.

While most golfers don’t have the arsenal of shots and the precision that McIlroy has with his wedges, it’s important for golfers to understand that the sole grind of their wedges matters. Bounce and grind can influence how the wedge sits at address in varying setup positions, how the wedge goes through the turf at impact, and even how the shot performs in flight.

If you’re struggling with your wedges, or want to add shots to your arsenal, I suggest getting with a trusted fitter for a full wedge fitting. Since bounce and grind are so personal to an individual’s delivery pattern, you’ll need to try a number of different options to find what’s truly right for you.

5) European Ryder Cup pride

McIlroy and the Europeans didn’t end up on the winning side in the recent 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t carry around his European team pride.

On his TaylorMade Spider X Tour putter, McIlroy has a custom SuperStroke Traxion Pistol GT Tour grip. Also, the hickory Bubbawhips alignment sticks he uses to work on his setup are a blue-and-yellow striped European custom special.

6) The St. Bernard cover is still going strong

To protect his SIM2 driver, McIlroy the dog lover uses a St. Bernard driver cover. Much like Tiger with his famous “Frank” headcover, McIlroy has used a St. Bernard cover since childhood, and it’s a staple of his equipment setup.

In a bizarre situation at the 2021 Scottish Open, a wayward spectator briefly stole the headcover from McIlroy’s golf bag. Luckily, the dog was returned to its owner and is now safely back onto his driver.

7) Back to a mallet for the win

McIlroy has been in an off-again on-again relationship for years with his Scotty Cameron Newport GSS putter that has four major wins to its name. But when he captured the win at the recent 2021 CJ Cup, it was McIlroy’s TaylorMade Spider X Tour mallet that got the job done.

Back in September, McIlroy admitted that he needed more forgiveness from his putter than the blade could offer.

“I think the thing with the blade is the good days are really good but the bad days are pretty bad, as well,” McIlroy said. “There’s quite a lot of inconsistency in it for me. It’s almost like I need to practice with the blade at home because you have to get your stroke spot-on to hit good putts with that style of putter.

“But then when I come out here, I started hitting putts with the Spider again, and it felt so easy. Felt like I couldn’t not start it on line. It was sort of there’s a lesson in there somewhere about maybe just keeping the blade at home and practicing with it and then coming out here and putting with something that’s got a little more technology in it.”

It turns out the switch back into a Spider X Tour mallet putter worked. If you’re struggling with hitting putts on line, or with hitting the center of the face in general, it may be time to look at a mallet putter with more forgiveness.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2021? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below!

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It was High Noon on a football Sunday in fall in Las Vegas, and it seemed like old times. There they were, two former wunderkinds — Rors and Rick, both now 32 — strolling down the first fairway of a Tom Fazio development course called the Summit Club.

They continue, as they have since their amateur days together, to swing fast, walk fast and play fast. Their body dimensions are similar, too, each man, amazingly, a few inches under six feet. Both Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler are semi-newish husbands and both are likely set for life for mechanical watches and foreign-born cars, as long as they wind the stems and change the oil. They were in the day’s last group in Vegas, trying to do a difficult thing, win on the PGA Tour.

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Fowler, with his Olympic rings tattoo on his right forearm, was leading the tournament, the CJ Cup, moved to Nevada from South Korea, because of the pandemic. Fowler was trying to win on Tour for the first time since Phoenix (the Waste Management Phoenix Open) in January 2019, when Johnny Miller made his final appearance in an NBC broadcast booth. On Sunday in Vegas, Fowler was the 54-hole leader and McIlroy, two shots back, was his closest pursuer.

They’ve known each other forever. They see each other at all the better tournaments, among other places. They’re friends. McIlroy could have played in the 2016 Olympics, but chose not to. Fowler, who did, has told McIlroy all about what he missed. This year, McIlroy played in the Olympics. Fowler watched on TV.

Rory crossed an ocean to settle in Jupiter, Fla., drawn by the warm weather and the tax climate, too. (The Sunshine State has no state income tax.) Rickie crossed a continent to settle there. (Weather-and-taxes, weather-and-taxes, the Florida siren song for Tour players.) Both men live in mansions. They live large. But they also maintain a soupçon of modesty. It’s amazing to consider, where their games, in concert with their personalities, have taken them.

OK, Rory’s better at golf. It’s a thin line, thinner than a razor. Fowler has played in 46 Grand Slam events and is still looking to win one. McIlroy is four-for-51 in majors. Each player has won at TPC Sawgrass, so each has a place in the winners-only locker room there. 

Both are semi-fixtures at various posh South Florida golf clubs, including Medalist and the Bear’s Club and Seminole. Fowler found his way to Seminole as a guest of Buddy Marucci, a longtime member and his captain on the 2007 Walker Cup team. Rory played in that Walker Cup, held at Royal County Down, near his childhood home, outside Belfast. That was the golf course of young Rory’s dreams, shimmering and on the Irish Sea. Rory played at an inland, hillside course called Holywood, where his father, Gerry, sometimes tended the bar. All these years later, Gerry, loaded with personality and game and brogue, is a member of Seminole, too. When live professional golf made its first tentative return to the airwaves, two months into the pandemic, McIlroy and Fowler were carrying their bags at Seminole, alongside Dustin Johnson and Matthew Wolff, in a glamorous made-for-TV charity match. May 2020.

Let’s go further back. Can you remember the summer of ’14? It was just seven years ago, seven years and change, though it seems longer, doesn’t it? McIlroy and Fowler would likely agree with that. In July 2014, McIlroy won the British Open, at Hoylake, and Fowler finished in a tie for second, two shots behind him. The next month, at the PGA Championship, at Valhalla, McIlroy won again, two shots ahead of Fowler, who finished third. These long, fruitful PGA Tour careers — they’re all tangled and entwined. If you want to play six degrees, knock yourself out. Google has done less fruitful things.

The CJ Cup, to be technical about it, is the first event of the 2021-22 golf season. Yep, it’s the opener. Happy new year. On Sunday, McIlroy went out in 33, three under par. That sounds better than it is. Fowler went out in 35. That doesn’t sound terrible. But on a birdie-fest course, in perfect conditions, when you’re trying to win and guys are going low all over the place? It’s half a nightmare.

Fowler didn’t have it, on Sunday. Collin Morikawa did. (He shot a final-round 62, was in the house early at 24 under par, looking to see if somebody could top him.) Rory had it enough. His Sunday 66 was sufficient for a one-shot win, his 20th on the PGA Tour. He beat Morikawa by a shot and Fowler, who finished in a tie for third, by three.

“Today, I just had a couple swings that got me out of position,” Fowler said when it was over.

It can’t be easy, going straight to a mic, when something you wanted has just slipped away from you. I don’t mean that the win slipped away. You can’t, of course, control what other players do in golf. More the feeling of being in control of your ball for four straight days.

“I had to take an unplayable lie, and then I had a couple three-putts,” Fowler said. “Struggled a bit on the greens, with feel and speed. So really, all in all, you factor that in, miss a couple opportunities coming down the last couple, we’re only three shots back of Rory. So a lot of good stuff. Obviously disappointed, but this is a big step in the right direction, with where we’ve been in the last two years.”

Rickie has cited Rory’s name before. He’ll likely do it again. Sometimes guys sound like they’re swallowing glass when they cite the name of the winner. You can make your own guesses, regarding that. Fowler didn’t sound like that at all.

In Rory’s winner’s press conference, Sunday night from Vegas, the last question was about Rickie, and you could hear the empathy in Rory’s voice. It’s one of the many things that makes McIlroy a special figure in the game, his connection to other players.

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“He’s close,” McIlroy said. “He’s not that far away. I think everyone’s seen how he played this week. Obviously, things didn’t quite go his way today, but he didn’t hit it—”

Bad might have been the word he was looking for, but he wasn’t going to go there. He quit the sentence and changed gears.

“I was keeping an eye on him,” McIlroy said. Such a charming thing to say. “Rickie’s a close friend of mine and I want to see him do well, so I was keeping a close eye on his game today as well, just to see how he played. There were maybe a couple of loose shots in there. But the 5-iron he hit into 11 was all I needed to see. He hit an awesome 5-iron into 11, and to play a shot like that in the final round with pressure and still having a chance to win, I think that means his game’s coming around. All I needed to see was that one shot on 11. It was a pure golf shot. If he can keep repeating that swing, he’ll be back to where he wants to be.”

It was a 249-yard drawing 5-iron to a back-left pin on a par-3 that finished hole-high and 15 feet right of the pin. Unfortunately, for Fowler, he missed the birdie putt. In golf, good shots must come in groups of two. Maybe the rest of the afternoon would have been different, had he holed it. But he didn’t.

Rory had done what a friend does. He found something Rickie, in his disappointment, could hang his hat on. He hit a good 5-iron. You can build on that, that is if you have the ability to hit a drawing, soaring 250-yard 5-iron in the first place. In any event, it’s good to have friends.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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Few players on the PGA Tour are more publicly reflective than Rory McIlroy. He talks about his mental approach often. He talks both long and well. And his words, at least recently, have never been more revealing, particularly Sunday night after he won the CJ Cup.

McIlroy cruised to victory in Las Vegas for his second victory of 2021, following a rather turbulent summer of ups and downs on the course. He missed the cut at the Players Championship, the Masters, and the Scottish Open. Then the Ryder Cup came and McIlroy was ready to shut it down for the year. 

On Saturday night of the Cup, McIlroy was winless and thinking he wouldn’t compete again until 2022. Twenty-four hours later, he delivered an emotional interview to Sky Sports talking about how proud he was to be a teammate. Ryder Cup week offers that. The other 51 weeks a year don’t. And during those 51 other weeks, McIlroy had been grinding to be a different player. 

“I feel the last couple weeks I’ve realized that just being me is good enough,” McIlroy said, “and maybe the last few months I was trying  — not trying to be someone else, but maybe trying to add things to my game or take things away from my game. I know that when I do the things that I do well, this is what I’m capable of. I’m capable of winning a lot of events on the PGA Tour and being the best player in the world.”

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He’s not wrong, but it sounds like McIlroy had lost sight of that. What was he trying to add or take away from his game? He didn’t elaborate, but McIlroy has discussed how he tried gaining speed in response to Bryson DeChambeau’s exploits at the U.S. Open one year ago. It led him down a path where his swing became flattened out a bit and extremely reliant upon rotation. Speaking with reporters Sunday night, he discussed how he has returned to being a very visual player. 

“The whole week leading up to this, all I did on the range was try to visualize every shot that I hit, try to see draws, see fades, see high, see low and really just play around with it,” McIlroy said. “The more and more I did that and the more it feels comfortable on the course doing that, and that’s playing golf. That’s getting back to hitting shots and when it boils down to it, that’s all you need to do out there are hit the shots. Sometimes I forgot that in a quest to try to be too perfect probably, but this week was a great reminder that you don’t need to be perfect to be a great golfer.”

McIlroy’s win was his 20th victory in a wildly successful Tour career, a feat only 38 other players have ever accomplished. Only five players have done it as quickly as he did. Were any of them perfect? Nope. But for a player of McIlroy’s stature, who hasn’t won a major championship in seven years, it’s difficult to remain content. Accomplishments require him to reassess his goals and think about the next accomplishment on the list. 

“As I’ve went along in my career, I’ve had to do that because you just, you keep going,” he said. “You can’t just stagnate and stay the same, you have to try to keep getting better and keep doing more things. I think that’s what this is. Golf is just about moving forward and there’s always next week and you’re always trying to get better.”

We can’t blame the guy for trying to add to his game. But based on what it looks like when Rory is being Rory, we probably won’t see him try anything else for a long while. 

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Seonghyeon Kim hit his 3-foot, 4-inch putt, it 360’d around the hole and missed, and a fan shouted, “Did you see that?”  

And then it really got interesting. 

In one of the more bizarre sequences you’ll see over a shot that went barely over a yard, Kim’s ball would also eventually drop. And it would activate not one, but two rules of golf.  

To begin, Kim’s putt, his fourth shot on the 588-yard, par-5 18th at the Summit Club, hit the left side of the cup and finished there, the ball resting maybe an inch from spilling over during Sunday’s final round of the CJ Cup. Kim stood straight up, flipped his putter over, slid it through his left fingers and rubbed his temple.   

It’s right about here where the first rule came into play. According to rule 13.3a, on a putt overhanging the hole, “the player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and 10 more seconds to wait to see whether the ball will fall into the hole.” After his rim-out and initial reaction, Kim took eight steps to the left and past the cup, stopped, walked back to the hole, motioned to tap in, stood straight up again — and the ball dropped.

“Look at that,” announcer Steve Sands said on the Golf Channel broadcast. 

“Don’t you love this game?” analyst Trevor Immelman said. 

One problem: On a review, Kim’s ball fell after the 10 seconds allotted; in all, 26 seconds expired from the moment when his ball stopped above the cup to the moment it dropped into it. Kim would receive a one-stroke penalty, and his birdie would become a par. 

Which brings us to the second rule. Kim had signed his card for the birdie. But, according to an exception to Rule 3.3b, his score would be adjusted and he’d avoid disqualification. The rule states: “If one or more of the player’s hole scores are lower than the actual scores because he or she excluded one or more penalty strokes that the player did not know about before returning the scorecard: The player is not disqualified. Instead, if the mistake is found before the close of the competition, the Committee will revise the player’s score for that hole or holes by adding the penalty stroke(s) that should have been included in the score for that hole or holes under the Rules.”

Kim would finish the final round with a three-under 69, and he’d tie for 32nd. Had the putt fell under the 10 seconds, he would have finished in a tie for 25th and made just over $17,000 more in prize money. 

“So unfortunate for him,” Immelman said on the broadcast.  

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On Wednesday last week, a reporter reminded Rory McIlroy of an unfortunate fact. “It seems astonishing to us that you’re [ranked] No. 14,” the reporter said, which was the truth. McIlroy had spent the last four months outside the top 10 in the world, a stretch we hadn’t seen from him since his rookie season on Tour. Just five days after that reminder, it is no longer an issue, for McIlroy nor the reporter.

McIlroy won the CJ Cup Sunday, shooting 25 under to beat Collin Morikawa by one, and will now jump to No. 8 in the world ranking. Right where he belongs.

It is his 20th career win on the PGA Tour, another number that had been on his mind since winning in May. “I didn’t know if it was going to be this week,” he said, “but I knew if I just kept my head down and keep playing well and keep doing the right things, I’d get there.” 

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The 20th win is more than just a nice, round number. Lifetime membership on the PGA Tour is on McIlroy’s mind, and one of its requirements is that exact amount of Tour victories. After just a couple more years of play, McIlroy will earn that membership status and be able to set up any schedule he prefers, without having to play a certain number of events. Think: Tiger Woods’ schedule freedom in recent years where he’s played anywhere from 8 to 14 times a year. McIlroy is just the 39th player ever to reach the 20-win threshold, and just the sixth to do it before turning 33 years old. 

The win comes in McIlroy’s first event since the Ryder Cup, where he went winless before singles play and delivered an emotional interview to Sky Sports and Golf Channel. McIlroy got choked up talking about how the Cup is the best event in the game, and that being part of a team provides a thrill golfers so rarely get to experience. Moments after tapping in for a tournament-clinching par, he was asked if that emotional Ryder Cup played a role in his win this week. 

“It was huge. It really was. I was really disappointed with how I played. I get more emotional thinking about that than even thinking about this. But yeah, there was a lot of reflection the last couple weeks.

“This is what I need to do. I need to play golf. I need to simplify it. I need to just be me. I think for the last few months I was maybe trying to be someone else to try to get better. I sort of realized that being me is enough, and being me I can do things like this.”

Being Rory McIlroy has always been plenty enough on the golf course. It implies great driving — like his 2nd-best Off-the-tee performance this week — and being incredibly solid everywhere else. Mix in a hot putter — McIlroy finished the event No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Putting — and you’ve got a recipe for Tour victories, year after year.

The event was also a significant one for Rickie Fowler, who finished tied for third. Fowler had entered the week as the 128th-ranked player in the world, his lowest ranking in more than a decade. A couple years of struggle have seen Fowler drop from relevancy, even missing out on an invite to the Masters. But atop the leaderboard Saturday night, and dueling with McIlroy Sunday in the final grouping, was Fowler. The man in orange pants cost himself with a double bogey on the par-5 6th Sunday, but he was able to finish strong enough to tie for third with Keith Mitchell, three shots back of McIlroy. It was his first top three finish in more than 30 months.

“It felt good to finally hit the golf ball properly, at least most of the time, for 72 holes,” Fowler said. Sometimes, progress can be that simple.

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No offense, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Lee Janzen. 

But golf fans on Sunday, especially those with two thumbs and a social media account, wanted to watch Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler more. 

“You have the biggest names in golf like Rory, Morikowa, and Rickie trying to make a comeback and you air the champions tour?!?!” tweeted @BFarraye. “At this rate we won’t see the PGA tour until the leaders are on the FIFTEENTH HOLE!!”

Search some version of “PGA Tour” or “Golf Channel” on Twitter on Sunday afternoon, and you could find more of the same. The issue? Golf Channel was to broadcast the final round of the Champions Tour’s SAS Championship from 2-5 p.m. ET, then show the final round of the PGA Tour’s CJ Cup — but when the SAS went past 5 for a playoff between Jimenez and Janzen, and Golf Channel stuck with it over McIlroy, Fowler and others slugging it out for the lead, fans went to their phones and computers.

To add to the furor, some fans found that Golf Channel’s website was also showing only the Champions event. Viewers then were left to occasional split-screen updates on Golf Channel and online scoreboards. 

A sampling of the social media rage: 

While golf TV coverage and complaints of golf TV coverage tend to go hand in hand, Sunday’s anger seemed elevated due to both the CJ Cup’s all-star leaderboard and a birdie bonanza at the Summit Club, the event’s host. Eventually, things settled down.  

At 5:39 p.m. ET (and 5:40 p.m. online), after Janzen won on the first playoff hole, the coverage switched to the CJ Cup.

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Just under a million bucks ($947,309). And just over it ($1,089,904).

While certainly not chump change, these figures maybe best sum up Rickie Fowler’s recent struggles. The former is the money total he made during the 2020 PGA Tour season; the latter the amount he collected last season. 

Both of which are less than the winner’s check at this week’s CJ Cup ($1.755 million).

Should he need any more incentive to protect his two-stroke third-round lead and win for the first time since early February of 2019, this most definitely is it. In all, the 78 golfers playing at the Summit Club in Vegas are playing for a purse of $9.75 million. 

Sunday’s final round will be broadcast on Golf Channel starting at 5 p.m. ET. Below are the complete payouts. 

CJ Cup payout information, winner’s share 

1. $1,755,000

2. $1,053,000

3. $663,000

4. $468,000

5. $390,000

6. $351,000

7. $326,625

8. $302,250

9. $282,750

10. $263,250

11. $243,750

12. $224,250

13. $204,750

14. $185,250

15. $173,940

16. $163,410

17. $153,660

18. $143,910

19. $134,160

20. $124,410

21. $114,660

22. $106,860

23. $99,060

24. $91,260

25. $83,460

26. $75,660

27. $72,735

28. $69,810

29. $66,885

30. $63,960

31. $61,035

32. $58,110

33. $55,185

34. $52,747.50

35. $50,310

36. $47,872.50

37. $45,435

38. $43,485

39. $41,535

40. $39,585

41. $37,635

42. $35,685

43. $33,735

44. $31,785

45. $29,835

46. $27,885

47. $25,935

48. $24,375

49. $23,010

50. $22,230

51. $21,645

52. $21,060

53. $20,670

54. $20,280

55. $20,085

56. $19,890

57. $19,695

58. $19,500

59. $19,305

60. $19,110

61. $18,915

62. $18,720

63. $18,525

64. $18,330

65. $18,135

66. $17,940

67. $17,745

68. $17,550

69. $17,355

70. $17,160

71. $16,965

72. $16,770

73. $16,575

74. $16,380

75. $16,185

76. $15,990

77. $15,795

78. $15,600

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The 2021 CJ Cup @ Summit is one round away from completion, and with a star-studded leaderboard, there’s sure to be some juicy drama down the stretch. You can view full Round 4 tee times for the tournament at the bottom of this post.

Notable groupings for CJ Cup Round 4

The field has had no problem going low this week, with plenty of big names firing rounds in the low 60s. And after third rounds of 63 and 62, respectively, Rickie Fowler and Rory McIlroy are leading the charge. At 21 under overall, Fowler has a two-shot advantage over McIlroy, who is 19 under.

Fowler is hoping to claim his sixth PGA Tour title by snapping a winless drought that dates to his 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open victory, and McIlroy is itching to bag career win No. 20. The two fan favorites will tee it up in the tournament’s final grouping alongside rising star Abraham Ancer at 2:50 p.m. ET.

But winning on Sunday surely won’t be easy, with seven other players within five shots of Fowler’s lead. Other notable groupings include the penultimate tee time of Robert Streb, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton at 2:38 p.m. ET, and just ahead of them, Keith Mitchell, Cameron Smith and Ian Poulter at 2:26 p.m. ET.

Check out complete final-round tee times for the 2021 CJ Cup below.

2021 CJ Cup Round 4 tee times (All times ET)

Tee No. 1

9:50 a.m. – Branden Grace, Jason Day, Charl Schwartzel
10:01 a.m. – Shane Lowry, Yoseop Seo, Hanbyeol Kim
10:12 a.m. – Si Woo Kim, Cam Davis, Patton Kizzire
10:23 a.m. – Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Jaekyeong Lee
10:34 a.m. – Charley Hoffman, Sanghun Shin, Cameron Tringale
10:45 a.m. – Marc Leishman, Tony Finau, Brian Harman
10:56 a.m. – Emiliano Grillo, Rasmus Hojgaard, Justin Rose
11:07 a.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Joohyung Kim, Harris English
11:23 a.m. – Jason Kokrak, Alex Noren, Byeong Hun An
11:34 a.m. – Max Homa, Sebastián Muñoz, Kevin Streelman
11:45 a.m. – Dustin Johnson, Tom Hoge, Xander Schauffele
11:56 a.m. – Kevin Kisner, Justin Thomas, Kevin Na
12:07 p.m. – Minkyu Kim, Talor Gooch, Louis Oosthuizen
12:18 p.m. – Matt Jones, Brooks Koepka, Keegan Bradley
12:29 p.m. – Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia, K.H. Lee
12:45 p.m. – Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson, Sungjae Im
12:57 p.m. – Seonghyeon Kim, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood
1:09 p.m. – Paul Casey, Viktor Hovland, Mackenzie Hughes
1:21 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Maverick McNealy, Hudson Swafford
1:33 p.m. – Carlos Ortiz, Joaquin Niemann, Chris Kirk
1:45 p.m. – Sung Kang, Harold Varner III, Gary Woodland
2:02 p.m. – Harry Higgs, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley
2:14 p.m. – Sam Burns, Aaron Wise, Erik van Rooyen
2:26 p.m. – Keith Mitchell, Cameron Smith, Ian Poulter
2:38 p.m. – Robert Streb, Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton
2:50 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Abraham Ancer

How to bet on the CJ Cup

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The 2021 CJ Cup continues on Sunday, October 17, with the final round at The Summit Club in Las Vegas. Here’s what you need to know to watch Round 4 on TV or online.

Previewing CJ Cup Round 4

After firing two of the best rounds of the day, respectively, Rickie Fowler (63) and Rory McIlroy (62) put themselves in position to add some drama to the back nine on Sunday afternoon in Sin City.

For Fowler, who notched only one top 10 last season, a win would mark his first win since the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open, ending a lengthy victory drought. Fowler is trying to climb out of a slump that saw him miss the FedEx Cup playoffs last season. He was also left off the winning Ryder Cup team.

McIlroy, a former World No. 1, is currently ranked 14th, and his last win dates to May of this year, when he claimed the title at the Wells Fargo Championship. The two fan favorites will tee it up alongside rising star Abraham Ancer in the final grouping at 2:50 p.m. ET.

But playing just ahead of them will be another dangerous trio: Robert Streb, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton tee off in the penultimate grouping at 2:38 p.m. ET. All three players are within four shots of Fowler’s lead, and have proven they can go low this week.

Below you will find everything you need to watch the final round of the 2021 CJ Cup on Sunday.

How to watch CJ Cup Round 4 on TV

Golf Channel will air the final round of the 2021 CJ Cup with three hours of coverage on Sunday from 5-8 p.m. ET.

How to stream CJ Cup Round 4 online

You can stream the final round Golf Channel TV coverage of the CJ Cup on golfchannel.com.

How to bet on the CJ Cup

Looking to make a (legal!) wager yourself? We teamed with BetMGM, and the online sportsbook is offering a “Risk-Free Bet” up to $1000 promotion. Sign up for an account to get into the action today.

2021 CJ Cup Round 4 tee times (All times ET)

Tee No. 1

9:50 a.m. – Branden Grace, Jason Day, Charl Schwartzel
10:01 a.m. – Shane Lowry, Yoseop Seo, Hanbyeol Kim
10:12 a.m. – Si Woo Kim, Cam Davis, Patton Kizzire
10:23 a.m. – Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Jaekyeong Lee
10:34 a.m. – Charley Hoffman, Sanghun Shin, Cameron Tringale
10:45 a.m. – Marc Leishman, Tony Finau, Brian Harman
10:56 a.m. – Emiliano Grillo, Rasmus Hojgaard, Justin Rose
11:07 a.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Joohyung Kim, Harris English
11:23 a.m. – Jason Kokrak, Alex Noren, Byeong Hun An
11:34 a.m. – Max Homa, Sebastián Muñoz, Kevin Streelman
11:45 a.m. – Dustin Johnson, Tom Hoge, Xander Schauffele
11:56 a.m. – Kevin Kisner, Justin Thomas, Kevin Na
12:07 p.m. – Minkyu Kim, Talor Gooch, Louis Oosthuizen
12:18 p.m. – Matt Jones, Brooks Koepka, Keegan Bradley
12:29 p.m. – Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia, K.H. Lee
12:45 p.m. – Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson, Sungjae Im
12:57 p.m. – Seonghyeon Kim, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood
1:09 p.m. – Paul Casey, Viktor Hovland, Mackenzie Hughes
1:21 p.m. – Jhonattan Vegas, Maverick McNealy, Hudson Swafford
1:33 p.m. – Carlos Ortiz, Joaquin Niemann, Chris Kirk
1:45 p.m. – Sung Kang, Harold Varner III, Gary Woodland
2:02 p.m. – Harry Higgs, Collin Morikawa, Russell Henley
2:14 p.m. – Sam Burns, Aaron Wise, Erik van Rooyen
2:26 p.m. – Keith Mitchell, Cameron Smith, Ian Poulter
2:38 p.m. – Robert Streb, Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton
2:50 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Abraham Ancer

The post 2021 CJ Cup live coverage: How to watch Round 4 on Sunday appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘This has been coming’: Why Rickie Fowler believes he can finally win again appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘This has been coming’: Why Rickie Fowler believes he can finally win again appeared first on Golf.

Rickie Fowler, on the par-5 18th at the Summit Club in Vegas, hit his tee shot 326 yards down the right side of the fairway, then held his driver out to his left and slightly above his hips after his follow-through and twisted his fingers. Only the club really didn’t twirl. It just kinda fell, and he picked up his peg and walked out of the tee box. 

Not everything is back. This is still a work in progress.

But things are progressing. In search of his first victory in over two and a half years, Fowler birdied nine holes on Saturday, bogeyed none and enters Sunday’s final round at the CJ Cup with a two-shot lead. His 63 followed a pair of 66s. 

“I’ve done everything I really wanted to do the first three days,” Fowler said. “It’s nice to be executing the way we are. I say ‘we,’ it’s a two-man show out there, Joe [caddie Joe Skovron] and myself, and ultimately I’m the one pulling the trigger.

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“No, it’s just been a long time coming. I haven’t been in this position a whole lot in the last couple years, so to feel the emotions again on the back nine being around and then in the lead, you know, kind of dealing with that again and kind of making sure that I was going through the right process and committing to what I was ultimately trying to do, it was great to see that I was still executing and hitting the shots that I wanted to.”

A long time coming is right, and, by this point, you’d be excused if you thought this ‘comeback’ would stall like so many of the others before. Since Fowler’s victory at the Waste Management Open in early February of 2019, he’s not only had no wins, but just six top 10s — including just one last season, where he missed the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs for the first time in his career. Once top 10 in the world, after five Tour victories and three international ones, he’s now 126th. 

Of course, as Fowler and swing coach John Tillery have tweaked his swing, there have been teases. He tied for eighth at the PGA Championship at the end of May. He tied for 11th at the Memorial at the start of June. Last week, at the Shriners Children’s Open, his first event after failing to make the playoffs, he missed the cut, but shot a second-round 66 and said it was “the right stuff.” Both that tournament and the CJ Cup are in Vegas, which is also the home to Fowler’s former swing coach, Butch Harmon, and in a quick visit, Fowler said Harmon told him “he loved everything that Tiller and I were working on.”    

Then came the 66s on Thursday and Friday. And on Saturday, wouldn’t you know it, he kept it right on going. He played his first eight holes at five under. And he played the back nine at four under, the 63 his lowest score since another 63, at the Shriners in 2018. Most notable has been his driving — for the week, Fowler is first in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; last season on Tour, he ranked 89th. 

“I’m not surprised — this has been coming,” Fowler said. “Like I said, we’re not done yet. This is just three days and golf tournaments are typically 72 holes, so we’ve got 18 more of them.

“It’s definitely going to be a challenge tomorrow. It’s a tight leaderboard, and this is a golf course where you drive it well, which I’ve been doing this week, you can score. But as soon as you get a bit offline off the tee, it becomes a whole different golf course.”

Lurking Sunday will be Rory McIlroy, who is two shots back and shot a 62 on Saturday. Three others are three behind. The 54-hole lead marks Fowler’s first since his last win, and since that’s been a while, and you sometimes forget how to execute things like club twirls, he was asked how he’d sleep on it. 

“Keep it fairly simple, nothing too crazy,” Fowler said. “Yeah, put our feet up and relax.”

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