Rory McIlroy's 'lucky' break at 18th hole leaves Scottie Scheffler relieved

ATLANTA – It was a nervous finish, even by Tour Championship standards.

The 18^th hole at East Lake has been the scene of plenty of chaos — Tiger Woods’ victory walk in 2018 being the height of mayhem — but Thursday’s finish with an approaching storm was certainly on-brand.

In the day’s final group, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy were wrapping up their opening rounds when things got interesting. From a greenside bunker, McIlroy hit his third shot thin but the ball bounded off a corporate suite and onto the green, leaving a 17-foot birdie putt.

With a PGA Tour official poised to sound the weather-warning horn to stop play because of dangerous conditions, McIlroy rolled in his birdie putt at the par-5 finishing hole for an opening 66 and a share of eighth place.

“Yeah, pretty lucky in the end. I think as well, if it hadn’t have come down and we had to drop, we mightn’t have got finished, so lucky in a lot of different ways, lucky for the score and lucky we got done,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I played well enough to shoot 4 under, if not better, so it was a nice and lucky way to finish.”

As soon as Scheffler rolled in his 4-footer for birdie at the last, the Tour official sounded the horn to clear the golf course.

“I have never rooted so hard for somebody’s ball to come back, outside of my partner in a team event,” said Scheffler, who shot a 63 and was alone in second. “We’re walking to 18 and [Golf Channel on-course analyst Jim Mackay] told us they were going to blow at any second, so I’m watching his ball fly towards the grandstand. I’m like, oh, my gosh, we’ve got no way of finishing this thing, so I was relieved when I saw it come back on the green.”