Rory McIlroy wins his second FedEx Cup

ATLANTA – A year ago at East Lake, Rory McIlroy was a speed bump in the great Tiger Woods stampede. Paired with Woods in the fourth round of that Tour Championship, his only imperative was to survive as the crowd surged onto the 18th fairway. Just getting out of here with his wallet and all his toenails was a victory.

Sunday, he made the walk with the thousands of well-oiled escorts filing in behind him in a slightly gentler version of what is now, we guess, a Tour Championship tradition of dropping the gallery ropes before dropping the final curtain.

This time, the chants were "Rory, Rory, Rory" rather than "Tiger, Tiger, Tiger." This time the moment was all his, as well-earned as any of the other 16 PGA titles, major or otherwise, he has ever won.

"Amazing how different things can be in a year," the Northern Irishman noted.

While not on the property this year, Woods walked metaphorically with McIlroy up the fairway this year. For now, after Sunday, these are the only two men who have won multiple FedEx Cups.

"Any time you've done something that only Tiger's done, you've done something right," McIlroy said.

What staggered scoring system? What new format? McIlroy played the best golf this week, shot the lowest combined score in the 30-man field (13 under) and won the big prize at the end. Nothing so difficult to understand about any of that.

He wobbled with back-to-back bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15 coming in Sunday, but such was his cushion and such was his resilience — how about those consecutive birdies on 17 and 18? — that McIlroy never really seemed to have to sweat it out for his $15 million.

Starting this tournament at 5 under with the staggered scoring system in place, behind four other players while giving as many as five strokes to Justin Thomas, McIlroy still turned this Tour Championship into a rout. His adjusted 18 under was four shots better than Xander Schauffele, five ahead of Thomas and Brooks Koepka.

When they finished the third round Sunday, Koepka emerged with a one-shot lead over McIlroy. The two have been almost inseparable the last month, Sunday being the eighth time they've been paired together in that span.

"His game is in great form right now," said Koepka, the world's No. 1 player. "It's really impressive to watch."

McIlroy capped it off by retracing the steps he made a year ago in Woods' shadow.