RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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St Jude Championship - round four leaderboard
-17 S Scheffler (US); -9 Kim (Kor); -8 A Noren (Swe), S Burns (US); -7 W Clark (US), Im (Kor)
Selected others: -6 L Aberg (Swe), T Fleetwood (Eng); -5 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -4 V Hovland (Nor), J Spieth (US); -3 H Hall (Eng); E J Rose; +3 S Lowry; +8 R McIlroy (NI)
Rory McIlroy says "he felt lost" as he toiled to a 66th-place finish - 25 strokes behind champion Scottie Scheffler - at the St Jude Championship.
While world number one Scheffler was a cut above the rest at 17 under overall as he claimed his first victory since January, more concerning for McIlory was that his eight-over total left him ahead of just two players in the first of the three FedEx Cup play-off events.
The Northern Irishman, who won his second Masters title earlier this season had not played competitively since the Open Championship in July.
And it told at TPC Southwind, where he failed to record a single round under par across the four days and struggled to find the sort of rhythm that will be needed if he is to claim an unprecedented fourth FedEx Cup later this month.
"I'm so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I've just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit," said McIlroy, who is 13th in the season-long standings.
"Obviously didn't come in here with a ton of reps, (it) almost felt like the more the week went on the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit.
"I guess [it was] nice to shake the rust off a little bit but I'm going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week.
"To me it's more about the execution of what I'm doing right now, and the execution wasn't there this week."
McIlroy's struggles were obvious particularly in from tee to green where he ranked 62nd out of 68 players for strokes gained.
However, he would at least have been able to take some comfort from a seven-hole stretch on the back nine where he knocked in four birdies, albeit he finished with successive bogeys to bookend a round which began with a six on the par-four opening hole.
There were no such issues for Scheffler, who led by two overnight and never looked back during the fourth round.
The four-time major winner outscored his playing partner and close friend Sam Burns by seven shots as he signed for a four-under 66 to get back on the winning trail.
Scheffler's last victory was at the American Express Open on 27 January.
And despite an early bogey, when he splashed out of a bunker and his ball hit a sprinkler head and ended up in the water, the only player to score better than the American on Sunday was Justin Rose, who carded a six-under 64 to end the tournament at level par.
"I've had some close calls this year. It is always challenging playing with one of my best friends but I wanted to do my best," said Scheffler.
"I think I've been really consistent. That's what I'm most proud of. It's nice for it to pay off this week, this is a lot better feeling than having a statistically good week."
Burns, who signed for a three-over 73 ended in a tie for third with Sweden's Alex Noren, with US Open champion Wyndham Clark and Im Sung-jae a stroke further back.
The top 50 in the FedEx standings now head to Bellerive Country Club in St Louis for next week's BMW Championship. The top 30 after that event will progress to the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta which has a $40m prize fund.
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