Playing one of the most difficult holes in all of professional golf, needing a birdie for the win, one of the game’s biggest stars stole the show Sunday at the Genesis Scottish Open.
.Rory McIlroy walked off the 16th green Sunday a shot behind Robert MacIntyre’s posted score of 14-under. Needing brilliance on the next two holes, Rory delivered, becoming the only player on Sunday to birdie both the 17th and 18th holes at The Renaissance Club.
Let’s look deeper into this week’s Fortinet Threat Score holes, and how they played a crucial role in determining the winner of the Genesis Scottish Open.
Hole 18
Difficulty Rank: 1
While it didn’t play as difficult as last year (the highest adjusted scoring average of any hole on any pro tour worldwide), the closing hole at The Renaissance Club was still an excellent test for the world’s best players. The field was a combined 136-over-par on this hole for the week, including 80-over in the weekend. This green was hit in two shots just 39 percent of the time for the week, the lowest rate anywhere on the golf course.
Rory McIlroy’s approach at 18 Sunday was equal parts visually and statistically impressive. In the final round, the average proximity to the hole for the field was 68 feet, 2 inches. With the tournament on the line, McIlroy hit his shot to just inside 11 feet. The man he bettered by a stroke, MacIntyre, was even better, hitting his shot inside of four feet.
Of the 43 players to miss the fairway at 18 on Sunday, only six hit the green with their second shot. Rory and Robert were two of them.
Hole 8
Difficulty Rank: 2
The end of either nine was no picnic this week at The Renaissance Club. Hole number eight played as the second-toughest on the course, yielding a scoring average more than two-tenths of a stroke over par. Players were more than three-and-a-half times more likely to make bogey or worse here (27.9%) than birdie (7.8%) over the course of the week.
A missed drive into the left rough was especially penalizing, with just 42.3% of those players then finding the green in regulation. On the weekend, that number dropped to a meager 27.8%. This was also the second-toughest scrambling hole on the course, with players getting up-and-down just 48.5% of the time for the week. There were 26 three-putts here for the tournament, most of any hole on the course.
Hole 9
Difficulty Rank: 3
After traversing the difficult eighth, players proceeded to the ninth, which was the third-hardest hole on the course for the week. The 25 birdies made here for the entire tournament were the fewest of any hole at The Renaissance Club. Just 45.5% of the field hit the green in regulation, trailing only the 18th in difficulty rank.
Hitting into either one of the two bunkers to the right was a precarious spot: just 43.4% of the field got up and down from there for the week. In the final round, players averaged 2.24 putts on this green, the highest rate anywhere on the golf course.
Of the players to make the cut this week, only four played the Fortinet Threat Score holes under par, each doing so at -1. Thomas Detry picked up the most strokes gained total on those three holes of any player, with 2.44. Romain Langasque was another one of the men to play 8, 9 and 18 under par over 72 holes – doing so without making a single bogey. An impressive feat, considering the field combined to make 395 bogeys or worse on the three toughest tests at The Renaissance Club.
Check out all the Fortinet Threat Score every week in our course stats section.
