Why Scottie Scheffler was rooting for Rory McIlroy’s miracle break at East Lake

The opening round of the 2025 Tour Championship saw the world’s best players — Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy — duke it out in the same pairing. While their rounds were full of high moments, the highlight was an incredible break McIlroy received on the 18th hole.

But despite Rory being his primary competition for the FedEx Cup this week, Scheffler was surprisingly more than happy when McIlroy’s wayward shot went from disaster to birdie, thanks to some help from a grandstand at East Lake.

McIlroy’s grandstand break at Tour Championship

Scheffler and McIlroy, Nos. 1 and 2 in FedEx Cup standings, teed off together to open the Tour Championship on Thursday. And both stars played well on Day 1.

McIlroy had a steady start, then broke out with an eagle at the par-5 6th, followed by a birdie at the 7th. Scheffler had a much quicker start to his tournament, making birdies at 2 and 3 to quickly get into red numbers.

Unlike McIlroy, Scheffler was able to keep bogeys off his scorecard all day, arriving at the 18th hole at six under. McIlroy had recorded two bogeys and two birdies on the back nine at that point, putting him at three under.

When they walked off 18 to head to the scoring tent, they each had made birdie at 18 to push their scores lower. But McIlroy’s path to birdie-4 was a rocky one.

After a drive into the left rough, McIlroy tried to reach the green in two, but he came up short in the front-right greenside bunker. From there, he was left with a long bunker shot that required a full swing.

Unfortunately for McIlroy, he bladed the shot, launching his ball well over the green and high into a grandstand behind the putting surface.

But the golf gods were on his side.

McIlroy’s bladed bunker shot nailed a hard, flat surface on the grandstand, then ricocheted back onto the green, miraculously finishing just 17 feet from the hole. He drained that one for a memorable birdie that moved him to four under for the tournament.

Check it out below.

Why Scheffler was happy with Rory’s big break

Seeing McIlroy’s ball sailing into the grandstands on 18, you’d think Scheffler would be rooting for disaster. After all, he’s battling McIlroy for the FedEx Cup title and its $10 million bonus this week.

But you would have thought wrong.

Instead, the World No. 1 was actually rooting for McIlroy to get a good break. Here’s why.

Beginning their rounds at 2 p.m. ET, our star duo was never going to have an issue failing to finish due to daylight.

But thunderstorms were predicted to roll through the course toward the end of their rounds. And that played a primary role in Scheffler’s thinking.

Having safely made it on the green on their final hole of the day, the last thing Scheffler wanted was for McIlroy to get into a tricky rules situation. With the storms picking and play about to be called, any extra delay would force the pair to return Friday morning to finish their final putts of the round.

And that’s why, in the final moments of Round 1 at the Tour Championship, Scheffler suddenly became a Rory McIlroy fan.

“I have never rooted so hard for somebody’s ball to come back [from the grandstand], outside of my partner in a team event,” Scheffler explained Thursday evening. “Because we’re walking to 18 and [NBC/Golf Channel reporter Jim “Bones” Mackay] told us they were going to blow [the horn] 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.

He continued, smiling, “So I was relieved when I saw it come back on the green.”

Scheffler had also left his approach shot on 18 in a bunker. But the World No. 1 didn’t experience the trouble the World No. 2 did escaping it. Scheffler stuck his bunker shot to four feet, then made the putt for birdie.

With a 4 at the last, Scheffler finished off a seven-under 63 that put him two shots behind early leader Russell Henley.

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