Rory McIlroy’s closing birdie at The Players was simply out of this world

Rory McIlroy looked destined for trouble, but then made one heck of an escape on the final hole.

If you watched how Rory McIlroy birdied the 18th hole on Thursday at The Players, you will likely remember his closing three for quite some time.

After missing the short grass again off the tee, McIlroy’s ball settled down in the pine straw to the right of the fairway. With water all down the left side, and plenty of trees in his way, it looked like McIlroy was destined for a bogey — or worse.

But then he pulled off an unbelievable recovery, hitting a punch shot that trickled all the way through the fairway and stopped seven feet short of the pin on the green. He then drained that putt for his seventh birdie of the day, capping off a 5-under 67 in which he missed 10 fairways.

“It’s a better place than going left off the tee, so I was just trying to cut a 3-wood up into the wind to get it on to the fairway. But yeah, it’s one of those, you hit it in there, all that stuff has been sort of cleared out over the years, and you’re just hoping for a backswing and a gap, and I had both of those,” McIlroy said of what happened on the 18th.

“Just trying to chip-and-run a 5-iron up around the front of the green and make four and get out of there. It was a bonus to get it up on the green and hole the putt was a lovely way to finish.”

McIlroy missed most of his tee shots to the right, doing so on seven occasions. Yet, luck seemed to bounce the Northern Irishman’s way, as he only made two bogies, both of which came on the front nine.

“I certainly didn’t drive it the way I wanted to. Didn’t hit it in as many fairways as I would have liked. Yeah, I think with the greens being so receptive, you can get away with it a little bit. I’m not going to be able to get away with it for the rest of the week. Sort of rode my luck out there a little bit,” McIlroy said.

“But I’m trying to hit this cut shot into play. Missing right off the tee here on any hole is way better than missing left. Just sort of hitting this cut sort of up into the wind, and obviously you don’t need to hit it too.”

McIlroy sits one shot off the lead, which is held by 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, Camilo Villegas, and J.J. Spaun.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.