Rory McIlroy fourth in BMW Championship to set up FedEx Cup final push

The Chicago-based event finished with McIlroy posting two birdies and a bogey across his opening nine holes having started the day within three of the leaders.

Three birdies from holes 13-16 put his final round on 66 and 12 under overall.

Norway's Viktor Hovland fired a stunning final round of 61 to win his fifth PGA Tour title.

“I felt like I played very average out there next to Viktor,” McIlroy said. “He played amazing.

“I was marking his card in there and I’m like, ‘oh, you only made one four on the back nine, the rest threes’, so it adds up to a nice little 28 for him.

"It was great to see.”

Now the focus turns to this week’s third and final FedEx Cup Playoffs tournament in succession - the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Georgia.

Under the rules of the event, based on past FedEx Cup points Scheffler will open 10 under at the head of the 30-strong field’s sliding scale - with Hovland on eight under and Northern Ireland’s McIlroy, the defending champion, next in line at seven under.

Yesterday at the BMW Championship, Hovland birdied seven of the last nine holes at Olympia Fields to cover the back leg in just 28 shots and overhaul world number one Scheffler.

Scheffler began the day in a tie for the lead with Matt Fitzpatrick and carded a closing 66, but had no answer to Hovland's stunning scoring burst.

Hovland found himself four shots off the pace when he followed birdies on the first, third and fifth with a three-putt bogey on the seventh, but surged back into contention with a hat-trick of birdies from the 10th.

The 25-year-old also picked up shots on the 14th and 15th and moved into a share of the lead with his ninth birdie of the day on the 17th.

Another birdie on the last took the Ryder Cup star to the top of the leaderboard on 17 under par and his victory was effectively secured moments later when Scheffler three-putted the 17th.

Asked where that round ranked in his career, Hovland told Sky Sports: "It has to be number one.

“I remember playing a pretty special round of golf my first year on Tour, I shot seven under at Torrey Pines when it was hailing and windy and raining and that’s probably the best I’ve ever struck it throughout a round.

“But to shoot 61 and shoot 28 on the back nine at this golf course and under the circumstances, I have nothing that beats that.”