Rory McIlroy ends title drought at Deutsche Bank Golf Championship

Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy has won the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.

It should also put an end to some of the criticism McIlroy has been facing over the last few months.

Having made significant inroads into Casey's lead, McIlroy appeared to have blown his opportunity to claim the win after dropping a shot on the 17 after finding the sand. It's a big part of who I am, it's a big part of my success. I played some good stuff today.

Among the first to congratulate McIlroy was his newly married manager Sean O'Flaherty, while Darren Clarke would be sure to be among those quick to send a congratulatory text to the leading Hazeltine qualifier.

His only victory was the Irish Open in May, and when he missed the cut in the PGA Championship, he sought out popular British putting coach Phil Kenyon.

Olympic champion and world No. 10 Justin Rose of England stumbled to a two-triple-bogey 79, falling to a tie for 57th at 14 back.

The final group -Casey (73), Smylie Kaufman (76) and Brian Harman (77) - were a combined 13 over for the round.

And what is remarkable is the fact McIlroy was four over par after just three holes in Friday's first round. But the last 69 holes at TPC Boston were a completely different story.

A further birdie on the 12th saw the world number five move to 15-under for the tournament.

But his undulating putt from the back of the green raced 10 feet past the hole to secure McIlroy's first PGA Tour triumph since May 2015. I played some great golf after that. I'm just really proud of myself, how I hung in there on the first day and then got some momentum on Saturday.

"I struggled a bit from the get-go and it's hard to regain rhythm and make your birdies if you hadn't started out that way, so I found it incredibly difficult", Casey said.

It was Irish Open winner's first victory on the PGA Tour since May a year ago and lifted him up to No4 in the FedEx rankings with $10m on offer for the first prize. The Baylor product went birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie over his final five holes to cap a solid round, one that was ultimately good enough to lock up his spot at East Lake.

He was six shots behind leader Paul Casey, however in the final round he won by a two-shot victory.

"I found it incredibly hard out there ..." But I felt like I stayed pretty tough. Scott picked up valuable points and is fifth in the standings with two events left in the play-offs.

"As soon as I hit it, I knew it was going to be OK, even in that greenside trap", he said.