Rory McIlroy is back to his imperious best after last night’s demolition job at the Quail Hollow Club. The four-time major winner won by 5 strokes (should have been 7 if not for his double bogey in the last hole). He blew the field away. To put it into perspective. Only eight players in the field recorded a score of -4 under or better during the week. This was a reminder of how good Rory McIlroy in his absolute pomp can be.
The eye test backed up his dominance and so did the numbers. The Irishman’s driving was ballistic all week, averaging 337 yards off the tee. He subsequently was number one in shots gained off the tee with 6.117. It’s not just his driving that was remarkable during the week, it was his overall game. McIlroy hit the second-most greens in regulation (49/72), second in scrambling (17/23) and was the fourth-highest in approach to the green.
McIlroy is peaking at the right time. The PGA Championship is this week and in a familiar place to the Irishman. Valhalla Golf Club, the course where he triumphed in a major championship for the fourth time back in 2014. Coming off two consecutive wins albeit one being a team event. Rory McIlroy is poised to go nuclear in a major later this week. Coincidentally, McIlroy’s win in Valhalla in 2014 also came as a third consecutive win – the first in that run being The Open Championship.
Will Rory McIlroy Win the PGA Championship?
However, we must not thrust expectations on the four-time major winner to win purely because he is going to a major on the back of a win or two consecutive wins. There have been numerous instances in the 10-year drought where McIlroy has gone into a major’s week with wins in the preceding week. In 2021, he won this tournament ahead of the PGA Championship.
In 2022, McIlroy went into the US Open after winning the RBC Canadian Open. Last year, he won the Genesis Scottish Open ahead of the Open Championship. And as the drought suggests, he has failed to convert them into a major. The psychological trauma from the lack of wins in majors since 2014 will surely weigh on his mind and rightfully so.
Then comes the competition. Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler will be on the field at the PGA Championship. The former is the defending champion who is also in form and is coming off a win. The latter is the undisputed best player in the world. Neither of them partook in the Wells Fargo Championship and with all due respect, Xander Schauffele isn’t nearly as good as Koepka or Scheffler.
It will come down to how well he can start the tournament. Whether he can stay in contention going into the weekend. On far too many occasions in the last decade, McIlroy has gone into a major with the weight of the world on his shoulders. In good form and played himself out of contention by shooting a score well over par on Thursday. He cannot afford to do that with Koepka looking to defend the Wannamaker trophy and Scheffler looking to win his third major.
The Irishman also seemingly doesn’t possess the killer mentality he had back in 2014 wherein he didn’t just want to win, he tried to snatch your heart and let you know about it. He is a much more rounded player today than a decade ago with success at every level barring the majors. But when you’re an all-time great, majors are what you are measured against. So, can Rory McIlroy dig deep and find that killer in him once again? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Also, McIlroy has been the talking point of the PGA Tour for the last couple of years. Not necessarily because of his wins. The talismanic figure led the charge in the fight against the PIF-backed LIV Golf, only for PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to throw him under the bus. Amongst this fiasco, McIlroy’s performances, for the large part, took a backseat. The four-time major winner quit the role of player director for the PGA Tour’s policy board in November.
But McIlroy tried to get back into the fray ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship only for its current members, including Tiger Woods, Monahan, and Patrick Cantlay, to reject him. McIlroy claims that the decision was fine, and he doesn’t hold any sort of resentment. Oh, but he should. However, this could very well be a blessing in disguise as this allows him to focus solely on his game and nothing more.
“Going to a venue next week where I’ve won, it feels like the stars are aligning a little bit.”
These were the words Rory McIlroy used after demolishing the Quail Hollow golf course and in particular, Schauffele. The four-time major winner rolled back the years (not the ball) with this display of precision and incredible ball-striking abilities. And now he’s headed back to the golf course where he won his 4th major 10 years ago to end the decade-long drought. Why wouldn’t he feel the stars are aligning?
Image Credit: Tigers Woods & Rory McIlroy | Ryan Schreiber | Flickr
