Rory McIlroy will be the favourite in the eyes of many heading into the PGA Championship after his victory at The Masters last month.
It is hard to argue with those who feel that Rory McIlroy has been the best player on the planet in the opening months of the year. While the Northern Irishman has not always hit top gear, he appears to have found a way to win when well short of his best.
That culminated in McIlroy winning The Masters in April for his third victory of the season. And with the burden of trying to win the career grand slam now lifted, many are expecting the 36-year-old to be in the mix to win the PGA Championship.
Quail Hollow holds plenty of happy memories for McIlroy. He has won on the North Carolina course on four occasions during his career.
The underrated part of Rory McIlroy’s game which could be huge at the PGA Championship
One of McIlroy’s best rounds of 2024 came on Sunday at the most recent Wells Fargo Championship where he raced away from Xander Schauffele. And it was also the site of his first ever PGA Tour win back in 2010.
And speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested why McIlroy thrives at Quail Hollow, before discussing the one area of the game he feels he does not get enough credit for.
“The driver sets up the game for Rory McIlroy. It’s a long golf course. As well as he’s driven it this year, it’s such a weapon and the fact that he can turn some par fives into some five, six irons where other guys are hitting the hybrids and three woods into some par fives. His ability to hit it up in the air, the eighth hole, drivable par four, no problem for him, he can get it up around that green. It’s no surprise he’s played so well there. It’s a course that clearly suits his eye, putts the greens really well and it would be surprising to see him not contend. I think that would be the biggest shock is to see Rory somehow show up to Quail Hollow and not find his game,” he said.
“Another reason why I like him too is that the par threes are long. Three of the four par threes are longer than 200 yards. His ability to hit his middle to long irons very high and solid, I think, is underrated. The fact that he can consistently find those greens in regulation, I think is a huge plus. And then, it’s necessarily a ton of wedges at this golf course. He can find some wedges on these par fours, there are some wedge holes, but you’ve got to hit some nine, eight irons into some greens. Maybe some guys are hitting seven irons. I think he’s just got that length advantage at this course, which is so huge.”
What Rory McIlroy can do at Quail Hollow which is unusual on the PGA Tour calendar
McIlroy’s comments after winning at Quail Hollow last year could perhaps be ominous for some of his rivals.
He suggested that he is able to do something at Quail Hollow which he is not able to do at a lot of other stops on the PGA Tour calendar.
“I would say even the fairways that I missed, I didn’t miss them by a lot, I didn’t miss them by much. I felt like I drove the ball really, really well this week. And the distances that I can hit it, it’s hard to hit those fairways at times, but if you’re in the first cut or just off the fairway it’s a pretty good drive,” he said.
“And I was able to take advantage of that distance, especially — I think this course more than maybe any other on tour I can hit driver pretty much on every hole, which isn’t the case for a lot of other golf courses. So it’s nice to have that advantage.”
Of course, the course will be set up slightly differently for the PGA Championship. And so many players hit the ball a long way nowadays.
But in the Venn diagram of players who have the course knowledge, experience of winning at Quail Hollow, and experience of winning majors, there is no question that it is McIlroy’s name which finds itself perfectly in the middle.
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