It would be difficult to find a better player-golf course fit anywhere on the PGA Tour than Rory McIlroy and Quail Hollow. McIlroy, who arrives off a win with pal Shane Lowry two weeks ago at the 2024 Zurich Classic, will make his 13th career start at this golf course (12 Wells Fargo Championships, one PGA Championship).
In that span of time, Rory has amassed five top fives, eight top 10s and just one missed cut (2011 Wells Fargo Championship), when he was just 22 years old. He has only lost strokes from tee to green one time in 12 appearances and has more tournaments in which he has gained 3+ strokes per round on the field per round (four) than tournaments in which he has lost strokes to the field (one).
"Always good to be back at Quail," McIlroy said Wednesday. "Not just one of my favorite stops on Tour, but one of my favorite cities in America. I've had so many great memories here from over the years, first win on Tour and obviously winning here a few times, and I guess the support that I've had from this community and the support that this tournament's had from this community over the years, it's always been great to experience that. So yeah, great to be back. Looking forward to trying to get my fourth one here."
Of the players in the field this week, McIlroy has far and away been the best on this golf course throughout his career. Here are the top five in strokes gained:
- Rory McIlroy: 2.62
- Justin Thomas: 2.12
- Rickie Fowler: 2.07
- Jason Day: 1.99
- Viktor Hovland: 1.97
Only three golfers have a career average over 2.0 strokes gained per round, and McIlroy is closer to 3.0 than he is 2.0. These are astounding numbers.
McIlroy has won here often. His first PGA Tour victory in 2010. His seven-shot rout in 2015 over Webb Simpson and Patrick Rodgers. And finally in 2022 when he beat Abraham Ancer by one and Viktor Hovland and Keith Mitchell by two.
Without Scottie Scheffler in the field, McIlroy is suddenly a 13/2 favorite to win the Wells Fargo Championship. The only other golfer entering in the single digits is Xander Schauffele at 9-1.
That does not make Rory a shoe-in. His iron play has been up and down this year. He finished T47 at this course one year ago due to struggles with that iron play. He has a lot at stake next week at the 2024 PGA Championship where he won in 2014; it would be easy to look ahead at a juicy major possibility.
"Iron play really feels like it's coming around," said McIlroy. "[Winning the Zurich Classic] was the end of a four-week stretch for me, so I took a few days off when I got back home, hit balls for the first time Sunday. Sometimes to take a bit of a break and just think about it rather than actually doing it can help as well. I got here Monday pretty early and have done some good practice. Yeah, I don't know if it's this place and I just feel good here, but it feels like it's all starting to come around, which is great to see."
There are few better course fits on the PGA Tour than McIlroy at Quail Hollow. He absolutely decimates the place with his driver, which makes sense because it is a course where you can hit driver everywhere because distance matters significantly. In 12 starts, he has never lost strokes off the tee. In four events, he's gained over 2.0 strokes per round off the tee, and unheard of number for a single category.
In fact, colleague Rick Gehman calls Rory and Quail Hollow one of the best course-player fits of the last four decades. Only Justin Leonard at LaCantera and Tiger Woods at several courses (of course) rank better.
