How beloved Quail Hollow didn’t love Rory McIlroy back Friday

There’s just about no golf course Roy McIlroy should love more than Quail Hollow Club.

Friday, just two holes away from ending his round near the top of the leaderboard at the Wells Fargo Championship, Quail Hollow didn’t love him back.

After conquering the layout Thursday with a 66, McIlroy finished his second round Friday with a double-bogey on No. 8 and a bogey on No. 9. He finished Friday at 6-under par, but with a definite sense of regret going into Saturday on a course he knows so well. (McIlroy remained among the leaders in the rain-delayed third round on Saturday.)

“I got the most out of it yesterday, and today was the complete opposite,” said McIlroy, a two-time champion at Quail Hollow. “You know, I turned a (potential) 66 into a 70” with those two late bad holes, plus a prior bogey on No. 14.

“Golf, it’s a funny game and these things happen. But still right there going into the weekend. Just need to shake off the bad finish today and get off to a good start tomorrow.”

McIlroy is one of several golfers to observe that the greens have been firmer than usual this week at Quail Hollow.Playing for bounce to the hole, as opposed to spongier soft greens where you aim for the pin, is one thing. But when that firmness changes significantly, as it has through the first two days, is tough to gauge.

“The greens are really, really firm,” McIlroy said. “It’s hard because for how firm they are, they’re not overly fast. So if you start missing greens, it can make it a little tricky in terms of you’ve got to judge that first bounce, but then once it starts to roll, it’s not really going to get away from you.

“I find it a little tricky to judge the chip shots around the greens. It’s playing tricky, and the wind’s getting up a little bit this afternoon, which will make it even more challenging.”

McIlroy is the only multi-time winner at this tournament, taking titles in 2010 and 2015. That 2010 championship was marked by McIlroy barely making the cut — he needed an eagle late his his second round — then shooting 66 and 61 in the final two rounds.

His level of consistency at Quail Hollow is remarkable: 15 finishes in the top 10 and four in the top 5.

The Quail Hollow layout keeps changing — particularly with the renovation that preceded the PGA Championship here in 2017 — but there is still a familiarity here that comforts McIlroy.

“It went through iterations since we started coming here, but every time they tweak something here or there, it’s still sort of the same place and it really fits my eye,” McIlroy said after his first round.

“Every time I step onto this golf course, I feel like I have a chance to shoot a good score.”

The biggest difference over those 15 years: An effort to make Quail Hollow play longer, even for a prodigious driver like McIlroy.

“You’re sort of wearing out your 6- and 7-irons, which is not really the case for a lot of other courses,” McIlroy said.

“Not for me, anyway.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2019 at 4:20 PM.