PGA Championship notebook: Slam completed ... what’s next for Rory McIlroy?
So what does Rory McIlroy do for an encore?
That was the theme of questions put to McIlroy on Wednesday, before he practiced for Thursday’s opening round of the 107th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club.
It was a month ago when McIlroy won the Masters, completing a career Grand Slam of major events. This will be his first major tournament since completing the slam.
Xander Schauffele, who will play with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and McIlroy in a threesome Thursday, recently said McIlroy could become an even better golfer, with the pressure of trying to win the Grand Slam gone.
McIlroy, who has won four times at Quail Hollow, said he hasn’t changed.
“I’m just the same person,” McIlroy said. “Look ... I turn up and try to have the same attitude and the same approach to each and every tournament, and try to get the best out of myself.”
“Some weeks, that results in wins,” he added. “And some weeks, it doesn’t.”
But McIlroy, 36, who won the PGA Championship in 2012 and 2014, acknowledged that his attitude is changed somewhat.
“I have achieved everything that I’ve wanted,” he said. “I’ve done everything I wanted to do in the game. I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors. I’ve done that.”
He added, “Everything beyond this — for however long I decide to play the game competitively — is a bonus.”
He was quick to add, however, that he still enjoys winning — a lot.
McIlroy has been a dominant player at Quail Hollow, and fellow pros said it goes back to getting off the tee successfully.
“I do believe you have to have a lot of distance out here,” said Bryson DeChambeau, also one of golf’s best with a driver. “Rory is a great driver of the golf ball, and his iron play is great too.”
Justin Thomas said it’s simple.
“First and foremost, he’s really, really good at golf,” Thomas said. “And I would argue that he’s the best driver of the ball I’ve ever seen.”
McIlroy, Schauffele and Scheffler tee off at 8:22 a.m. Thursday from the 10th tee.
Another wet day in Charlotte — but no new rain
No new rain fell on Quail Hollow Wednesday, even if dark clouds loomed for part of the afternoon. Still, the weather from days before made an impact.
It did for Ludvig Aberg, at least, who spoke Wednesday after the final practice round of the day. (This is the 25-year-old’s first time playing at Quail Hollow in a tournament setting.)
“I’ve heard the term ‘big boy golf course,’ which describes this one very well, and some really long holes now,” Aberg said. “The fairways are still wet. You’re not getting any roll off the tee and greens are firming up with the SubAir.
“It will be a good challenge, it will be long and the greens would be, I would imagine, getting a little firmer. It will be nice.”
Even as it dries, questions about the course’s condition hit a peak on Wednesday afternoon — so much so that the PGA had to issue a statement about whether the moisture will impact play this week.
”We do not plan to play preferred lies,” the PGA statement read. “The playing surfaces are outstanding and are drying by the hour. We are mowing the fairways this evening. We are looking forward to an exciting opening round to the 107th PGA Championship.”
Thursday’s forecast, according to weather.com: Sunshine and clouds with a high of 87, with winds gusting southwest at 10 to 15 mph. Humidity: 68%. Precipitation: 14%.
Following Scottie Scheffler along The Green Mile
The Green Mile, first coined by former Observer writer Ron Green Jr., refers to the long trio of holes that conclude Quail Hollow. That’s the 529-yard par 4 at 16, the 223-yard par 3 at 17 and the 494-yard par 4 on 18.
One Observer writer followed the top player in the world, Scheffler, as he made his final practice run-through of the Green Mile.
Three notes:
▪ No roll off the drives, as mentioned. Scheffler, wearing a Texas Longhorn orange shirt, regularly found fairways off the tee. But his crushing drives didn’t get any additional roll — a product of the wetness from the torrential downpours early in the week. An afternoon sun helped the course dry out a bit.
▪ No problems in the sand. Quail Hollow is known for its treacherous bunkers, and so every time Scheffler approached the greens he would throw in a few balls to test his limits. He was consistently good out of the sand.
▪ His best shot of the three-hole snapshot came off the tee on 17, the treacherous par 3, where he placed the ball on the lower side of the green, about 10 feet from the pin. Scheffler’s placement, it appeared, meant he could putt uphill and not have to account for too much of a break.
Local connections
Five players will represent the Carolinas in the first round of the PGA Championship on Thursday.
That group includes Chapel Hill’s Ben Griffin, a two-time state champion at East Chapel Hill who played collegiality at North Carolina. Griffin earned his first PGA Tour victory three weeks ago in the Zurich Open in New Orleans.
The others are two-time tour winner J.T. Poston of Hickory; former North Carolina all-America standout Ryan Gerard of Raleigh; Brian Campbell (Bluffton, S.C.), who won the Mexican Open in February; and Jacob Bridgeman (Inman, S.C.), a former Clemson golfer who tied for fourth last week in the Truist Championship in Philadelphia.
And there’s Akshay Bhatia, who is listed by the PGA as living in Jupiter, Florida, but he grew up in the Raleigh suburb of Wake Forest.
Chip shots
▪ More than 2 inches of rain has fallen on the Quail Hollow Club in the last three days, and the course was, understandably, a bit soggy Wednesday. But much warmer (and drier) conditions are forecast for the rest of the week, and golfers spent some of their time Wednesday trying to practice for faster greens.
“I tried to accommodate for faster greens by putting downhill,” McIlroy said.
▪ Schauffele has finished in the top 20 at the last 12 majors — a streak that began with the 2022 PGA Championship. It is the fifth-longest top-20 streak in majors in the past 60 years. Jack Nicklaus made the top 20 in 33 straight events from 1970-78. Others in the top five: Nick Faldo (19, from 1988-92); Tiger Woods (14, 1998-2001); and Greg Norman (14, 1993-96).
▪ The Green Mile — a nickname given the final three holes at Quail Hollow — were the most difficult, compared to par, of any holes on the course at last year’s Wells Fargo Championship. That made Quail Hollow the only site on the PGA Tour in which the final three holes were the toughest.
▪ England’s Jim Barnes won the first two PGA Championships, in 1916 and 1919. No golfer from England has won the tournament since.
Thursday’s tee times
Morning, starting on No. 1
7 a.m.: Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer
7:11 a.m.: David Puig, John Somers, Taylor Moore
7:22 a.m.: Nic Ishee, Kurt Kitayama, Alex Noren
7:33 a.m.: Ryo Hisatune, Tom Johnson, J.T. Poston
7:44 a.m.: Bud Cauley, Nico Echavarria, Davis Thompson
7:55 a.m.: Thomas Detry, Harris English, Michael Kim
8:06 a.m.: Chris Kirk, Stephan Jaeger, Robert MacIntyre
8:17 a.m.: Laurie Canter, Thorbjorn Olesen, Karl Vilips
8:28 a.m.: Rico Hoey, Si Woo Kim, Sam Stevens
8:39 a.m.: Bobby Gates, Ben Griffin, Lee Hodges
8:50 a.m.: Nick Dunlap, Harry Hall, Thriston Lawrence
9:01 a.m.: Ryan Gerard, Greg Koch, Marco Penge
9:12 a.m.: Dylan Newman, Victor Perez, Daniel Van Tonder
Morning, starting on No. 10
7:05 a.m.: Ryan Fox, Justin Hicks, John Parry
7:16 a.m.: Andre chi, Patrick Fishburn, Seamus Power
7:27 a.m.: Max McGreevy, Sepp Straka, Sahith Theegala
7:38 a.m.: Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry
7:49 a.m.: Jason Day, Tommy Fleetwood, Phil Mickelson
8 a.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm
8:11 a.m.: Corey Conners, Rasmus Hojgaard, Min Woo Lee
8:22 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler
8:33 a.m.: Tony Finau, Max Greyserman, Nicolai Hojgaard
8:44 a.m.: Keegan Bradley, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak
8:55 a.m.: Akahay Bhatia, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy
9:06 a.m.: John Caitlin, Jesse Droemer, Garrick Higgo
9:17 a.m.: Eugenio Chacarra, Justin Lower, Rupe Taylor
Afternoon, starting on No. 1
12:30 p.m.: Michael Kartrude, Jake Knapp, Sami Valikami
12:41 p.m.: Michael Block, Mackenzie Hughes, Erik Van Rooyen
12:52 p.m.: Lucas Glover, Max Homa, Joaquin Niemann
1:03 p.m.: Tyrrell Hatton, Adam Scott, Will Zalatoris
1:14 p.m.: Dustin Johnson, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas
1:25 p.m.: Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth
1:36 p.m.: Wyndham Clark, Tom Kim, Hideki Matsuyama
1:47 p.m.: Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovlan, Gary Woodland
1:58 p.m.: Daniel Berger, Sergio Garcia, Russell Henley
2:09 p.m.: Brian Harman, Justin Rose, Cameron Smith
2:20 p.m.: Brandon Bingaman, Sungjae Im, Davis Riley
2:31 p.m.: Christaan Bezuidenhout, Takumi Kanaya
2:42 p.m.: Beau Hossler, Keita Nakajima, Timothy Wiseman
Afternoon, starting on No. 10
12:25 p.m.: Adam Hadwin, Keith Mitchell, Bob Sowards
12:36 p.m.: Eric Cole, Cam Davis, Eric Steger
12:47 p.m.: Brian Bergstol, Jacob Bridgeman, Austin Eckroat
12:58 p.m.: Byeong Hun An, Niklas Norgaard, Byeong Hun An
1:09 p.m.: Dean Burmester, Patrick Rodgers, Nick Taylor
1:20 p.m.: Joe Highsmith, Aaron Rai, Cameron Young
1:31 p.m.: Tom Hoge, Mattheu Pavon, Taylor Pendrith
1:42 p.m.: Patton Kizzire, Matt McCarty, Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson
1:53 p.m.: Richard Bland, Tyler Collet, Jimmy Walker
2:04 p.m.: Jason Dufner, Shaun Michel, Michael Thorbjornsen
2:15 p.m.: Rafael Campos, Ryan Lenahan, Matt Wallace
2:26 p.m.: Brian Campbell, Elvis Smylie, Jhonattan Vegas
2:37 p.m.: Larkin Gross, Johnny Keefer, Kevin Yu
TV coverage
Thursday’s and Friday’s rounds will be carried by the ESPN network. Coverage from 7 a.m.-noon each day will be on ESPN+, with ESPN handling coverage from noon-7 p.m.
Saturday’s and Sunday’s rounds will be on ESPN and CBS. Coverage begins each day at 8 a.m. on ESPN+, moves to ESPN from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., and then to CBS from 1-7 p.m.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM.
