Tag: Wells Fargo Championship

It seems a lot longer than 10 years that Rory McIlroy has been a major player on golf’s world stage. He was a star junior in Northern Ireland and won his first professional event at the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic, and he almost won the European Tour’s Order of Merit that same year and climbed to No. 13 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

But most American golf fans got their first good look at the then-20-year-old’s firepower at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. That event is now the Wells Fargo Championship, but the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of this year’s event. It’s a perfect time to reflect on one of the greatest closing rounds ever on Tour, as this week marks the 10-year anniversary since McIlroy burst into golf’s global consciousness with a closing round for the ages.

McIlroy wrapped up that final round on May 2, 2010, with six consecutive threes to post a 10-under 62 that leapfrogged the likes of Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Dustin Johnson, Davis Love III and third-round leader Billy Mayfair. His Sunday tally included eight birdies and an eagle on the par-5 15^th.

“It was my second professional win and my first on the PGA Tour, so it will always be a special memory for me,” McIlroy, who turns 31 on May 4, told Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch this week from his home in Jupiter, Florida, where he has remained since the cancellation of his title defense at the Players Championship in March. “I wish we could have been back at Quail Hollow this week but there are obviously more important things we all need to focus on right now.”

Observers were somewhat stunned after McIlroy played the final two rounds over a difficult Tour track in 16 under. He finished the week at 15-under 273.

“Astonishing,” CBS’ David Feherty told Jim McCabe, then a Golfweek Tour reporter, after the round. “Just to have the guts, … and yes, that does remind you of somebody.”

 

The somebody Feherty referenced was Tiger Woods, who shot 74-79 that week to miss the cut. McIlroy has since had many Tiger-like moments, including victories at four majors (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and ’14 PGA Championships, 2014 Open Championship). McIlroy has racked up 18 PGA Tour Titles, nine international victories and is No. 1 in the world after winning three Tour events in 2019 and the 2020 WGC-HSBC Champions.

But that week at Quail Hollow didn’t start with such a bang. Coming off back-to-back missed cuts at the Shell Houston Open and the Masters, McIlroy opened with a 72 and was outside the cutline through 15 holes in his second round, which began on the back nine.

Playing in the third-to-last group with almost no gallery, McIlroy had 206 yards for his second shot into the par-5 seventh with water guarding the green on the right.

 

His long-iron approach started an amazing turnaround.

“I cut a 4-iron,” McIlroy said of that second-round shot after winning the event. “But I pushed it a little bit.”

J.P. Fitzgerald, then McIlroy’s caddie, disagreed: “He didn’t push it. He knew where he had to hit it. It was a wonderful moment.”

McIlroy’s ball ended up 6 feet from the hole, he canned the eagle putt and the floodgates opened. He made the cut on the number at 1 over, shot a 6-under 66 in the third round and closed with that course-record 62. The final six holes of that round included two pars on par 3s, three birdies on par 4s and an eagle on the par-5 16^th after his second shot stopped 4 feet from the hole. He capped it all with a 43-foot birdie putt on No. 18.

It all started with that eagle on Friday.

“I had missed two cuts in a row before Quail Hollow, at Houston and the Masters, and on Friday I was two shots outside the cut line with three holes to play, so things didn’t look great!” McIlroy remembered this week. “On (his) 16th I hit my best shot all year – a 4-iron from 206 yards over water. I made eagle, made the cut on the number, then went 66-62 over the weekend.”

McIlroy played that final round with Anthony Kim, another promising youngster who nabbed three PGA Tour titles before injuring a wrist and thumb and then vanishing from the Tour – and largely from public sight – in 2012.

The 62 came two days before McIlroy’s 21^st birthday. How did he celebrate? Having not so much as a single celebratory cocktail, he watched TV at a local Del Frisco’s steakhouse as Floyd Mayweather Jr. scored a unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao.

It hasn’t always been that easy since for McIlroy, who has had a few dry spells, as all golfers do whatever their talent level. But that week was a realization of enormous potential and overpowering talent that still is being revealed 10 years later.

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