Roaring to Valhalla
Rory McIlroy hits another gear ahead of PGA; will play key role in PIF negotiations
The Daily Drive heads into PGA Championship week ready to start building a paywall for our subscribers after 6 weeks of an open launch. There will still be some available free content every week (like today), but it’s time to start adding value for the paid daily subscribers. Meanwhile, there is potential for an epic horse race in Kentucky, with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, defending champ Brooks Koepka and 2014 Valhalla winner Rory McIlroy all coming to Louisville off victories. Doesn’t get much better than that, so grab a bourbon and enjoy golf taking center stage.
Rory McIlroy holes out for eagle to cap an 8-under eight-hole blitz. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Major stakes on tap in Kentucky
If current form matters, we are in for a fun PGA Championship.
And it would be terrific if there are a few days where the actual golf trumps all of the other drama going on in the world of golf.
There was plenty of that in Charlotte as the Rory McIlroy/PGA Tour Policy Board/sub-committee dissing drama played out over a couple of days. But McIlroy managed to put it all aside on the way to an impressive five-shot victory at the Wells Fargo Championship.
“I think getting inside the ropes for that four or five hours or whatever it is a day, it’s a nice escape from everything else that’s going on in the world of golf,’’ McIlroy said following a final-round 65 at Quail Hollow overwhelmed Xander Schauffele and the rest of the field. “I don’t mind it. I’ve always been able to compartmentalize pretty well.
“I seem to, for whatever reason, play very good golf whenever I have a lot of stuff going on. I need that just to really, when I get on the course really focus on what I’m doing out there, but yeah, it seems to work.’’
McIlroy showed plenty of that resolve during the final round, where he trailed Schauffele by one stroke to start the day, was two back after the seventh hole, then went on a birdie-birdie-eagle run on 8, 9 and 10 that saw him take the lead for good.
He added a birdie at the 14th hole and when he holed out for an eagle at the 15th, piling on with a seven-shot lead heading into the grueling finishing “Green Mile.” For Schauffele, who played in the final group for the fourth time this year without getting a victory, it was a mind-numbing display. “It’s Rory McIlroy,’’ he said. “He hits it 350 yards in the air and has short irons into hard greens. It was impressive’’
McIlroy now heads to Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, on a run that’s also impressive. He won with Irish mate Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans two weeks ago. And he backed it up on his own at Quail Hollow.
It's similar to 10 years ago when McIlroy won the Open, the WGC-Bridgestone and then the PGA at Valhalla in consecutive tournaments. That symmetry wasn’t lost on McIlroy.
“It’s really funny, so going into Valhalla in 2014 I had won my last two starts, and going into this year I’ve won my last two starts,’’ he said. “Just need to try to replicate whatever I did in 2014, just try to do that all over again. I’m feeling really good with my game. I need to stay in my own little world next week and not get too far ahead of myself, but if you can step on to the first tee at Valhalla on Thursday and feel as good about my game as I did today, I think I’ll have a good chance.’’
Making the PGA even more intriguing is the fact that a couple of other players will enter on a roll.
Brooks Koepka, the defending champion, won his last LIV Golf start in Singapore two weeks ago.
And Scottie, Scheffler, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, heads to the PGA having won four of his last five starts, including the Masters and RBC Heritage back-to-back 87\before taking three weeks off to become a father. During that stretch, only one player has finished ahead of him at and that was by one shot at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Scheffler’s wife, Meredith, had the couple’s first child last week, although no details have been reported. How this impacts Scheffler is perhaps the biggest mystery of the week. Is he rusty? Lacking sleep? Or clear of mind?
Nothing else has gotten in his way of late, and it’ll be fascinating to see if he can become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two major championships of the year.
Speaking of Jordan Spieth. He could compete the career Grand Slam with a PGA Championship victory.
Brooks Koepka could successfully defend a major for a third time and join Lee Trevino and Nick Faldo with a sixth major titles.
McIlroy could win his fifth major — but his first in 10 years.
Or … plenty of other things could occur on a course that’s delivered a little bit of everything.
McIlroy’s victory at Quail Hollow on Sunday simply added a little more spice to what was already setting up to be an interesting tournament.
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan will have Rory and Tiger to deal with. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
Rory’s off-the-course dealings
It was a tumultuous week on many levels for McIlroy, culminating in his 26th PGA Tour victory in the same place where he won his first. But before he could get to business inside the ropes, he dealt with plenty of business outside of the playing field.
First, McIlroy disclosed on Wednesday that he was no longer in consideration for a return to a seat on the PGA Tour Policy Board, one that current member Webb Simpson had sought to hand off to him only to be rebuffed by a few undisclosed current board members.
Then after the opening round of the Wells Fargo Championship, McIlroy revealed that he was part of a sub-committee — along with voting member Tiger Woods and non-voting member Adam Scott — that will negotiate directly with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
That group includes PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, SSG member John Henry, Joe Gorder, a board member from Valero, and Joe Ogilvie, a former PGA Tour player who is now a liaison to the board.
Called the “transaction committee,’’ all of this was not announced by the PGA Tour until Thursday night.
“I’ve already had calls with that group, I had a really good hour and a half Zoom with those guys (last) Sunday, we went through a 150-page (document) about the future product model and everything,’’ McIlroy said. “I’m not on the board, but I’m in some way involved in that transaction committee. I don’t have a vote so I don’t have, I guess, a meaningful say in what happens in the future. But at least I can feel like I can be helpful on that committee, and that was sort of a compromise for, I guess, not getting a board seat.’’
McIlroy is the only person who is not part of the PGA Tour Enterprises Board of Directors on the sub-committee but is likely in the enviable position of being exempt from mundane board duties while diving into the important work that he’s concerned about regarding a deal with the PIF.
Golf Digest reported that there was some dissention on the board and that players such as Woods, Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth were against McIlroy returning to it after he resigned his seat in November. The belief has been that those three players reps are resistant to a PIF deal, while Simpson, Peter Malnati and Adam Scott are considered more open to compromise.
“I would disagree completely,’’ Scott said when asked about the alleged disagreement. “I don’t see it that way at all.’
“It became a bigger drama than was really needed,’’ added Scott, 43, who has 14 victories on the PGA Tour and played on it for more than 20 years. “Ultimately we got to a really positive outcome. Tiger and Rory are both going to be right there before anything goes beyond that committee. And I think that’s really important at the end of the day that Tiger has a say in how professional golf shakes out on the PGA Tour, something he’s really influenced the evolution of.
“And Rory is the most influential active player. Tiger’s not quite as active as Rory. But Rory’s had a strong voice over the last couple of years. Whatever the result, if they achieve a result together, it’s unquestionable whatever that result is and it’s all positive moving forward.’’