Tough act to follow

McIlroy might be the favorite to win again this week at PGA, but his Masters still resonates

This scene will never get old (Augusta National)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We gather here at the Quail Hollow Club this week for the PGA Championship, seemingly ready to turn the page on Rory McIlroy’s epic completion of the career Grand Slam last month in the season’s first major.

The Masters hangover, however, still lingers heavy in the air just a month removed and two hours up the road from Augusta, Ga. What McIlroy did — and the manic turbulence of the way he did it — still resonates even as the best field in major championship golf convenes this week at a club where Rory is already essentially “hometown favorite.”

Jim Nantz, the voice of golf for CBS, is still buzzing from delivering his “The long journey is over. McIlroy has his masterpiece” call as Rory fell to his knees after finally earning his green jacket in a playoff. Nantz has presided over 40 Masters since his first call in 1986 when he delivered “the Bear has come out of hibernation” after Jack Nicklaus birdied 16 on his historic victory charge. He will share the booth again this week with Trevor Immelman, the 2008 Masters champion, and as they await whatever story unfolds in the PGA

Yet they can’t stop talking about McIlroy’s “masterpiece” in Augusta.

“On the Masters front — just a postscript on that,” Nantz said in a conference call ahead of the PGA. “It never goes away. It’s something I’m sure all of us on this call feel the exact same way about it. It’s constantly being brought up in everyday conversation about how that was one of the greatest events people have ever witnessed in their lives. Truly it is an ongoing gift.

“We’re in an afterglow. Golf fans and non-golf fans alike – here we are almost a month later and it’s still top of mind for people. It is seared in people’s brains as one of the most exciting sporting events they have ever watched.

“I’ve been asked repeatedly about where it would rank, my 40th Masters. It’s a tough thing ranking Masters tournaments because – back to the golf gods and the scripts that they write, they’ve written quite a few great ones through the years. They almost all have their own uniqueness to them, and I don’t have them in any particular order. I get asked this sometimes, a handful of times every day, and I don’t know which one is the best. I’m mindful of recency bias here being perhaps a factor, but Rory’s, and Jack’s in ’86, and Tiger’s in 2019 are all in this special stratosphere where you kind of walk away for a long time with the feeling of ‘I can’t believe what I just saw.’”

Said Immelman: “The Masters it’s really a ‘where were you when?’ moment. People are going to remember the exact situation they were in when they watched Rory complete the career Grand Slam. For us to be a tiny part of helping people enjoy that moment and remember that moment is something that we’re extremely thankful for and proud of. … And then be there in the back of the room (of the Butler Cabin) when Rory put the green jacket on for the first time, cementing his place in history was something I get goosebumps thinking about now and just adds to that incredible week.”

Rory McIlroy comes to his favorite U.S. course with no burdens (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

This is the act that McIlroy now has to follow this week at Quail Hollow, where he’s won four times in the annual PGA Tour event including his maiden PGA Tour victory in 2010. McIlroy playing a major at Quail Hollow is akin to Tiger Woods playing the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, where he’d already won six times including five months prior to claiming his 14th career major title on a broken leg in a playoff over Rocco Mediate.

Will it be easier for Rory because of his familiarity and fondness for the venue as well as the relief we witnessed pouring out of McIlroy on the 18th green at Augusta after burying the frustrations of an 11-year narrative that had been weighing him down? Or will it be tougher because the expectations for him only grow higher as the only man with a chance — and a legitimate one at that — to pursue a calendar Grand Slam in 2025?

Nantz, who played college golf at the University of Houston with Fred Couples, believes the door has never been open wider for McIlroy to take his stellar game to an even higher level.

“My two cents on Rory, this is a whole new world for him beginning (this) week,” Nantz said. “(He’s) going into a major for the first time and every time moving forward without a burden ever again. Those days are gone. He doesn’t come in here shouldering the world’s expectations. He’s playing with a free pass. If he never wins another one, he’s a hero for eternity.

“He gets to go out there and play with total freedom to go be Rory McIlroy with his maybe unequaled imagination and overall talent. Look out world, it’s going to be interesting to watch from this day forward.

“And I’m not trying to put a heap of expectations on him again. We all know the close brushes over and over again. The long journey really ended at Augusta in terms of answering to those burdens, and now he gets to play the rest of his career like he’s out playing with buddies. And I think he’s going to be very dangerous moving forward, whether he wins or loses. It doesn’t matter. He has sealed his spot in golf history. But I think he has a tremendous chance to add to it in big and wonderful ways.”

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Rory McIlroy gets some practice in Tuesday at Quail Hollow, where he’s won four times. (Darren Carroll/PGA of America)

Pre-PGA Championship notes …

Courtesy of Elias Sports Bureau, Inc.

• For the 16th time in the last 17 years, at least 95 of the top 100 golfers in the world will tee it up at the PGA Championship. The lone outlier over that time was the COVID-affected 2020 championship, which included 91 of the top 100 players on the Official World Golf Ranking. There are 99 in the field this time, the lone missing player being Billy Horschel who’s is out after hip surgery.

• Quail Hollow Club is hosting the PGA Championship for the second time, having also hosted in 2017. Justin Thomas won that championship, with a score of 276 (8-under), by two strokes over Patrick Reed, Francesco Molinari and Louis Oosthuizen.

• This is the fourth PGA Championship held in the state of North Carolina: Denny Shute won at Pinehurst in 1936; Lee Trevino won at Tanglewood Park in 1974; and JT at Quail in 2017.

• Each of the last nine PGA Championships were won by Americans, starting in 2016 (Jimmy Walker, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka (back to back), Collin Morikawa, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas, Koepka (again) and Xander Schauffele). It is the longest such streak at this championship since a 10-year run from 1980-89. The last non-American to win this title was Australian Jason Day in 2015 at Whistling Straits.

• Each of the last eight PGA Championships was won by a player who today has multiple major championships on his résumé: Thomas (2017, 2 majors), Koepka (2018, 2019, 2023, 5 majors), Morikawa 2020, (2 majors) and Xander Schauffele (2024, 2 majors).

• Excluding Augusta National GC, only three players have ever won multiple major championships at one American venue: Willie Anderson (1901 and 1905 U.S. Opens at Myopia Hunt Club); Jack Nicklaus (1967 and 1980 U.S. Opens at Baltusrol GC); and Tiger Woods (1999 and 2006 PGA Championships at Medinah CC).

• Earlier this season, Thomas shot 62 in the second round of the Players Championship and 61 in the first round of the RBC Heritage. The only other player with more than one round of 62 or better this season is Scottie Scheffler (62 in the second round of the Houston Open and 61 in the first round of the CJ Cup Byron Nelson).

• The lowest round score recorded at Quail Hollow in the Wells Fargo Championship is 61 by Rory McIlroy in 2015 (third round). The lowest score recorded at Quail in the 2017 PGA was 64, by Francesco Molinari and Hideki Matsuyama (both in the second round).

• Thomas won the 2017 PGA despite shooting 73 (+2) in the first round. It is one of only two instances since 1990 in which the eventual PGA winner shot 2-over-par or worse in the first round. Koepka shot 72 (+2) in the first round at Oak Hill in 2023.

• McIlroy has won four times at Quail Hollow Club (2010, 2015, 2021 and 2024). That is the highest win total at any PGA Tour venue since 2010, ahead of Bubba Watson (three wins at Riviera CC and three wins at River Highlands GC); and McIlroy, himself, at East Lake GC (three wins).

• Here are the players in this week’s field with the best career scoring averages (minimum 10 rounds) at the Wells Fargo Championship in the years it was played at Quail Hollow (2003-2024, except for 2017 and 2022): McIlroy (69.33, 46 rounds), Schauffele (69.63, 16 rounds), Jason Day (70.08, 24 rounds), Keith Mitchell (70.19, 16 rounds) and Max Homa (70.29, 17 rounds).

• Over the last 70 years, only five golfers have been able to win the first two major championships of the year: Ben Hogan (1953), Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972), Tiger Woods (2002) and Jordan Spieth (2015). Spieth winning the 2015 Masters and U.S. Open also marks the last time that a player won consecutive majors, regardless of time of year. (McIlroy won the British and PGA back-to-back to end 2014).

• McIlroy has three wins in eight starts this year. That is a higher winning percentage (.375) than the White Sox, Pirates and Rockies in Major League Baseball (as of Monday 5/11).