The stage is set for the second men’s Major of the year at the PGA Championship and, despite the still-fractured nature of the sport, it could be one for the ages.
All the major pieces are in position and primed to arrive at Valhalla, the host venue for this year’s PGA Championship, and do battle across four days for the Wanamaker Trophy.
No matter where you look there is intrigue, piqued by Rory McIlroy’s devastating demolition of Xander Schauffele as the swashbuckling Northern Irishman swaggered his way to a fourth Wells Fargo Championship victory at Quail Hollow.
Despite being only 35, it was like the McIlroy of old, the young lad from Hollywood who imposed his will on courses and his competitors.
It’s been 10 years since that McIlroy won the last of his four Majors at the scene poised to welcome the game’s best this week. It could prove to be the missing piece of the puzzle that helps him finally end his drought in the game’s biggest events.
“If not now, when?” is the question that has preceded many of McIlroy’s Major flops and near-misses in the barren decade, but it feels like this is the crescendo.
At Quail Hollow, the brute of a layout in Charlotte he has made a home from home, McIlroy looked like the player touted as the natural successor of Tiger Woods. Back was his ability to dominate a golf course like few before him, reducing 500-yard par-4s to a drive and a flick.
He admitted afterwards that when the big stick is firing, it frees up the rest of his game and the stats back that up.
Across the four days, he ranked second off the tee, fourth in approach play, fifth around the greens, and eighth in putting. A potent combination.
He had been searching for his game this year after a good start in the desert in Dubai, but it seems an emergency visit to see Butch Harmon is now bearing fruit.
It didn’t pay dividends in time to challenge at The Masters, but in the five weeks since, he has found the “little spark” he was looking for.
Asked what he felt had been missing, he said: “I don’t know. I think part of it was technical, I was missing a lot of shots left. Then missing those shots left, not having full confidence in what I was doing with my swing, and that sort of bleeds into the rest of your game.
“I’ve always said whenever I’m driving the…
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