Rory McIlroy and Wells Fargo: that old, familiar feeling
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Two-time champion back in his element, two off lead going into Sunday
Rory McIlroy’s Round 3 highlights from Wells Fargo
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Quail Hollow Club is a big ballpark, and none of the top four players through 54 holes at the Wells Fargo Championship – Keith Mitchell (66, leader by two), Rory McIlroy (68, T2), Gary Woodland (70, T2), Luke List (68, 4th) – gets shortchanged off the tee.
They also have something else in common: Each could really use a win.
“Yeah, think about it all the time,” List said when asked how often he ponders the prospect of notching his first PGA TOUR win. “I've got a few more pressing issues that are more at the forefront for me, like trying to get the ball in the hole and trying to not think too much on the putting green. It's just the winning stuff – I think about that more when I'm not playing.”
Mitchell has hit a career lull since winning the 2019 Honda Classic. Although it turned out that a bent putter was to blame for his final-round 82 at the Valspar Championship last weekend, it still typified the vagaries of golf.
“I didn't play very well last year after the restart,” said Mitchell, who is 249th in the world and 134th in the FedExCup. “Just didn't have the energy, didn't have the really just the patience with that short of a season last year, trying to climb the leaderboard.”
Woodland has struggled with injuries, which crept into his attitude.
“I haven't been excited to play, to be honest with you, for the last year,” he said.
He hit rock bottom at the Valspar in Tampa, where he is a past champion but missed the cut. It was the sixth consecutive round in which he’d failed to break par. A deep dive with coaches Butch Harmon and Pete Cowen, though, turned up a few things on videotape, and Woodland has been seeing more of the type of shots that won him the 2019 U.S. Open.
“It feels great to be back in this position,” he said.
Then there’s McIlroy, whose game seemed to disintegrate the longer the pandemic went on. Although the PGA TOUR returned without on-site fans last June, McIlroy’s A-game did not. Somehow the lack of buzz from the fans was translating to a very flat performance by the two-time FedExCup champ.
Not anymore.
“Just so cool to play in an atmosphere like that again,” McIlroy said after making five birdies and one double-bogey in a tale of two nines (31-37) on Saturday. “I've missed it. I didn't think I would miss it as much as I did, but I really have. … I'm excited about tomorrow.”
There will be no mistaking the people’s choice. The Quail Hollow faithful know him well – two wins, his first course record (62), his second course record (61). He’s even a member of the club. It all feels very normal. And in these times – a slumping golfer; a bruised world – normal is good.
The slump: McIlroy hasn’t won since late 2019 (World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions). He came into the Wells Fargo at 15th in the Official World Golf Ranking, the lowest he’s been since late 2009, and 51st in the FedExCup.
Some of his problems, he admitted, were self-inflicted. Specifically, he got off track while chasing Bryson DeChambeau-like speed and distance. After a final-round 76 at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (T10, eight behind DeChambeau) in March, he said he was “dejected” and “maybe looking to go in a different direction.”
Soon he was working with Pete Cowen, and it was the first time he’s listed someone other than Michael Bannon as his primary coach. He said that the changes he was making were for the long-term good of his career, and might take, “a bit of time.” He missed cuts at THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters, took a vacation to the Bahamas, came home, and kept grinding.
He showed up at Quail Hollow “on a pretty good trajectory,” and so we’ve seen. He knows that just because he celebrates his birthday here every year (he turned 32 on Tuesday) and has a record that’s beyond compare, no one will be gifting him the tournament. Still, he’s glad he’s here.
“It's a golf course that I am comfortable on,” he said, “and going into a final round tomorrow with a chance to win, I feel like I need everything I can get to try to get over the line. For me to be in contention for the first time in a while and for it to be here is probably beneficial.”
Time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Each of the top four is plenty hungry.
Cameron Morfit began covering the PGA TOUR with Sports Illustrated in 1997, and after a long stretch at Golf Magazine and golf.com joined PGATOUR.COM as a Staff Writer in 2016. Follow Cameron Morfit on Twitter.