Rory McIlroy soaks up good D.C. vibes on birthday

POTOMAC, Maryland – A tiny square of chocolate sat nestled in cupcake frosting.

Rory McIlroy, celebrating his 33rd birthday at the Wells Fargo Championship pro-am at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, plucked the decorative part off the top and ate it. He thanked everyone and discretely left the cupcake under a tent next to the 10th tee.

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“I try not to eat a lot of that stuff,” he said on the walk to his pre-tournament press conference.

A 22-year-old McIlroy might have eaten the whole cupcake. That’s how old he was when he won the 2011 U.S. Open at nearby Congressional Country Club, which on Wednesday he called “the best week of golf I've ever played in my life.”

Now, though, he’s older, and wiser. He’s an athlete, and athletes don’t often eat that stuff. McIlroy drove past a familiar looking course on his way to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm for the first time Tuesday. Familiar, he realized with a start, because it was Congressional, the place where he rebounded from his Masters meltdown with an emphatic statement win.

Since then, of course, he’s won nearly all the important hardware, at THE PLAYERS Championship, PGA Championship (twice), Open Championship. He’s the only other player besides Tiger Woods to win the FedExCup twice.

Somehow, though, he’d never had occasion to play TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. He hadn’t even heard much about it.

“But from what I've seen the last couple days,” he said, “I really like it … green complexes are tricky, pretty small targets, the rough maybe isn't up as much as they usually have it here because of the time of year.

“But overall, really solid test,” he continued. “Looking forward to getting out there.”

The usual Wells Fargo venue, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, is busy preparing for the Presidents Cup, but rest assured, McIlroy, who won the Wells Fargo for the third time a year ago, knows how to adapt.

He also knows how to relate. He was the pro-am partner of choice for the four HBCU graduates and former First Tee kids who got him for the front nine. McIlroy made sure everyone walked away smiling, and offered tips to at least one of his young playing partners, Lennard Long of Morehouse College, now a First Tee coach.

“Super friendly,” Long said. “Super just helpful. Asked him some tips for chipping and he was willing to give them to me, so I'm going to take them back and give them to our kids when I coach them so they're really appreciative of it.”

None of this should be surprising. McIlroy could be No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Self-awareness.

A 20-time PGA TOUR winner, 11th in the FedExCup, seventh in the world, he is also a husband (Erica) and father (Poppy). He’s coming off a three-week break, his last competitive round a wild 64 at the Masters that vaulted him to second place, his best-ever finish at Augusta. He and playing partner Collin Morikawa each holed out from a greenside bunker on 18, touching off a wild celebration, after which McIlroy said he’d never had so much fun playing golf.

Now he hopes to build on that success, as he’s on the precipice of playing six times in the next eight weeks.

Those eight weeks should begin to tell us if anyone can challenge FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler. Whatever shakes out between the ropes, McIlroy is sure to command eyeballs. He has become one of the game’s elder statesmen (albeit a young one), a Player Director on the PGA TOUR policy board who isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

“He's a leader I think for us in a lot of ways,” said Webb Simpson. “Very articulate. And he's been a global player for a long time, so I think his opinions matter. Him being on the board now, I think he brings a lot to the table. He's certainly a guy who I think has been fun to listen to because he's not just going to give you the right answers, he's going to give you what he thinks.”

Small example: Saturated from overnight rain, TPC Potomac would seem to offer the kind of soft targets that suit McIlroy nicely. Those were the conditions, after all, when he won his first major at that 2011 U.S. Open. Asked about the favorable conditions, though, he offered the gentle reminder that he’s won 30 trophies worldwide, not all of them on soggy grass.

Instead of being chastened, though, the assembled journalists laughed right along with him. Still, Congressional really was special, and McIlroy planned to drop in.

“We’ll see if I can rekindle some of those vibes from 11 years ago,” he said of the Wednesday afternoon visit, the first time he will have gone back to Congressional since participating in a First Tee clinic there a few years ago.

Coming off the time of his life at the Masters, defending at his beloved Wells Fargo, and on his birthday, no less, McIlroy is in his element, that enviable, happy place where all the vibes are good and all the cupcakes fully frosted.