Quail Hollow history boosts Rory’s odds

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jordan Spieth is going for a career Grand Slam at the PGA Championship and doesn’t appear to have a care in the world.

Rory McIlroy hasn’t won a major in three years and expectations are higher than ever. But blame that on Quail Hollow.

This is where McIlroy won his first PGA Tour event in 2010 when he fearlessly fired a 4-iron into the breeze and over the water to 6 feet for an eagle that allowed him to make the cut on the number, and then he followed with a 66-62 weekend. Quail Hollow is where he shot 61 in the third round to run away from a strong field for a 7-shot victory. He has played here seven times and has finished out of the top 10 just once.

It’s not Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines. But there’s a reason McIlroy has been looking forward to this PGA Championship. And it’s a big reason why he is the betting favorite by a slight margin ahead of Spieth, who is just three weeks removed from winning the British Open.

The odds on McIlroy winning at Royal Birkdale were 20-1, some of the highest ever associated with him. He joked then that it was a good time to back him. Now he’s listed at 7-1, and he doesn’t feel much differently.

“I told you those odds wouldn’t last long,” he said yesterday. “I think it’s partly to do with the upturn in form that I’ve had over the last few weeks. And then my history on this golf course — a couple of wins, beaten in a playoff, a few other top 10s.

“Things are a bit different than they were a couple of weeks ago.”

McIlroy has posted seven straight rounds in the 60s going into the final major of the year, though he was not in serious contention in either the British Open or the Bridgestone Invitational. A bad start held him back at Royal Birkdale — 5-over through the opening six holes — and he was slowed by not hitting his wedges close enough or making enough putts at Firestone.

His long game has been solid as ever, and that figures to be an advantage on a course softened by rain. Shorts the story

Lucas Glover walked off the 18th fairway still feeling slightly underdressed. He wasn’t alone.

“I don’t recognize some of these guys out here, and I’m sure they probably don’t recognize me either,” Glover said.

For the first time in its 99-year history, the PGA Championship allowed players to wear shorts during practice rounds this week, in part to combat the August heat in North Carolina. But on a rain-soaked Tuesday, only about half the players took advantage of the change, with many like McIlroy choosing to stick with long pants.

“This feels great,” Martin Laird said following his practice round. “It gets a little hot out here during the summer.”

Still, it was different, if not odd, watching Jim Furyk practicing bunker shots wearing shorts and seeing Dustin Johnson in the interview room with bare legs.

“Hopefully we can do this a little more,” Johnson said.