Weekend of winners, from golf courses to racetracks
Rory McIlroy ends 553-day PGA Tour drought; Martin Truex Jr. a Cup 3-timer in 2021.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy didn’t know if he’d be able to play in the first round of the Wells Fargo Championship after his neck locked up Wednesday. Treatment – and an afternoon tee time – took care of that.
As he took to the first tee for the first round Thursday, he was just hoping to make it to the weekend to continue the process of trying to find his lost form.
Instead, the former world No. 1 and four-time major champ ended a winless drought of just over 550 days by looking like the Rory of old, especially on a Quail Hollow course he seems to own.
With a final-round, 3-under-par 68 Sunday, McIlroy finished at 10-under 274 for a one-shot victory over Abraham Ancer. McIlroy, armed with a two-shot lead heading to the 72nd hole, nearly drove his tee shot into a creek, took a penalty drop due to a brutal lie, knocked his ball on the green from 200 yards out of the rough and then two-putted from 44 feet to win for the third time at Quail Hollow. It was McIlroy’s 19th PGA Tour title and first as a father.
“It’s never easy to win out here,” he said. “It felt like a long time since I won. It just feels awesome. There’s been a lot of hard work. I’ve put my head down; I haven’t really looked too much in either direction, I’ve just tried to do what I need to do. For a couple of months there, all that hard work seemed like it was not really getting anywhere, wasn’t providing me with much.”
Adding to his emotional win was it coming on Mother’s Day, and McIlroy was clearly moved as he saluted his mother, Rose, and wife, Erica, who was holding their daughter, Poppy, just after his winning putt dropped.
“For it to be Erica’s first Mother’s Day and for her to be here with Poppy, really, really cool,” he said. “It was hard for me not to think of that coming down the last few holes and how cool that would be to see them at the back of the 18th green, but I had more pressing issues at the time, so it was pretty easy to get it out of my head.”
McIlroy also was very appreciative of the roars returning to golf as he struggled to play in the silence of the COVID-19 world. After he finished play on the 18th hole, he was serenaded with loud chants of “Rory, Rory, Rory.”
“I thought I’d like the peace and quiet when we returned, but I missed the crowds,” he said. “I feed off the energy so much. I’m certainly glad that the crowds were back and I’m glad that I was able to get the job done in an atmosphere like that today.”
Ancer came charging with a finalround 66. Overnight leader Keith Mitchell (72) and Viktor Hovland (67) finished two shots back to share third. Gary Woodland (71), who said he hit rock bottom last week in the Valspar Championship due to issues with his hip, was fifth.
Bryson DeChambeau, who flew to his home in Dallas on Friday after thinking he missed the cut, instead jetted back east after making the cut on the number and shot 68-68 on the weekend to move into a tie for ninth place.
McIlroy, who turned 32 on Tuesday, hadn’t made it to the weekend in his last three starts, including the Masters and Players Championship. His struggles since the tour returned to play last June after a 13-week break due to the pandemic – he had just six top-10 finishes in 21 starts – had dropped him to 15th in the official world rankings – his worst rank since 2009.
Playing in the final pairing for the first time since the 2020 Genesis Invitational, McIlroy started the day two shots behind Mitchell, who birdied the first hole.
But McIlroy birdied the third and grabbed a share of the lead with a birdie on the seventh. He grabbed the outright lead with a birdie on the 14th and went up two with a birdie on the 15th.
McIlroy’s affinity for Quail Hollow continues to grow. This is the first tournament he’s won three times. McIlroy won his first PGA Tour title here in 2010, added another in 2015, lost in a playoff in 2012 and had four other top-10s in nine starts heading into this week.
“This place has been good to me,” he said. “I loved it from the first time I played it, and that love has sort of been reciprocated back.”