Mellow McIlroy seeks Major rebirth in return to Valhalla

Ten years after his triumph in Louisville, a more mature world No 2 looks ready to capture elusive fifth win in golf ’s biggest events

Rory McIlroy hasn’t set foot on Valhalla Golf Club since he completed his epic one-shot win over Phil Mickelson in the 2014 PGA Championship and joined Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Bobby Jones and ‘Young’ Tom Morris as just the fifth player to win four Majors at 25 or younger.

It was his second Major win in a row and while almost 10 years have passed since he two-putted from 34 feet in the gathering gloom to win having avoided the possibility of being forced to wait until Monday to hit his final tee shot, he admits he’s a far more mellow individual now at 35 than the 25-year-old who captured his second Wanamaker Trophy in three years in 2014.

Neither Mickelson nor Rickie Fowler, who were playing in the group ahead of McIlroy and Bernd Wiesberger, were best pleased when McIlroy imposed his will and got PGA officials to agree to let him tee off.

“Yeah, I’d say I’m a pretty, you know, non-confrontational person,” he told The Quadrilateral last week. “I’m not a huge fan of conflict, but when push comes to shove, I will. That was one of those times when I needed to sort of assert my will on a situation.

Pushy

“I think if I wasn’t as, I guess, as pushy as I was, I would have had to sleep on that lead and on that tee shot overnight, I just didn’t want to do that. I think the guys up ahead were pretty unhappy with how it all unfolded. I got the result that I was looking for in the end and that’s all that matters (laughs).”

McIlroy believes he’s a more complete player than he was in 2014, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment given the 20 top-10 finishes (10 of them top-fives) he’s recorded in 35 (winless) Major starts since then.

He’s now a husband and father and that’s given him a different perspective on life.

While winning Majors will define his career, he refuses to let his results define him as a person.

“Look, at that point in my life, golf was absolutely everything to me,” he said in that interview. “And I lived and died by every result. It’s a little different today where I’m married, have a child, and after the round, you’re just a father.

“Even at LACC [in the US Open runner-up finish] last year, I go back to the house afterwards and I’m just dad. It’s a different perspective. So I think that’s where I don’t live and die as much by my results or by the day-to-day anymore like I used to.”

With world No 1 Scottie Scheffler and his wife Meredith awaiting the arrival of their first child any day now, McIlroy is the 12/1 second favourite behind the Masters champion to finally clinch that elusive fifth Major win in Louisville this week.

Defending champion Brooks Koepka is seeking his sixth Major win and his fourth Wanamaker Trophy as the 16/1 third favourite alongside LIV Golf ’s Jon Rahm.

Masters runner-up Ludvig Aberg leads the rest of the favourites in a field that will also feature 2008 champion Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry, who has finished fourth, 21st and 12th in his last three PGA Championship starts.

Whether McIlroy’s newfound inner peace will result in an end to his long wait for his fifth Major win this week remains to be seen.

But Valhalla has historically produced three epic Major contests for the PGA since 1996 and given the ingredients, 2024 could well prove yet another memorable occasion.

1996 Mark Brooks beats local hero Kenny Perry

Kentucky-born Perry was the hometown favourite but Brooks, who would go on to lose a US Open play-off to Retief Goosen at Southern Hills in 2001, prevailed in the first PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club.

Aged 35, he capped a dramatic final round by making two birdies inside 20 minutes on the par-five, 540-yard 18th hole, knocking home a five-foot birdie putt in regulation play before converting a four-footer there in the play-off after Perry had struggled to find the green in four. Brooks needed only 104 putts that week, a performance unmatched by a PGA winner until Koepka also had just 104 putts en route to victory at Oak Hill last year.

2000 Tiger outguns junior rival Bob May after epic duel

Tiger Woods had chased Bob May’s

Southern California junior golf records, but they’d never faced each other in competition. That drought ended at Valhalla in 2000, where the Californian went birdie-par-par to win a dramatic three-hole aggregate play-off by a shot.

May shot 66 to Woods’ 67 in the final round as both men covered the back nine in 31. Following his wins in the US Open and The Open, Woods became the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three Major titles in one year and went on to complete the Tiger Slam by winning the Masters the following April.

2014 McIlroy sees the light in the gathering gloom

Rory McIlroy emerged from a four-man race to outlast Phil Mickelson in darkness at Valhalla to capture his second straight Major title, closing with a three-under 68 to become just the fifth player to win four Majors at 25 or younger.

Trailing by three shots heading to the back nine, he eagled the 10th and birdied the 13th and 17th to take a twoshot lead.

Because of a two-hour rain delay, and with darkness falling quickly, it wasn’t certain that McIlroy would be able to finish until he hit his tee shot before Fowler and Mickelson had reached their drives.

McIlroy came within a yard of driving into a hazard right of the fairway and after Mickelson and Fowler failed to make eagle, he found sand with his second and two-putted from 35 feet for par for a one-shot victory over Mickelson on 16-under.

Fowler was third, becoming only the third player, along with Jack Nicklaus and Woods, to have finished in the top five in all four Majors in one calendar year, but the first not to win.