MAJOR BOOST FOR McILROY
RORY PUTS HIS NECK ON THE LINE TO END DROUGHT
RORY McILROY will seek a third US PGA Championship title with renewed confidence following the ‘validation’ of unexpectedly completing a hat-trick of victories in the Wells Fargo Championship.
McIlroy arrived at Quail Hollow ranked 15th in the world, his lowest position since November 2009, and on the back of a missed cut in the Masters.
The 32-year-old almost withdrew with a neck injury but survived a final-hole scare to card a closing 68 to claim his first victory for 19 months by one shot.
McIlroy’s 19th PGA Tour title lifted him to seventh in the world just ten days before the year’s second major at another of his happy hunting grounds.
The US PGA Championship is being staged at Kiawah Island for the first time since McIlroy romped to an eightshot win there in 2012 and he was quickly made favourite to claim a fifth major title and first since 2014.
‘This victory is very important going into Kiawah,’ admitted McIlroy, who recently added Pete Cowen to his coaching team in a bid to rediscover his form.
‘I played really well there last time. I’m honestly not sure whether they’ve made any changes to the golf course since, but I’ll do my homework and re-familiarise myself with the layout a little bit.
‘It’s great timing. I’ll be able to poke holes in everything that I did today, it’s certainly far from perfect but this one is validation that I’m on the right track.’
McIlroy would not even have teed off at Quail Hollow had he been handed an early start time on Thursday after suffering a neck injury in the week. ‘I had done a really good practice session on the range,’ he said. ‘I hit a three-iron, flushed it and I turned back to talk to
Harry (Diamond, his caddie) and as I turned, my left side of my neck completely locked up and couldn’t move it.
‘I iced it but woke up Thursday and didn’t have much movement. If I had been playing Thursday morning, I probably would have pulled out, but I had enough time to get treatment, get it loosened up.
‘It was still bothering me on Thursday afternoon. People probably saw the tape on my neck but it sort of loosened up as the week went on.
‘It’s so cool to be able to win here again and see some of the hard work that I’ve put in over the past couple of months finally start to pay off.’
I
If I had been playing on Thursday morning I would probably have pulled out