Our man Matt Cleary tipped him to win the Masters, and he's tipping him to win the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, too. Rory McIlroy has no more monkey on his back, is in the prime of a stellar, generational playing career, and, in the parlance of the great Australian mug-punter, is in ridiculous form.
The Tip
Champion at Augusta National in the Masters Invitational. Champion at Pebble Beach in the AT&T Pro-Am. Champion in The Players at TPC Sawgrass.
Around that he ran T4 in the Dubai Desert Classic; T17 in the Genesis Open; T15 in the Arnold Palmer Invitational. His most recent go-round, in the "signature", no-cut, where'd-they-get-that-idea Truist Championship at the Philadelphia Cricket Club - and isn't that a heck of a name for a golf club - he was T7 following rounds of 66-67-69-68 while decrying his game as "rusty".
And it's clear that, entering this 107th PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy is smokin'.
Yet one of the great golden bricks in the vault of the heavily armoured Brinks van carrying McIlroy’s hopes of 2025 U.S PGA Championship at Quail Hollow glory is this: Quail Hollow.
McIlroy has played 14 Wells Fargo Championships at Quail Hollow for four wins, six top-5s, nine top-10s. His first win on the PGA Tour happened at Quail Hollow in 2010, have a go a the photo below, he could be 14.
He’s only missed the cut at Quail once, in 2011, the year they bumped off bin Laden. Coincidence. Yes, it is.
Smashing driver, as he does, with such power and accuracy, will give McIlroy an advantage over most in the field. It’s only part of the golfer’s makeup, of course, but hitting wedge into greens will always be better than 8-iron.
You’d have to suggest he’s prime now, mentally and emotionally, now that the great, slavering baboon is off his back following that famous win at Augusta.
And sure, as they'd say in Holywood, isn't it nice to envisage him picking outfits in his wardrobe each morning, flicking through the coat-hangers, shirt, shirt, shirt, green jacket, shirt, shirt...
RIGHT: Rory McIlroy's love affair with Quail Hollow begins with victory in the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship. PHOTO: Getty Images
Whatever he wears, McIlroy is in the form of his already storied career. He hits the long and lush fairways and he hits receptive greens, and holes a share of putts, he just up and wins.
Top Aussie
Jason Day’s 2025 form has been, alternately, quite good, very good, incapable of setting alight a bonfire of his distinctive clothing range.
And yet, we like him here (particularly at $81) because, like McIlroy, he has known fine relations with the golf course.
Day won the 2018 Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow and was T4 there in 2024 (behind McIlroy). It's also where he debuted his Malbon clothing range of baggy cream kit.
At the Arnold Palmer this year, a second-round 64 saw Day right in the mix heading into Sunday before fading to T8. He made the cut and played solidly in tough conditions at Torrey Pines in the Genesis. And he shot 70-69-68-69 at Pebble Beach for 12-under, nine shots behind McIlroy.
Day pulled out of The Players before heading to Augusta and beginning the final round of the Masters seven shots behind the leader (McIlroy) and in the same group as Justin Rose whose 66 got him in the play-off.
After completing 14 holes in that final round, McIlroy was 10-under, Rose 9-under, Day 7-under. Day would finish 5-under and can thus lament missed opportunities for birdie on the par-5s at 13 and 15, and finishing bogey-bogey for an even par round and rounding out his week 70-70-71-72. Muscle memory to draw from and further learnings, if you will, if nothing else.
Day has reunited with his old mate and mentor, Col Swatton, his back appears to be giving him no gip, and, at the age of 37, he remains in a very good spot for an elite golfer with a heady mix of athleticism, strength, smarts and the context of life that comes from fathering five children.
The Usual Suspects
Where to start with the cavalcade of American Excellence which will be lining up to contest their nation’s PGA Championship.
Begin with the studs, the big dogs, the one-name, signature guys: Scottie, Bryson, Xander, Brooks. Throw in Collin. Throw in Pat Cantlay. Jordan Spieth is on a charge to the career Grand Slam. Will Zalatoris is just getting going. The well of American golf talent runs deeper than any place else.
You could list chances all day and leave 20 out: Keegan Bradley, Tony Finau, Cameron Young. Patrick Reed ran third in the Masters and was T2 in the 2017 PGA Championship - at Quail Hollow. Rickie Fowler was a shot back that year in T5. The winner? Justin Thomas.
Of the “international” contingent this year there’s John Rahm, Ludvig Åberg, our own Cameron Smith. Joaquin Niemann is owning LIV Golf. Hideki Matsuyama shot 65-72-63-73 at the Truist, the exact numbers as Tommy Fleetwood. Tyrell Hatton has to win one day. Sepp Straka just did, he won said Truist from Shane Lowry.
Viktor Hovland was T21 in the Masters while his victory at the Valspar Championship in March followed a string of missed cuts and an otherwise downward-facing dog of a 2025 for the Norwegian specimen.
The Roughie
There’s no sugar-coating it. Until his T12 in the Masters at Augusta National, Max Homa had been going like a ground-dwelling Australian Bustard.
Following a T3 at Augusta in 2024 (seven shots behind Scheffler) Homa suffered a succession of 70ths, T58s and a whole mess of missed cuts.
So he changed: equipment, coach, clothing brand. His caddie went on personal leave. And still Homa missed cuts. His 79-71 at The Players left him a blubbering mess.
Yet there’s light and hope for the player beloved of the podcast bros. Homa has cut down on social media and is harder for journalists to find. And he’s out there, still, grinding, digging it out of the dirt, trying to find whatever “it” is and recreate the golfer who won six times on the PGA Tour and was a Presidents Cup hero.
And here’s the thing. A thing, anyway. Homa has twice won at Quail Hollow, in the 2019 and 2022 Wells Fargo Championships. On his Presidents Cup debut in 2022, at the same course, he won all three of his pairs matches and stormed over the top of Tom Kim to win his last-day singles.
Hard as he’s working, you suspect Homa’s time will come, and soon. You can work and fight and will yourself way out of a slump. And writhing around in good and still-fresh memories of success wouldn’t be the worst place to capitalise on the rebuilding of Max Homa.
Whether it all bears fruit in time for the 2025 U.S PGA Championship on May 15-18, remains to be seen. For all his optimism – and the relatively good showing at Augusta was a fillip - The Players was his fourth straight missed cut.
Yet the man remains nothing if not resolute. At TPC Sawgrass, tears welling in his eyes, Homa told PGA Tour writer Paul Hodowanic: “If my kid was going through this, and he was working this hard, I would be proud of him.
“So, I’m … [pause] … proud of myself.”
The Homa backers will be proud, too, if he gets up at 200-1.
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