At PGA, Quail Hollow's challenge remains the same: Hit it like Rory

NBC Sports

14-05-2025

No matter how thick the rough grows.
No matter how long they run the SubAir.
No matter how many tickets are sold or chalets placed around the property, which has been stretched out to 7,626 yards for this 107th PGA Championship.
To Rory McIlroy, Quail Hollow Club is still Quail Hollow Club, the annual PGA Tour stop where he's won four times, including last year's five-stroke romp at the Truist Championship.
'I thought it was going to feel different just because it was a major championship, and I got out on the golf course yesterday, and it felt no different than last year at the Wells Fargo,' said McIlroy, so familiar with Quail that he refers to the Truist by its previous name.
'The rough is maybe a little juicier. But fairways are still the same cut lines and same visuals. It doesn't feel that much different.'
The test that Quail demands remains simple though hard to master if one doesn't possess the proper gears. McIlroy is supercharged under the hood, ranking third on the PGA Tour in driving distance, second-best in this field behind Niklas Norgaard, and first in strokes gained off the tee, ahead of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. That helps explain why he's been impervious to Quail's defenses, carrying bunkers with mammoth drives and giving himself plenty of wedges and short irons around this property, nearly 200 yards longer than it was last year.
'I would argue he's the best driver of the ball I've ever seen, and that is extremely important here,' said Justin Thomas, the winner the last time the PGA came to Quail, in 2017 (McIlroy tied for 22nd that week, though that was a year in which he went winless for the first time in his pro career and struck out mightily in the playoffs).
'I think his shot shape, I think this golf course fits a high draw really, really well,' Thomas continued. 'There's a lot of tee shots, whether it's holding fairways or fitting doglegs, taking bunkers out of play, whatever it is. When he's on, he has such control of that driver, it seems like he can hit it in a window and an area that some guys are trying to hit short irons. That's a tremendous advantage or threat at any golf course, but I feel like a place like this, where it doesn't necessarily require a lot of thought or strategy off the tee, it's generally pulling out driver and just I need to hit this as far and straight as possible, and he's really, really good at that.'
Scheffler, the betting favorite over McIlroy according to some oddsmakers, echoed that thought: 'On this golf course, with it being so big, it's a little bit easier just to step on the tee box and pretty much every hole is a driver. Outside of that off the tee, there's not really a bunch of strategy stuff you can do.'
And Bryson DeChambeau, another big basher: 'Considering the wetness and everything, I'm just going to go out to the driving range and use the Foresight to see how far the golf ball goes.'
Options are indeed scare at Quail, especially tee to green. Unlike those classic U.S. Open venues or even last week's Truist substitute Philadelphia Cricket Club, where undulating greens and mounding negated much of the fact that the Tillinghast design measured just over 7,100 yards, angles are mostly an afterthought. As Lucas Glover said in an interview a few days ago, everyone, for the most part, will be hitting it to the same spots around Quail.
Because of that, there's probably little that Kerry Haigh, the PGA's chief championships officer, can do to drastically alter the monotony that is Quail. Haigh was asked what the setup team was trying to accomplish this week in terms of setting up the golf course, which has undergone some recent work that has added several new tees, removed some 100 trees and softened 12 greens while resurfacing all of them. It's not a great sign when Johnson Wagner, a former Tour pro turned Golf Channel analyst and a longtime Quail member, says, 'We haven't necessarily made the golf course better when we've made the changes.'
It's not encouraging either that Haigh started with the company line: 'Every PGA Championship, we challenge all of our staff to make this one the greatest championship we've ever held.'
Thankfully, the reporter interjected: 'By doing what?'
'Making it so that you, the media, enjoy it, the players enjoy it, the caddies enjoy it, spectators enjoy it, and the TV viewers enjoy it,' responded Haigh, still missing the point.
A third try followed: 'I need to be more clear. I wasn't talking about our parking. I was thinking more about the golf course. Exactly what kind of test are you trying to present, and how do you go about it?'
Haigh mentioned the overseed, a change from eight years ago when this championship was played in August on a freshly redesigned Quail with four drastically different holes and wall-to-wall Bermudagrass. He added that the rough, cut to 2¾ inches on Saturday, likely won't be cut again this week – and with several inches of rain having fallen already, mowing elsewhere will be limited until things dry up. Despite the weather challenges, Quail remains pristinely manicured.
'It's a beautiful golf course,' Haigh said. 'It's a great challenge. We try and set the rough up so that players can play, but there's a penalty if you do go in there. Set it up, the tees, and there's some wonderful short par-4s that you have opportunity, some long par-3s, and that is what setting up a golf course is. There are so many aspects to it. Let's try and bring out the very best in all of those on a magnificent golf course.'
Longer holes and firm, new greens with less slope?
Over and over again?
To be fair, that will likely get us a highly ranked champion, whether it be McIlroy, Scheffler or another superstar, maybe every single one of them, who can launch driver, hit towering irons and do so with less club, all prerequisites for success in this modern game. No wonder many top Tour pros have loved Quail's transformation from the quirky, rye-bent test it used to be a decade ago.
'There's a number of great golf courses that we play, and this is one of them,' Jordan Spieth said. 'There's no faking it.'
When Thomas won here in 2017, he led the field in driving distance, but he was also fourth in strokes gained putting. Francesco Molinari, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen, none of whom will be confused with prime John Daly, tied for second while Kevin Kisner, the guy who said he has absolutely no chance at Torrey Pines, held the 54-hole lead. Then there's last year, where McIlroy raced past skilled drivers Schauffele and Ben An, but also where rollers Denny McCarthy and Mac Hughes tied for sixth.
Sure, anybody has the potential to contend if they absolutely bring it. But over the course of 72 holes, Quail will eventually wear most players down by brute force. Major pressure will do the rest of the work in whittling down this field to just a handful of powerful guys.
'It's just long,' Viktor Hovland said when asked why Quail's 'Green Mile,' also known as Nos. 16-18, is so difficult. '… This course doesn't allow you to hide.'
Unless, of course, you hit it like Rory or Scottie or Bryson, then you could run away like McIlroy did last year.
The only difference this time is the winner will receive the Wanamaker.