By Frank Pingue
HT Picture
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, – 5 storylines to comply with as one of the best gamers on the planet descend upon Quail Hole Membership in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week for the Could 15-18 PGA Championship.
MCILROY ENCORE?
Rory McIlroy arrives at Quail Hole as a scorching favorite after lastly securing the profession Grand Slam of golf’s 4 majors along with his playoff win on the Masters in April.
The Northern Irishman will now flip his consideration to capturing the second leg of a calendar-year Grand Slam and can like his possibilities at Quail Hole, the place he has loved extra success than some other participant.
McIlroy received a file fourth Wells Fargo Championship final yr at Quail Hole with a dominant efficiency that noticed him earn a five-stroke victory.
– –
SPIETH’S GRAND SLAM BID
Simply over a month after McIlroy turned the sixth participant to finish the profession Grand Slam, and first since Tiger Woods in 2000, Jordan Spieth will make his ninth try at becoming a member of golf’s most unique membership.
Looking for his first win on the PGA Tour since incomes his thirteenth in April 2022, Spieth arrives on the yr’s second main with three top-10 finishes in 11 occasions this season, and a share of 14th eventually month’s Masters.
If Spieth can triumph on the PGA Championship, the place his greatest result’s a runner-up end in 2015, he would be part of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Participant, Jack Nicklaus, Woods and McIlroy as the one males to win all 4 majors.
– –
DEFENDING CHAMPION SCHAUFFELE
Xander Schauffele birdied the ultimate gap eventually yr’s PGA Championship at Valhalla to safe his first main title and is aiming to change into the occasion’s first repeat winner since Brooks Koepka in 2019.
Schauffele, who went on to win the British Open three months later, misplaced about two months of competitors this yr as a result of a rib damage suffered in the course of the offseason however has proven no ailing results since his return.
The 31-year-old American completed tied for eighth on the Masters and will probably be desirous to get again to Quail Hole the place final yr he led after every of the primary three rounds however was unable to fend off McIlroy on the ultimate day.
– –
JUST-IN TIME
Justin Thomas ended a three-year victory drought final month and completed tied for second in Philadelphia on Sunday, and the previous world primary will probably be stuffed with confidence forward of his return to the location of his main breakthrough in 2017.
The PGA Championship was held at Quail Hole for the primary time that yr and Thomas picked up the title with a closing three-under-par 68 that noticed him chip in from 40 ft for birdie on the thirteenth gap to grab management.
Thomas received a second PGA Championship title in 2022 however his type bottomed out in 2023 and he went with no win till profitable this yr’s RBC Heritage in a playoff.
– –
THE GREEN MILE
The final three holes at Quail Hole the unforgiving ‘Inexperienced Mile’ == type one of the crucial troublesome ending stretches in golf.
The white-knuckle, water-lined stretch calls for each precision and poise with a lake surrounding the par-four sixteenth and par-three seventeenth holes, whereas a creek winds all alongside the left facet of the closing par-four 18th.
The final time the PGA Championship was final held at Quail Hole in 2017 the treacherous Inexperienced Mile accounted for 12 triple-bogeys or worse, matching the identical quantity that was made on holes 1-15.