The PGA at Quail: Rory, Spieth and lightning

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s the course where Rory McIlroy has won four times. The course where Jordan Spieth has yet another chance for the Slam.

It’s Quail Hollow Club, in the woods outside Charlotte, and while there may not be any quail around, but on Tuesday, two days before the 107th PGA Championship, there certainly was an alarming thunderstorm.

Players scattered from practice rounds, which eventually were cancelled, and lightning struck one of the tournament support trailers, briefly knocking out communications.

Scottie Scheffler, number one in the world rankings, made it through with little more than wet shoes, but he did mention that play this week may be affected by an all too typical Southeast Spring. 

“The golf course is going to play really long,” said Scheffler. “This may be more of a 5-wood week just because the golf course is going to play really long, the rough is thick, and the run-up areas after this kind of rain are going to be really soft, and the greens are still going to be really firm because they’re new.” 

Which is why, perhaps, all of the major golf championships held in the United States should be played in California, where exactly the 2028 PGA Championship will be held, at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.

For so long, we kept wondering if McIlroy would get the Masters and complete his own slam, which he did in April after a gap of 10 years. Now Spieth, who has wins in the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open, again attempts to become the seventh golfer to ever win all of the big four. A victory in the 2017 British—or, if you prefer, The Open Championship—was his third major. And with Rory having reached his goal, the focus turns to Jordan.

“It’s funny, I think,” said Spieth. “If Rory didn’t win (the Masters), then it wouldn’t have been a storyline for me here necessarily. I mean, it’s always a storyline if I work my way in, but at least ahead of time, I just feel like I’ve been asked about it more than other years.” 

Of course, you think journalists aren’t aware of the possibility? 

“For me,”  Spieth added, “if I could only win one tournament for the rest of my life, I’d pick this one for that reason. 

If McIlroy could only play one tournament, it probably would be at Quail, whatever the event was called. He may be from Northern Ireland, but nobody has performed as consistently as McIlroy at this course in North Carolina.

“They ought to call it the Rory McIlroy Country Club,” said Spieth.

McIlroy set the Quail Hollow record with a 61 when winning in 2015. He is a combined 102-under par at a place where his enormous length proves advantageous.  

“Some holes become far easier when you can take the bunkers out of play with your length off the tee,” said Oliver Wilson, who plays on the DP World Tour.

“I think I'm in a good place,” McIlroy said after last week’s Truist Open at Philadelphia. “I didn't feel like I played all that well, but I still finished seventh.”

“A couple little improvements and little tweaks, especially going to a place I love like Quail Hollow, and I feel like I'm in a really good spot.”

Especially if he can avoid the storms.