Justin Rose’s caddie Mark Fulcher has made a strong claim about Rory McIlroy after seeing Aronimink ahead of the PGA Championship this week.
McIlroy is understandably one of the overwhelming favourites to win the second major of the year. The Northern Irishman lifted his sixth major title at The Masters last month.
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The 37-year-old appears to be building his schedule around the four biggest events of the year. With that, he only made his first competitive appearance since Augusta National at the Truist Championship this past week.
McIlroy finished just inside the top 20, which is perhaps a disappointment when you consider how good he has been at Quail Hollow over the years.
But it seems that some expect his seventh major win to be just around the corner.
Rory McIlroy tipped to win his seventh major at the PGA Championship
In fact, Rex Hoggard revealed on the Golf Channel Podcast what Justin Rose‘s caddie said to leave him stunned ahead of the PGA Championship as he assessed McIlroy’s performance at the latest signature event on the PGA Tour.
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“I think there was a little bit of rust, and I think that’s fair when you consider two events in seven weeks, he probably wasn’t as sharp as he’d like to be competitively right now. And he admitted as much coming into the round,” he said.
“I think what we saw Friday afternoon was exciting. We talk about what these events bring to the fans, that’s it. When you have a player of that quality that’s in full flight, it was fun on the broadcast because the announcers were excited, the fans were excited. It’s one of those moments that we don’t get that often in golf. And then whatever it is that happens on Saturday, I think a little bit of rust, he had a case of the lefts. When you hear him explain it, and there was something to it. It’s been a left to right wind on the range at Quail Hollow all the week. He was able to fix it, went to the range on Saturday night and had a good finish on Sunday.
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“Looking ahead to next week, Rory went up to Aronimink earlier this week and had a look at the golf course. By all accounts, it’s exactly what he wants.
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“To that point, last night I was going to a very nice establishment for dinner here in Charlotte, and Justin Rose’s caddie Fooch was sitting at the bar and we were talking and I’m like, well, your guy, Justin Rose, he’s won at Aronimink, and I believe he’s finished runner-up there, so he has a heck of a chance on that golf course. He said yes, it should be a great course, he shot the winning score there twice.
“But he said to me, Rory’s winning. And I had to kind of stop, ‘what are you talking about?’ Fooch was up there last week as well. ‘That golf course is absolutely perfect for him’.”
How Aronimink looks set to play into Rory McIlroy’s hands this week
McIlroy has proven across his career that he can win on a number of different tests. While he was known for being almost impossible to keep up with when the course set-up allowed for players to relentlessly attack, he has become much better at grinding out scores.
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McIlroy’s recent record at the US Open is extremely underrated. So it would be naive to rule him out whatever the conditions are like over the coming days.
However, Hoggard suggested that, much like Fulcher, he expects Aronimink to play right into McIlroy’s hands.
“It’s going to be wet, the fairways are wide. I actually interviewed Kerry Haigh, the Chief Championship Officer for the PGA of America. The rough’s not going to be what they want because it’s been a really cold winter up in the Philadelphia area. So what you’re talking about now is, I guess you can call it Congressional when he won the US Open. We can keep going down the list,” he said.
“We know of the courses he’s won. I think that’s jumping ahead a little bit, but certainly you would think that Rory’s thinking ahead. He’s already looked at the golf course. He absolutely has to be thinking to himself, yeah, this is for me, this was built for me.”
McIlroy is looking to become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two majors of the year. Should he manage it, then it will be impossible to ignore talk of a Grand Slam.
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