Rory McIlroy is back playing in his first individual event since winning the Masters in a playoff over Justin Rose in April.
The return to a golf course that has not hosted a PGA Tour event is, to some extent, a preparation for next week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
This week’s Truist Championship is being played at The Philadelphia Cricket Club, a 1922 A.W. Tillinghast design that Keith Foster redesigned it in 2013, focusing on enhancing Tillinghast’s design strategies.
After playing nine holes on Tuesday and another nine on Wednesday, McIlroy’s philosophy on attacking the Wissahickon Course is simple.
“Yeah, you can send it,” McIlroy said about using a driver almost everywhere. “Every bunker seems to be about 300 to 310 to carry, which is thankfully fine. There’s one bunker on nine that’s 331, but it’s down like 10, so it’s 320 equivalent. That’s the longest one to try to get over. In good conditions, I can, if it’s calm or a little bit of help.”
McIlroy considers this week’s course similar to Oak Hill Country Club, where Andrew Green made changes to the Donald Ross masterpiece.
“I go back to Oak Hill a couple years ago at the PGA, and I tried to play the golf course strategically over the first couple of days,” McIlroy said. “And I just realized that these new renovated old school courses, like the strategy is just hit driver everywhere and then figure it out from there. That’s sort of the strategy of this place this week.”
With a send-it philosophy, McIlroy would seem right at home with this week’s tune-up for next week at Quail Hollow and the PGA Championship and using a philosophy that seems to have worked well at Augusta.
“I think, when it was renovated, it probably would have held up to the distances that were being hit, but even now, ten years on, I feel like every par-4 out there is like 430, 440,” McIlroy said of the renovated Philly Cricket course. “They sort of feel like they’re 40 or 50 yards than what they need to be. Still, it’s a cool track to play.”
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