CHARLOTTE, N.C. – So much for the season Grand Slam or a title defense at the PGA Championship.
Rory McIlroy closed with a final-round 1-over 72 at Quail Hollow Club for a 72-hole total of 3-over 287 and Xander Schauffele (68) wasn’t much better in his attempt to repeat at the PGA.
McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam last month with his dramatic sudden-death playoff victory at the Masters, had a forgettable week. It was probably too much to ask for McIlroy to become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two legs of the Grand Slam. But at a course dubbed Rory McIlroy Country Club by Spieth for McIlroy’s four career wins at Quail Hollow, we expected more and not for McIlroy’s week to be the giant dud that it was.
It has been reported that McIlroy’s driver failed testing and he was forced to use a backup head. McIlroy hit just four fairways in the first round and ranked T152 through 36 holes. He was slightly better on the weekend but the Tour’s top-ranked driver of the ball hit the short grass on only 26 of 56 tee shots or less than half of the time.
McIlroy declined to speak to the media on Sunday for the fourth straight day and has refused to confirm if the reason he changed his driver to a backup model was due to it being declared non-conforming. But the fact remains that the rest of his game wasn’t much better. He ranked 65th out of 74 players in the field to make the cut in Strokes Gained: Approach, losing more than two strokes, and 69th in proximity. He lost more than two strokes to the field on the greens in the first round and the only part of his game that bailed him out was his short game (11th for the week).
The burden lifted of the career Grand Slam and his nearly 11-year winless streak didn’t pay immediate dividends but no matter – whatever McIlroy does from here is gravy.
McIlroy is expected to compete next at the Memorial, a signature event at Jack’s Place at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio, in two weeks. So, too, is Schauffele, last year’s PGA champion, who was never a factor this week either. But he rallied on Sunday to shoot 3-under 68 and finish in red figures at 1-under 283.
“The goal was to try to backdoor a top 10. I’m still in need of points. So that was my motivation today,” said Schauffele, who was 5 under for the day until rinsing his second shot at 16 and making double. “That one was on me. No mud on that ball unfortunately.”
Schauffele, who opened with 1-over 72, ranked second in the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, but his approach game wasn’t sharp and his short game let him down – 3 of 11 in sand saves. Schauffele said he’s encouraged by how he finished.
“I’d like to keep it going. If we had four more days stacked up right now, I feel like I’d have a pretty good chance. Just kind of was in better form, and then I had a few things go awry in my swing and made my approach pretty bad. Just kind of lost control of the golf ball there midweek, unfortunately,” he said. “I shot 3-under and felt like I probably left three or four shots out there pretty easily. That’s kind of how it goes.”
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