Rory McIlroy has encouraging showing at Truist Championship ahead of return to Quail Hollow

FLOURTOWN, Pa. – Despite a hectic post-Masters schedule and difficulties finding fairways over the final two rounds of the Truist Championship, Rory McIlroy posted an encouraging top-10 finish in his final start before the PGA Championship.

McIlroy already has won three times this year, including THE PLAYERS and the year’s first major, the Masters. Now he heads to another major at the course where he’s had the most success of his professional career, the Quail Hollow Club, which has been the venue for four of his PGA TOUR victories. Quail Hollow was the site of his first PGA TOUR win in 2010, and where he won last year’s Truist Championship.

McIlroy combined to hit just eight fairways over the final two rounds at Philadelphia Cricket Club this week, but finished T7 in the Signature Event. After a double-bogey and bogey near the midpoint of Saturday’s third round severely hampered his chances of winning, McIlroy was bogey-free over the final 27 holes. He finished at 10-under 270, six shots behind winner Sepp Straka, after a final-round 68.

“I think I'm in a good place,” McIlroy said. “I didn't feel like I played all that well this week, I still finished seventh. Even my – what I feel is my bad golf, I'm still there or thereabouts.

“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.”

Straka, who joined McIlroy as the only multiple winners this season, moved to No. 2 in the FedExCup, but McIlroy still leads by more than 500 points thanks to his five top 10s in seven individual starts this season. His T7 this week is his worst finish in his past four individual events, a span that includes two wins.

“This week was a great indication of where my game is and what I need to think about and what I need to work on going into next week,” McIlroy said.

He still finished second in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee this week despite hitting less than half his fairways. Only three players hit fewer fairways than McIlroy’s 23 this week. He was still fourth in greens hit, however. He hit 58 of 72, including 17 in the final round.

The Truist was his first individual start since completing the career Grand Slam at the Masters one month ago. Since his victory at Augusta National, McIlroy has visited his childhood home in Northern Ireland and done a media tour in New York City. His only competitive reps over those four weeks came in his title defense alongside Shane Lowry in the only team event of the PGA TOUR season, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

McIlroy’s first two rounds were hampered by what he called “uncharacteristic mistakes,” including two three-putts and a bogey on a par 5 after being greenside in two. Though “uncharacteristic,” they were not necessarily unexpected considering his post-Masters schedule. Over the final two rounds, he had trouble finding fairways, though he did hit five of his final eight. He attributed his lack of accuracy off the tee to the lack of trees surrounding the fairways of the renovated Philadelphia Cricket Club, which left him with a lack of definition around his targets.

“I think I would have hit more fairways if it had been tree-lined,” he said. “Overall, I felt like I got a little better as the week went on. … I wish I'd made a few more birdies. I've got a better gauge of where my game is standing here right now than I did at the start of the week. It was a good week for that.

“I wish I had gotten myself into contention a little bit more, but it was a good week, especially looking ahead to next week.”