Are stars aligned for Rory McIlroy at PGA Championship?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Rory McIlroy shook his head, dumbfounded at where the years had gone as he was welcomed back for his 17th PGA Championship during Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference.

Seventeen years. McIlroy’s lived multiple lifetimes in that span, filled with incredibly public moments of agony, jubilation, relief and hardship. His memory is cavernous. Those moments can return to the top of his mind in an instant. It’s a blessing during the best of times and maddening during the worst. Around Quail Hollow Club, though, those memories are almost all euphoric – and they’re easily accessible.

McIlroy’s first trip to what would become one of his favorite courses in all of golf came in 2010. He remembers it all.

McIlroy remembers that he wasn’t even supposed to play, advised by doctors to rest a nagging back injury. He remembers coming anyway, egged on by an incredible round at Royal Portrush the week prior. He remembers who he played with each day, that he needed to go 2-under in his final three holes to make the cut on Friday, and that he spent Saturday night at Del Frisco’s down the road watching a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley into the wee hours of Sunday morning. He easily recalls the consequential shots in that final round, spurred by a birdie on the 11th that jumpstarted a torrid, “My time is now” back-nine 30 to win his first PGA TOUR title.

And now he’s back. Back again. Different but the same. He loves Quail Hollow as much, if not more than he did as that 20-year-old. He’s won three more titles here, including last year’s Truist Championship. Outside of Augusta National, it’s his favorite annual stop on TOUR. It carries the weight of a major championship this time and McIlroy is, for good reason, the favorite.

He’s played better than any other golfer in 2025 and better at this particular golf course than any player has played at one course in this generation. McIlroy’s scoring average of 69.48 around Quail Hollow is nearly a full shot better than anyone else. He’s amassed nine top 10s and only one missed cut in 13 starts at this venue.

If the momentum feels overwhelming, it is. Every indicator points to it being McIlroy’s week amidst what has been McIlroy’s year. The stars are aligned. Will it happen?

“If I can just try to get the best out of myself each and every week, I know what my abilities are,” McIlroy said. “I know the golf that I can play. And if I keep turning up and just trying to do that each and every week, especially in these four big ones a year, I know that I'll have my chances.”

There’s an alternate reality where this week felt like a trap, a referendum on the last decade of McIlroy’s career. Had McIlroy not won the Masters, all the Quail Hollow course-fit indicators would have remained the same. The early week rain, further prioritizing long hitters with a high ball flight, would have added fuel to the fire. His form still would’ve been among, if not the best, on the planet. The PGA of America would have been right to replace one of its digital leaderboards with an obnoxious flashing sign that read, “This is McIlroy’s to lose.”

It all would’ve been a burden. Instead of the stars cosmically aligning for the best possible run at the calendar Grand Slam since Jordan Spieth in 2015, it would have represented another cruel carrot that McIlroy appeared close to snatching, even if everyone watching was prepared to wince when he wiffed. If McIlroy can’t end the drought here, can we ever expect him to do it anywhere?

That potential reality was squashed by McIlroy’s resilient Sunday in April at Augusta National, eliminating any existential dread for the rest of his career–or at least for a couple of years. McIlroy’s legacy is secure with the career Grand Slam in hand and his major drought over.

“I keep saying to him, no matter what he does now, it doesn't matter,” Shane Lowry said last week.

McIlroy pretty much confirmed that’s his thinking.

“I've done everything I've wanted to do in the game,” he said Wednesday. “I dreamed as a child of becoming the best player in the world and winning all the majors. I've done that. Everything beyond this, for however long I decide to play the game competitively, is a bonus.”

There are two paths now for McIlroy, each with distinct possibilities. The en vogue line of thinking is that a freed-up McIlroy is a dangerous one. Without the overwhelming burden of trying to crest the major championship mountain for the first time in a decade-plus, he can simply maintain his current form without any of the mental inhibitions. What plagued him down the stretch at the Masters was all mental, “the hardest round” of golf in his life. The puzzling wedge at the 13th that found the water and brought the field back into the tournament. The missed short putts at 15, 16 and 18. They were mental mistakes first.

Is it that straightforward? McIlroy has spoken at length about the youthful ignorance that powered his first four majors. There was nothing to worry about then, nor much scar tissue to overcome. Is his Masters victory enough to wipe away those wounds? Most say yes.

“Oh, he’s dangerous,” said Austin Kaiser, who saw up close what an unburdened golfer can achieve as the caddie to Xander Schauffele, who picked off two majors in 2024. “Now, it’s just how many will Rory rack up at this point?”

There’s still another path, even if it defies conventional wisdom and popular thinking. McIlroy spent the last decade trying to end his major championship drought, with a specific focus on Augusta National and the career Grand Slam. With that box checked, could McIlroy take his foot off the gas? It’s in keeping with the general human condition. Once you’ve reached the mountain top, where else is there to go?

“It’s all he talks about, it’s all he thinks about,” Lowry said just moments after McIlroy won the Masters in April. “Always said to me that he’d retire a happy man if he won the green jacket. So I told Erica, ‘He can retire now.’”

McIlroy’s makeup doesn’t suggest that’s the likely outcome. He’s a history buff keen on putting his name in the echelon of the all-time greats. That’s what made the career Grand Slam so hard to achieve. He knew what it would mean. He also knows what each successive major would do to his legacy.

But he also knows what making the Masters his North Star did to his psyche and how it seeped into his physical performance and dominated the last decade of his life. He won’t do that again.

“I want to enjoy what I've achieved, and I want to enjoy the last decade or whatever of my career, and I don't want to burden myself by numbers or statistics,” McIlroy said. “I just want to go and try to play the best golf I can.”

If he plays to his best capabilities at Quail Hollow this week, it’s almost a certainty that major No. 6 is headed home with him.