Rory McIlroy was the betting co-favorite (5-1) along with Scottie Scheffler coming into the 2025 PGA Championship as the Masters champion shed the burden of his career grand slam chase and has long dominated at Quail Hollow Club. However, the man who has won four times in PGA Tour competition at Quail Hollow did not play to his normal standard on Thursday, shooting a 3-over 74 to sit T92 at the time he signed his card.
McIlroy, rather shockingly, struggled off the tee in his first round hitting just four of 14 fairways and fighting a left miss with the driver for much of the day. On a course he usually dominates due to his distance, he found himself having to play from the rough and out of position constantly, and he could not scramble his way to scores, putting just two birdies on his card all day.
His worst hole came on the difficult par-4 16th, hooking his tee shot into the penalty area left with a rather shocking miss with driver. From there, his foot slipped as he tried to hit back into the fairway, and he barely advanced the ball into the rough on the hill above the penalty area, leaving more than 200 yards in for his third. He hung that right and could not get up and down, recording his first double bogey at Quail Hollow since 2010.
After making the turn to the front nine (his second nine), McIlroy saw playing partners Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele right their ships a bit, as Scheffler closed strong to shoot 69 (-2) and Schauffele got one shot back to post 72 (+1). McIlroy, however, couldn’t match their second side rally with bookend bogeys on the first and ninth to post 74 (+3). That is McIlroy’s fourth-worst round all time at Quail Hollow and his worst since a 76 in the second round of the 2018 Wells Fargo.
With the clubhouse leaders at 4 under and the leader on the course at -6, McIlroy isn’t completely out of it; as you’ll recall, he was seven shots back of Justin Rose after the first round at the Masters. That said, McIlroy’s slow start at Augusta National was the byproduct of a pair of blowup holes and otherwise strong play. This time, McIlroy looks out of sorts with his swing.
His driver is all over the place, and he doesn’t seem comfortable off of the tee. Even when he did find a rare fairway, he didn’t often pay it off with a great approach. His best drive of the day came on the first when he cut one over the corner to leave less than 180 yards from the fairway and blocked a mid-iron into the right bunker. He couldn’t get up-and-down for par.
While he waits for the afternoon wave to determine exactly how far back he sits after the first round, McIlroy clearly has some work to do on his swing. The good news is no player has scored better at Quail Hollow historically than he has, and if there were ever a course he could turn around a disastrous start to get in the mix by Sunday, it’s this one. The bad news is he didn’t look particularly close to figuring it out during his round and will need to crack the code in the next 24 hours before he tees off for his second round on Friday afternoon.