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Ro-ry! Ro-ry! The echoes rang out from Quail Hollow.
The Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte had the right sounds due to the guy who was causing them, its adopted son.
Northern Irishman, and now Florida resident, Rory McIlroy, thrilled the crowd with his eight-under-par stretch over eight holes to run away from Xander Schauffele, the fourth-ranked player in the world, to win his fourth Wells Fargo title as one of the stand-up and honest guys left in professional golf.
McIlroy, 35, and currently the No. 2 player in the world, has endeared himself to the traditions of golf while pushing for improved members’ benefits to the staid old PGA Tour.
While old heads like Phil Mickelson and young guns like Brooks Koepka, fled for the money offered by the controversial Saudi-backed LIV tour, McIlroy stayed true to the tour that made him famous, bursting onto the scene in 2010 at 21 and winning more than a dozen tourneys, big and not so big, in his first seven years. When the tours announced a merger in 2023, McILroy said he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” and said he still hates LIV golf and hopes it goes away.
He will also be a strong favorite of the galleries in Louisville to also win his third Wanamaker Trophy at the PGA championship at Valhalla this weekend. That winning purse will be $4million, compared to the $3.6 million McIlroy earned at Quail Hollow that shot him to the top of the FedEx Cup standings, the sport’s professional championship at the end of the season.
Rory is a fierce competitor but keeps his emotions in check most of the time and has become a hero that the PGA tour needs with quiet winners like Americans Schauffele and the world’s No. 1 player, Scottie Scheffler. He has had his moments at a younger age, tossing a club into the water at one event and apologizing for it afterward.
“The support I get here is just tremendous,” Rory said, slightly embarrassed by hitting it into the water over the 18th green for a double bogey that still allowed him to shoot 65, the lowest round of the day in the five-shot victory, the second time he has won in Charlotte on Mother’s Day. He said afterward that he is a mixture of his mother’s gentle nature and father’s fiery personality.
Standing even par after 7 holes on the final round, McIlroy played the next eight holes in eight-under par, which included eagle 3s on the two par 5s.
Though he lives in the U.S., Rory continues to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup and several other tournaments against his American tour mates, including playing for Ireland in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Carlson
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
