CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Rory McIlroy appeared rested and relaxed as he prepared for his first tournament since repeating as Masters champion.<\/p>\n
Just don\u2019t let that be confused with complacency.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s No. 2-ranked player said he feels \u201cmore motivated\u201d than ever heading into a major stretch that includes the PGA Championship outside Philadelphia and the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. First up though is the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, where McIlroy earned his first PGA Tour victory 16 years ago and has won four times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited for the road ahead,\u201d the six-time major champion said after his Pro-Am round.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than three weeks since McIlroy slipped on the green jacket for a second time after becoming just the fourth player in 90 years to go back-to-back at the Masters.<\/p>\n
He described this year\u2019s post-Masters break from golf as \u201cless hectic\u201d than last year\u2019s whirlwind tour.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old McIlroy spent most of his time at his home in Jupiter, Florida, although he did visit New York with his wife Erica Stoll and attended a White House state dinner held for King Charles III and Queen Camilla.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s what he didn\u2019t do that has left him feeling refreshed.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t travel back home to Northern Ireland to celebrate his Masters win like he did in 2025, largely because his parents already were in the United States to see it in person. They skipped last year\u2019s Masters so as not to jinx their son\u2019s chances of completing the career grand slam after years of disappointment.<\/p>\n
He also didn\u2019t do the media rounds, electing for more \u201cchill\u201d time at home, allowing him to take his daughter Poppy to tennis lessons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave myself a good 10 days to enjoy myself and then thought I needed to get back on the range and start to practice and get ready for this stretch coming up,\u201d McIlroy said.<\/p>\n
The stretch begins with the tune-up at Quail Hollow, a place where McIlroy is adored by fans and often serenaded with the \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d song given the tournament often falls during his birthday.<\/p>\n
He was 20 when he won his first PGA tournament here, earning him immediate popularity in Charlotte.<\/p>\n
In some ways, he\u2019s become the city\u2019s adopted golfer.<\/p>\n
He has won here four times on a course that sets up perfectly to complement his length off the tee, including a dominant seven-shot victory in 2015 in which he established a new tournament record at 21-under 267 after a third-round 61.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really feel like this tournament got my career going,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cThis is 16 years I\u2019ve been coming here, so it\u2019s been a fun place, I\u2019ve had success. It\u2019s somewhere I always love coming back to.\u201d<\/p>\n
He enters as the slight favorite to win (+600) over the red-hot Cameron Young (+850), who won at Doral.<\/p>\n
McIlroy feels good about his chances despite the three-week layoff that included skipping the RBC Heritage and the Cadillac Championship.<\/p>\n
He won the Truist Championship by five shots over c the last time it was played at Quail Hollow in 2024, but surprisingly struggled here at the 2025 PGA Championship, finishing tied for 47th.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlightly different setup than the PGA last year, and slightly different conditions,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cIt\u2019s been very dry here by all accounts, so the greens are very firm. The rough is down a little bit. Sort of more, probably more in keeping with what the golf course was like in 2024, when the tournament was last here. The course is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
McIlroy said returning to action after winning the Masters a second time feels much different than a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like winning the Grand Slam was going to be this life-changing thing and in some ways it was, but in other ways I had to remember like, \u2018No, I still have a lot of my career left and I want to keep playing and keep competing,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo this year I think winning was validation for all the work that I\u2019ve put in over the last few years to get myself back to this place where I\u2019m winning majors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schauffele said it will be a tall task beating McIlroy and moving forward if he plays the way he did at Augusta National.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis best club (driver) was his worst club, and he still won the tournament,\u201d Schauffele said. \u201cThat\u2019s a little scary, obviously, if you\u2019re competing against him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2014 Rory McIlroy appeared rested and relaxed as he prepared for his first tournament since repeating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-628566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}