Busy McIlroy set for Wells Fargo appearance

Looking at the importance of events on Rory McIlroy’s schedule, this appears to be the perfect week for him to take a break.

He has played the past two weeks in a World Golf Championship event and The Players Championship, and in the next two weeks he has the European Tour’s flagship event in the BMW PGA Championship followed by the Irish Open, for which he has week-long duties as the official host.

But the world’s No. 1 player is at Quail Hollow Club this week to participate in the Wells Fargo Championship for the sixth consecutive year. McIlroy’s Wells Fargo win in 2010 with a closing 62 was his first PGA Tour victory.

“It’s just nice being back to Quail Hollow as it will always be a special place for me given it was here in 2010 I won my first PGA Tour event,” McIlroy said.

Because he won the WGC-Cadillac Match Play two weeks ago in San Francisco, McIlroy played the full seven matches in five days before making the cross-country trek to Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., for The Players, where he tied for eighth. And of course he’ll have a long commute to Wentworth Club in Surrey, England at the end of the week.

McIlroy has been deviating from his normal routine between tournaments in an attempt to keep himself fresh. Last week, he flew from San Francisco on Monday and spent Tuesday at his home in Jupiter, Fla., before arriving at TPC Sawgrass late Wednesday morning. This week, he went home for two days before flying to Charlotte on Wednesday morning in advance of his Wednesday afternoon pro-am tee time.

He played 18 holes at The Bear’s Club in Jupiter on Monday and nine on Tuesday.

“It’s been a nice couple of days to be sleeping in my own bed,” said McIlroy, who played in just four events on the 2014-15 PGA Tour wraparound schedule prior to his current hectic stretch. “I find it’s important these days to get back home as often as my schedule will allow and then to be able to fly up here to Charlotte on a Wednesday morning is great because this is the third of five events I will play.

“… So this is a long stretch for me and the more time I can spend like out of the whole scene that goes with being on the tour the better as far as I am concerned.”

In his past three Wells Fargo appearances, McIlroy has lost in a three-man playoff to Rickie Fowler in 2012 and tied for 10th and eighth in the past two years.

If there’s a weakness in McIlroy’s game it’s his putting, as he’s among the game’s best ball-strikers. He holds the top spot in the PGA Tour’s All-Around statistical ranking despite being 105th in strokes gained putting.

McIlroy spent some time on the practice putting green Wednesday with noted putting guru Dave Stockton. “It was nice to have a little conversation with Dave and I always welcome his input, as he gave me a couple of simple things to take into this week’s event,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy headlines a field this week that includes two other players in the top five in the Official World Golf Ranking in No. 3 Henrik Stenson and No. 5 Jim Furyk, as well as nine of the top 20 including Adam Scott (No. 11), defending champion J.B. Holmes (13), Hideki Matsuyama (14), Patrick Reed (15), Phil Mickelson (18) and Bill Haas (20).

The Wells Fargo annually has one of the top fields of the season among regular PGA Tour stops, often with eight or nine of the world’s top 10 players, but its strength of field was affected this year by a one-time schedule change that moved the tournament back two weeks.

The change was made to accommodate the WGC match play event, which had been held in February and March in recent years but lost its sponsor, Accenture, and also sought a move from Arizona.

It moved to Harding Park in San Francisco and the date was affected by both the Valero Texas Open’s move forward in the schedule to precede the Masters by two weeks just before the Shell Houston Open and the European Tour schedule since it’s a global WGC event. “It was difficult to move match play later into the May time frame because of the European Tour schedule,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s chief marketing officer. “Even then it wasn’t perfect for them.”

Match Play is back in March for the next several years in Austin, Texas, allowing Wells Fargo to be played the week prior to The Players again on the first weekend in May rather than the week after.

“I think that’s where the sponsor wants it and where Quail Hollow wants it and they were very nice to accommodate the move for this year,” Votaw said.

There are eight past Wells Fargo champions in the field – noticeably absent is The Players champion Rickie Fowler – and a player who probably should have won the event in Mickelson.

Lefty has played in all but the inaugural Wells Fargo in 2003 and has finished in the top five in five of his 11 appearances, with a runner-up to McIlroy in 2010 despite a final-round 68 and pair of third-place finishes in 2007 and ’13. Mickelson has yet to miss a cut at Quail Hollow and has nine top-12s.

“I love playing here,” Mickelson said. “I love what they’ve done to the golf course, softening some of the contouring. The beauty of Quail Hollow is in its simplicity. Tee to green it’s one of the best layouts we have. It’s really one of the best courses we have.”

Mickelson hasn’t won on tour since he captured his 42^nd victory at the 2013 British Open, and after finishing 68^th in FedExCup points last season he’s 59^th this season. A tie for second at the Masters is his only top-15 finish in nine events this season and he missed the cut in his only start since then last week at The Players, where he made nine birdies in two rounds.

“I feel like my game is really pretty sharp even though the scores haven’t quite been there and I feel like it’s close to turning around,” Mickelson said. “I felt like Augusta was going to be a good jump start for the rest of the year and I’m hoping that it still is and that I’m able to play the way I did at Augusta here in Charlotte.”

This year’s field is being aided by the fact that Quail Hollow will be the site of the 2017 PGA Championship, and that will likely have an even larger impact on the field next May.

Scott committed to the event, de-committed and then recommitted in the past couple weeks. The 2013 Masters champion played in the Wells Fargo six consecutive years from 2005-10 but hasn’t played since.

“I wanted to come back because the major is coming here as well and I do feel knowledge of a golf course is so important for a major, and looking at some of these guys playing here every year now, I’ve got to do that,” Scott said. “I think that comfort level of a golf course is huge, so that’s a big thing for putting this back on the schedule. It’s a great course, we all know that.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 8:37 PM with the headline "Busy McIlroy set for Wells Fargo appearance."