rory mcilroy pga tour game best clubs to use

6 Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 15 tips to help you win

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 15's Battlefield course

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour 15 - watch your swing

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• EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Achievements
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• Walkthrough *

6. EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Pro Tour

If you haven't created a player yet you will have to do this before you start your Pro Tour. Once you've designed your player you will have to pick your bonus, this is basically the style of play that your player will use. I picked power to start off with but you can pick what you like.

The next thing you want to do is to go to 'Career History' then 'Round Type' and set it to quick rounds. By doing this you only play the important holes in stead of full 18 hole rounds. You still have to complete the 4 rounds in a tournament but it will be 4 or 5 holes as oppose to 18.

Web.com Tour Championship

This is the first event you play, it's like a qualifier to see who can qualify for a PGA tour card. Make sure you do quite well. Top 20 should be good enough but aim to win it. It took a score of -6/-7 on short rounds to win for me. If you place high enough you will unlock.

Earn your PGA TOUR card

Career Builder Challenge

This next event isn't a PGA event either but it will give you some ranking points for competing. This is held on the TPC Sawgrass course which is a very difficult to course to do well on so don't worry about winning this it is not as important. Just do your best. It was -14/-15 to win and I came 3rd.

Bioware Classic

This is an easier course to play so you should aim to win this event. On my game it was -10/-11 to win. As this is a PGA Tour event if you win you will get.

Win a PGA TOUR event

Now I chose to skip the next event, you don't have to play every event however you have to be careful with this as you want to aim to be top of the FedEx points by the end of the season and there is an achievement for being top of the EA Sports rankings a one point during the season. To view your rankings go to 'Career History' > 'Rankings'. You can look at both tables here. I would recommend looking at these often, especially the FedEx as the #1 EA Sport ranking should come naturally if you are doing well.

Arnold Palmer Invitational

This is the next event I played. You don't have to win these smaller events as there are no achievements tied to them however the more you play and the better you do the more ranking points you will accumulate. -19/-20 to win on this one.

If you won that last event you should be on around 1000 FedEx points and be around 300 to 400 ahead of second place. I would recommend that you aim to stay about this far ahead throughout the season, so you need to chose if you want to skip certain events or not but I will list all the events that I played and when there is an achievement tied to winning. Just be wary that you might do better or worse than me so might need to play more or less events than me.

At this point if you're struggling to win maybe try adjusting your gameplay style to 'Classic' or 'Arcade' or adjust your custom style to easier settings.

EA Sports Invitational

I skipped 2 events to get to this. There is an achievement tied to winning this tournament so make sure you win if not you'll have to do another season to get to this point and try again. One thing you should consider if you're struggling is setting the round type to 'Full Rounds' this will give you more chances to get a better score and it will be a lot easier to win. Obviously this takes a lot longer but what you can do is do 2 or 3 rounds on quick rounds then see where you are, if you don't think you're going to win then set the last round to full and blow away the competition.

You may or may not have noticed but you will have started to unlock better equipment. If you go to 'Equipment' then 'Optimize Clubs' it will automatically equip the best clubs that you currently have. You can do all this manually by going through all your equipment and setting it to what you want. Do that if you please but I chose to save time and just use the optimize clubs feature.

-9/-10 was about the score required to win and if you do you will bag yourself an achievement.

Win the EA SPORTS Spring Invitational

You should be way ahead in the FedEx rankings by this point.

I skipped the next 2 events and the next one I played was.

The Players Championship

You don't need to win this event but it provides some good points for the rankings. Required about -14/-15 to win this for me.

Now at this point I was seconds in both of the ranking tables so I chose to play the next small event. It is up to you if you want to or not, you don't have to play all the same events as I did.

Peach Invitational

I chose to play this and it was -11/-12 to win.

This is the second major so therefore another achievement for winning, remember to optimize your clubs before you start. This is a tough course to play so don't be afraid to set the last round or 2 to full rounds to help. It took a score of -3/-4 to win here. Good luck. If you win you should also now have reached number 1 in the EA rankings therefore double achievement! If you don't manage it this time you will in the next couple of events you win.

Win the U.S. Open

Reach #1 in EASG Rankings

I skipped all the way up to next major event which is The Open. This means there is another achievement for winning this so remember the tips from the previous majors and you shouldn't have any trouble. The course is a lot easier for this event and to be honest it should be fairly easy for you. About -13/-14 to win on this.

Win The Open Championship

Now if you have managed to get the Number 1 ranking achievement and you are way ahead in the FedEx points then I would just skip straight up to the next major which is the PGA Championship. This is what I did but if you need to play another event don't be afraid to do so as it can only help as you don't want to have to play another season.

PGA Championship

Now play this and make sure you win to earn another achievement. Took a score of about -13/-14 to win for me.

Win the PGA Championship

At this point you should only have the FedEx cup achievements left to win in Pro Tour mode. I skipped the next 2 events which were EA charity invitational and Pittsburgh Invitational.

The next 3 events are all FedEx Play Off events. This does not mean you need to play them to earn the achievement however they offer a lot of points to the winner so be wary that someone may overtake you if you don't play them. My advice would be to look at the rankings after every event just to be sure. I personally only played 1 of the Play Off events as Rory McIlroy overtook me at one point. You do not need to go into the final event leading the standings but it would guarantee you the achievement after that event. I was 2nd in the rankings but I beat the player ahead of me in the Finale so that ensured I overtook him in the rankings.

Tour Championship

This is the final event of the season and you must play and win this to get the last achievement. You will only get this if you are number 1 in the FedEx cup points after this event as well.

To get this you have to:

• Win the Tour Championship
• Be at number 1 in the FedEx rankings after the last event.

This took a score of about -15/-16 to win for me and once you have won this you will have finished Pro Tour mode.

Win the FedExCup

Now just one section left to do which is Challenge Mode.

Rory McIlroy Clubs: What’s In the Bag?

Rory McIlroy has become a favorite of many golf fans over the last few years. TaylorMade saw the opportunity to capitalize on his popularity back in 2017, and he’s been with them ever since.

As a result, Rory has a full bag of 14 TaylorMade clubs. And he has used them to top many events, including the Masters .

Read on to learn the Rory McIlroy clubs that he uses on tour.

Rory McIlroy WITB: What Clubs Does Rory McIlroy Use in 2024?

Rory mcilroy driver: taylormade stealth plus, rory mcilroy’s woods: taylormade stealth plus, rory mcilroy irons: taylormade p770, taylormade rors proto, rory mcilroy clubs: taylormade mg3 wedges, rory mcilroy’s putter: taylormade spider x hydro blast, rory mcilroy what’s in the bag: other items, golf balls: taylormade tp5x, grips: golf pride mcc, apparel and shoes: nike, how much are rory mcilroy’s clubs worth, wrapping up – what’s in the bag with rory mcilroy.

For the 2021 season, Rory McIlroy used both the TaylorMade Sim2 and Sim2 MAX drivers, but now he’s using the newer and better Stealth Plus driver. You’ll find plenty of other PGA Tour pros using this driver, including Colin Morikawa and Tiger Woods .

The Stealth range from TaylorMade has a huge sweet spot with a highly flexible face for incredible ball speeds.  The Plus version has a more compact profile than the standard models and is more suited to low handicap players (like PGA pros). It also has a 10g sliding weight to mold shot shape bias.

Here are the exact specs for Rory’s driver

• 9º at 8.25º
• Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft
• lie angle 59º
• D4.5 swing weight

Rory is perhaps best known for his huge drives and fairway shots. So, it makes sense for him to have a set of woods that allow him to crack huge yardage numbers. He currently uses two TaylorMade Stealth Plus fairway woods with the following specs:

• Loft: 15º Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X
• Loft: 19º Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X

He often forgoes a 5 wood and instead opts for a hybrid, but more recently he’s been sticking to two fairway woods.

McIlroy had been trying out a few different sets of TaylorMade irons but recently switched back to the Rors Proto series. These have a carbon steel clubhead and were introduced in 2017 for many TaylorMade Staff players. The specs of Rory’s irons have irons have remained similar since then.

In this series, he uses a 4 iron to a pitching wedge with Project X Rifle 7.0 shafts. They have similar to standard 4° increments with lie angles that shift at a rate of 0.5°.

The Rory McIlroy setup iron is a TaylorMade P770  3 iron with a Project X Rifle 7.0 shaft.

Rory McIlroy golf clubs include MG3 wedges, which are a recently upgraded TaylorMade MG2 successor. He uses two wedges:

Both of them have a Project X Rifle 6.5 shaft. You’ll find that many PGA Tour golfers use a softer shaft like this, so they have a bit more feel.

It’s possible he may start including a 48º wedge again as he has done in the past. But for now, he’s sticking to just two wedges.

• Superstroke Pistol GT Tour Grip

Stating that he needs a more forgiving putter nowadays, Rory McIlroy has moved away from using blade putters. He said that although the good days with a blade putter like the Scotty Cameron 0009m he used to use are excellent, the bad days are worse.

He’s had a lot more success on the greens with the TaylorMade Spider of late.

These putters make it a breeze to stay on line and are super forgiving. They’re perfect for PGA golfers and high handicap players alike.

The TaylorMade TP5X golf balls are low spin and work perfectly for a player like McIlroy that really needs to capitalize on his strong fairway game.

Since they hold up their spin, they have minimal jump.

McIlroy stamps his balls with #22. So if you want to be exactly the same, you’ll need a custom order.

These are multi-compound grips with plenty of texture and tack that provides comfort and control. You’ll find most of the PGA Tour pros use these grips.

McIlroy has rocked the Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 2 golf shoes  since the 2021 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Although he sticks to the one model of shoes, he frequently wears different colors ranging from special edition ones to more traditional white or black versions.

He also wears a Nike glove and apparel to match.

Since Rors Proto irons are custom clubs, we included the price for TaylorMade P790 Irons instead as they are the most similar. To match Rory McIlroy in the bag, you’ll need a bit of money, but you don’t have to be the richest golfer in the world .

Here’s a breakdown of the approximate costs of Rory McIlroy’s clubs at the time of writing this article, not including a Rory McIlroy golf bag:

Rory McIlroy clubs are all TaylorMade as he is a sponsored golfer. His bag is filled with some of the best TaylorMade clubs on the market. You’ll find similar products in many of the other Taylormade players’ bags too.

If you’d like to learn more about what other PGA Tour pros put in their bag, check out these guides:

• What’s in Brook Koepka’s Bag?
• Dustin Johnson’s Golf Clubs

Chris Daniel

Chris's love for golf is only rivaled by his wanderlust. A globetrotter at heart, He’s played courses throughout Europe and Asia and at home in NSW, Australia. With a writing style as smooth as his golf swing, he’ll help you find the right gear to match your skill level and style. You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn .

• Chris Daniel https://www.golfspan.com/author/chrisdaniels The Best Budget Golf Clubs & Sets Under $350
• Chris Daniel https://www.golfspan.com/author/chrisdaniels 7 Wood Distance, When To Use, & Best Clubs
• Chris Daniel https://www.golfspan.com/author/chrisdaniels Golf Wedge Distance Chart: Average Distances for Most Golfers
• Chris Daniel https://www.golfspan.com/author/chrisdaniels How to Polish Golf Clubs (+ 4 Best Polish Reviews)

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What's In The Bag: Rory McIlroy's TaylorMade equipment for 2024 including clubs, ball, shoes & more

Published: 17 July 2023 Last updated: 13 May 2024

WITB Rory McIlroy

What golf clubs and balls does Rory McIlroy use? Our in-depth review of what’s in the four-time Major champion’s bag for 2024.

Rory McIlroy is a TaylorMade staff golfer and uses almost a full bag of TaylorMade clubs.

One of the most influential people in golf , the Northern Irishman hasn’t always played TaylorMade clubs. He lifted his first two Majors (2011 US Open and 2012 US PGA) using Titleist clubs and the Pro V1 golf ball before joining Nike in 2013. He signed a ten-year deal rumored to be worth $150m with the American sports giant to use the brand’s clubs, ball, bag, clothing, and shoes.

In 2017, following Nike’s decision to leave the golf equipment market, McIlroy signed a ten-year clubs, ball, and bag deal with TaylorMade, worth $100m. He also renegotiated his Nike apparel and shoes agreement, signing a fresh ten-year contract worth a reported $200m.

He turned pro in 2007, shortly after he’d topped the world amateur ranking, and won his first European Tour title in 2009 at the Dubai Desert Classic. His first PGA Tour win followed in 2010 at the Quail Hollow Championship.

He’s gone on to win a further 26 PGA Tour victories, including the Players Championship, Tour Championship, and Arnold Palmer Invitational, and 17 European (DP World) Tour titles, including flagship events such as the BMW PGA Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. McIlroy’s most recent victory was the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, which was the fourth time he’d won that event.

If you’re in the market for some new equipment, find out how all of Rory’s clubs performed in our tests of the year’s best equipment . Let’s take a closer look at what’s in the bag of Rory McIlroy for 2024.

WITB Rory McIlroy:

What driver does rory mcilroy use, taylormade qi10 driver.

Rory McIlroy uses a TaylorMade Qi10 driver (9° set at 8.25°) with a Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft.

TaylorMade's new 2024 driver!

Rob Jerram – Digital Editor

Rob specializes in the DP World Tour, PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the Ryder Cup, spending large chunks of his days reading about, writing about, and watching the tours each month.

He’s passionate about the equipment used by professional golfers and is also a font of knowledge when it comes to golf balls, golf trolleys, and golf bags, testing thousands down the years.

Rob uses a  Callaway Paradym driver ,  TaylorMade M5 5-wood ,  TaylorMade P790 driving iron ,  Callaway Paradym irons  (4-AW),  TaylorMade MG3 wedges  (52º, 58º),  Odyssey Tri-Hot 5k Double Wide putter , and  Callaway Chrome Soft X golf ball .

You can  email Rob  or  get in touch with him on X .

Rory McIlroy What’s In The Bag? 2024 Update

We take a look at the clubs currently in the bag of four-time major winner Rory McIlroy for the 2024 season

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Rory McIlroy What's In The Bag?

Everyone wants to know what equipment the best players in the world use and no-one draws as much interest as Rory McIlroy. The four-time Major winner signed with TaylorMade in 2017 and currently plays a full bag of TaylorMade equipment, including all 14 clubs and his ball, although there is flexibility built into this contract in certain areas of the bag.

His TaylorMade deal is said to be worth $10m per year for ten years, so we'll see the World No. 3 with the brand's clubs in his hands for a few more years yet and he used them to great effect in 2023, winning twice, securing top tens in three major championships and securing his fifth Harry Vardon trophy as the leading money winner on the DP World Tour. Let's get into the specific bag setup of the former World No.1.

WATCH: 10 things you didn't know about Rory McIlroy

What Driver Does Rory McIlroy Use?

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In his most recent showing at the Dubai Invitational, Rory McIlroy put the new TaylorMade Qi10 driver in play and opened with a nine-under par round of 62. He has it in a 9° head set one click lower on the loft sleeve to around 8.25° and we imagine it will become one of the best golf drivers launched this year. In terms of shaft, McIlroy continues to opt for Fujikura in the form of the Ventus Black 6-X. He had previously been using the lower spinning Qi10 LS driver towards the end of the 2023 season. Before that, McIlroy had been switching between the TaylorMade Stealth Plus and Stealth 2 Plus driver , marginally preferring the older Stealth Plus driver.

What Fairway Wood Does Rory McIlroy Use?

Rory has switched out his old TaylorMade Stealth 2 Plus fairway woods in favour of the new TaylorMade Qi10 fairway wood in both 15° and 18° with a Fujikura Ventus Black 8-X and 9-X shaft respectively in his three wood and five wood. McIlroy's five wood often goes in and out of the bag depending on the golf course or conditions, typically being replaced with 2 or 3 irons or even a hybrid. 

The TaylorMade Qi10 fairway wood is the middle option of the three in the range, offering a mid spin and launch profile as well as a fixed hosel, versus the lower spinning Qi10 Tour fairway wood which features both loft and sliding weight adjustability to really dial in the ball flight.

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What Irons Does Rory McIlroy Use?

Rory has occasionally put a utility iron in the bag. For example at the 2022 Open Championship he put the TaylorMade Stealth UDI in the bag as his two-iron, but at the start of 2024 his set remains unchanged, starting with a P760 4-iron and then moving into a the Rors Proto irons in 5-iron through to 9-iron. 

The Rors Protos were part of the custom series of golf irons made for a number of prominent TaylorMade staff players, including Dustin Johnson and (at the time) Justin Rose . They all featured slightly altered profiles of the TaylorMade P730 iron, featuring either a unique grind or blade length profile. 

What Wedges Does Rory McIlroy Use?

For 2024, Rory McIlroy has put a full set of the new TaylorMade Milled Grind 4 wedges in the bag in 46°, 50°, 54° and 60° lofts, a raw finish and fitted with Project X Rifle 6.5 shafts. The new technology on the face of these clubs makes them among the best golf wedges for spin control in wet conditions.

What Putter Does Rory McIlroy Use?

Despite dabbling with a Scotty Cameron putter in 2023, for 2024 Rory has switched into one of the new Spider Tour X putters . It has a short slant hosel and comes in a mesmerising gunmetal PVD finish. It also has a SuperStroke grip, a brand known for making some of the best putter grips on the market.

The Tour X model combines the performance of a blade with the benefits of a mallet design. With TSS weights positioned farther forward, it delivers increased face rotation while maintaining 5,000 MOI for enhanced stability compared to  blade putters .

What Golf Ball Does Rory McIlroy Use?

Another big change for Rory McIlroy in 2024 is that he appears to be using a brand new TaylorMade TP5x golf ball - swipe right on the gallery above to see it. Given the usual cadence of new product from TaylorMade in the ball category, we were expecting new TP5 models this year and this could well be it. 

The TaylorMade TP5 franchise has always been rated by us among the best premium golf balls and we'd go as far as to say they are among the best golf balls money can buy. He stamps his ball with #22 because he got married on the 22nd and says this about the number: “We looked up the meaning of numbers and the number 22 means powerful and high risk, high reward, and that's sort of everything I am on the golf course so I thought that was appropriate.”

What Shoes Does Rory McIlroy Wear?

McIlroy wears Nike apparel and the Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 3 golf shoes . We think Rory was first spotted wearing the Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 3 shoe at the start of 2023 and we rate this particular model among the very best Nike golf shoes . Since then he has worn a variety of models, ranging from special editions, to the more traditional colors.  

What grips does Rory McIlroy use?

In his clubs apart from the putter, Rory McIlroy uses Golf Pride grips . His model of choice is the MCC Plus4, a multi-compound grip made up of rubber and cord. He has it in the black and white colorway.

Rory McIlroy WITB: Full Specs

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10, 8.25° loft with a Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft. Three wood: TaylorMade Qi10, 15° loft with a Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X shaft. Five wood: TaylorMade Qi10, 18° loft with a Fujikura Ventus Black 9 X shaft. Irons: TaylorMade P760 (4 iron), TaylorMade Rors Proto (5-9 iron) all fitted with Project X Rifle 7.0 shafts. Wedges: TaylorMade MG4, 46°, 50°, 54° and 60°, all with Project X Rifle 6.5 shafts. Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X. Ball: 2024 TaylorMade TP5x prototype. Apparel & glove: Nike Footwear: Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 3

*Utility: TaylorMade Stealth UDI (16°) with a Project X Hzrdus 65 105 shaft.

A golfer for most of his life, Sam is Golf Monthly's E-commerce Editor.

Working with golf gear and equipment over the last six years, Sam has quickly built outstanding knowledge and expertise on golf products ranging from drivers, to balls, to shoes. 

He combines this knowledge with a passion for helping golfers get the best gear for them, and as such Sam manages a team of writers that look to deliver the most accurate and informative reviews and buying advice. This takes the form of buying guides, reviews, supporting gear content as well as creating deal content.

This is so the reader can find exactly what they are looking for, at a good price.

Sam now spends most of his time testing and looking after golf gear content for the website, whilst he is also responsible for all content related to golf apparel. 

Additionally Sam oversees Golf Monthly voucher/coupon content which seeks to find you the best offers and promotions from well-known brands like Callaway, TaylorMade and many more.

Unfortunately, Sam is not a member of any club at the moment but regularly gets out on the golf course to keep up the facade of having a single-figure handicap. 

Sam's What's In The Bag: 

Driver: Cobra LTDxLS (9 degrees) 

Fairway Wood: Ping G430 Max (15 degrees), Nike Covert Tour 2.0 (19 degrees) 

Irons (4-PW): Titleist AP2 

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7 54˚, 58˚ 

Putter: Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5  

Ball: Srixon Z-Star Diamond

Shoes: G/FORE Gallivanter / Nike Air Zoom Victory Tour 3 / Cuater The Ringer (For off the course he goes for Nike Jordan 1 Low G shoes as well)

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour: How To Master Your Golf Swing

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is available for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, bringing EA Sports back to virtual golf, but on a whole new level. Along with a variety of courses to play from around the world, the game comes with a new Career Mode as well as a Night Club Challenge, where players compete to earn the best scores possible.

We already covered some of the general tips and strategies  for the game, but now it’s time to literally get into the swing of things by learning the mechanics for what goes behind the club. There are three different styles available, and we’ll break down how each can work for you.

First there’s the general Tour style of swing. This is the place where diehard fans of previous Tiger Woods games should start because it allows them to use real analog-style controls to get the most from their swings.

This is the toughest of the three swing styles available since you have no aiming marker, and can’t use secondary features when it comes to lining up your shot. You can still preview it, however, so your ball doesn’t go flying into a sand trap, or worse yet, a water hazard.

As for the swing, press down on the analog stick to get the power you want from the club – the further back you go, the more you’ll maximize your swing. From there, press upward on the analog stick to complete the swing, but make sure you’re as straight as possible. Drifting to the left or right could result in a hook or slice, adding to your unwanted journey out of bounds.

Remember, line up your shots, get the swing right and most importantly, make sure you pay attention to which way the wind blows. In Tour setting, this is incredibly vital, as your ball can easily sail off course if you have a drift working against you. Adjust accordingly and you’ll be fine.

Worried Tour isn’t right for you? Arcade is your best bet. This is probably the easiest setting available in the game, as it not only selects the right club for the job, but also gives you a marker showing where the ball will go before you take a swing. There are times you’ll still need to make adjustments, but they’ll be minor compared to the Tour setting.

In addition, you’ll add spin once your shot takes off, helping determine where the ball ends up. Spin can make all the difference on a shot, especially if you’re trying to get as close to the green as possible on a Par 5, using the 1-Wood on the first two shots. Distance helps with these shots, so make sure you use the spin as often as you can. It’ll also keep you out of bounds if you spin to the side, or better yet, try a backspin. Staying on a fairway is far more important than distance.

You’ll be introduced to these mechanics once you go into prologue, so make sure you take the time to master the lessons. It’ll help when you go for your next birdie.

Finally there’s the classic three-press system. Fans of previous golf games will know exactly how this works. First, you set up your aim in terms of where you want the ball to go, then you initiate the three button presses with your club.

The first gets the swing going. As you go back, it’ll go into a power meter, and the longer you wait to hit the button, the more power builds up. Don’t let it go too long, or it’ll go back down the meter and diminish the strength behind your shot.

Next up is the second button press. After you gauge how much power you want to use, it will go to a marker that sets your accuracy. It’s vital you get the gauge to as close as possible with this marker. Too far to the left or right, and your shot will drift.

Finally, the third press marks accuracy. Hit the marker and you’ll have a near perfect shot heading down the fairway. If you’re a fan of Mario Golf games or don’t feel using an analog stick to determine your golf swing, this is a great setting to use.

There are options to customize your golf swing in a number of areas, so make sure you check out the Prologue before hitting the links and see what’s available. If you’re looking for a good overall setting, however, Arcade is the way to go.

Enjoy your time on the links! 

PGA Championship

Valhalla Golf Club

PGA Championship 2024

PGA Championship 2024: The 8 best storylines to follow at Valhalla

LOUISVILLE — Everywhere you travel in this town, there’s a reminder of its sporting identity. Horse motifs. Churchill Downs' spires etched into all forms of artwork. On building facades, diamond-shaped patterns of color like jockeys wears on their silks. This is, after all, the Derby City—the biggest thing this state has been known for, beyond bourbon, for the past 150 years.

Golf—in the form of a significant sporting event at least—has just happened to invade these parts for short stints a few times over the last three decades, and you’d have to say that Valhalla Golf Club’s “win” percentage is impressively high. Mark Brooks’ victory in Kentucky’s inaugural PGA Championship in 1996 came in a playoff over a commonwealth hero, Kenny Perry, and since then the champions have been Tiger Woods in a scintillating three-hole playoff against unheralded Bob May in 2000 and Rory McIlroy, who putted out in the Sunday gloaming to camera flashes for his fourth—and currently last—major victory.

Valhalla has its detractors as a one-trick pony test with driver off nearly every tee , but there’s no disputing the exciting finishes it has produced —thanks, in part, to its fascinating, risk-reward par-5 18th . And there arguably is not an easier major for which to identify the top three favorites than this one, this year. In a rare and possibly unprecedented circumstance, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 2 Rory McIlroy and No. 39 Brooks Koepka (only ranked that “low” because he plays for LIV Golf) all go into the 2024 PGA Championship having won their last starts, with Scheffler and McIlroy, in fact, each going for three straight. Koepka, of course, is the reigning PGA champion whose victory at Oak Hill last year put him in rare territory with five major wins (three PGAs, two U.S. Opens).

Throw in a rare competitive sighting of Woods, another career Grand Slam bid by Jordan Spieth, a hometown start by two-time PGA winner Justin Thomas, unpredictable weather and a possible farewell to majors at Valhalla, and there is plenty to buzz about come Thursday’s first tee shots. Here's our look at the top storylines.

Rory has a lot on his plate

Rory McIlroy celebrates winning the 2014 PGA.

Andrew Redington

It has been a fantastic couple of weeks for McIlroy. He won the Zurich Classic with one of his best golf mates, Shane Lowry, and backed it up with a huge runaway victory last week at his beloved Wells Fargo Championship . His game finally looks fit enough to put him over the top to repeat at Valhalla for his first major win in nearly 10 years.

But then … we get the news that McIlroy filed for divorce from his wife Erica on Monday of PGA week. Nod your head here if you were truly shocked. The timing is curious, to say the least, and while McIlroy will no doubt face questions about it in his press conference on Wednesday, this is a guy who’s had to compartmentalize his life to a greater degree than anyone on tour, what with starting a new golf league, TGL, with Woods; his verbal battle and change of heart on the Saudis and LIV ; him joining, then resigning , then trying to unsuccessfully re-join the PGA Tour’s policy board , and now being named to the tour’s transaction subcommittee .

This would all seem impossible to manage, but McIlroy turned a nerve-jangling battle with Xander Schauffele last Sunday into a stunning route for his 26th tour victory, so the guy apparently has walls of steel put up between the various rooms in his heart and brain.

Who’s your daddy and your caddie?

Scottie Scheffler shared his emotions after winning the 2024 Masters.

Warren Little

Scheffler has had a fantastic couple of weeks because he didn’t play golf. His wife, Meredith, gave birth to their first child a week ago, and Scottie seemed blown away by the whole experience . “It was nuts” he kept repeating on Tuesday at Valhalla. Will he be emotionally exhausted from becoming a dad, with a potential letdown for the odds-on favorite?

Don’t bet on it. Scheffler may have the smoothest “on” switch of any player out there, and he is, after all, coming off back-to-back wins in the Masters and RBC Heritage. He also is 4-for-5 in notching top-10 finishes in the PGA, and Valhalla seems custom-built for his game. If he was feeling the pressure, it figures to have been relieved by the arrival of son Bennett and the ability to now singularly focus on what he does so well: win.

Too, Scheffler might be doubling down on bonus golf karma, agreeing to let his caddie, Ted Scott, slip away from the tournament after Friday's round to get to his daughter's graduation on Saturday . Scott would then be back for the final round on Sunday. Let's hope Teddy is flying private.

Brooks back in comfort zone

Brooks Koepka celebrates his win in the 2023 PGA.

Keyur Khamar

It was on the first season of Netflix’s “Full Swing” that Koepka seemed "existentially" lost. In 2022, he was less than a year removed from surgery to reconstruct his right knee, and while there were myriad changes to his body, his mind was not in a good place either. “I’m going to be honest with you, I can’t compete with these guys week in and week out,” Koepka admitted as the cameras rolled.

Fast forward to the PGA at Oak Hill last year, where Koepka produced a three-under 67 in the final round to beat two of the game’s best, Scheffler and Viktor Hovland, by two shots and become only the 20th player to own at least five major wins. “This is probably the sweetest one of them all,” Koepka said at the time.

The 34-year-old remains a sometimes polarizing and surly figure whose talent is displayed in bursts. But the majors are his jam, and Koepka carries the confidence of his victory in LIV Singapore in early May, when he shot 15 under in only three rounds.

Spieth and his slam

This is the sixth time Jordan Spieth will be trying to close out the career Grand Slam with a PGA win.

Christian Petersen

So much is made of McIlroy arriving at Augusta National with one major still to secure to complete the career Grand Slam. That’s probably because the Masters is at the same venue, but Spieth has the same potential for his own slam every time he tees it up on the PGA, be it at Kiawah or Oak Hill or Valhalla.

Spieth, now 30, won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015, checked off the Open Championship two years later, and now he’s played the PGA six times with a chance to join five others with the career slam. His closest call in the PGA came in that phenomenal year of 2015, with Spieth finishing solo second by three shots to Jason Day.

Spieth missed the cut at Valhalla in the 2014 PGA, and recent form doesn’t exactly point to success this week. The Texan has missed the cut in four of his last seven starts and doesn’t have a top-10 finish since the season-opening Sentry.

Tiger returns to scene of his May Day

Tiger Woods signs autographs during a practice at Valhalla.

Among Woods’ 15 major victories, his fifth still ranks among the most memorable, with Tiger getting help from a lucky cart-path kick ( or fan assist?) at Valhalla in 2000 to beat journeyman Bob May in a three-hole playoff. Woods was 24 then; now he’s 48. And, unfortunately, his appearances in majors the last few years since his 2021 car accident have lacked any realistic expectation for victory.

The upside? We haven’t truly seen this newest version of Tiger at his best. He’s only made two starts this season, and Woods had misfortune in both—pulling out sick in the second round at Riviera and a bad weather draw forcing him to traverse 23 holes on Friday in the Masters. Remarkably, Woods made his record 24th straight cut at Augusta , but the fight it took just to be there took everything out of him, and Woods faded by going 82-77 on the weekend.

It would sure be nice to see Tiger at least get a “normal” shot at showing where his game is, but …

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There could be weather troubles again

The PGA’s move from August to May seemed particularly good for the event in Kentucky, which is not exactly a garden spot in late summer. But spring brings the potential for rain and (sigh) thunderstorms, and we’ve got chances for both to muddy the competitive waters.

After rain most of the day on Wednesday, the forecast calls for Thursday to be decent, with no showers until after dark. But there is a 90-percent chance of rain (and possible thunderstorms) on Friday—ugly for trying to finish 36 holes in two days—with a 54-percent chance on Saturday. If they're still trying to finish rounds, there isn’t any rain forecast for Sunday, but it will be toasty in the mid-80s.

JT’s home game

Justin Thomas smiles during press conference at PGA.

Maddie Meyer/PGA of America

Louisville native Justin Thomas first met his idol Jack Nicklaus at Valhalla’s 1996 PGA and saw in-person as Tiger won the 2000 PGA, so the place has fond memories. And now Thomas is a two-time PGA champion who gets his first shot at a home win that would make for a raucous Sunday celebration.

“Well, the good news is I have a pretty easy time putting a lot of pressure on myself already, so that shouldn't be too much of an adjustment,” Thomas said Tuesday with a smile.

There isn’t exactly a lot of home-track advantage, Thomas contends, because he realized while playing a practice round on Sunday that he probably hadn’t toured Valhalla in at least eight years. But the 31-year-old does favor PGA course setups—we did mention he’s won the PGA twice—and the recent form is decent, including a T-5 at RBC Heritage with four scores in the 60s.

Last chance for bromance?

Valhalla's dogleg par-5 18th hole has been the spot for dramatic finishes over the years.

Gary Kellner

It would make for a tidy ending in Valhalla’s potential swan song if a native were to win. Hosting four majors and a Ryder Cup over 28 years is an impressive run for any venue, but this could also be Valhalla’s last hurrah—at least for quite some time.

The course’s stature has been tied to the fact the PGA of America owned it, but a group of local businessmen bought Valhalla and now its future with major championships seems in question. The USGA won’t come calling, the PGA Championship is booked through 2031, and the PGA of America has a new darling course at PGA Frisco outside Dallas, with two PGA Championships scheduled there in 2027 and ’34.

Valhalla’s proud owners, however, remain hopeful. “We fully expect to get another PGA Championship. And we fully expect to host major golfing events in the future,” co-owner Dan Novak, former CEO of Yums! Brand, told the Associated Press.

Whether that happens or not, another fantastic finish this Sunday would only cement Valhalla’s legacy as a stage whose drama at the wire was as satisfying as any photo finish at Churchill Downs.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review

After a brief hiatus, the PGA Tour video game series is back with a brand new face to front it in the form of the next big thing in golf, Rory McIlroy. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fills the golfing void after a two year waiting period and becomes the first PGA Tour game on the latest generation of consoles. Can the Northern Irish hot shot propel the series to heights never seen before?

The short answer is no. There are many reasons to back this up as you’ll find in this review, with none of them being because of Rory himself so he can rest easy… for now.

Where do I begin? Well, let’s dive straight into the career mode which is usually the meat of any sports game and it should be no different here with PGA Tour Pro Career. Unfortunately it seems as though someone has forgotten this, due to it actually being a rather bare bones effort if I’m completely honest. Sure you can create yourself a male or a female golfer but there are serious omissions after this. The fact you won’t be facing off against other female golfers is odd should you choose a female character, however the fact your career will never cross paths with The Masters tournament is just plain stupid. Not having Augusta National as a playable course doesn’t seem viable when it’s arguably one of the most well known and hugely popular courses of all time.

Off the course there’s also very little to look at in terms of stats and your career progression is shown merely as a level number. Each level up you earn will unlock new items or clothing which is kind of nice. It doesn’t satisfy my need to choose where my skills are improved though; instead I’m left with watching the game decide where to add an attribute point here and there or mildly boosting an area of my golf skills myself. But hey, at least customizing the clubs in your bag is present, as is being able to decide on your golfer’s outfit, so that’s something.

During your career you’ll be expected to play four rounds on each course which can take a while on full rounds length. Alternatively you can switch it to quick rounds which will be over after a few holes and helps the whole process less monotonous. Four full rounds of Wolf Creek in a row is just torture, even though it’s one of my favourite courses.

Keep winning events and it won’t be long before you’ll be ranked No.1 in the world, ready to compete in the FedEx cup. That’s everything need to know about the PGA Tour Pro Career though.

The other main aspect that has to be mentioned is the way the game is played. There are three ways of playing; Arcade, Classic or Tour. Depending on whether you prefer to use the analog stick to swing the club or test your timing skills with the old 3-click method, every gamer will be satisfied when it comes to the control scheme. The Tour controls will suit the hardcore players as it removes assists and puts emphasis on the quickness of your swinging.

While we’re on the positivity train, the use of the Frostbite 3 engine, that was used in the Battlefield franchise first, brings about some high quality visuals. The courses all look great, from the greens to the trees and the surrounding canyons. It’s also quickened up the loading times between holes. These are the first signs that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour has arrived on the new generation of consoles. The only signs in fact.

Night Club Challenge takes the world of golf and gives it a makeover for a whole load of skill based challenges. This is the best mode of the entire game, using mostly fictional courses and Wolf Creek. It’ll test your metal as you hit balls through things like fluorescent hoops high in the sky for example. It feels like more of a rave than a night club, with some darn crazy ideas and boosts to make this a great set of fantasy challenges. These boosts could be as simple as propelling the ball higher with Rocket boost, pausing a shot in mid-air to avoid obstacles and even getting the ball the stick to the ground upon landing.

With exactly 174 challenges to complete and earn up to three stars on, there’s plenty to do. However when you consider this is a golf simulator game, the fantasy side shouldn’t be the main draw.

When all else fails there’s always Play Now to play a full round, a front 9 or back 9 on the course of your choice with up to four players. Don’t be expecting many game types though except for Match Play and Stroke Play. Long gone are the likes of Bingo, Bango, Bongo or Skins.

What about the courses on offer? There are just eight real life courses to choose from and four fantasy ones, including the standout Paracel Storm. Another step backwards when you think back to the sheer amount on offer in previous games. Celtic Manor, Augusta, Pebble Beach, Valhalla, Torrey Pines, are all gone. The list of well known courses left out is ridiculous and I’m not even scratching the surface with those named. This is EA SPORTS, a true giant in the gaming industry and they’re cutting back on courses, having to create their own to bolster the amount on disc. There aren’t even that many real golfers on the roster to play with.

Switching to the online side and there’s not an awful lot to say. Head2Head Ranked (or unranked) pits you against online opponents in rounds on courses voted for by those in the lobby. I wouldn’t bother playing against others though as it makes characters invisible most of the time, following the ball trajection of opposition doesn’t work too well and it all feels a bit lonely. You can also play in either weekly or daily tournaments that are set up to register your best round on. With so few courses and very limited weather options, there is a real lack of variety and they’ll become samey in no time.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour takes great strides forwards on the way it plays as a golf game and visually it can rarely be faulted, apart from a few stuffed looking animals wandering around. On the whole though it leaps backwards on features, courses and golfers, hell they’ve even got made up cups on the PGA Tour to help fill the emptiness. As a part of the PGA Tour game series, it is a mere shadow of its former self.

This is not the greatest golfing game in the world; this is just a tribute.

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[…] for pound features you’re going to find in the gaming world and today, with the addition of Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR into the Vault, it’s got better […]

I very much agree with your review. The golf game has lost its soul (Like most EA titles these days), and with it that addictive factor that had me playing till early hours of the morning on Tiger Woods PGA 9 – 12 (and then they started getting derailed). Even when it comes to the graphics, they look pretty, but the “jumping” of shadows and object resolution tends to spoil the illusion. And yes, you nailed it on that “stuffed animals” comment. All in all, this feels like a demo, or a beta. It feels unpolished, unbalanced and unfocused.

Rumour has it that this won’t be a yearly release any more – a step in the right direction – with hopefully some free DLC and expansions (and patches to fixes some bugs I’ve come across) in between.

At least we know now why PGA tour wasn’t even mentioned in EA E3 presentation, but here’s hoping that EA will redeem itself when I go play a round of golf with my best bud next week. You can still play a round with specific friends, right?

Cheers for the comment. I hope there’s at least one more in the yearly release schedule that will actually last longer than this one will. They’re supposed to add a few free course via dlc over time but they should’ve been on disc already. Yeah luckily you can still play an unranked round with friends!

I thought I’d come back here to recycle a comment I made on facebook after playing the game for a while now, and trying the unranked match with a friend:

——————————————————————————-

I’m so VERY disappointed in this game. My friend and I have been playing EA golf titles for ages, 99% of the time with just the two of us, talking crap on the fairways and greens, cheering the good shots and jeering the mistakes. In fact, the whole reason he bought his Xbox One was so that we could play PGA Tour together again.

Now the new H2H system has completely negated the fun bits of watching each other’s shots, feeling that excitement of close calls, the disappointment of the bunker. The ONLY option is what was formerly known as “stroke simultaneously” where you just happen to be on the same course… big bloody deal. EA took the fun out of the game.

I could live with the lack of courses, the “beta” feel of the game, the watered down options, useless celebrations, stuffed animals, settings etc compared to previous years. The fact that EA spoiled what was a Thursday night tradition for years between best friends? Not so much.

I can only hope a lot of patches, free DLC, improvements are incoming. Maybe you could do an article on everyone’s outrage 🙂

Completely agree with most of those points, I’d reckon an article on everyone’s outrage would be rather explosive! Thing is that even if they make improvements on this one it’s too little too late really. Games should be releasing at its very best with minor bugs at most to be patched.

Agreed, which is exactly why I think people trying to get rid of the pre-order culture are on to something..

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The mind-boggling distance Rory Mcllroy hits each of his clubs

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Rory McIlroy

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Rory McIlroy has for years been one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, but if you have ever wondered how far he hits his other clubs, now we know. The folks at TaylorMade recently posted a video of McIlroy working his way through seven clubs in his bag, with distances included for each:

. @McIlroyRory ’s stock yardages. 😮‍💨 #StealthDriver #TeamTaylorMade pic.twitter.com/rPSo1nlCUq — TaylorMade Golf (@TaylorMadeGolf) October 20, 2022

We don’t know the precise distances of his other six clubs, but by extrapolating from the seven we do know, we still can get a good estimate of his full bag:

Rory McIlroy’s stock yardages

Driver: 320 yards 3-wood: 297 yards* 5-wood: 275 yards 3-iron: 255 yards* 4-iron: 240 yards 5-iron: 225 yards* 6-iron: 210 yards 7-iron: 195 yards* 8-iron: 180 yards 9-iron: 165 yards* 46° pitching wedge: 150 yards 54° sand wedge: 125 yards* 58° lob wedge: 105 yards

*Approximate distances extrapolated from yardages featured in video above.

With such consistent distance gaps through his set, the one thing that stands out for McIlroy is the gapping he has between his wedges and the corresponding lofts. Most golfers on the PGA Tour gap their wedges in 4-5° increments, but McIlroy has a full 8° between his 46° pitching wedge and 54° sand wedge.

The gap doesn’t seem to be causing any issues for McIlroy, and the extra effort put into his wedge game over the last couple of years seems to be working nicely — last season he ranked 5th on tour in proximity for 125-150 yards, at 19′ 8″.

Another elite player with a big loft gap between his pitching wedge and sand wedge: Tiger Woods, who uses a 48° pitching wedge and a 56° sand wedge.

Rory McIlroy’s clubs as of the 2022 Tour Championship

Driver:   TaylorMade Stealth Plus  ( Fujikura Ventus Black 6X  shaft), 9 degrees

3-wood:  TaylorMade SIM2 ( Mitsubishi Diamana Kai’li White 80TX  shaft), 15 degrees

5-wood:   TaylorMade Stealth Plus  ( Fujikura Ventus Black 9X  shaft), 19 degrees

Irons:  TaylorMade Rors Proto (3-9;  Project X Rifle 7.0  shafts)

Wedges:   TaylorMade Milled Grind 3  (46SB, 54HB and 58SB degrees;  Project X Rifle 6.5  shafts)

Putter:   TaylorMade Spider X Hydro Blast  (SuperStroke Pistol GT Tour grip)

Ball:   TaylorMade TP5x

Grips:  Golf Pride New Decade MultiCompound

PRGR Portable Launch Monitor

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Ryan Barath is GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com’s senior editor for equipment. He has an extensive club-fitting and -building background with more than 20 years of experience working with golfers of all skill levels, including PGA Tour players. Before joining the staff, he was the lead content strategist for Tour Experience Golf, in Toronto, Canada.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review

Rory mcilroy pga tour.

Is Rory’s console debut headed for the green or straight into the rough?

• Satisfying, flexible controls
• Solid graphics and sound
• Fun fantasy courses and Night Club mode
• Limited course and player selection
• Fewer customisation options
• Lack of solo and multiplayer modes

Key Specifications

• Review Price: £43.99

Available on Xbox One (reviewed), PS4 This should have been a new beginning. It’s the first PGA Tour on a new generation of consoles, and also the first with a new cover star, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy. It’s a chance for EA to pull one of its oldest and best-loved franchises out of the doldrums it sunk into in the later Tiger Woods years, and to expand the horizons of one of gaming’s most conservative genres. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour could have been and should have been great.

Instead, it falls somewhere on the fringe of greatness, nearly on the green and within sight of the cup, but frustratingly short of target. It’s a alright-looking golf sim with finely-honed gameplay and a few smart surprises on the way, but it only feels like half the full package. PGA Tour does what it does very well, but the more you play, the more you notice what’s missing, and the more you wish it did just a little bit more.

Let’s talk about the stuff where Rory lands it on the fairway, not the scrub. The graphics have their weaknesses, including texture pop-up, some peculiar artefacts and the odd, weird shimmering effect, but this is still a reasonable leap forwards from the last Tiger Woods. The vegetation is lusher and more lifelike and the scenery more coherent and believable. Golfer animation is more fluid and convincing, with some great animations that take you through the whole gamut of emotions that the noble sport inspires, from joy and exhilaration through to frustration and raw misery.

Verdict Rory McIlroy PGA Tour plays a great game of golf and has noticeably better graphics than the series previous-gen outings. There’s not an awful lot wrong with the core game, and there are some nice surprises. The problem is that the lack of modes, courses, customisation options and players makes it feel only half-complete. This is a problem EA can fix with free DLC, but for now this feels like the foundation of a brilliant golf sim rather than the finished article.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour review

It's (probably not) in the game.

With Tiger Woods experiencing the kind of career downturn that would have Messrs Torres and Falcao nodding sympathetically, it's no wonder EA has opted to drop the fairway-dodging flop for its flagship golf series, replacing him with the more successful (and marketable) Rory McIlroy. Surely, then, this is the ideal opportunity for a fresh start, and a series seemingly content to coast along on past successes would be revitalised by its prodigiously talented star?

You could forgive yourself for getting a little excited after the hyperbolic introduction. "Limitless!" chirrups Rich Lerner, like a man triumphantly declaring his favourite Bradley Cooper film. "The ability to break free, to experience golf in ways you never thought possible." What could this mean? My mind raced. An infinite number of procedurally-generated courses? The ability to play anti-gravity space golf against a sentient blancmange using giraffes as clubs? Apparently not. It turns out that "taking your game to levels once only dreamed of" involves little more than pitch-and-putt on a course surrounded by reused Battlefield assets and a mode that might as well be called Rory McIlroy's Mario Golf.

And, it transpires, "limitless" isn't so much an exaggeration as a bald-faced lie. Because EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Turbo HD Remix has fewer courses, golfers, modes and features than its predecessor. Tiger's last outing had five women from the LPGA Tour; they've been unceremoniously dropped here, as has roughly half the roster of male golfers. There are 12 courses, when two years ago we had 20 (heck, it's two fewer than Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 managed). Gone are the detailed character customisation options for your career golfer, replaced instead by a handful of preset avatars, most of which look like they've been designed by someone who's never seen a human face, but once had one described to them over a Skype call from a noisy venue with particularly flaky wi-fi.

In fact, the career mode as a whole is significantly undernourished. I qualified for the PGA Tour after placing second in my first round as an amateur, and then joylessly worked my way through a series of disconnected tournaments. There's no sense of pageantry surrounding the big competitions, and very little fanfare when you win a tournament: you get a dry text report with a trite quote or two from your golfer. Your stats will steadily rise, and occasionally you'll unlock some more branded gear, but otherwise there's little sense of progress - not least because there's no tangible record of your recent achievements, just a series of rudimentary stat tables. The Highlights tab, meanwhile, simply collects reports of completed rounds and sponsorship deals. In an age of "Xbox, record that" and Share buttons, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that you can't watch or save replays of your best shots within the game, but it's disappointing not to have the option.

It's far from the only thing that's missing. There are no practice rounds in Career mode, no optional objectives to complete for XP boosts. In multiplayer - online or off - you can only select between Stroke Play and Match Play. There's no Best Ball, no Alternate Shot, no Four Ball, no Skins. No Skins! EA Tiburon has promised several free updates to the game that will add new courses and features, though I'm not sure that compensates for the absence of options that have been an integral part of the series for years. Even the Country Clubs from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 14 have been removed.

This might be less of a problem if what remained was a noticeable improvement on previous entries. It isn't. The courses, rendered in the Frostbite engine, look good for the most part, but there are obvious performance issues throughout. It's never a good sign when a game has pop-in on the title screen and so it proves: foliage will often appear from nowhere, and there's a sporadic shimmering effect in certain areas. Presentational sloppiness is pervasive. Menus suffer from noticeable delays, sluggish transitions and weird little inconsistencies. Even the claim of no loading times isn't strictly true - though they're appreciably brief, interstitial shots of leaderboards, your golfer and close-ups of the next hole number stall you from teeing off.

At least the commentary from Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo offers some enlightening facts. I now know, for example, that Tom Watson once won the Open at Royal Troon, that Royal Troon was the site at which Tom Watson won the Open, and that one of the great Open champions at Royal Troon is Tom Watson - all from one 18-hole round. It's a pity they don't have more lines, as their commentary is fine and surprisingly naturalistic - there are even a couple of minor stumbles and grammatical flubs which sound like normal conversation rather than obviously scripted soundbites (though you'll still hear a few of those).

All of these problems are undoubtedly damaging, and all the more irritating for the fact that underneath it all it still plays a solid game of golf. The tutorial, or Prologue, is a nice bit of business which takes you through the three different swing types while allowing you to play key moments from the closing stages of a tightly-fought Open as McIlroy faces off against Martin Kaymer. Key shots and holes are interspersed with observations from the man himself delivered to camera. It's a neat idea that gives you a sense of occasion that's missing elsewhere. How odd that EA Tiburon should reserve it for the tutorial.

Also worth noting is the degree with which you can customise your swing. I'm a fan of the classic three-click system employed in many other golf games, though the gauge moves a little too slowly for my tastes here, and so I quickly reverted to the traditional analogue swing. As someone who played Tiger for many years on PlayStation 2 and 3, I was initially surprised at how sensitive it was - the comparative lack of deadzone on the DualShock 4 means any slight deviation from a perfectly straight down-and-up motion can see you slice drives into the heavy rough - though once you've acclimatised, you'll likely want to switch to Tour mode, which is more responsive and complex still, while offering fewer aim assists. The grid overlay on greens still doesn't give you the most useful read of the topography of the putting surface, and so I retained the aiming guideline for putting - even though it's actively unhelpful for any shot that breaks both ways on its way to the hole. Still, EA Sports isn't the only developer that needs to work on its short game, and I appreciated the ability to remove the training wheels at my own pace.

Strangely, one of the most successful additions is the one that feels most out of place. The Night Club Challenge provides a number of bite-sized objectives with a variety of outlandish power-ups and features like turbo boosts, portals and sticky balls. Some stages are more like croquet than golf, while one objective, where you manually guide your ball through rings to top-up boost power en route to distant score markers, fleetingly reminded me of the brilliant Monkey Target. With three stars to collect on each challenge, it feels as if it was designed as a mobile spin-off - and might actually be a better fit on smartphones.

Its inclusion can be read one of two ways. Perhaps it was added to bulk up an otherwise insubstantial package, or perhaps EA Sports is targeting an audience which doesn't actually like the real sport that much. There's further evidence of this elsewhere: the default option for Career mode is Quick Rounds, which only lets you play "the most important holes" while determining your progress elsewhere based on your existing stats and form.

The assumption seems to be that most players won't have the desire or the stamina to play a full round - though in light of the limited number of courses, it may simply be a way to minimise repetition. Either way, EA Tiburon has produced a game hardly befitting a player of McIlroy's talents. The so-called "next generation of golf" looks uncomfortably similar to the last, and there's substantially less of it. Only the quality of the underlying game saves this from the ignominy of an Avoid sticker.

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Golf review

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Despite smooth gameplay and fancy visuals, this game is handicapped by a distinct lack of courses and players, leaving it feeling incomplete and rather bland.

Solid analog swing mechanics

Variety of customization options

Impressive tutorial mode

Threadbare career mode

Uncomfortable online experience

Lack of courses and players

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Golf is a game steeped in tradition, weighted heavily by conservative approaches to just about everything. Rory McIlroy PGA Tour exemplifies that attitude. As EA’s golf debut on new-generation consoles, it could have broken new ground, capitalizing on the inherent power of the social infrastructure and computing prowess that these machines provide. Instead, it approaches its subject in the most straightforward way imaginable. While McIlroy pays lip service to ‘outside the box’ thinking, the reality is that the core experience is extremely similar to what virtual golfers have had in the past, with one major exception – there’s less of it to enjoy.

If there’s a word to describe McIlroy on launch day, it’s ‘incomplete’. Sure, there are several ways to play the game, including a Career mode, online head-to-head play, tournaments, and some arcadey mini-games. However, none of them are fleshed out enough to compare favorably to similar modes in past EA golf titles, or current competition like The Golf Club. What’s more, each of them follows a by-the-numbers design. If you’ve played video game golf of any kind in the past, you’ll be instantly familiar with almost everything McIlroy throws at you.

McIlroy’s strength lies in the core mechanics of swinging the club and shaping the shots to your liking. The variety of options you have to attack the course with is impressive; three pre-built configurations are available to choose at the start, and after trying all of them out I picked my favorite elements from each to create a customized setup that feels great. While I started off using the three-click swing style reminiscent of the old-school PGA Tour games from decades ago, I gradually shifted to the left-analog stick swing used most recently in The Golf Club. It feels smoother and, ultimately, more rewarding thanks to a better rate of speed on the swing. I also made use of the putt-reading and pre-swing zoom options. Perhaps I’ll make things harder on myself as I improve, but I’ve got a way to go until I get that confident.

While the bulk of PGA Tour is built around a simulation-type experience, the game does offer some shorter diversions. One of them is a par 3 course built around a Battlefield map, replete with grenades for tee box markers and crashed aircraft carriers as obstacles. Another is The Night Club Challenge, a mini-game of sorts featuring various tasks to complete that get harder as you advance. These are limited in scope and, while providing a nice change of pace, aren’t particularly memorable.

The more I played Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Golf, however, the more I realized how incomplete it really is. Not only are there significantly fewer courses (eight real ones and four fictional ones) and playable real-world golfers (12) than the series has had in years, but the modes are very straightforward and lack depth. On the career path, for example, it only took a few in-game weeks before I was repeating the same course for a different tournament – something that never happens in real life during a season. While the visuals are moderately impressive, the career progression feels extremely dry; I’m no more emotionally invested in my created character than I am with my morning cup of coffee. While I’m not exactly clamoring for theatrical dramatics, it would be nice to have something to do other than simply show up to a tournament, change my outfits, pick a few new clubs, and get out on the course. Heck, I can’t even see a calendar of events coming up; next week I could be playing for a major championship or competing in a meaningless pro-am.

The lack of personality in the career mode is laid bare by the one interesting addition. Instead of a basic tutorial, you’re immersed in the final round of the U.S. Open as McIlroy himself; he describes what the game means to him and how he approaches different challenges. The commentary focuses in on very specific events, and the camera angles combine television shots and ‘you are there’-style camera views to produce a story that also teaches you the basics of playing the game. Once that’s over, though, you’re tossed into a menu-driven, threadbare experience. It’s a tease.

The career mode shines compared to online play, however. The core features work - you play in real time against other players, and each individual is able to take shots without waiting for anyone else to take theirs - but with virtually no commentary or ambient noise, it’s very difficult to remain engaged. Even worse, the golfers you’re competing against pop up on screen indiscriminately to take their shots, then they disappear afterwards. It’s distracting and unpleasant. I hope that as the game matures, the experience will improve. As of now, though, there’s no clear indication of how EA will be supporting Rory McIlroy moving forward.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is, at launch, perfectly ordinary. Its solid mechanics and adequate visuals are not supported by extensive modes or a significant amount of content, and it’s difficult to see how it will maintain much appeal over extended play time without an infusion of more courses and players. It’s entirely possible that EA will add that - and more - over time, but right now Rory McIlroy’s (golf) bag of tricks is pretty empty.

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EA SPORTS™ Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR®

Golf without limits in EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR. Usher in the next generation of golf with the power of the Frostbite 3 engine and play the most beautiful sports game to date with no load times, enabling you to explore authentic tournament courses or unique fantasy environments, opening up your golf experience like never before. Don’t just play the course, explore it! Use of PSN and SEN account are subject to the Terms of Service and User Agreement and applicable privacy policy (see terms at sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/terms-of-service & sonyentertainmentnetwork.com/privacy-policy). *Online multiplayer also requires a PlayStation®Plus subscription. 1-4 players Network Players 2-8 200MB minimum save size DUALSHOCK®4 1080p HD Video Output Online Play (Optional) Software subject to license (us.playstation.com/softwarelicense). Online activity subject to Terms of Services and User Agreement (www.playstationnetwork.com/terms-of-service). Download is subject to the PlayStation®Network Terms of Service and User Agreement and any specific additional conditions applying to this item. If you do not wish to accept these terms, do not download this item. Purchasing account will be required to log in to PlayStation®Network to use the content. © 2015 Electronic Arts Inc. The mark 'Rory McIlroy' is a trademark of Rory McIlroy and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Rory McIlroy. The name, image, likeness, and other attributes of Rory McIlroy reproduced in this product are trademarks, and/or other forms of intellectual property of Rory McIlroy, used under license by Electronic Arts Inc. PGA TOUR, TPC, and the Swinging Golfer Design are trademarks of PGA TOUR, Inc. and are used under license by Electronic Arts Inc.

Rory McIlroy: ‘I believe on my day I’m the best player in the world’

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – After a fruitful season that saw him win THE PLAYERS Championship and his second FedExCup, Rory McIlroy put away the clubs for the final month of 2019 and gave himself space to reflect on his accomplishments.

He won four times in the calendar year, capping it off with his victory at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions. He also posted the best Strokes Gained season by a player not named Tiger Woods.

It was that consistency that made McIlroy most pleased. He finished in the top 10 in 19 of 25 worldwide starts last year.

“I think my ability to score, the ability to keep momentum going during a round -- and that's mostly to do with short game, missing a green, getting up‑and‑down and holing that crucial putt -- not focusing so much on the technical side of the game, focusing on the scoring side of the game, not looking at my swing as much on the camera, a lot of that stuff has really helped,” he said Wednesday evening at THE PLAYERS STADIUM Course at TPC Sawgrass. It was his first time at the course since his win last March.

THE PLAYERS was his first of three wins in the 2018-19 season. He also claimed the RBC Canadian Open with a final-round 61 and capped the season with the TOUR Championship to join Tiger Woods as the only two-time FedExCup champions. McIlroy also won the PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award for the third time.

No one has successfully defended the FedExCup – Woods won his in 2007 and 2009 – but McIlroy is off to a strong start this season. He finished third in THE ZOZO Championship, six strokes behind Woods, and won the WGC-HSBC Champions in November. McIlroy is fifth in this season’s standings.

McIlroy said Wednesday that he played just twice in December – Jack Nicklaus’ charity event on the first of the month and a casual round with his father, Gerry, at Seminole. A trip to Ireland and Ashford Castle, where he got married in 2017, was part of his itinerary.

“I just switched off, which was nice,” McIlroy said. “Once I got back to the States on New Year’s Day, I got the clubs out of the closet and started to practice.”

His coach, Michael Bannon, will join him next week in Jupiter, Florida, as McIlroy prepares for his 2020 debut at the Farmers Insurance Open. McIlroy said his swing feels good despite the long layoff, but he’s hesitant to look at it on camera as he tries to move away from mechanical thoughts.

“Previously some years I’ve tried to be too perfect, I’ve tried to do stuff with my swing. Now, in the New Year, for the last nearly week I haven’t seen my swing on camera once, … and I’m almost hesitant to see it because I’m hitting it good and I’m feeling good,” he said. “Everyone thinks that I’m a feel player, but there’s a lot of technical stuff that can get in there, too.

“I really want to play with as much feel as possible.”

Adding to his historic resume is what drives McIlroy, who turned 30 in 2019. He’s entering a stage of his life that’s long been considered a golfer’s prime.

“I believe on my day I’m the best player in the world and I think I can do that for a long time,” he said. “For the foreseeable future, I feel like I can be the best player in the world, and I want to make the most of that. I think with all the experience that I have and what I’ve learned over these past 10 years, I think I can make the next 10 even better.”

Sean Martin manages PGATOUR.COM’s staff of writers as the Lead, Editorial. He covered all levels of competitive golf at Golfweek Magazine for seven years, including tournaments on four continents, before coming to the PGA TOUR in 2013. Follow Sean Martin on Twitter .

EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR Gameplay Features

In EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR , we wanted to give you the ability to customize your gameplay experience to your liking.

There are three gameplay styles to choose from: Arcade, Classic and Tour.

This style uses a simple analog swing mechanic that is familiar for to those who have played previous games in the versions of  PGA TOUR  franchise. The length of your backswing determines the power of your shot, while keeping your swing on plane will affects accuracy.

Additionally, aids like power boost, spin, and an aiming arc will help make this style the most accessible. It’s like slipping right back into a comfortable, broken-in pair of golf spikes.

Remember how you used to push the “A Button” back in the day to set the power, then tap it again to lock in accuracy? Classic controls bring those days back, using a 3-Click meter to determine how far your shot goes and how accurate you hit it.

However, this isn’t some rookie mode though, you’ve got to get the timing just right to hit the perfect shot. You also can’t add spin after the fact, so if the ball starts veering off-line you’ll just have to be ready to deal with the consequences.

The true pros will want to try out the Tour control scheme, as it feels the closest to the real thing. The length of your backswing and the speed of the follow-through set the power, while accuracy is determined by how straight a line you make with the analog stick.

There are no assists such as spin, zoom and aiming arc. Just you, the club and the ball.

There's also an option to customize your gameplay style to your liking, borrowing elements from each style. Want to use the 3-Button settings but also add mid-air spin? Done.

Play the game your way and find the setup that’s most comfortable for you.

We’ve done a lot of work to make sure the game feels like it’s giving you appropriate feedback and helpful visual indicators. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s new and how it works.

We’ve introduced/developed the Aiming Arc to help you visualize various aspects of the game. The arc will account for wind, elevation, ball lie and shot shaping, which will passively teach you the nuances of the game.

If you connect with a perfect swing, the ball will go where the arc shows. The best golfers in the world can visualize their shots before they even take them, and now you can too.

THE PUTT READ

The putt read shows you how your ball will break if hit with optimal speed. The key here is aiming at the right distance – and also making a pure stroke.

BACKSWING METER

The new backswing meter lets you know when you’ve reached the end of your backswing, based on the shot you have set up. When you start your backswing, the meter will begin to fill. When you reach the end of your backswing, the meter will be full, and a forward swing should be initiated.

Be careful when playing Tour gameplay style, because you can over-extend your backswing and the meter will overfill red.

PERFECT TIMING

SWING PLANE

When playing on Tour or Arcade, it’s important to remember to follow the proper swing plane. If your swing is off-line, this will result in your shot either hooking or slicing.

This is indicated by either a yellow or orange line tracing your backswing.

AUTHENTIC BALL DROPS

Even though courses are more open than ever before, there are still rules in golf and there are certain areas where you can’t play a ball.

In the event your ball goes into a hazard, you are given realistic options for where you can take a drop.

If you hit your ball into a water hazard without a designated drop zone, you have a few options.

You can either replay the ball from where you took your previous shot, drop a new ball within two club-lengths of the point of entry, or take your next shot from any point behind where the ball entered the hazard, in line with the pin.

The options change a bit if you happen to dunk a shot on a hole where a drop zone is present. You can either hit your next shot from the previous location, or play it from the designated drop zone.

If you hit into an unplayable lie (imagine the ball getting stuck in a tree or between rocks where you can’t make a swing) then you can play your next shot from anywhere back on a line with the pin behind the unplayable spot.

That’s a small taste of what you can expect when you get your hands on  EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR . We’ll have lots more info for you about all the different elements of the game coming soon. See you on the links!

EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR  is available to pre-order now. Order your copy today .

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Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Review

Swing and a miss.

By Josiah Renaudin on July 24, 2015 at 11:06AM PDT

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a shallow, lifeless golf game--rich in technical failings but bankrupt of interesting content. The game types are limited, the number of players and courses is laughably small, and the textures awkwardly pop in and out of view as the camera scrolls across a course. Actually swinging a club and mapping out shots feels right, but whatever goodwill is earned on the course evaporates as you pull away to discover the unimpressive Pro Career mode and the restrictive nature of even the basic Play Now feature. The fresh face on the cover and fancy new game engine can't mask the fact that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is an undercooked debut that feels like half of a game.

It starts strong, at least, with a detailed tutorial on the various swing styles that provide you with more freedom than ever before. There are three set swing types: a basic analog stick setup where power is determined by the backswing, a more complex version where the follow-through is also taken into account, and the classic three-button press system. If none of the above suits your style, a custom swing option allows you to combine elements of each approach into a personalized pairing of preferences. You can determine if you'd like to be able to hit power shots, zoom in on the trajectory of your ball, see how the wind shapes its flight, and even closely control its spin. Whether you'd like to play Rory McIlroy PGA Tour as a sports simulation or an over-the-top arcade game, the options are there.

No matter what style you choose, taking a smooth backswing and making solid contact with the ball feels authentic, and the putting is challenging without feeling punishing. A dashed line represents the path of your ball from its place on the green to the hole, which takes into account the putt's speed and break. It takes time to correctly read greens with steep hills or sharp ridges, but watching a 20-foot putt bend from right to left and clink at the bottom of the cup is very satisfying.

Other than the lack of load screens between holes and an improved putting system, the swing selection is the only area where Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is bigger and better than what's come before it. The number of real-life courses has been more than halved, with only eight locations that golfers will actually recognize. There are four additional make-believe locations, but none of them make up for the fact that you can't experience the Masters at one of the most famous courses of all time, Augusta National. If that’s not disappointing enough, there are just 12 playable golfers--about a quarter of what previous games have trained us to expect.

Fewer golfers wouldn't be all that damning if the character creator was even passable, but what's available is one of the worst customization tools ever stuffed into a sports game. There are so few options when creating your custom golfer that it's nearly impossible to make a character that you can even pretend looks like you, unless yours happens to match one of the 11 pre-set heads or three body types provided. Instead of feeling like you're starting your own unique career on the PGA Tour, the barebones tools force you to role-play as some anonymous young golfer straight out of a stock photo.

You take this indistinct, cookie-cutter avatar through a single lower-level Web.com event, and from there, you're off to the races. There's no grand buildup, no scenes of your collegiate career, and no narrative to push you forward. You go from tournament to tournament, either competing in quick rounds where you play five or six of the most important holes per day or going through all 72 holes with the hope of becoming the world's number one golfer. But without any sort of subsidiary content to complement the tournaments--such as a story, drills, or even a schedule to outline your goals--the Pro Career can quickly devolve into an unexciting slog devoid of drama.

The only saving grace is the fact that your character raises levels, earns new clubs, and unlocks additional outfits just about every time you complete a round of 18. This sense of progression makes the gauntlet of tournaments much more palatable, as you're able to see your power, accuracy, and spin vastly improve and lead to pretty shots and even prettier scorecards worth hanging on the fridge. You don't manually add points to specific aspects of your game, but you can choose from different packages that might focus on power, accuracy, or more balanced play.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt.

Unfortunately, the bleak only gets bleaker as you venture outside of the career, where the online community-based Country Club and popular modes like Skins, Best Ball, and Battle Golf have all been removed. Online tournaments and head-to-head play give you some reason to test your created golfer against players more savvy than the AI, but the utter lack of gameplay variety is disappointing.

If you find yourself hungry for something--anything--new to grab on to, a fresh Night Club Challenge mode is available. This extended series of challenges has you landing balls in small circles and through floating hoops to earn points, but a mid-air nitrous boost just isn't enough to make target practice drills any fun. You can earn three stars per level--similar to most popular mobile games--but the deeper you travel down the road of challenges, the less it feels like golf.

Even outside this neon-lit, objective-based playground lie moments that, again, don't feel like anything you'd find on the real PGA Tour. Sinking birdie putts as your created player often leads to a shot of him or her awkwardly busting out the robot or the sprinkler--and while I don't think golf needs to be some sacred pursuit devoid of humor, the celebrations feel completely out of place.

Additionally, the commentary sporadically mismatches its messages with what's actually taking place on-screen. Even though I sliced my ball out of bounds and into the trees at St. Andrews, both commentators talked about how unfortunate it was that I just hit it into the water--despite my ball being completely dry. After that, they mentioned how my approach shot had too much speed and not enough backspin as they watched it softly land on the back of the green and spin backward toward the front hole location. Like most other aspects of the game, the commentary is careless.

Rory McIlroy PGA Tour fails to pair its solid mechanics with diverse and interesting content, and its myriad technical failings drag the otherwise picturesque courses into the dirt. There are just too few courses and golfers to keep you playing, and even the limited game modes available don't have anywhere near the complexity or depth we've come to expect. Whether you want to call it a shank, a duff, or a whiff, all that really matters is that Rory McIlroy PGA Tour is a poor effort from a series that was looking to make a splash in its generational debut.

• Leave Blank
• Different swing styles give players more control on the course
• Putting is both challenging and rewarding
• Disappointingly small roster and course selection
• Dull career mode weighed down by paltry character creation tool
• Textures pop in and out of focus constantly
• Most of the interesting modes you’ve come to expect are absent

About the Author

Josiah Renaudin

• @JosiahRenaudin

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Rory McIlroy: 2024 PGA Championship Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, we are very pleased with welcome Rory McIlroy to the 106th PGA Championship. I believe you all saw the statement yesterday from Rory's communication team specifically that he will not be making any additional comments on his private life, so thank you all for respecting his wishes.

A win on Sunday at Quail Hollow and you won the last major championship here at Valhalla ten years ago. How do you feel coming into this week?

RORY McILROY: I feel good. Obviously had a great day on Sunday at a golf course that I've grown to love over the years and had a lot of success at, coming to a venue where I've had some success at before as well.

Obviously get to go back to Quail Hollow every year. Don't really get to come back here too much. Today was the first time I was on the golf course since ten years ago, so it was good to refamiliarize myself with the place.

The golf course is a little different than it was ten years ago, a little longer. A couple little minor changes but for the most part pretty much the same that I can remember from ten years ago.

But yeah, look, game feels good coming off the back of two wins, a fun one in New Orleans with Shane, and then a really good performance last week.

Just trying to keep the momentum going.

Q. How long has it been since you had this level of confidence in your game, and what other than the victories, what in the technical part of it is giving you that confidence?

RORY McILROY: Yes, I would say -- I think I was asked this question last week. I went on a run last summer, sort of from -- it was actually after this tournament. I felt like my game wasn't in really good shape after Oak Hill. Sort of needed to reset, work on a few things.

But then I came back out. I played Memorial, Canada, U.S. Open, Travelers, Scottish Open, Open, Playoffs. That stretch of golf, I think I had, like, ten top 10s in a row. I got the win in Scotland.

So my game felt pretty -- it doesn't seem like that long ago that my game has felt this good. But I would say from a technical standpoint, some of the shots that I hit last week, some of the three-quarter shots, some of the wedge shots, some of the iron shots, combined with, you know, how good I feel with the driver at the minute, you know, when I can see those three-quarter shots and those wedge shots going and starting on the right line, you know, that obviously gives me a lot of confidence.

Q. We've talked through the years about how you've tried to go back to a mentality of just show up somewhere, play a practice round, and then go out there and play free. When you come back here, do you think of the mentality that you had when you won here ten years ago, and do you try to use that again?

RORY McILROY: Sometimes I struggle to remember what I did yesterday. So I don't -- I think if I look that far back, I mean, it's hard to rekindle those feelings and those memories. I can vaguely remember, you know, coming here off the back of winning The Open and the old WGC at Akron.

But you know, I think it's all about confidence and momentum, and I have a lot of confidence and quite a bit of momentum coming into this week. So as I said at the start, it's just about trying to keep that going.

But as you say, like trying to play with freedom, I think this is a golf course that allows you to play with freedom because it's a big golf course. The corridors are wide, not too dissimilar to last week at Quail Hollow, so you can open your shoulders up off the tee and try to take your chances from there.

Q. Can I ask you about Jimmy's board resignation, what you thought about that and what the implications might be in your mind?

RORY McILROY: Yeah, honestly I think it's a huge loss for the PGA TOUR, if they are trying to get this deal done with the PIF and trying to unify the game.

Jimmy was basically "the" relationship, the sort of conduit between the PGA TOUR and PIF. It's been really unfortunate that he has not been involved for the last few months, and I think part of the reason that everything is stalling at the minute is because of that.

So it is, it's really, really disappointing, and you know, I think the TOUR is in a worse place because of it. We'll see. We'll see where it goes from here and we'll see what happens.

But you know, I would say my confidence level on something getting done before last week was, you know, as low as it had been and then with this news of Jimmy resigning and knowing the relationship he has with the other side, and how much warmth there is from the other side, it's concerning.

Q. So Shane Lowry mentioned that you told him that what you had off the tee, the driver at Zurich was the best you've ever driven the ball and you also said you like to play your way into form. Why is it that you are able to play your way into form?

RORY McILROY: So from a driving perspective, yeah, I think it's -- honestly it's probably the best driver I've had in the last few years.

I've really gotten comfortable with the driver, and I think some of the technical things in my swing are just a little bit better, and I'm -- the good drives are still very good but the bad drives aren't as bad so the misses aren't as wild.

And then -- sorry, what was the second part of the question?

Q. Just you've always historically said you like to play your way into form. Why is that the case for you?

RORY McILROY: Play into form. For me, it's not -- I can -- I can stand all day on a driving range and hit balls and not really learn anything. Because I think so many of us out here have got such great hands and have hit so many golf balls in our lifetime that we are just going to be able to figure it out some way. So you know, change a little feeling here or there. So to me, I learn the most about my game just by playing. I've played a lot this year. I've sort of figured out where my weaknesses are, what my tendencies are, how I can manage my game better, and yeah, I just -- after the win in New Orleans, I didn't pick up a club for six days. I hit balls for a couple of hours at The Grove on Sunday before going to Quail Hollow and I go and produce a performance like that.

I think you need to know yourself, and sometimes it's about grinding on the range and working on technical stuff, but at other times, it's just about getting on the golf course, playing with a card in your hand and understanding, you know, how you're playing a game.

I think that the one thing about golf, compared to any other sport is we don't practice on the field that we play on. So it would seem counterintuitive to spend all your time on the practice range instead of on the golf course. I've just tried to spend as much time on the golf course as I can.

Q. It's been quite a few years for you. How are your energy levels, and just on a personal level, how are you doing?

RORY McILROY: I'm ready to play this week.

Q. Given the success of Europeans in other major championships, can you put your finger on why they have had relatively little success in this championship?

RORY McILROY: I mean, I think if you think of quintessential American golf, I think golf courses that we go to for the PGA Championship are usually somewhat like these.

I would say Kiawah was a little bit different, or maybe even somewhere like Southern Hills a couple years ago. But yeah, I don't -- I mean, I don't know if I can put my finger on it. You know, it's the same thing. I think G-Mac was the first -- I don't know if he was the first European or the first British player to win the U.S. Open since Jacklin in 1970. These things are cyclical. I don't know if I can put my finger on it but just, you know, it's a big golf course, thick rough, soft-ish greens. That seems to be more of an American style of play.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for your time, Rory. We appreciate it.

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The PGA Tour needs Rory McIlroy at his best, especially now

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Of course, the story of the week is about him. How fitting. He's a book that can’t be put down.

Just so happens that Rory McIlroy is playing some of his best golf in years. He won his past two events , and he’s back at Valhalla, where he last won a major tournament 10 years ago. It’s a leggy golf course built to reward those who can mash drives a country mile. McIlroy tends to hit them about two miles.

“It's all about confidence and momentum,” McIlroy said Wednesday, “and I have a lot of confidence and quite a bit of momentum.”

Yes, the year's second major is at hand, and McIlroy, at long last, is perfectly tuned and has his swagger and …

Plot twist!

Why McIlroy chose this Monday of PGA Championship week to file for divorce from Erica Stoll , his wife of seven years, we may never know. McIlroy doesn’t want to talk about it . He was settling in for Wednesday’s pre-tournament press conference when a PGA rep announced to media members that McIlroy did not wish to comment on “his private life." It was easy to know what that meant.

With most pro golfers, and most athletes in general, their “private life" of love and relationships wouldn’t be all that newsworthy.

With McIlroy, TMZ first reported his divorce filing .

Excessive public attention over a painful personal dissolution would be a curse for anyone, and certainly for McIlroy’s chances this week. At the same time, it has further confirmed his stature as a bona fide, global sports celebrity. And that continues to make his presence a blessing for golf.

This sport needs a superstar like McIlroy at his best, especially now.

As you’re probably aware, pro golf isn’t in a good place . TV ratings are down . Popularity is waning. Casual fans are playing golf , but they are tuning out on watching it, having grown sick of the greed and selfishness and how none of what's happening is a reflection of what the public wants. These days, golf is mostly about division. It’s a weakened PGA Tour versus the villainous LIV Tour, which paid good players to make them basically disappear for all but four tournaments each year.

More: Jon Rahm ditched the PGA Tour for LIV Golf. So why is he talking like a PGA fanboy?

Meanwhile, a supposed reconciliation between tours, thus bringing the best golfers back together again, doesn’t appear close to happening. The latest alarming development was businessman Jimmy Dunne, a noted dealmaker in the sport, recently resigning from the PGA Tour’s Policy Board . “Really, really disappointing,” said McIlroy when asked about it. “I think the Tour is in a worse place because of it.”

With the PGA Tour clearly reeling, a lack of star power and personality isn’t helping.

Questions during McIlroy’s Wednesday press conference were cut off at only nine minutes, as if he’d only agreed to put himself through the ordeal if promised a quick exit.

Take note, though, that he still showed up.

That’s more than could be said for Xander Schauffele (world No. 3), who blew off his scheduled PGA press conference Tuesday afternoon. Three others high in the world rankings – Wyndham Clark (No. 4), Viktor Hovland (No. 7) and Patrick Cantlay (No. 8) – didn’t have an appearance scheduled at all.

McIlroy didn't have to be there to field questions. It says something that he did, given the events of this week, and it was on brand. McIlroy has been stepping up as a leading, thoughtful voice during the recent turmoil, and that has increased popularity that goes back to when he was a youngster first taking golf by storm. When McIlroy won the 2014 PGA Championship in dwindling daylight at Valhalla, it was his fourth major victory in three years.

“I thought at that point in time that we might see Rory win 10 major championships,” said Andy North, former golfer and ESPN analyst.

But now, McIlroy is 35 years old, and his most recent major victory is that PGA in 2014. Greatness has been elusive, but McIlroy remains a huge name who has a big game. His sport needs more of those.

The only golfer at the PGA this week with a bigger following is Tiger Woods , and he’s 48. The rare times that Tiger tees it up anymore, you’re holding your breath about him being physically able to finish.

More: At PGA Championship, Tiger Woods is looking to turn back time

Who's got next behind Woods and McIlroy as the face of the PGA Tour? It's tough to say.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler seems like a great dude with whom you’d enjoy hanging out. But bless his heart, he has no desire to be that celebrity we can't stop talking about. Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm were bought out by LIV, and as for once-promising talents like Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth or Rickie Fowler, their games have too often been letting them down of late.

The public’s appetite still exists for golf, as proven by the success of Netflix’s wonderful “Full Swing” series that was allowed to go behind the curtain into golfers’ lives, highlighting who they really are. It was refreshing because that so rarely happens in this sport.

Take a guess who featured prominently in each of the show’s two seasons.

Yup. McIlroy.

He’s that guy. Even more so, he doesn’t mind being that guy we all want to watch. If that guy can endure his personal drama and play himself into contention Sunday at Valhalla, a lot of eyes out there will be watching.

And golf, now more than ever, needs that.

Reach sports columnist Gentry Estes at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

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Rory McIlroy's Divorce Surprises His Fla. Community: 'People Are Wondering What Happened' (Exclusive Sources)

A source close to the pro golfer tells PEOPLE McIlroy is "so private that there wasn't a lot of speculation concerning his family life"

Linda Marx is a writer and reporter for PEOPLE in the areas of entertainment, politics, sports, fashion, travel, design, human interest, lifestyle and art. She has been writing about these topics for more than 20 years.

Rory McIlroy 's split from Erica Stoll has left members of his Florida community surprised, sources close to the pro golfer tell PEOPLE.

McIlroy, 35, and Stoll, 36, were married for seven years before he filed a petition to dissolve their marriage on May 13 in Florida.

“Rory is fairly down to earth for such a big star,” a source tells PEOPLE. “However, he is very private and can be nice to be around but he just does NOT love the limelight," the insider adds.

A second source tells PEOPLE that members in the exclusive Bear's Club golf course, where McIlroy plays in Jupiter, Fla., “are talking about this and wondering what happened.”

McIlroy is "so private that there wasn't a lot of speculation concerning his family life," the source explains, adding, “We are wondering what happened.”

PEOPLE confirmed that McIlroy filed for divorce on May 13. The couple share one daughter,  Poppy , who they welcomed on Aug. 31, 2020.

Days after the filing, McIlroy noticeably ditched his wedding ring while competing in the PGA Championship on May 16 at the Valhalla Golf Club.

Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images

That same day, Stoll was spotted without her engagement ring during an outing in Jupiter.

The couple met during the 2012 Ryder Cup when Stoll was working as a transport official for the tour, but kept their relationship platonic until 2014.

McIlroy had been dating tennis player  Caroline Wozniacki when he met Stoll in 2012.  McIlroy and Wozniacki got engaged  on New Year's Eve in 2013 but  he broke things off a few months later after they sent out their wedding invitations.

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In a 2016 interview with  The Independent , the golfer said maintaining his friendship with Stoll helped their eventual romance. "The thing I love about it is that we were friends before anything romantic happened," he said, adding that he "found it refreshing" to be with someone "who was living a normal life."

"We ended up spending a bit of time together and realized that there was something more there," McIlroy said of Stoll at the time.

Despite her relationship with the golf star, Stoll has largely stayed out of the spotlight. She keeps her Instagram account set to private and McIlroy has spoken about her preference to keep her personal life away from the public.

During an interview with the  Irish   Independent shortly after the couple got engaged, McIlroy said, "Erica has been around me quite a lot at tournaments but we have really just tried to keep it low-key. She is a very low-key person, not the kind to broadcast stuff, but that side of my life is really good just now."

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2024 PGA Championship leaderboard: Xander Schauffele surges to top with Rory McIlroy in pursuit after Round 1

Schauffele has once again set the pace at a major championship, but will he follow through at valhalla golf club.

Stop if you've heard this before: Xander Schauffele has a chance to a win a big-time golf tournament. The 30-year-old was flawless Thursday at Valhalla Golf Club opening his 2024 PGA Championship with a record-setting 62 to take the solo lead.

Schauffele heads into Friday's second round with a three-stroke lead over Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala, a position he is all too familiar with. A first-round leader just last week in Charlotte and just last year in Los Angeles at the U.S. Open, Schauffele is no stranger to starting fast and playing high-level golf over the span of multiple days.

"Probably, yeah [I'm playing the best golf of my career]," Schauffele said after completing his first round in Louisville. "I feel there's spurts, moments in time where you feel like you can control the ball really well, you're seeing the greens really well, you're chipping really well. But over a prolonged period, it's tough to upkeep high performance. Yeah, I'd say it's very close to it if not it."

The Olympic gold medalist is undoubtedly playing the best golf of his career despite his hesitation to claim as much. He entered this week's championship ranked second worldwide in total strokes gained this year -- trailing only world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler -- but while the statistics and numbers are all fine and dandy, the lack of trophies is all anyone can talk about.

It's not as if Schauffele doesn't know how to win -- he does have seven PGA Tour victory and a gold medal to his name -- it's just that failure in big moments has become all too common since his last triumph nearly two years ago.

This year alone, there was the Players Championship where two late bogeys and a red-hot Scheffler derailed Schauffele's chances of capturing his biggest title to date. And just last week, there was the Wells Fargo Championship where a four-stroke lead at the halfway point somehow turned into the Rory McIlroy show come Sunday.

"I think not winning makes you want to win more, as weird as that is," Schauffele said. "For me, at least, I react to it, and I want it more and more and more, and it makes me want to work harder and harder and harder. The top feels far away, and I feel like I have a lot of work to do. But just slowly chipping away at it."

Schauffele's talent is undeniable; his skillset might be as well-rounded as they come in professional golf, and he only continues to improve as noted by subtle changes like a not-so-subtle increase in clubhead speed this year alone.

We saw it on full display Thursday -- and there is a good chance we see it over the next couple days as well -- but even Schauffele knows in his heart of hearts that he'll need to show it when it matters most (or it may not matter at all).

"It's a great start to a big tournament," Schauffele said. "One I'm obviously always going to take. It's just Thursday. That's about it."

2024 PGA Championship, Round 1 leaderboard

T2. Tony Finau, Sahith Theegala (-6): Finau enjoyed plenty of major championship success early in his career -- just not a whole lot recently. His bogey-free 65 marks the lowest opening round of his major career, and it comes courtesy of hitting 16 greens in regulation and gaining more than three strokes with the putter. Finau's flatstick isn't the most cooperative club in his bag, but if it persists into the weekend, the rest of his game should be up to the task.

T4. Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Tom Kim and three others (-5): It was a little bit of an odd first nine holes for McIlroy as he opened with two birdies in his first four holes and then took on some water (literally). A bogey on No. 17 was followed by a big-right miss with the driver on the 18th, resulting in his tee ball finding the water. In the middle of his round, McIlroy missed five straight fairways and somehow came out of that stretch in even-par fashion. It might not seem like much, but that's massive at a course like Valhalla, and it set the stage for a fast finish that included three straight birdies from Nos. 5-7.

"I sort of felt like it was pretty scrappy for the most part," McIlroy said. "I don't really feel like I left many out there. I thought I got a lot out of my game today: some good up-and-downs, the chip-in on 6. I had a little bit of a scrappy part around the turn there, but overall, really happy with -- not really happy with how I played but at least happy with the score."

T10. Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler and six others (-4): The defending champion is right there. Koepka was in neutral most of the day but finished with a flurry of blows, including an eagle on No. 7 and a long-distance connection on No. 8. The five-time major champion was sensational from tee to green and made next to nothing with the putter outside of the birdie on his second-to-last hole. That club has been somewhat problematic in 2024, but it wouldn't be shocking if it turns into a weapon over the next 54.

Meanwhile, Scheffler was shot out of a cannon. He announced his return to golf in the form of an opening-hole eagle from the middle of the fairway on No. 1 . The top player in the game navigated Valhalla without much stress leading the field in strokes gained tee to green (shocker) -- even while leaving a couple short putts out there. Still, Scheffler is on the first two pages of the leaderboard, and despite being five strokes off the 18-hole pace, he's the name others are eyeing.

T18. Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith, Max Homa and 10 others (-3): How far back is too far back after 18 holes? Well, history suggests six is the magic number, meaning these heavy hitters still have a chance for a slice of immortality. The big four of this group all got to the 3-under number in varying fashions as DeChambeau and Homa were sluggish out the gate while Hovland and Smith surged early. DeChambeau must be the favorite of the bunch to make a significant move as he hit nine fairways, averaged over 310 yards off the tee and connected on 15 greens in regulation. His approach numbers look nice on paper, but they are skewed thanks to his hole-out eagle on No. 7 -- the irons will need to be better if he wants to get back into this championship.

T31. Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry, Keegan Bradley and eight others (-2): Three birdies in his opening four holes put the grand slam conversation at the top of everyone's mind. Spieth surged early thanks to some strong driving, which has been the case most of the year, but he wasn't able to do much after. He dropped a couple shots and wasn't able to take care of the par-5 7th, turning a round of 67 into a 69. He just can't be doing that given the state of his game and the state of others' games well ahead of him.

T46. Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama and 18 others (-1):  It was a gutsy performance from Rahm on Thursday. The early portion of his round was filled with curse words, club throws and moments where he looked truly miserable. The two-time major champion was 4 over through his first six holes but played his last 12 in 5 under to sneak into red figures. He might have done too much damage, but he also may have saved his chances to potentially add the third leg of the career grand slam.

Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter and Greg DuCharme recap the opening round of the 2024 PGA Championship from Valhalla. Follow & listen to The First Cut on  Apple Podcasts  and  Spotify .

Morikawa cards 66

The 2020 champion plays his last 13 holes in 7 under to shoot a sensational 6-under 65. Morikawa starred at the Masters just last month and is consistently one of those guys who factors in major championship no matter his form coming into the week. While he insists his ball striking has improved, Morikawa was carried heavily by the short game today.

Tom Kim fires 5-under 66

The youngster is right in the mix after a very nice opening 66 in the afternoon wave. Tom Kim was a sneaky runner-up finisher at last year's Open on a bum ankle and looks to have taken that experience to heart. Biggest thing of note from Kim's round today wasn't anything on the scorecard, but it looked like he added some major pop in the bat.

A look at the statistical profiles

Both Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler are inside the top 10 in strokes gained tee to green. Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler are both losing strokes with the putter. Scheffler just dropped a shot on the par-3 14th as he needed 3 putts from 30 feet. He's got a couple birdie chances remaining and will hope to take advantage of both and get in the house at 5 under or so.

Collin comin'

The 2020 champion is MOWING through Valhalla at the moment. He has made six birdies in his last nine holes including two different stretches of three straight. He stands at 4 under and has one of the best rounds of the afternoon wave going. Let's see if he can keep this going after a pretty poor start to his week.

Scheffler lets chance slip by

Dang, that's a tough one. Scottie Scheffler misses a 4 footer on the par-5 10th to push it to 4 under and will instead remain at 3 under. The back nine is playing slightly more difficult than the front nine so far today with the overall course average hovering around +0.50 over par. It should be noted this is pretty skewed due to some PGA professionals.

Thomas Detry low man on the course

The big-hitting Belgian is proving to be THAT guy in the afternoon wave. Thomas Detry is 4 under through his first 10 holes and faces a nice chance to get even closer to Xander Schauffele. Schauffele's lead is safe, but players probably need to be within roughly six strokes to feel OK about their chances.

Scottie finds another

The world No. 1 gets back to 3 under thanks to a birdie on the par-5 7th. Wyndham Clark — in the same group — gets into red figures for the first time today with a birdie of his own as well. There aren't quite the fireworks out there right now, but those might start to come once this star-studded group (who started on the front unlike this morning) get to the back nine.

Rahm rowing in the wrong direction

The former world No. 1 looks … really … really bad. He is now 4 over through his first six holes and looks all out of sorts. A couple three putts, a couple of poor approach shots and some not-so-great driving has him heading in the wrong direction. He needs to find something over his next 12 to stay within touch.

Scottie slips up

After making a nice 12 footer for birdie on No. 4, Scottie gives it right back on No. 5. Scheffler hit his second into the greenside bunker and did his best to put it close ultimately settling 10 feet away. He was unable to convert and is now 3 under for the championship and six back.

Rough start for Rahm

While Scottie Scheffler has sizzled early, Jon Rahm has cooled. The two-time major champion is 2 over through his first four holes and has work to do to stay there with a couple of very difficult par 4s up ahead of him. An hour into his opening round, Rahm finds himself 11 strokes off the lead.

Remember me?

Scottie Scheffler's first two shots of his tournament:

1. Drive 323 yards to fairway

2. Iron from 167 yards to bottom of the cup.

Just a friendly reminder of who this tournament goes through.

Scottie gets his PGA underway

Let's see what Scottie Scheffler will do with a round of 9 under posted up there. It's been about a month since we last saw him running the world of golf with four wins in his last five starts including two in a row. Scheffler was the 36-hole leader in this championship last year before finishing T2. I am going to guess he shoots 65 today.

Koepka finishes fast for opening 67

The defending champion is in it again. Thanks to a late flurry, Brooks Koepka opens with a 4-under 67 and is five off the pace of Xander Schauffele. He is only two behind second place and it is courtesy in large part to an eagle on the par-5 7th (his 16th hole) and another birdie on the par-3 8th.

Rory right there with opening 66

After a weird back-and-forth opening nine, Rory McIlroy races to the finish line with a 5-under 66. McIlroy comes home in 4-under 31 thanks to three birdies in a row from Nos. 5-7, one of which came in the form of a chip in on the most difficult hole on the golf course. McIlroy is in position again to break his decade-long major drought.

Schauffele shoots 62 to set new PGA Championship scoring record

He's done it again. Xander Schauffele fires a 9-under 62 in Round 1 at Valhalla to take control of this championship and set a couple records along the way. Schauffele becomes the first man to shoot multiple rounds of 62 in major championship history as he was the last do so at the 2023 U.S. Open. He clips the prior PGA record of 63 which was set by 18 others before him and also the Valhalla course record which was previously held by Jose Maria Olazabal. 

Schauffele eyes scoring record

The lowest round in major championship history is 62 last shot by … Xander Schauffele. It is that very man who looks to break it as he has gotten to 9 under on the par 71 through his first 16 holes. Another birdie will give Schauffele the record alone as he is blitzing Valhalla at the moment. 

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Highlights: PGA Championship Day 2

PGA Championship Highlights: Scottie Scheffler's 2nd Round

On-Site Recap: Scottie Scheffler Shoots 66 Following Arrest

On-Site Recap: Xander Schauffele Leads After 2nd Round

On-Site Recap: Colin Morikawa (-11) Cards 5 Straight Birdies, 2nd RD 65

On-Site Recap: Player To Watch On Moving Day

PGA Round 2 Preview: Rory McIlroy

PGA Championship Round 2 Playing Conditions

Scottie Scheffler Arrested And Released Prior To Round 2

Breaking News: Scottie Scheffler Has Been Arrested And Released

Breaking News: Scottie Scheffler Has Been Detained By Authorities

Breaking news: scottie scheffler has been detained and released by police.

Breaking News: Scottie Scheffler Has Been Detained By Police

On-Site Recap: Expectations For A Rainy Round 2

Xander Shauffele (-9) Sets PGA Championship Record With 1st RD 62

On-Site Recap: Brooks Koepka (-4) Finishes Strong

On-Site Recap: Xander Shauffele's First Round

On-Site Recap: Scottie Scheffler's First Round

On-Site: Rory McIlroy (-5), 3 Shots Off Lead

Can Rory McIlroy cut through the noise to win the PGA Championship?

"Pardon The Interruption" hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon debate if Rory McIlroy can break his 10-year drought in the majors this weekend. (1:41)

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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky -- The last time Rory McIlroy walked the 18th fairway of Valhalla Golf Club, it was a race against time in the final round of the 2014 PGA Championship.

After rallying from a 3-stroke deficit at the turn to chase down Rickie Fowler , Phil Mickelson and Henrik Stenson , McIlroy hit a 9-iron out of a fairway bunker to 10 feet on the 17th hole and made birdie to take a 2-stroke lead.

With darkness closing in fast following a nearly two-hour torrential rain delay, Mickelson and Fowler agreed to allow McIlroy and his playing partner, Austria's Bernd Wiesberger , to tee off before they reached their tee shots in the fairway, essentially playing the final hole as a foursome.

McIlroy nearly hit his tee shot on No. 18 into water down the right side of the fairway. Fowler and Mickelson stood to the side again, as McIlroy hit his approach shot into a greenside bunker and two-putted from 35 feet for par.

With a closing round of 3-under 68, McIlroy's 72-hole scoring total of 16-under 268 was one better than Mickelson, who made a birdie on the last hole.

"I'd say I'm a pretty, you know, nonconfrontational person," McIlroy said last week. "I'm not a huge fan of conflict, but when push comes to shove, I will. That was one of those times when I needed to sort of assert my will on a situation.

"I think if I wasn't as pushy as I was, I would have had to sleep on that lead and on that tee shot overnight. I just didn't want to do that. I think the guys up ahead were pretty unhappy with how it all unfolded. I got the result that I was looking for in the end and that's all that matters."

It was McIlroy's third consecutive victory that season -- and his second straight in a major championship after he was a wire-to-wire winner at The Open at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, three weeks earlier.

Having also captured the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship, McIlroy became the fourth-youngest golfer to win four majors at 25 years, 98 days. Only Young Tom Morris (21 years, 146 days), Tiger Woods (24 years, 206 days) and Jack Nicklaus (25 years, 81 days) were younger.

"I thought winning the Open a few weeks ago had sort of put me on a higher level in this game, but then to win a fourth major here, to be one behind Phil, one behind Seve [Ballesteros], level with Ernie [Els], level with Raymond Floyd, I mean, I never thought I'd get this far at 25 years of age," McIlroy said at the time.

"It's something that I'm just going to have to come to terms with in a way. I was happy being a two-time major champion coming into this year and all of a sudden I'm a four-time major champion."

STUNNINGLY, AS MCILROY returns to Valhalla Golf Club this week for another PGA Championship, he's still a four-time major championship winner. And in many ways, McIlroy is still racing against time -- both on and off the course.

McIlroy will be playing in his 36th major championship this week since last winning at Valhalla Golf Club on Aug. 10, 2014. If McIlroy lifts a third Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday, it will have been 3,570 days since his last major victory, which would be the eighth-longest span between wins in major championship history, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

Now 35 years old, McIlroy insists time isn't running out in his career.

"I look at my record in the majors over the last couple of years, and I've definitely started to perform much more consistently in them," McIlroy said earlier this year. "Look, I'm under no illusion that the clock is ticking and it has been 10 years since I've won one of them. I've had chances and those just haven't [gone] my way. I just need to keep putting myself in those positions and sooner or later it's going to happen."

It's not like McIlroy hasn't been contending in majors over the past nine-plus seasons. Since last winning at Valhalla, he has finished in the top 10 of a major 20 times, the most of any player during that span. Defending PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka is next, followed by Dustin Johnson (16) and Jordan Spieth (13).

Before tying for 22nd at the Masters in April, which was the 10th time he came up short in his quest to become the sixth player in the Masters era to complete the career Grand Slam by winning a green jacket, McIlroy had finished in the top 10 in seven of the past eight majors.

Since finishing first in the 2014 PGA Championship, McIlroy is a three-time FedEx Cup champion and has won 22 times on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the most of any player.

He'll once again head into a major in great form, having won in each of his past two starts. McIlroy and his good friend Shane Lowry captured the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans on April 28, then McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club for a record fourth time with a dominant 5-stroke victory Sunday.

"I've been sort of banging this drum for the last few years, but I'm a way better player now than I was back then," McIlroy said. "I haven't had the major record to back that up, but I've had the wins. I've done everything else there is to do in the game since 2014. The only thing I need to do is get another major. You know, a win like this going into the PGA Championship next week is a good way to prep for that."

It's the second straight time McIlroy will head to a PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club on a heater. In 2014, he was victorious in The Open and World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational before arriving in Louisville.

McIlroy said last week that he hadn't played at Valhalla, not even in a practice round, since last winning there.

"I really got some confidence," McIlroy said. "My golf swing feels a lot more comfortable than it has. So, going to a venue next week where I've won, it feels like the stars are lining [up] a little bit. But I've got a lot of golf to play and a lot of great players to try to beat next week. Going into the next major of the year feeling really good about myself."

MCILROY'S RECENT SUCCESS has come at a time when he has once again been engulfed by headlines off the course.

On Nov. 14, McIlroy unexpectedly resigned from the PGA Tour's policy board to focus on his golf game and interests off the course. His resignation came at a time when the PGA Tour was negotiating a potential deal with Strategic Sports Group (SSG) and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is financing the rival LIV Golf League.

Instead of quieting down, the noise surrounding McIlroy only seemed to get louder in recent weeks.

"Yeah, there is, but at the same time I think getting inside the ropes for that four or five hours or whatever it is a day, it's a nice escape from everything else that's going on in the world of golf," McIlroy said. "I don't mind it. I've always been able to compartmentalize pretty well. I seem to, for whatever reason, play very good golf whenever I have a lot of stuff going on."

McIlroy's life off the course is also undergoing big changes. On Monday, McIlroy filed for divorce from his wife, Erica, according to court records in family court in Palm Beach County, Florida. They have one daughter. The petition was filed confidentially, according to records.

In January, the PGA Tour secured a $1.5 billion investment from SSG, a consortium of American sports team owners and celebrities. But, as a framework agreement with the PIF expired and continued talks between the sides stalled, McIlroy wanted to become more involved in the negotiations. PGA Tour policy board player director Webb Simpson offered to step down -- as long as McIlroy replaced him.

McIlroy said last week that other player directors balked at him returning to the policy board. The PGA Tour announced Wednesday that McIlroy will be involved in negotiations with the Saudis as a nonvoting member of a newly formed transaction committee.

"Look, we tried to get to a compromise where, you know, I stuck my hand up and said, 'Look, I can be helpful if this is what Webb wants to do,'" McIlroy said. "It was really tricky to do that, so I'm involved in the transaction committee and that's basically to try to get this deal done with PIF. I feel like I've got good relationships on both sides there, and hopefully I can bring something to the table and try to provide some insight and value and see if we can get this thing done."

Woods, Spieth, Adam Scott , Patrick Cantlay and Peter Malnati are the other player directors on the policy board.

Tyler Dennis, the PGA Tour's chief competitions officer, said McIlroy's voice still matters -- even if he's not voting on the policy board.

"I would say that Rory's always been an incredible thought leader and his perspective is highly valued among everyone at the PGA Tour, and what you're seeing there is every player's thinking about, 'What is the best version of the PGA Tour?'" Dennis said. "Rory's thoughts are, I know, going to be highly valued by everybody."

MCILROY WAS ONE of the PGA Tour's most vocal supporters -- and one of LIV Golf's biggest critics -- during the first couple of years of its battle for the top golfers in the world. But McIlroy's position on LIV Golf members being allowed to return to the PGA Tour without punishment, and whether they should be permitted to compete in the Ryder Cup, has softened dramatically.

McIlroy's views on the sport's future ecosystem -- he foresees a time when the top players compete in tournaments around the world -- differs from other player directors and some of the tour's top stars.

"I think the PGA Tour has always been the best place to play and that's where all the eyes are," world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler told ESPN. "We tried a little bit of the world tour stuff with tournaments in China, Korea and stuff like that, and they hadn't really worked out.

"It's just what you're used to, and I think that's where we always go back to -- just being comfortable. Eight to 10 times [outside the U.S.] would be a lot just based on traveling and our bodies. I think that's a big ask, especially with people having families. The guys that come over from Europe and they play over here, they usually come over in stretches."

McIlroy referred to "old wounds and scar tissue" from the past when he was asked why others were uncomfortable with him returning to the policy board.

"If you're just thinking big picture and what's good for the game of golf and what's good for the Tom Kims of the world in 10 or 15 years' time and they're still playing professional golf, you want to set it up in a way where those younger guys have all the same opportunities -- if not more than the opportunities -- that we had at that time," McIlroy said. "So it's not really about the here and now. It is a little bit, but it's also about, 'How does this thing look 10, 15, 20 years down the line?'"

Last month, the PGA Tour issued $930 million in initial player equity grants to 192 of its members. McIlroy will reportedly receive $50 million, but the equity grants are based on a $12 billion evaluation of PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity that was created with SSG.

For the PGA Tour to increase its revenues that dramatically, it's going to have to make significant changes. McIlroy says he's willing to help, even if he's no longer on the policy board.

"I would say that golf and the PGA Tour [have] been so good to me over the years," McIlroy said, "I just feel like it's my obligation or duty to try to give back and try to set the next generation of players up like we were set up by the previous generation.

"So, Jack [Nicklaus], Arnie [Palmer], the guys that really helped build the PGA Tour and helped it thrive, and Tiger obviously, to get it to where it is today, I think there's a responsibility with every generation to try to leave the Tour, leave the place that you're playing in a bit of a better spot than it was before. That's what it's about."