20-Year-Old Rory McIlroy Wins Quail Hollow Tournament, Sets Course Record

If you’re only a casual golf enthusiast, you probably only vaguely remember Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy from his third-place finish at the PGA Championship last year. Now, without a doubt, he deserves far more attention than that.

After posting a 6-under score in Round 3, McIlroy capped off the Quail Hollow Tournament on Sunday with a 10-under Round 4. This sets a new PGA record -- by two strokes -- for the lowest single-round score at Quail Hollow.

From PGA.com, here are the tee times for the final round of action at Quail Hollow:

Round 3 of the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship ended just like Round 2 ended: with Billy Mayfair alone at the top. Mayfair shot 1-under, which was good enough to retain sole possession of the lead entering the tournament’s final round on Sunday.

Davis Love III shot himself into contention with a bogey-free Round 3. He birdied three of the last five holes to earn a second-place tie with Phil Mickelson, who shot 1-under.

Round 3 of the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship is underway. Here’s a quick look at the tee times for the golfers at the top of the leaderboard:

1:15 - Paul Goydos (-6 for tournament)

1:15 - Phil Mickelson (-6)

1:25 - Dustin Johnson (-6)

1:25 - J.P. Hayes (-6)

1:35 - Angel Cabrera (-7)

1:35 - Billy Mayfair (-8)

In the second round of the 2010 Quail Hollow Tournament, Billy Mayfair took sole possession of the lead. The 43-year-old shot 4-under to match his 4-under in the first round.

One stroke behind him at 7-under for the tournament is Angel Cabrera. An eagle on the seventh hole contributed to a 5-under for the round.

The second round of the 2010 Quail Hollow tournament has not been kind to Tiger Woods. Two consecutive double bogeys on the 14th and 15th holes helped to inflate his second-round score to 79, seven over par:

This is Tiger’s second-worst round ever as a professional (his worst was an 81 at the 2002 British Open). This will be the sixth time he’s missed the cut at a pro tournament.

Since we last updated you, things have gone from bad to worse for Tiger Woods. After playing the front 9 at even par, Woods bogeyed 10, 11 and 12, before finally steadying things with a par on 13.

Woods is now 5-over for the Championship. The current projected cut is 1-over. With five holes left, it seems unlikely that he will make up four strokes and be playing this weekend.

Noted golf enthusiast Tiger Woods continues to struggle in the second round at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship. Woods, who began the day at 2-over, finished an up-and-down front nine at even on the day, before promptly imploding on the tenth hole and falling to 1-over on the day and 3-over for the tournament.

Woods began his day with a birdie on the first hole, but fell back with a trio of bogeys between the third and sixth holes (with a birdie sandwiched in at the fifth hole), before closing out his front nine with a birdie on the eighth hole that brought him back to even on the day. Woods’ inability to keep the ball in the fairway -- he only hit 4 of 14 fairways on Thursday -- has continued to plague him, however, as he committed the egregious sin of bogeying a par 5 on the tenth hole.

Masters champ Phil Mickelson has put himself in prime position to compete for back-to-back titles after shooting at 4-under 68 on Friday at the Quail Hollow Championship.

Mickelson started his front nine on a tear, scoring two birdies and an eagle. He finished with nothing but pars, however, tallying 10 in a row.

J.P. Hayes made a big move up the leaderboard in the second round at Quail Hollow on Friday, posting an 8-under 64. It’s the best score of the tournament thus far, and moves Hayes to one back of the current leader, Bo Van Belt, at 6-under for the tournament.

Hayes had a flawless score card through 17 holes, which featured nine birdies to get him into a share of the lead. He bogeyed the 18th, however, to drop back to second place.

Phil Mickelson teed off early Friday morning and is already posting an impressive round 2 score.

On the par-5 15th, Mickelson hit a 339-yard drive off the tee, followed by an iron to within six feet, and he then drained the putt for an eagle. This came three holes after he birdied the par-4 11th.

Bo Van Pelt, the 2009 champion of the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, his only PGA Tour win, is leading at Quail Hollow after Thursday’s first round, posting a seven-under 65. Van Pelt did not recorded a single bogey in the round, and scored seven birdies, including six in a nine-hole stretch between the seventh and 15th.

Kenny Perry is one shot off the lead with a 66, while Camilo Villegas, he of the rather unique putt-reading form, is third, two back from Van Pelt. Behind them is a group of six at 68: Billy Mayfair, Paul Goydos, Geoff Ogilvy, J.J. Henry, Andres Romero and Brad Faxon.

American Bo Van Pelt has jumped into the first-round lead at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship after a slew of birdies on his back nine left him at 7-under on the day. With the afternoon groups all at least nearly halfway through their rounds, Pelt has established some distance between himself and the rest of the field. Indeed, Van Pelt has opened up a three-stroke lead on a gaggle of golfers in second place, among them Billy Mayfair, Paul Goydos, Geoff Ogilvy, Camilo Villegas and Kenny Perry.

David Toms and Ricky Barnes headline a quartet of golfers four strokes back at 3-under, while the big name from the afternoon session, Phil Mickelson, currently sits at 2-under through 12 holes in a round that’s featured three birdies. Mickelson, the defending Masters champion, had withdrawn from the Quail Hollow Pro-Am on Wednesday due to an undisclosed illness that led him to be treated for dehydration, but has apparently been unaffected today.

Well, Tiger’s first round post-Augusta is in the books. And it was quite a forgettable one at that. Woods finished the day with a 2-over 74, nine shots off the current pace set by Bo Van Pelt.

Woods’ round got off to an auspicious start with a birdey on his opening hole (he began the day on the back nine), before falling back to even for most of the rest of his front nine. A pair of wayward drives that found the drink on the 17th and 18th holes pushed Woods to 3-over as he made the turn, and while he battled back over the last nine holes, he ended his day with a bogey that dropped him back to 2-over.

With all of the early morning groups at least through the front nine, we have a new leader at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship: Billy Mayfair. The 43-year old Mayfair is setting the pace at 5-under through 17 holes, in a very solid round that’s included seven birdies (and two bogeys).

Bo Van Pelt and Bubba Watson are a shot back at 4-under, through 13 and 9 holes respectively, with Paul Goydos and Cameron Percy both two back of the lead at 3-under. And after an unconscionably hot start gave him the early lead, Anthony Kim has since faltered, and slipped into a tie for sixth at 2-under through 15 holes.

The first round of the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte, NC is underway, with the first groups having teed off at 7 a.m. this morning in unseasonably cool temperatures (low 40’s in the south, in April = not normal).

The first few groups have made the turn, or are nearing it, and the early leader is Anthony Kim, who is 5-under through eight. He’s posted a flawless scorecard thus far, which features five birdies.

After finishing fourth during his highly-anticipated return to golf at the staid environment that is the Masters, Tiger Woods is set to make his first appearance post-Augusta on Thursday at the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte.

Tiger will tee off at 7:40 AM on Thursday morning from the 10th tee (half of the groups will play the back nine first) in a star-studded group that features two other major champions in Angel Cabrera and Stewart Cink. Among other notables, Phil Mickelson is scheduled to start his day at 12:50 PM, off the first tee, along with Jim Furyk and Rory Sabbatini (although Mickelson withdrew from the Quail Hollow Pro-Am on Wednesday due to illness, leaving his availability for the tournament unclear).