It is often said that you cannot win a golf tournament on Thursday, but that you can lose it.
2025 PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy had a less than ideal start
Rory McIlroy’s opening round at Quail Hollow did not exactly go well.
Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy may not have quite lost the PGA Championship on Thursday at Quail Hollow, but he definitely made things a bit difficult for the rest of the weekend... if he makes it there.
The reigning PLAYERS and Masters Champion struggled on Thursday morning, although so did his playing partners and they are pretty stellar in their own right in defending champion Xander Schauffele (+1) and world number one Scottie Scheffler (-1).
Amazingly, shockingly honestly, the entire trio all carded a double bogey on the 16th hole. These are the top three golfers in the world and all went 2-over on the same hole. Unreal.
Back to Rory though, his opening round 74 was just about the one thing that he couldn’t do if he wants to make a run at the single season Grand Slam. It was unfortunately somewhat predictable in a sense, as evidenced by Chris Solomon of No Laying Up cautioning Rory against it earlier in the week.
Obviously anything can (and will) happen across the next few days at Quail Hollow. At the time of this writing though, the clubhouse lead is 7-under par as recorded by Ryan Gerard (good for him!). That is a lot of ground for Rory to make up.
We will see if he is able to on Friday afternoon.
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