Rory McIlroy’s first major scouting trip came ahead of the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional, when Jack Nicklaus urged a then-22-year-old McIlroy to get an advanced look at the golf course.
That decision obviously paid off handsomely, as did McIlroy’s Masters lead-up this year, where he practically lived at Augusta National before successfully defending his green jacket last month.
“Some majors, I haven’t gone to the tournament site ahead of schedule, and I’ve done well,” McIlroy said, “but for the most part, when I have made an advanced trip, it’s worked out well for me.”
This week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink outside of Philadelphia is no different. McIlroy eschewed starts at the RBC Heritage, Zurich Classic and Cadillac Championship – two of those being signature events – so that he could better prepare for the season’s second major at a venue that McIlroy had only seen once, at the 2018 BMW Championship.
McIlroy initially expected to be at Doral, before competing in last week’s Truist Championship at Quail Hollow, but then he received an invite to the White House State Dinner on April 28, on the Tuesday of tournament week.
“To go down to Doral, and then fly up to D.C. for that, and then fly back down … if I wasn’t giving my 100-percent attention to the tournament, then there’s no reason to play it, right?” McIlroy said. “I wanted to do the State dinner, and if I was going to do that, it was probably better that I take that week to practice and prepare, come up here and see the golf course, and then go into Quail Hollow feeling more ready to play.”
McIlroy followed later in the week with a day trip to Aronimink, where, like some of his trips to Augusta, he was able to get home in time for dinner and his daughter’s bedtime. And after a T-19 Sunday at Quail, his advanced prep allowed him to go home Sunday night. “Then come up here,” McIlroy added, “and not feel stressed about having to play a lot of holes or get up here early. I can take more of a relaxed approach going into the week.”
So, what has McIlroy learned about Aronimink? For starters, he believes it will play decidedly different than in 2018, when heavy rain soaked the golf course. He also likens the layout and strategy to what he saw at last year’s Truist, held at Philadelphia Cricket Club, where difficult green complexes but a premium on finding correct portions and avoiding downhill putts.
“Very wide playing corridors, still got to get the ball on the fairway,” McIlroy explained. “The rough is sort of hit-and-miss, but you can get some bad lies. They can really tuck the pins away with some of these slopes on the greens and just really being aware of that. … If you get yourself above the hole or you start to short-side yourself, you can get yourself in some tricky spots.”
McIlroy also noted the bunkering work done by Gil Hanse in his restoration of the Donald Ross design ahead of that 2018 BMW. The number of bunkers in play is a whopping 180.
“There’s a lot of bunkers,” McIlroy said. “I think it provides quite a nice bit of variety with shorter par-4s, a couple of longer par-4s. The par-3s, there’s three pretty long ones and a shorter one. I think in this day and age, I’m not sure if it’s going to test all aspects of your bag … strategy off the tee is pretty nonexistent.
“It’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there.”