Rory McIlroy strutting his way back to the top of the PGA Tour

Rory McIlroy won his first PGA Tour title in 18 months at a tournament, the Wells Fargo Championship, which loves him and he loves back.

“RORY. RORY. RORY.”

It was a sound sweet to the ears of Rory McIlroy — a large, loud, and passionate gallery chanting his name that he sorely missed for the past year. The cheers were there for every flushed iron shot he hit this week, for every boomed drive, and, finally, for the two-foot putt he made on the 18th green on Sunday at Quail Hollow to win the Wells Fargo Championship.

McIlroy, arguably more than any other top player on the PGA Tour, feeds off the passion of the crowd. When golf returned last summer without the fans, his game plummeted. He came into this week at his lowest ranking in more than 11 years and without a win in 553 days, the second-longest drought of his career.

But there’s something about Quail Hollow. Maybe it’s the fact his first PGA Tour victory came here as a fresh-faced 20-year-old in 2010. Or that he set the course record in 2015 on his way to the lowest 72-hole score in tournament history. The fans in Charlotte love McIlroy, and he returns the sentiment.

“I’m certainly glad that the crowds were back and I’m glad that I was able to get the job done in an atmosphere like that today,” he said at his post-victory press conference. “And I’m excited going forward now that we get to play in front of crowds like that. It was just an awesome experience to feel that again over the weekend.”

McIlroy’s results coming into this week certainly didn’t point to him ending his winless drought. He missed the cut in two of his last three tournaments, including at the Masters three weeks ago. In the past few months, he’s admitted to feeling lost and unfocused on the course without the fans and that the chase for distance, brought on by witnessing Bryson DeChambeau bash his way to the U.S. Open last September, affected his game.

Since the Masters, McIlroy has been holed up at his home in Florida, working with swing instructor Pete Cowen. Even when he was No. 1 in the world last year, McIlroy felt like he didn’t have a singular swing move to fall back on in pressure moments. That’s what he and Cowen have been working on, incorporating a fade with the driver into his game.

The results have been more than positive. He finished ninth in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, despite hitting only 19 fairways all week, tied for the second-fewest in the field. He was also third in putting, enjoying his best week on the greens since he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in 2018.

McIlroy took a two-shot lead on the back-nine Sunday after birdies on the short par-four 14th and the par-five 15th. Leading Keith Mitchell and Abraham Ancer by two shots over the last three holes, McIlroy had to utilize whatever Cowen has been teaching him just for these moments.

On the 18th, still with a two-shot lead, his drive hooked to the left and settled in a thick lie just out of the creek that runs adjacent to the fairway. Instead of trying to play it from the penalty area, he took a drop and hit his third shot onto the green. Needing two putts from 43 feet for his 19th PGA Tour title, he nestled his first up to two feet and left himself an easy tap-in to finish at 10-under, one ahead of Ancer.

McIlroy’s life has changed dramatically since he last won in November 2019. He’s now a father to an eight-month-old daughter, who finally got to see daddy lift a trophy for the first time. The slump wore on him, but McIlroy knew what he needed to do: get to work to fix it.

So that’s what he did, and the title brings with it a sense of satisfaction and relief. “I mean, yeah, relief that I’ve won again, relief that my season I feel is sort of back on track, and more just satisfaction at the journey that I’m on and the process that I’ve been going through to try to get back to this point,” he said.

“There’s been a lot of hard work. I’ve put my head down. I haven’t really looked too much in either direction. I’ve just tried to do what I need to do.”

The next time McIlroy tees up in a PGA Tour event will be in two weeks at the PGA Championship. That major championship will be held 180 miles south of Quail Hollow, at another course, Kiawah Island, McIlroy has good memories at. In 2012, he won by a PGA Championship-record eight shots.

Stuck on four career majors for nearly seven years, the hunt to further his legacy in the game is back on. He can thank the fans in Charlotte, who never lost faith that he would get back.