Rory Roars to Wells Fargo Win, Zhang Comes Up Clutch | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing 
May 12th, 2024 

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week in the world of professional golf, the PGA Tour was in Charlotte for a signature event, the Wells Fargo Championship while the LPGA Tour was in New Jersey for the Cognizant Founders Cup.

Wells Fargo Championship- Tournament History 

The Wells Fargo Championship debuted in 2003 and is played at the famed Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Featuring the Green Mile to close, the 16th-18th holes at Quail Hollow are always ranked as one of the toughest three hole stretches on the PGA Tour. Throughout the years Quail Hollow has hosted huge professional golf events including the President’s Cup and the PGA Championship. The players love the course, and many household names on tour  have had their breakout wins here including Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, and Wyndham Clark just last year. Even without its signature status in the past, the Wells Fargo has drawn strong fields and produced high drama finishes. Designed by George Cobb and opening in 1959, Quail Hollow is a beast of a par-71 that measures 7,600 yards from the championship tees. In 2015 Rory McIlroy claimed his second of three Wells Fargo titles in record setting fashion, shooting the course record of 10-under 61 and the tournament record of 21-under par, winning by seven. The five most recent winners of the Wells Fargo Championship are as follows: 

2024 - Rory McIlroy (-17)
2023 - Wyndham Clark (-19)
2022 - Max Homa (-8)
2021 - Rory McIlroy (-10)
2019 - Max Homa (-15)

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing belongs to world #2 Rory McIlroy. Rory came into the week having not played since winning the Zurich Classic with Shane Lowry a couple weeks ago (his first win of the season). Even with 25 PGA Tour wins and 4 majors under his belt, a lot of critics believe Rory has still underachieved in his career. The biggest argument for that case is that Rory hasn’t won a major in 10 years. After winning four of them at such a young age before really entering his prime, many thought he would rival the likes of Tiger and Jack and dominate major championships for years to come. Although he hasn’t been able to win another one, he has won plenty of other big events including the Players, Arnold Palmer, and multiple FedEx Cups. After winning the Zurich with fellow countrymen Shane Lowry, Rory had another chance this week to pick up a big win at a course where he’s won three times in his career. To improve his chances even further, world #1 Scottie Scheffler was not in the field this week as him and his wife Meredith prepare for the birth of their first child. Rory would still have to compete against the rest of the tour's best including Schauffele, Morikawa, Cantlay, Thomas, Spieth, Clark, Hovland and more. 

On Thursday Rory came out of the gates hot, carding a 4-under round of 67. Despite the low score, he found himself bested by Xander Schauffele who shot an incredible round of 64. Schauffele has been playing some of the best golf all season but has failed to close out tournaments coming down the stretch- his last win came in 2022 at the Scottish Open. Some other players that were playing solidly were Jason Day, Sungjae Im, and Ben An, but it was Rory and Xander that really had it going. After backing up his 64 with a 67, Schauffele found himself with a four shot lead entering the weekend. McIlroy shot another round of 67 on Friday and was in 2nd with a lot of work to do. On Saturday Rory got to work early. With many players shooting multiple shots over par due to difficult conditions and firm, fast greens, bogeys were everywhere. Rory managed to play flawless on the front nine, making two birdies and no bogeys. Schauffele was also bogey free, along with just one birdie. Xander went on to shoot even on the back, while Rory shot another bogey free nine with two more birdies and finished with his third consecutive 67, cutting Xander’s lead to just one. 

Sunday was set up for a showdown between Schauffele and McIlroy as they had seemingly lapped the rest of the field. Rory trailed by just one heading into Sunday, really putting the pressure on Schauffele. To make things worse, Xander is known to struggle on Sundays, and is just 2/7 on closing out 54-hole leads in his career. Unfortunately for Xander, it seemed that trend would continue again this week. Although Xander still led after making eagle at the 7th, his time on top of the leaderboard was short lived. With Rory just even through his first 7 holes, he flipped a switch to close the front 9. After making birdies on 8 and 9, Rory made a lengthy putt for eagle on the 10th to turn the tide and take the lead. The hot streak continued for Rory after making pars at 11 and 12, he went birdie, birdie, eagle to take a stranglehold on the tournament. Rory had gone 8-under on his last 8 holes and took away any hope Xander had of getting back into it. Even after  his approach shot went into the water long of the 18th green resulting in a double bogey, Rory still carded a 65 and won by five over Schauffele who was only able to manage even par 71. With his win, Rory is now at 26 career PGA Tour titles and has won in back to back starts which is the same thing he did prior to the 2014 PGA Championship where he won his fourth major. 

Winner’s Bag - Rory McIlroy 

World #2 Taylormade staffer Rory McIlroy picked up his 2nd consecutive win on the PGA Tour this week, beating a star studded field by a whopping five shots. Rory’s bag features an array of new Taylormade products starting with the Taylormade Qi10 driver (10 degrees). Rory compliments the driver with a pair of Qi10 fairway woods (15 and 18 degrees). Rory’s irons while they are Taylormade, they are Rory’s version. The highly customized Taylormade Rors Proto irons have been the key in Rory’s recent success. His set makeup includes a Taylormade Proto 4 iron, and Taylormade “Rors” Proto’s (5-9 iron). Around the greens, Rory plays a trio of Taylormade MG4 wedges (46, 50, and 54 degrees). The single non-Taylormade club in Rory’s bag is his 58 degree lob wedge- a Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks. On the green, Rory rolls it with a Taylormade Spider Tour X3. 

LPGA Tour Action 

This week the LPGA Tour was back in action out east at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey for the Cognizant Founders Cup. Nelly Korda was attempting to extend her win streak to six this week, while others were looking to end her streak and start their own. The field was absolutely stacked, and all the best players were ready to compete. Similar to the PGA Tour this week, the tournament turned into a slug fest between two players who ran away from the rest of the field. Rose Zhang and Madelene Sagstrom finished the event in 1st and 2nd, with a 13 shot differential from 2nd to 3rd. As the pair made their way to the back nine on Sunday, it was Sagstrom who had control of the lead. Sagstrom had started hot, shooting 3-under on her opening nine while Zhang was close behind after a 2-under front nine. The difference in the tournament really came in the final 5 holes where Zhang took over. Zhang made birdies at 14, 15, 17, and 18 to close the tournament on fire. Sagstrom played the same five hole stretch in 1-over par and ended up losing by two. The 20-year-old phenom picks up her 2nd LPGA Tour victory in just her first full season as a professional.