Is Rory McIlroy Worth Betting on Ahead of Wells Fargo Championship, PGA Championship?

The last time the world’s best professional golfers convened at Valhalla Golf Club, it was Rory McIlroy who posted a 17th-hole birdie in the fading Sunday evening twilight, then rushed to join the group ahead and won the 96th edition of the PGA Championship, a fourth major title for the 25-year-old in what was apparently going to be a career filled with them.

It can be argued whether next week’s PGA Championship at the same venue marks a figurative decade since that memorable triumph, or whether – since that one was played in August and the event has since moved to May – it’s a more literal nine years and nine months.

What’s undebatable is that McIlroy has yet to add to his major total. After winning 4-of-15 from the 2011 U.S. Open to that 2014 PGA, he’s now gone 0-for-his-last-35, despite posting 20 top-10 results during that time, including at least two in all but one of those years.

As usual, McIlroy’s quest toward winning another will be among the bigger storylines next week in Louisville, but there’s other business to attend to first – and how he performs at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship could go a long way toward offering some clues.

Not that there isn’t already some strong evidence.

Fresh off a victory in his most recent start at the Zurich Classic, Rory will be denied too much credit as that one came alongside buddy Shane Lowry in the two-man event, though the former undeniably did more than his share of the heavy lifting throughout that weekend.

“The Sunday at Zurich, I don’t kind of remember a time when I’ve driven the ball that good,” McIlroy said this week in reflection. “Iron play really feels like it’s coming around. That was the end of a four-week stretch for me, so I took a few days off when I got back home, hit balls for the first time Sunday. Sometimes to take a bit of a break and just think about it rather than actually doing it can help as well.”

If he needed a greater springboard toward the year’s second major, it couldn’t come at a better location, with the Quail Hollow Club serving as a personal ATM for the past decade-and-a-half, as he’s claimed three victories, a playoff loss and a total of nine top-10s in a dozen career starts at this tournament.

With top-ranked Scottie Scheffler on baby watch and skipping this one, McIlroy serves as a deserving pre-tourney favorite at a spot he unabashedly loves.

“Always good to be back at Quail, – not just one of my favorite stops on Tour, but one of my favorite cities in America. I’ve had so many great memories here from over the years, first win on Tour and obviously winning here a few times.”

It’s not just some coincidence, either. The analytics show that this 7,558-yard course requires driver off the tee more than almost any other annual venue and McIlroy has reasserted his position as one of the game’s best drivers of all-time, currently holding an uncommon and unparalleled combination of distance and accuracy, ranking third and 17th in those categories, respectively, to easily lead the PGA Tour in total driving.

Despite the recent victory and the current stop at one of his favorite tracks and next week’s impending major, the second half of McIlroy’s interview session with the assembled media at Quail Hollow on Wednesday revolved around his previous assertations that he’d like to rejoin the Policy Board – and his new announcement that he likely won’t be reprising this role anytime soon.

From comparing the PGA Tour/PIF negotiations to the Good Friday Agreement to invoking his idea of a more global calendar, McIlroy once again didn’t shy away from proffering his opinion on the state of the game and what it all means moving forward.

As far as what that means for his potential performance, well, it shouldn’t be bad news.

Last year – a year during which Rory did serve on that board, perhaps spending more time in boardrooms and on conference calls and replying to emails than on any practice range – he failed to win a single U.S.-based tournament, claiming only the Scottish Open in his PGA Tour schedule.

I’ve spoken with him, both during and after that term, about whether his focus was redirected away from his game. And while he’s denied it, perhaps unwilling to use that work as an excuse for not winning more frequently, it’s difficult to believe that this burden didn’t preclude him from playing his best golf.

We might only need to look at the recent results of Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth to help establish a growing opinion that more work toward finding a long-term solution for the greater good of the professional game can be inversely proportional to a player’s best performance.

It would be unwise to suggest that this is the greatest opportunity over the past decade for McIlroy to add to his flatlined major championship total. He’s looked dominant in non-majors before; he’s won in previous weeks; he’s entered these events as a massive golf betting favorite.

There is, however, strong reason for optimism right now. With a recent win in his back pocket, a beloved tourney this week, a venue on which he’s won before coming up and no pesky board meetings anytime soon, it’s tough to believe he isn’t set up for an impending fortnight of success.