Wednesday 13 May 2015 16:06, UK
Ben Coley looks ahead to this week's Wells Fargo Championship, where world No 1 Rory McIlroy is overwhelming favourite...
The Wells Fargo Championship remains in its infancy, in PGA Tour terms at least, and Rory McIlroy will head to Quail Hollow seeking to become the first player to win the title twice in what will be the 13th renewal.
McIlroy putted poorly at Sawgrass last week but still finished on the heels of the leaders, testament both to his quality and consistency, and with the US Open fast approaching, not to mention next week’s title defence at Wentworth, he’s ready to peak for another huge summer.
Quail Hollow is a relatively long, classical par-72 – the type of golf course McIlroy enjoys – and as well as having won the title five years ago courtesy of that famous closing 62, he also lost a play-off to friend and Sawgrass winner Rickie Fowler in 2012.
Fowler isn’t in the field and nor are Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Dustin Johnson. Given that these four players provide arguably the biggest resistance to McIlroy’s domination, if the world No 1 can simply play like he did at Sawgrass he’s bound to be there come Sunday afternoon, and there won’t be many who are equipped to hold him off.
With putting improvement likely and a course which plainly suits him much more, the message from me is clear – McIlroy will be extremely hard to beat and should be the cornerstone of any staking plan.
While recent renewals of the Wells Fargo have tended to go to the PGA Tour’s younger talents, the overriding theme of this event concerns major champions who seem to thrive at a course which will host the 2017 US PGA.
With that in mind, Phil Mickelson rates as the key threat to McIlroy at a course he describes as one of the best tee-to-green tests in the world.
Mickelson is the all-time leading money earner at Quail Hollow and should’ve won the title two years ago, when bogeys at two of the last three holes saw him miss out on a play-off by just one shot.
The left-hander shot a superb 63 on Saturday last year to enter the final round just two adrift of leader and eventual champion JB Holmes, and essentially every time he’s played the event he’s done something encouraging.
We do have to forgive him for missing the cut at Sawgrass but that course simply doesn’t play to his strengths; before that, Mickelson was second on familiar ground at the Masters and I fancy him to launch a strong bid for the title even if that means settling for a place behind McIlroy.
Finally, there’s been no fluke about Kevin Kisner’s recent form and the 31-year-old should continue to feature towards the top of the leaderboard.
Kisner was sixth here last year, leading the field in strokes-gained: putting, and there won’t be many more confident players in the field given how well he’s done under intense pressure of late.
Watch the Wells Fargo Championship live from Thursday May 14-Sunday May 18 live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
