Almost a decade has passed since Rory McIlroy last won a Major championship but many will feel that the stars are aligning for the Northern Irishman as he prepares to tee off at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. The Jack Nicklaus-designed Valhalla has hosted this tournament on 3 previous occasions – in 1996 and 2000 when Mark Brooks and Tiger Woods emerged triumphant from playoffs, then most significantly in 2014 when McIlroy edged out Phil Mickelson b y a solitary shot. When McIlroy won his 4th Major in Kentucky aged just 25, it was unfathomable to think he would still be sat on the same number 10 years later. However, after a host of near-misses, the now-35-year-old will arrive at Valhalla as confident as he's ever been following back-to-back PGA Tour victories.
The first success, alongside his great friend Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic, served as a small fillip ahead of the tougher tests to come but the second, a brilliant 5-shot win at the Wells Fargo Championship last week, will have made all his rivals sit up and take notice. McIlroy found top gear in spectacular fashion at Quail Hollow on Sunday, producing an 8-under-par run from the 8th hole to the 15th to completely blow Xander Schauffele's title hopes to pieces. And now he returns to Valhalla, a course which he knows better than most and which suits his game down to the ground.
Valhalla is a brutal 7,609-yard par-71 with plenty of risk-reward holes. Given its length, this tournament seems likely to come down to a battle of long, straight drivers, although there is always hope for an outlier to putt their way into contention. McIlroy looked a great bet when he was +1200 last week but his Wells Fargo triumph had the oddsmakers running for cover. At a best-priced +700, it's harder to justify backing someone who still has to prove he can get over the line in a Major after a decade of disappointment.
Majors or otherwise, Scottie Scheffler has no problems getting over the winning line as form figures of 1-1-2-1-1, including a second win at the Masters, illustrate. Scheffler has taken time off ahead of the birth of his first child and while Baby Scheffler reportedly entered the world over the weekend, that's far from ideal preparation for a Major championship. He might just be good enough to overcome that handicap but he's worth taking on and the market suggests that McIlroy is most likely to serve it up to him.