Brian Keogh - PGA Preview: Rory McIlroy fit to step up in quest for seventh Major

While they didn’t play together in the Masters, it was no surprise that they finished first and second there and a head-to-head battle at Aronimink would be box-office gold.

Whether they can separate themselves at this restored Donald Ross gem remains to be seen. But there’s no doubting their mutual admiration, having shared five of the last nine Major championships.

“It’s his relentlessness,” McIlroy said of what he admires about the defending champion. “It’s the comfort in which he does the same things over and over.

“It’s not flashy, but he dots his Is and crosses his Ts and does all the right things. I just think it’s that relentless pursuit of the process.”

While Scheffler admires McIlroy’s longevity as much as his driving prowess, he’s not obsessed with beating the Holywood star.

“I don’t like losing, but at the end of the day, I think the preparation, getting ready to come out here and play is something that I really enjoy,” Scheffler said. “I don’t really think about much else other than that when I’m at home practising.”

After ripping off the nail on the little toe of his right foot on Monday and being forced to cut his Tuesday practice round to three holes due to discomfort, McIlroy insisted the injury wasn’t an issue after a pain-free back nine with Shane Lowry and Pádraig Harrington yesterday.

“I feel very soft having to walk in because of a little toe,” he said of Tuesday’s setback. “But I figured it out.” Some padding around the toe, coupled with a slightly larger, wider, and softer golf shoe, has left him pain-free and simply focused on attacking difficult greens from the fairway.

“Getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole for the most part,” McIlroy said. “That’s the key this week.”

Whoever finishes ahead of McIlroy or Scheffler will likely contend and Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Justin Rose or Tommy Fleetwood have the skill to become the first English winner since Jim Barnes in 1919.

LIV Golf’s Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm have points to prove, but the course also offers great putters like Patrick Reed and Russell Henley a chance.

McIlroy’s insistence that “strategy off the tee is pretty non-existent” has revived the debate about distance in golf and a perceived lack of reward for straight hitting.

While Aronimink is a par-70 measuring 7,394 yards, it’s not a long test and finding the correct sections of large, undulating greens from the fairway is the key.

The in-form world number three Cameron Young is the man most fancied to deny Scheffler and McIlroy, and the fact that he’s driving the ball prodigious distances – 375 yards on the 72nd hole at The Players – with a ball that’s likely to conform under the roll-back rules proposed for 2028 has raised eyebrows.

“I just feel like they [the R&A and USGA] are not going to achieve what they want to achieve the way they are going about trying to roll back the ball,” Adam Scott told Golf Channel this week.

Scott said he lost around two yards in distance testing a golf ball that would conform, but Young is now even longer

“It was just really me trying to optimise my golf, and it’s the ball that seems to work the best for me,” Young said yesterday.

“The manufacturers are so good. They’re going to find their way to make a good golf ball, no matter what the restrictions are.”

McIlroy believes that it will all come down to approach play in the end, though his power gives him an edge.

“There’s definitely some bunkers at 310 or 305 that if you can carry those, the fairway does get much wider,” Rose said. “It’s not just a going to suit particularly, Rory, it’s going to suit a lot of guys that can carry the ball 300 plus.”

Lowry believes straight hitting will be rewarded, and after the disappointment of the Masters, he’s wants to bounce back quickly on a course he likes.

“Obviously, I love coming and competing in tournaments like this, and I’ve played well at PGA Championships,” said the Offaly man, who shot a nine-under 62 at Valhalla two years ago.

“It’s a similar type of golf to Valhalla, similar style to Philly Cricket Club [for the Truist Championship] last year. So if I play good enough, I can contend around here. I’m optimistic. I always am.”

Harrington makes his 27th start in the event and while he’s yet to find the form that brought him two senior Majors last year, he still believes he can compete

“Yeah, absolutely. I just have to make sure ... I don’t believe I need to be perfect to do it,” he said. “That’s not how I would have won in 2007, 2008.

“I’ve got to be a little bit more comfortable about my game and what I’m doing. When you think you need your ‘A’ game, your ‘B’ game turns up. When you think you need your ‘B’ game, your ‘A’ game turns up.”

As for Tom McKibbin, who made the cut on his debut at Quail Hollow last year, he has no regrets about joining LIV Golf but admits it was a shock to hear that Saudi Arabia’s PIF will withdraw funding at the end of the year.

“No, not at all, I don’t regret it one bit,” McKibbin said. “The last year and a half has been great. Getting to spend time with Jon and Tyrrell, playing with some of the best guys in the world, I feel like I’ve improved a lot in different aspects of my game. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

With another two years of his contract to run, he hopes CEO Scott O’Neil can find alternative funding.

”It was a little bit of a shock to everyone, but going forward, I think Scott has done a good job, and hopefully he’ll be able to find some funding elsewhere and hopefully let it continue.”

McKibbin (23) missed the cut on his Masters debut last month, but he’s hoping for better in his sixth Major start

“They’re very different tests of golf compared to normal weeks,” he said of the Majors. “Pinehurst [for the 2024 US Open] was very severe on one side of the spectrum, then obviously The Open with the weather, the Masters is another.

“They’re all different in their own way and all provide a good test of golf.”

Four to follow

Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are the big favourites for the US PGA Championship at Aronimink, but there’s better value elsewhere from some of the game’s form players at a course where power is not the only factor.

There are 180 bunkers to be avoided at a classic Donald Ross design, where precision into the greens will be richly rewarded, provided you don’t stray too often into the hit-and-miss rough that protects generous fairways.

Cameron Young 12/1

Golf’s hottest player is an obvious pick, but it’s difficult to ignore the form of the big-hitting New Yorker and world No 3, who won The Players and the Cadillac Championship either side of contending for the Masters.

Rickie Fowler 40/1

While he’s no longer the player who recorded top-five finishes in all four Majors in 2014, three top-10 finishes in a row coming into this week make the 37-year-old Californian a tempting choice.

Nicolai Hojgaard 45/1

A big hitter with a good touch, the Dane has the power to carry the bunkers at 300 yards – and after finishing second to Kristoffer Reitan at Doral on Sunday, he’s trending towards a maiden win in the US.

Matt McCarty 110/1

A top-25 at the Masters, followed by four top-12 finishes in a row, makes McCarty a good each-way choice. He showed he can compete with the big guns by finishing tied 10th in the Truist Championship at Quail Hollow.

Selected tee times

(Irish times, US golfers unless stated)

1st tee (10th on Friday)

12.40pm (6.05pm): L Glover,

T McKibbin (N Irl), S Jaeger (Ger)

1.24pm (6.49pm): M McNealy,

T Detry (Bel), P Harrington (Irl)

5.59pm (12.34pm): H Matsuyama (Jpn), JJ Spaun, M Homa

6.21pm (12.56pm): A Scott (Aus),

C Conners (Can), D Berger

6.32pm (1.07pm): V Hovland (Nor),

C Morikawa, S Lowry (Irl)

6.43pm (1.18pm): C Gotterup,

R MacIntyre (Sco), T Fleetwood (Eng)

6.54pm (1.29pm): C Young, K Bradley, J Thomas

7.05pm (1.40pm): S Scheffler,

M Fitzpatrick (Eng), J Rose (Eng)

10th tee (1st tee Friday)

12.34pm (5.59pm): G Woodland,

J Day (Aus), S Burns

12.45pm (6.10pm): W Clark, C Smith (Aus), B Harman

12.56pm (6.21pm): P Cantlay,

MW Lee (Aus), S Theegala

1.18pm (6.43pm): B DeChambeau,

L Aberg (Swe), R Fowler

1.29pm (6.54pm): X Schauffele,

B Koepka, T Hatton (Eng)

1.40pm (7.05pm): R McIlroy (N Irl),

J Spieth, J Rahm (Esp)

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