Astonishing Rory McIlroy PGA Championship omen proves he can still win amid shock driver report
Trailing Rory McIlroy has an astonishing omen at his back which proves he can still win the PGA Championship from the back of the pack.
The Northern Irishman starts the weekend at Quail Hollow nine shots behind leader Jhonattan Vegas having made the cut on the number at one-over par.
McIlroy looks to have no chance of backing-up his Masters win, but, astonishingly, exactly the same set of circumstances and scores were in place 15 years ago on the same course as McIlroy won his first-ever PGA Tour event.
At the 2010 Wells Fargo Championship, the youngster scrambled into the weekend on the cutline as he trailed leader Billy Mayfair by nine, the same as he is now behind Vegas.
McIlroy's opening rounds of 72 and 73 in 2010 had him toiling at the rear of the field, but he turned it around over the final two rounds in staggering fashion.
The kid shot 66 on Saturday and a course-record 62 on Sunday to take the title from exactly the same spot he finds himself in as he prepares to go out with Xander Schauffele at 1.25pm UK time.
McIlroy is the centre of attention of this week and it has been claimed he had to change his driver just prior to hitting a poor starting 74. According to a new report from PGA Tour SiriusXM Radio's Taylor Zarzour, the driver McIlroy planned to use in the tournament was deemed non-conforming and he was not allowed to use it.
The five-time major Analyst and former professional golfer Johnson Wagner revealed details of the testing as he said: 'The USGA conducts these tests pretty much every week out here on professional golf. They test it across all aspects of the face of the driver.
"Drivers fail all the time. Every single week somebody's driver fails and it is by no fault of the player, they don't know how to do it. It is a sophisticated testing system.
'And when you're a player like Rory McIlroy that hits the ball as hard as he does the face naturally thins out. It's unfortunate that it happened the weekend of a major and that it maybe cost him a few shots yesterday. He did nothing wrong.'
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