Photo Gallery: Early Scenes from the PGA Championship at a Soggy Quail Hollow

It’s always nice to wake up on a Monday morning and realize that it’s a major championship week. Breakfast tastes a little better, coffee has an extra kick to it. The game of golf is back together, and for the next week, everything is right again.

This tournament is chock-full of storylines, but it’s pretty clear what No. 1 is: Mr. Rory McIlroy.

The weight of the world is off his shoulders after completing the Career Grand Slam at the Masters in April, and now it feels like he’s playing with house money. He no longer has to show up to every major championship and answer questions about how he hasn’t won one since 2014. That monkey is gone. Now, he’s free-wheeling. And that should scare everyone in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Also helps that his course history here is ridiculous. Tiger Woods at Bay Hill-type stuff. Across 12 non-major starts at Quail Hollow, McIlroy has nine top-10 finishes and four wins, including one just last season at the Truist Championship.

And if you needed another reason to believe he could win the first two majors of 2025, Quail is getting pretty soggy on Monday. If you remember, the Northern Irishman won by eight at a soaked Congressional at the 2011 U.S. Open.

These conditions play right into Rory’s hands.

The weather is so bad on Monday that no fans were allowed on the grounds to watch the best players in the world dial it in.

As for some of those big names already on property, Scottie Scheffler is getting some early work in just a few weeks removed from his dominating performance at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, where he won by eight. If he has that game again, the rest of the field should get their white flags ready.

Three-time Wanamaker winner Brooks Koepka, LIV Golf's Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, who is a PGA win away from completing his own Career Grand Slam, and United States Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley are just some of the names who have already been spotted taking a stroll around the Charlotte gem.

Related: The Top 50 PGA Championship Contenders, Ranked

As for the rest of the week, it looks like Quail might get more rain on Tuesday. After that, however, the chance of rain doesn't get over 30 percent from Wednesday to Sunday.

Let's hope it stays dry so there's no delays and funky scheduling.