Rory McIlroy Plans to Let the Big Dog Eat at the Truist Championship

Let me get this out of the way: Rory McIlroy is the greatest driver of the golf ball in the history of this sport. Argue with a wall.

So, it’s not too surprising that he plans on letting the big dog eat around Philadelphia’s Cricket Club for this week’s Truist Championship—formally known as the Wells Fargo Championship—the sixth signature event of the PGA TOUR season.

“It's very similar to a lot of these old school courses that have been renovated over the past few years,” he said. “A lot of trees have been taken out. The green complexes are, for me, the interesting thing about the golf course. It sort of to me feels like a smaller version of Oak Hill, not a lot of strategy off the tee because there's no real hazards. There's some fairway bunkers, but if you avoid those, the rough's not that long so it's not a huge penalty.

“A little simple off the tee, I guess, is the best way to describe it, but making sure with the second shots that you're below the hole and trying to get to learn the greens a little bit more. Yeah, sort of a smaller, shorter version of Oak Hill is sort of how I see the course.”

As for when he’ll pull off his iconic dog headcover, it sounds like Harry Diamond could just put it in his pocket for the whole round.

“I go back to Oak Hill a couple years ago at the PGA, and I tried to play the golf course strategically over the first couple of days,” he said, “and I just realized that these new renovated old school courses, like the strategy is just hit driver everywhere and then figure it out from there. That's sort of the strategy of this place this week.”

When you’re first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and third in driving distance, that’s a pretty good strategy for any track.

Justin Thomas thought the same.

“I would say that's a good strategy for Rory at every golf course ever made is just to pull the driver out of the bag, unless it's a par-3, and just hit it because he hits it better than about anybody in the world,” he said.

If you’re a fan of the long ball—who am I kidding, we all are—I’d tune into McIlroy’s featured group coverage this week.