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PGA Tour: can Rory McIlroy win in first trip to Colonial?

By Tim Letcher

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland lines up a putt on the 17th green during the first round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 12: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland lines up a putt on the 17th green during the first round of The PLAYERS Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 12, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images) /
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He’s the number one player in the world, but can Rory McIlroy win in the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club?

Rory McIlroy is the top-ranked player in the world. As the PGA Tour resumes this week with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club, McIlroy would be the obvious favorite in this event. Or is he?

McIlroy leads the tour in scoring average and is second in both eagles and driving distance. He also ranks in the top 20 in greens in regulation and birdie average.

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He has played in six events this season and has absolutely been consistently on fire in each event. McIlroy has placed inside the top five in all six of his starts this season.

McIlroy started the season with a tie for third at the Zozo Championship, then won at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions the following week. As the calendar turned to 2020, McIlroy tied for third at the Farmers Insurance Open, followed by a tie for fifth at the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

The following week, he was fifth at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. His last start before the coronavirus hit was a tie for fifth at the Arnold Palmer Inviational.

We last saw McIlroy at the TaylorMade Driving Relief exhibition, where he partnered with Dustin Johnson to beat Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. McIlroy was solid that day, carrying Johnson for most of the event.

All of these things add up to what would seem to be a win for McIlroy this week. However, he does have one significant factor working against him.

McIlroy has never played in a tournament Colonial Country Club. This is not one of his usual stops on tour, so he will not have much experience in actually playing the par-70 course.

How much of a factor will this be? That remains to be seen, honestly. McIlroy has shown that he has the ability to adapt to almost any course that he faces, so it might not be much of a factor.

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However, McIlroy does tend to make up ground on the field on par-5 holes, as evidenced by him leading the tour in eagles. Colonial has just two par-5s, number one and number 11, so there is less chance for McIlroy to take advantage of his length on this course.

McIlroy is clearly the best player in the world at this point and he will almost certainly be in contention this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Whether he can win or not remains to be seen, but the guess here is that his lack of play on this course in the past will keep him from adding to his total of 18 PGA Tour victories.

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