Rory McIlroy: ‘Huge Confidence Boost’ to Win 2021 Wells Fargo Championship

Jacob Kupferman/Associated Press

An emotional Rory McIlroy said Sunday that his win at the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship set the stage for him to head into the PGA Championship with high spirits. 

“It’s certainly great timing,” he told reporters. “This is obviously a huge confidence boost going in there knowing that my game is closer than it has been. I’ll be able to poke holes in everything that I did today, it’s certainly far from perfect, but this one is validation that I’m on the right track.”

McIlroy shot three under in his final round on Sunday to complete the tournament at 10 under, good to best Viktor Hovland and Keith Mitchell and earn his first PGA Tour win since 2019. 

The drought-ending victory was a special one for Rory McIlroy, since it came in the same tournament that he earned his first PGA Tour win at back in 2010. Overall, it was his 19th career victory and third at the Wells Fargo. 

This is the first time he has won a tournament three times. 

He took to Twitter to express his excitement and attachment to the course as well as thank fans for sticking with him through his winless stretch.

McIlroy hadn’t won since the 2019 WGC-HSBC Champions in China. Though he enjoyed success surrounding that win, coming away with top five finishes in seven straight tournaments, he struggled when golf returned amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He had just three top-10 finishes in the rest of the season. 

This year’s campaign looked to bring more of the same to the Irish star after he followed up a third-place finish in Abu Dhabi by missing the cut at the Players Championship and the Masters. 

While McIlroy has history at Quail Hollow, he also has a connection to the PGA Championship. It was there in 2012 that he posted an eight-stroke victory for his second major title.