New venue, no problem: Defending champion and birthday boy Rory McIlroy is feeling the good vibes at the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship

POTOMAC, Md. — Despite this year’s event being held at a different venue than usual, let alone one he’s never seen before, defending champion Rory McIlroy is still feeling the good vibes this week at the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship.

“Yeah, anytime you can defend a title, it’s a nice thing to do. Obviously my success at this tournament’s been at Quail Hollow and not here,” said McIlroy of TPC Potomac at Avenel Farms, the substitute host course as Quail Hollow prepares to host the Presidents Cup in September. “Never played here before, never seen the venue. So I played 18 holes yesterday and just played another nine today, so I guess as a replacement for Quail Hollow, it’s a pretty nice one.”

The Northern Irishman has won the Wells Fargo three times (2010, 2015, 2021) at its usual home back in Charlotte, North Carolina, and earned his first PGA Tour victory there with a four-shot win over Phil Mickelson when it was known as the Quail Hollow Championship. While he doesn’t have any experience outside of this week at TPC Potomac, McIlroy has some history across the street, where he won the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, for his first major title in record-setting fashion with the lowest 72-hole score (268) in the championship’s history.

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“I was driving in here yesterday morning and going along whatever road that is and I looked left and I thought, ‘That looks like Congressional. Oh, that is Congressional.’ So good vibes obviously from this area,” said McIlroy, who became an honorary member at the club after working a First Tee event there a few years back and will visit again Wednesday afternoon. “I still to this day think it’s the best week of golf I’ve ever played in my life.”

The 20-time winner on Tour said he doesn’t really remember the experience of winning at Congressional, more so just from watching replays over the years and seeing how comfortable his game was across the board.

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“I was coming off the back of a tough loss at Augusta and that was still fresh in my memory,” explained McIlroy, who shot 80 in the final round that year after entering with a four-shot advantage. “I think I was just so hyper-focused that week that I knew I was playing well, and I think just the lessons of Augusta, they stayed with me the whole way throughout the week and I didn’t get ahead of myself and mentally I was just in a really good place.”

Speaking of Augusta National, the last time fans saw McIlroy was Sunday at the Masters when he shot up the leaderboard with the week’s first bogey-free round at 8-under 64, aided by the first of two incredible sand saves on the final hole. McIlroy ultimately finished runner-up to champion Scottie Scheffler for his second top-five finish of the season after winning the CJ Cup last October.

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Wednesday was a special day for McIlroy, who’s celebrating his 33rd birthday after a nine-hole morning pro-am with Jakari Harris and Lennard Long, a pair of HBCU graduates who also work with the First Tee.

“Not every, there’s a lot of Wednesdays on Tour in pro-ams that aren’t as fun as something like today. To be able to spend time with these guys and see what great golfers they are but also the great people that they are as well,” said McIlroy. “There was a happy birthday song on the first tee, which was very nice of them. I don’t know, I think a 33rd birthday isn’t really much to — sort of right in the middle. 35-something, 30-something, 33 just seems sort of like, meh, I don’t know. It was very nice of them to sing happy birthday to me.”

A 33rd birthday might not be enough for McIlroy to celebrate, but if he can learn again from his last close call at Augusta National, a 21st win on Tour should do the trick.