Rain made Charlotte’s Quail Hollow unplayable, then ‘receptive’ — then windy
The rain in the Charlotte area first made the course unplayable.
Then the rain made Quail Hollow sing.
That is, until the very end.
Indeed, the inclement weather — and how the course responded to it depending on each golfers’ respective tee time — was an important factor in the first round of the Truist Championship on Thursday. So important, in fact, it felt like part of the course.
Consider the day:
Everyone started late, delayed several hours by a deluge of rain on Wednesday night and parts of Thursday morning. Then those who teed off in the early afternoon mostly saw a good day, the PGA stars said. And then, thanks to the precursors to the storm that ultimately ended the first round early — the wind, above all else — the weather made the last few shots on the course brutal. (Just ask Justin Thomas, who dropped a shot on Hole 17 because of it.)
But, for a moment on Thursday, Quail Hollow was a wonderful course to play on. It was longer than it usually is — and it’s normally pretty long, yes. But the greens were softer because of the downpour. And the rough, surprisingly, wasn’t all that unforgiving.
“I think the rain actually helped the greens,” said Rory McIlory, who finished Thursday with a stunning score of 17 pars and one birdie — one he claimed on Hole 9, his final of the day after starting on the back nine.
McIlory wrapped up his day at 6:09 p.m., an hour and one minute before the horn officially sounded and immediately suspended play for the day. Twenty of 72 golfers were stranded on the golf course. The first round will conclude at 10:30 a.m. Friday, and the second round is slated to begin as previously scheduled at 11 a.m. thereafter. Clear skies are expected for tomorrow.
“They’re a little more receptive,” McIlory continued about the greens. “I think they were rolling a little bit better as well. ... Everywhere else the fairways are pretty wet, and the golf course is playing very, very long. Which should play into my hands. I felt like I hit the ball well and hit enough good shots to be a little better than what I was, but I got three more days to try to catch up to everyone.”
McIlory’s one-under-par on the day has him tied for 31st as of Thursday’s conclusion. Matt McCarty has a commanding lead over the field at minus-8, with six others tied at minus-5.
And though he didn’t have the best day on the leaderboard — he faux celebrated like he just won the tournament after birdieing on his final hole of the evening — McIlory was far from alone in his assessment of the course.
Quail Hollow tends to send shivers down the PGA Tour’s collective spine; it’s a course that is not only long but treacherous, particularly on each of the Holes 16, 17 and 18 — which constitutes the famed “Green Mile.” Those three holes: a 508-yard par-4, a 221-yard par 3 and a 493-yard par-4.
The Green Mile represents the toughest final three finishing holes on the PGA Tour since 2003, with an average finish of +.90 over par, according to PGA Tour media notes. There have also been 1,888 golf balls slung into the water down those three holes specifically.
But some of those horrors were missed on Thursday, thanks to the weather. Tommy Fleetwood thought so, at least. He finished Thursday at four-under-par and with several impressive putts to his name — including a 28-foot eagle put on No. 10 that anchored his good day.
“Today is like as nice as we’re going to get it, in a way,” Fleetwood said. “And I know it was wet, and it plays like a little longer, but the greens are so much softer than what we’ve had them in the practice days. So in terms of that, like, it’s nice to shoot a good score when you think that maybe there’s a good score out there on a course like this.
“Like I say, it’s not an easy golf course, it’s an amazing challenge and I think if you shoot under par around here, it’s always a good day. So very happy with that.”
Some issues still presented itself that could’ve been weather-related. A sampling:
On the par-3 13, Nicolas Echavarria saw his tee shot land in the rough, and he struggled to get underneath his chip to spin it safely onto a slanted green. Echavarria saved par.
On the par-4 14, Alex Smalley crushed a driver pin-high ... but way to the right. He ended up having to take a chip shot blind to where the pin was, which dribbled into the water.
On the par-4 18, McIlory found himself in the penalty area just off the green and didn’t get his best chip near the pin. Part of that was his lie; part of that was that the ball dug deep into the rough. (Then again, one could argue that the moisture in the grass kept the ball from sliding through the grass and into the creek ... and helped him save par.)
“This rain kind of made it feel a little bit more comfortable,” said McCarty, Thursday’s leader by virtue of . “I think the next couple days this place was basically as firm as I’ve seen any golf, firm and fast as I’ve seen any place Monday and Tuesday. So it’s definitely underneath there if this rain holds off. So it will be a good challenge and yeah, it was a good start.”
It was a good start for McCarty, no doubt.
But for the field as a whole?
Thursday started late. Then transformed into something great. Then turned into something unplayable.
“Just a really, really difficult golf course,” said Kristoffer Reitan, who finished Thursday five-under-par.
The weather made it that much more unpredictable, too.
This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 8:20 PM with the headline "Rain made Charlotte’s Quail Hollow unplayable, then ‘receptive’ — then windy."
