Justin Rose’s caddie makes eye-catching claim about Rory McIlroy ahead of the PGA Championship

Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images

“Looking ahead to next week, Rory went up to Aronimink earlier this week and had a look at the golf course. By all accounts, it’s exactly what he wants.

“To that point, last night I was going to a very nice establishment for dinner here in Charlotte, and Justin Rose’s caddie Fooch was sitting at the bar and we were talking and I’m like, well, your guy, Justin Rose, he’s won at Aronimink, and I believe he’s finished runner-up there, so he has a heck of a chance on that golf course. He said yes, it should be a great course, he shot the winning score there twice.

“But he said to me, Rory’s winning. And I had to kind of stop, ‘what are you talking about?’ Fooch was up there last week as well. ‘That golf course is absolutely perfect for him’.”

How Aronimink looks set to play into Rory McIlroy’s hands this week

McIlroy has proven across his career that he can win on a number of different tests. While he was known for being almost impossible to keep up with when the course set-up allowed for players to relentlessly attack, he has become much better at grinding out scores.

McIlroy’s recent record at the US Open is extremely underrated. So it would be naive to rule him out whatever the conditions are like over the coming days.

However, Hoggard suggested that, much like Fulcher, he expects Aronimink to play right into McIlroy’s hands.

“It’s going to be wet, the fairways are wide. I actually interviewed Kerry Haigh, the Chief Championship Officer for the PGA of America. The rough’s not going to be what they want because it’s been a really cold winter up in the Philadelphia area. So what you’re talking about now is, I guess you can call it Congressional when he won the US Open. We can keep going down the list,” he said.

“We know of the courses he’s won. I think that’s jumping ahead a little bit, but certainly you would think that Rory’s thinking ahead. He’s already looked at the golf course. He absolutely has to be thinking to himself, yeah, this is for me, this was built for me.”

McIlroy is looking to become the first player since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two majors of the year. Should he manage it, then it will be impossible to ignore talk of a Grand Slam.