Friday 6 May 2016 00:59, UK
As defending champion Rory McIlroy returns to the Wells Fargo Championship this week, we retrace the steps of his first record-setting win at Quail Hollow in 2010
McIlroy has a better history than any other golfer on the North Carolina course and it began when he achieved the first of his 11 PGA Tour victories with a stunning, final-day course-record of 62.
The only two-time winner of the Wells Fargo Championship broke the course record in each of his victories in 2010 and 2015, but in the former the feat was even more impressive.
With a flawless round of 10-under-par, McIlroy ended the tournament four ahead of Masters Champion Phil Mickleson to become the youngest winner in the tournament's history.
During the opening round, the then 20-year-old showed signs of a struggle with a back injury that had plagued much of his early season. A double-bogey on the 16th was added to bogeys at the third and the 12th, and despite four birdies he was unable to manage better than a level-par 72.
Starting off Friday's round on the 10th tee, McIlroy looked in better form when he found his opening birdie on the 11th, putting him into the red for the first time during the tournament.
There was another birdie on the 16th, but errors on the 12th, 13th and 18th holes left him at one over for his front nine, and right on the cut line.
The Northern Irishman looked not only out of contention but out of the tournament as he dropped two more shots on the fifth and sixth holes and lay two above the cut at three over for the championship.
But knowing he needed two birdies over the final holes, McIlroy produced what he has called his shot of the year on the par-five seventh, knocking a superb iron to within a few feet of the pin and converting the chance for eagle.
After making the cut with nothing to spare, McIlroy started the third round with a bogey, but he responded with four birdies in five holes and added five more on the inward half before taking the gloss off a 66 with a mistake at the last.
To win this tournament as my first is something quite special.
His round got off to a slow start before he picked up his first birdie on the fourth, and three more followed in his opening nine holes. He birdied the 11th hole for the fourth time in four days to tie for the lead at 10-under-par with Angel Cabrera, before an eight-foot birdie putt on 14 put him one ahead.
And he consolidated his lead with a sublime five-iron to six feet at the long 15th that set up another eagle and, after a rare mistake off the tee at the next, he nailed a seven-iron from a fairway bunker and increased his advantage further with another birdie.
McIlroy looked to be in three-putt territory when his approach to the 18th green came up almost 45 feet short, but he rattled in the monster putt to thunderous cheers from the appreciative fans, and his score of 15 under was never seriously threatened for the remainder of the day.
"To win this tournament as my first is something quite special," said McIlroy after his win propelled him into the world's top 10. "I received so much support all day and this crowd is quite special. It feels quite Augusta-like here. It's such a great tournament."
