Rory McIlroy always comes into Quail Hollow with lofty expectations given his incredible record at the Truist Championship having won the event four times, but coming off a second Masters win in his last start, anything short of a weekend contending for a win would’ve been considered a disappointment.
After the first round, McIlroy found himself seven shots off the lead after a disappointing 1-under 70, but he made up for that in a hurry on Friday with a second round 67 that pushed him inside the top 10 on the leaderboard, four shots back of Sungjae Im’s lead at 9 under.
It was another sluggish start to the round for McIlroy, who made the turn at even par for his round, but he caught fire after making the turn to make five birdies in seven holes thanks to some phenomenal iron play on the back nine.
McIlroy’s final birdie of the day came after a 395-yard drive on the 505-yard 16th hole, aided by a huge bounce off the cart path on the right, that gave him just over 100 yards to the front left hole location.
He paid off that break with a great wedge to below the hole and rolled in the birdie putt. While he grabbed a rare birdie on the start of Quail Hollow’s Green Mile, it bit back on the 18th as he went bunker-to-bunker and couldn’t get up-and-down for his par on the last.
Despite that last hiccup, it was more of the performance we expect from McIlroy, especially at Quail Hollow. After his round, he lamented the shots he left out there, including a few misses from close range on the greens, but was glad to see an improvement from Thursday and hoped to continue that trend on the weekend.
Playing in the group ahead of McIlroy on Friday was Tommy Fleetwood, who produced his second straight 67 to move into solo second at 8 under. It has been a surprisingly slow year for Fleetwood, who entered 2026 with lofty expectations after finally breaking through with a win at last year’s Tour Championship. Instead, he’s struggled to put himself in real contention this year, with his ball-striking lagging behind where it normally is in 54th on Tour in strokes gained approach entering the week.
He’s been extremely solid tee-to-green to start this week, but it’s been the putter that’s turned the tide for the Englishman over the first two rounds. Fleetwood is fifth in strokes gained putting so far and looks extremely comfortable on the Quail Hollow greens.
Many thought Fleetwood would have the year Cameron Young is having after both broke through last year for their first PGA Tour wins. Perhaps this week will kickstart a run of Fleetwood’s own in 2026, as he’s played two incredibly solid rounds that look much more like the guy that was in contention every week to close out 2025.
The leader
1. Sungjae Im (-9)
After missing the entire West Coast swing with a wrist injury, Im has struggled to find his best form this season. He showed flashes at the Valspar where he lead entering Sunday before a rough final round led to a T4 finish, but other than that his best finish of the season is a T42 at the RBC Heritage. However, a return to a comfortable track at Quail Hollow, where he has two top 10s in 2023 and 2024, has brought out some of the best golf we’ve seen from the Korean star all year.
Im backed up his Thursday 64 with a solid 69 on Friday to grab the solo lead at 9 under. With some of the names chasing him, he’ll need to keep his foot on the gas and avoid the kinds of letdown rounds that have plagued him all year, but the ball-striking display from Im over the course of the first two days has been far more in line with what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him over his career.
Other contenders
2. Tommy Fleetwood (-8)
T3. Justin Thomas, Alex Fitzpatrick (-7)
T5. David Lipsky, Kristoffer Reitan, Nicolai Højgaard (-6)
T8. Rory McIlroy, Harris English, Rickie Fowler, Matt McCarty (-5)
T12. Cameron Young, Ludvig Åberg and three others (-4)
Justin Thomas is putting together one of his best weeks of the year, and can credit Cam Young with a bit of an assist for his strong play so far. Thomas explained on Friday that the new putter he put in the bag is the same as Young’s putter.
“I literally texted the [Scotty] Cameron guys and stated, ‘Just give me Cam’s putter,'” Thomas stated. “I’ve been watching him make putts for a pretty good amount of time now and I’ve always thought it looks really good, so I was like, ‘I want Cam Young’s putter.'”
That change is working well for him as he’s 10th in strokes gained putting so far this week, and like Im, he’s aiming for the best finish of his season so far (T8 at The Players) after a late start due to injury.
Joining Thomas in a tie for third is Alex Fitzpatrick, who continues to ride a wave of confidence after winning the Zurich Classic alongside his brother Matt two weeks ago. After a top 10 finish at Doral in his first Signature event start of the year, Fitzpatrick is back in contention a week later and is proving how important confidence is to playing your best.
The round of the day belonged to Rickie Fowler, who fired an 8-under 63 to go from T61 after a 74 on Thursday to T9. Fowler made nine birdies in his second round after failing to put a single circle on his card on Thursday, as he got hot from tee-to-green and maintained a blistering pace all afternoon.
Also lurking five shots off the pace is last week’s winner in Young, who can be forgiven for maybe not having his absolute best after his performance at Doral, but still is managing to stay attached to the leaderboard and will be a threat on the weekend.
A rare ace on the Green Mile
The shot of the day belonged to Chandler Blanchet, who arrived at the 17th hole at 2 over for the week but moved back to even par with one swing of the club on the difficult par 3.
Blanchet hit an absolute seed right at the flag and had it roll in like a putt to give him an ace in just his second career round at Quail Hollow.
Updated Truist Championship odds, picks
Odds via BetMGM Sportsbook
- Tommy Fleetwood (19/5)
- Rory McIlroy (5-1)
- Sungjae Im (6-1)
- Justin Thomas (15/2)
- Cameron Young (14-1)
- Nicolai Højgaard (14-1)
- Alex Fitzpatrick (16-1)
McIlroy being able to ease into the week and still be just a few shots back at this golf course is a bit scary for the rest of the field. I’m guessing his odds won’t be longer than 5-1 at the end of Saturday, so if you want in on McIlroy, now is the time to do so. I’m a bit wary of Fleetwood just because that extra gear hasn’t been there this year — same with Im and Thomas — and I do think that could open the door for some longer shots if McIlroy doesn’t go nuts on the weekend. Fitzpatrick is leading the field in ball-striking and is actually losing strokes on the greens, so I do think there’s upside for him if he can putt a little better.
