McIlroy finished the round on one-over 73 and sits eight shots behind the overnight leaders Steve Wheatcroft and Andrew Loupe.
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Loupe had four birdies in the stretch between fourth and ninth and he was five-under for front nine of the course and two-under for back nine.
“I have been able to play well here over the years, but just haven’t been able to breakthrough and get a victory”, Mickelson said.
McIlroy’s round of 73 was one better than three-time Major champion Padraig Harrington, who had an eagle, a birdie and five bogeys on his way to a 74.
“I just need to go out tomorrow and shoot a good second round, something in the 60s”.
Anirban Lahiri of India was one stroke behind after a 66.
“I’d got into a couple of bad habits leading up to the Masters and it’s never really a good time to work on them – you are just trying to play golf and shoot a score”, he told the Golf Channel.
In the last four Wells Fargo championships, he had four top-10s, including joint-second to Rickie Fowler in 2012 and the win a year ago.
After picking up his first shot of the day at the short second, McIlroy bogeyed the third but three straight birdies from the fifth included nearly holing his tee shot at the par-three sixth. “I’ve played mediocre or average golf the last few months”.
Loupe was the more consistent of the two, failing to card a single bogey and reaching the green in regulation on 13 holes. It was a golf ball with an ear plug stuck on it, so it was sort of odd.. “It’s been a while since I made some putts early on in the round but the greens are absolutely flawless”. And yeah, Andrew and I kind of fed off each other all day, he got off to a really hot start making birdies.
“I’m pretty happy”, Llaneza said.
Though Wheatcroft is the shorter hitter of the two, he had two eagles, holing out from 40 yards at the par-five fifth, and nearly holing his second shot at the par-five 10th. “I said to myself on the front nine, OK, let’s try to play with a little more freedom and maybe not think so much technically, so it seemed to help”.
A selection of golfers share their thoughts on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes at Wells Fargo – commonly known as The Green Mile.
While several players from other countries have opted out of the Olympics, Lahiri is enthused about the prospect of competing in Rio de Janeiro.
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He got up-and-down to save par on eight occasions, his lone bogey at Quail Hollow coming at his final hole, where he drove into a fairway bunker.
