Rory McIlroy is playing that Whistling Straits practice round after all

Hey, remember that Saturday pre-PGA Championship practice round that Rory McIlroy was reportedly poised to play? And then, a day later, that McIlroy’s people denied it was happening?

Well, it happened, as Reuters reported, at Whistling Straits.

McIlroy showed up at the Kohler, Wisc., site of next week’s final major of the year to get re-acclimated with the site of his T-3 finish five years ago. The world No. 1 is the defending champion at the PGA, capturing his second Wanamaker last year at Valhalla in Kentucky.

At the start of this week, there was some doubt as to McIlroy’s place in the field. First came the Reuters report of a practice round, which was contradicted on Tuesday by a McIlroy spokesman. However, throughout the week, McIlroy embarked on a series of not-so-cryptic Instagram posts insinuating he had made enough progress to give it a go at the PGA Championship.

On Friday, McIlroy again shared on Instagram, this time an image of a private plane accompanied by an emoji-only caption. After putting on our decoder rings, we figured McIlroy was headed to the U.S. to play competitive golf. Now, he’s at Whistling Straits.

Of course, the Ulsterman could find the rigors of championship golf on the awkward walk that Whistling Straits can be too difficult and withdraw. However, at this point, it seems unlikely.

McIlroy is in the PGA.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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