For comments: ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com

Good Friday morning, golf fans, as day two of the the Wells Fargo Championship gets underway.

1. McIlroy starts strong, Fleetwood leads

AP Report: “A little time away from golf paid off for birthday boy Rory McIlroy.”

• “The world’s third-ranked player shot a 3-under 68 at the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday in his first tournament since missing the cut at the Masters, leaving him three shots behind first-round leader Tommy Fleetwood.”

• “Fleetwood’s 6-under 65 was one stroke better than Xander Schauffele, Kevin Streelman, Taylor Moore, K.H. Lee and Ryan Palmer, who are tied for second after opening 66s.”

2. Special exemption for Sorenstam into USWO

USGA report…”Three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Annika Sorenstam, of Sweden, has accepted a special exemption into the 78th U.S. Women’s Open Championship, which will be conducted July 6-9 at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links.”

• “Sorenstam, 52, won the 1995, 1996 and 2006 U.S. Women’s Open Championships as well as seven other major championships and 72 total LPGA victories in her Hall of Fame career before retiring from full-time professional golf in 2008. In 2021, she returned to competitive golf at the 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open, where she cruised to an 8-shot victory, securing her place in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, site of her 1996 Women’s Open win. The 2022 U.S. Women’s Open was Sorenstam’s first start in the championship in 13 years and 16th overall.”

• “I am incredibly grateful to the USGA for the opportunity to play in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open,” said Sorenstam. “It is a championship that has helped to define my career, and to play in the first one at Pebble Beach, which will be a defining moment for women’s golf, with my family by my side will be a week we never forget.”

3. Patrick Cantlay has a pace-of-play solution

Our Matt Vincenzi…”Cantlay also spoke about the pace of play backlash he’s received since his weekend at the Masters made him the apparent poster child for slow play on the PGA Tour, while offering a solution:”

• “If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour.

• “When you get really tricky days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it’s going to take a longer time to play.”

• “But like I’ve said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don’t think they’re going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds, you know, go a lot faster.”

• For what it’s worth, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that Cantlay and his teammate Xander Schauffele finished 24 minutes ahead of schedule at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.”

4. Rory’s equipment changes

Our Andrew Tursky…”We all know he switched into a custom Scotty Cameron blade putter for the Match Play and The Masters, and he’s been playing a Vokey lob wedge for 2023.”

• “This week, he had four TaylorMade MG3 wedges in the bag (obviously he’s only picking one for this week), all with different bounce options.”

• “As it turns out, McIlroy has been working with the TaylorMade team for months to get the lob wedge designs dialed in. He took inspiration from his previous Mike Taylor-designed Nike wedge, and from the Vokey wedges he’s been using, to craft a TaylorMade MG3 lob wedge that perfectly suits his eye.”

• “He says he’s going with the LB-08 this week, and he likes the versatility of the wedge grind in different playing conditions.”

5. Donald mulling course changes

Paul Highham for Golf Monthly…”With Donald and several European team hopefuls playing the Italian Open at Marco Simone Golf Club this week, the captain says that he’ll be looking to tighten up the fairways for the Ryder Cup match and put a premium on accuracy – which worked well in Paris last time.”

• “Since playing it last year, we looked at a few different fairway lines, bringing in a few fairways a little bit tighter,” said Donald.”

• “The template for European golf is to have a slightly narrower golf course, a little bit more rough, not greens that get too fast because that’s obviously what the US guys are always used to.

• “There’s not a whole lot we have changed but we have added a couple of bunkers to create opportunities for better driving. I feel like Europe has good drivers of the golf ball.”

6. Mel Reid expecting

Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols…”LPGA player Mel Reid and her wife Carly announced on social media Wednesday they’re expecting their first child. The couple married last April.”

• “England’s Reid, 35, won her first LPGA title in 2020 at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and has represented Europe four times at the Solheim Cup, most recently in 2021.”

• “Reid has competed five times on the LPGA this season and is currently No. 289 in the world. Carly is a senior PR and and social media manager at Betterworks.”

7. Xander’s feelings on designated events

Golf Channel’s Max Schreiber…”The Tour is set to play its ninth of 17 designated events — which feature top players vying for lucrative purses — this week at the Wells Fargo Championship. However, the new structure has created multiple sides of the aisle.”

• “It’s a mixed feeling, to be completely transparent,” Xander Schauffele said Tuesday at the Travelers Championship’s media day. “Some guys are very happy with (the designated event’s format), some guys are not as happy with it feeling like there’s less opportunity.”

• “A majority of the designated events next year will have limited fields and no cut, leaving many of the Tour’s rank-and-file players on the outside looking in.”

8. Day had vertigo flare-up at Masters

Adam Woodard for Golfweek…”Day was solo second late during the second round at Augusta National and was in position to finish inside the top 12 and punch his ticket for 2024 over the weekend.”

• “Then vertigo hit on Sunday.”

• “We had to finish our third round Sunday morning and then I was sitting in the caddie hut and that’s when I got vertigo,” said Day, who first struggled with the issue at the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. “It really kicked my butt at Augusta. That was like kind of the time where I had to take a step back.”

• “The 35-year-old made four double bogeys over a five-hole stretch to shoot an 8-over 80 and finish T-39. He then was forced to pull out of the RBC Heritage to run some tests, which led to a three-week break.”

9. Wells Fargo photos

• Check out all of our galleries from this week’s event!