Matt McCarty holds 1-shot lead at Quail Hollow as Rory McIlroy struggles to make birdies in return

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Matt McCarty couldn't stop making birdies.

Rory McIlroy thought he was never going to make one.

McCarty followed up four straight top 25 finishes on the PGA Tour with nine birdies at Quail Hollow to shoot an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a one-shot lead over Sungjae Im at the Truist Championship before the round was called because of rain.

Im was on his final hole when the skies opened up. He, along with a handful of others, will complete the round on Friday.

Playing for the first time since winning his second consecutive Masters more than three weeks ago, McIlroy looked rusty at times on a course where he has dominated, winning four times while setting several tournament scoring records.

The world No. 2 player made 17 straight pars to open the round before finally getting a birdie putt to drop on No. 9 and celebrating by sardonically thrusting both arms high in the air.

“I was thinking I can’t remember the last time I played a round of golf and didn’t have a birdie,” McIlroy said. “I think I was like 'just try to make one.' I thought my chance had passed me by, but nice to see one putt go in there.”

Of the 986 rounds McIlroy has played on the PGA Tour, only seven times has he failed to make a birdie — the last coming at the 2024 Masters.

Quail Hollow’s par-4, 539-yard ninth hole doesn’t yield many, especially when a player misses the fairway as McIlroy did. But McIlroy lifted a 9-iron from the left rough 194 yards over the trees and found a way to get his ball to stop 15 feet from the hole.

McIlroy finished with a 1-under 70, leaving him seven shots behind.

Five players are three shots back at 5 under including defending tournament champion Sepp Straka, Kristoffer Reitan, Nicolai Hojgaard, Harry Hall and Nick Taylor.

Cameron Young is once again in contention, four shots back along with Tommy Fleetwood. Young also was on his final hole before the rain hit.

Young, who turned 29 on Thursday, continues to take his game to a different level. After going 93 tournaments without a victory, he's taken a quantum leap forward with three wins in his last 14 events, including last week at Doral.

McCarty was dynamite with his putter all day. He followed up a 59-foot birdie putt on No. 16 with a 52-footer on No. 17 to best Quail Hollow's difficult three closing holes known as the Green Mile.

“I've been playing some good golf for the last few weeks,” McCarty said. “I wasn’t hitting it that great early today but you make a bunch of 50-plus footers and it kind of gets your day going. Hit it a lot better on the back nine and nice to get a few coming home for sure.”

As much as McIlroy struggled, It was an even more frustrating day for his playing partners Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick, who made up the featured group of the day.

Rose shot 71 and became so irritated at himself that he dropped his club purposely after his follow through on an approach shot. Then he held out his hands as he looked at the club, as if if pleading with it to do its job.

Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick bristled at his caddie after his fairway wood found the water on the par-5 seventh hole leading to a bogey and a 3-over 74, leaving him 11 shots behind.

Fitzpatrick’s brother, Alex, fared much better, shooting 67.

The tournament was delayed several hours after a storm Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped more than two inches of rain on the course.

McIlroy said it helped soften the greens, but he couldn't take advantage.

“The fairways are pretty wet and the golf course is playing very, very long which should play into my hands," McIlroy said. “I felt like I hit the ball well and hit enough good shots to be a little better than what I was, but I got three more days to try to catch up to everyone.”

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Nick Taylor, of Canada, hits from the 18th tee during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)d

Sungjae Im, of South Korea, hits from the second fairway during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, chips onto the 18th hole during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, hits from the 14th tee during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Matt McCarty hits from the 18th fairway during first round of the Truist Championship golf tournament at the Quail Hollow Club, Thursday, May 7, 2026, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A judge sentenced a man to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday after he pleaded guilty to killing one person and injuring a dozen others in a 2025 firebombing attack on a demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Speaking to the court through an interpreter, Mohamed Sabry Soliman apologized to the victims and expressed regret for the attack last June as not in line with Islamic teaching.

Yet Soliman, an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally, targeted the victims because they were Jewish, Boulder County District Judge Nancy Salomone pointed out before sentencing him.

“You chose a time and a place and a set of circumstances and weapons that were designed to inflict the most pain that you could,” Salomone said.

Besides life in prison, Soliman's sentence includes hundreds of years for dozens of charges including attempted murder, assault and attempted assault.

The June 1 attack rattled Boulder, a scenic city of 100,000 people near the mountains northwest of Denver.

Posing as a gardener, Soliman attacked the demonstrators on Pearl Street, a quaint downtown pedestrian mall lined with shops and restaurants. Jewish community members had been demonstrating there weekly in support of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023.

Yelling “Free Palestine," Soliman lit and threw two Molotov cocktails out of 18 he'd brought in a box. The bursting bottles filled with gasoline badly burned Karen Diamond, 82, and injured a dozen others.

Diamond died three weeks later after what her sons in a statement called “indescribable pain.”

Soliman still faces federal hate crimes charges. He has pleaded not guilty while prosecutors in that case weigh whether to seek the death penalty.

The attack could have been even worse, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told the court before the sentencing. Soliman tried twice to buy a gun and was denied, Dougherty said. So he “decided to set them on fire" in what Dougherty called a “cowardly” crime.

Soliman entered the U.S. in August 2022 on a tourist visa that expired in February 2023. He filed for asylum and was granted a work authorization in March 2023, but that also expired, federal authorities said.

He worked a series of low-paying jobs. At the time of the attack, Soliman was living with his wife and their five children in an apartment in Colorado Springs.

Federal authorities alleged Soliman planned the attack for a year, and an FBI affidavit said Soliman told police after his arrest that he sought "to kill all Zionist people," a reference to the movement to establish and protect a Jewish state in Israel.

Soliman said in court that he respected Jewish people he has known, but questioned the deaths of innocent people in Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“Yes, I am against Israel and I can’t deny that. And that is my right,” Soliman said.

Soliman’s federal defense lawyers argue he should not have been charged with hate crimes because he was motivated by opposition to Zionism. An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.

State prosecutors identified 29 victims in the attack. Thirteen were physically injured. The others were considered victims because they could have been hurt. A dog was also injured in the attack, and Soliman was charged with animal cruelty.

Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until April, when a federal judge in Texas ordered their release. The couple divorced in April.

An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the U.S. and issued a deportation order. But U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring.

Soliman’s attorneys seek to block the family’s deportation until a judge determines they won’t need to be present for court proceedings in his federal case.

Associated Press writer Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this story.

FILE - Law enforcement officials investigate after an attack on the Pearl Street Mall, June 1, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

FILE - Bouquets of flowers stand along a makeshift memorial for victims of an attack outside of the Boulder County courthouse on June 3, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)