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msudogs
Moderator
Registered: Nov 2005
Posts: 65535
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Wells Fargo Championship
The week before next week’s PGA Championship will provide a great test and tune-up for the year’s second major championship this year at the Wells Fargo in Charlotte, N.C. Forty-four of the top 50 players in the OWGR will be in Charlotte this week. That list does not include World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who will welcome his first child into the world any day now.
Rory McIlroy (8-1) is a three-time winner (2010, 2015, 2021) here at Quail Hollow Golf Club and is off a victory two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Shane Lowry (70-1).
Xander Schauffele (10-1) was the runner-up here last year to Wyndham Clark (18-1), who earned his first PGA Tour victory at the Wells Fargo before winning the U.S. Open the following month.
Ludvig Åberg (12-1) was to make his debut this week at the Wells Fargo but withdrew on Monday.
Patrick Cantlay (22-1), Collin Morikawa (25-1), 2019 and 2022 Wells Fargo champion Max Homa (25-1), Tommy Fleetwood (28-1) and Viktor Hovland (28-1) comprise the second group of the market.
Other former champions at Quail Hollow in this week’s field include Justin Thomas (33-1), who won his first major championship at the 2017 PGA Championship on this course, 2019 Wells Fargo winner Jason Day (50-1), 2017 winner Brian Harman (50-1), 2012 winner Rickie Fowler (70-1) and 2011 winner Lucas Glover (110-1).
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05-08-24 10:05 PM |
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msudogs
Moderator
Registered: Nov 2005
Posts: 65535
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Quail Hollow Club, built on land that was once the largest dairy farm in North Carolina, was founded as a private-member club in 1959 by James J. Harris and the course was designed in 1961 by George Cobb, who is most famous for designing the par-3 course at Augusta National Golf Club. It hosted the Kemper Open on the PGA Tour from 1969 through 1979, followed by the PGA Tour Champions’ Paine Webber Invitational from 1983 through 1989. Quail Hollow also hosted the 2017 PGA Championship and 2022 Presidents Cup.
The layout has undergone several renovations under the auspices of Tom Fazio in 1997, 2003, 2012 and 2016. For the 2016 renovation leading into the 2017 PGA, Fazio changed the layout to a par-71 of 7,521 yards for tournament golf, but it still plays as a par-72 for the members.
This year’s layout is a par-71 of 7,558 yards. Since the renovations, the course is the third-longest on the PGA Tour and played as the fifth-toughest (+0.85) last year.
Aside from the par-5s, there are four par-4s at 490 yards or longer, so Quail Hollow is a big, long course.
The fairways run at a 33.5-yard average width (16th narrowest on tour) and are comprised of Bermudagrass with Ryegrass overseed (about a 50/50 split) as is the rough that will measure just two inches.
The renovations also entailed a changing of greens surfaces from MiniVerde Bermudagrass to Champion Bermudagrass overseeded with Poa Trivialis. Similar greens can be found at Sedgefield Country Club (Wyndham Championship), TPC Southwind (WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational) and the Country Club of Jackson (Sanderson Farms Championship). The greens will be fast, running at 12-13 on the stimpmeter and measure out to an average size of 6,578 square feet (17th largest of 44 courses on tour). A SubAir system below the greens firms them up to play tougher on the weekend.
While the layout is fairly straightforward without many tricks or notable characteristics, Quail Hollow’s closing sequence (holes 16-18) is known as “The Green Mile,” which averages +0.27 over par. This stretch, one of the most difficult on the PGA Tour, includes the course’s signature hole, the par-3 17th, which requires a tee shot over a large pond to a green protected by bunkers on either side. Shots can frequently find the water over this stretch. In fact, more than 1,700 of them have found the drink over the last 20 years.
There are 61 big bunkers on the course that mostly protect the greens, and water is in play on six holes. Even with all the renovations, Quail Hollow is a typical Carolina, tree-lined design.
The three par-5s (Holes 7, 10 and 15) plus the two short par-4s (8 and 14) are the scoreable holes.
In terms of course correlations, Torrey Pines South, Bay Hill, Muirfield Village, Memorial Park, Riviera, Winged Foot, Southern Hills, and Bethpage Black are among the classical designs that have crossover to Quail Hollow.
Other Tom Fazio designs that have been featured on the PGA Tour:
Atunyote GC — 2007-10 Turning Stone Championship
Conway Farms GC — 2013, 2015, 2017 BMW Championship
Corales GC — Corales Championship
Eagle Point — 2017 Wells Fargo Championship
Raptor Course Greyhawk GC — 2008/09 Fry’s.com Open
Shadow Creek Golf Course — 2020 CJ Cup
Fazio has also had redesign input into:
Merion — 2013 U.S. Open
Oakmont — 2016 U.S. Open
Seaside Course at Sea Island — RSM Classic
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05-08-24 10:06 PM |
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