2024 Wells Fargo Championship Course Preview and Breakdown for Quail Hollow

After some bouncing around at different host venues over the years, the Wells Fargo Championship has now settled into it's permanent home at Quail Hollow Club located just outside Charlotte, North Carolina. For the second straight year this event will host an elevated/signature field as the top players on the PGA Tour will be eager to take on the Championship level test that Quail Hollow provides. With the freshly lengthened "Green Mile", Quail Hollow plays as one of the most difficult courses to score on annually, ranking inside the top-8 on the schedule in difficulty in three of the past four seasons. I expect no different this year as players will be given a proper test in the week leading into the PGA Championship!

I wanted to use this piece to hopefully highlight a few different angles and elements that may be less spoken about to provide some value in this course preview.  It's not a golf course that is going to appeal to those with a keen eye on course architecture, but nonetheless, it's shown its cards so we know exactly what to expect and how to attack this tournament. We are going to dive into great detail in an attempt to digest the statistical data and historical stats to create actionable info for you to utilize for building lineups and making your bets for the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship. Let's go!

An Introduction to the Course

Quail Hollow opened for play in 1961 under the architectural guidance and design of George Cobb. While most of the initial bones remain intact, the course has undergone substantial renovations in 1997 and 2016 by Tom Fazio to modernize the layout and make it more suitable for regular PGA Tour events and Major Championships. The Wells Fargo Championship was not held at Quail Hollow in 2022 and 2017 because the golf course hosted the 2022 Presidents Cup and the 2017 PGA Championship.

The architectural integrity of this course is elite and some of Fazio's best work. He did a complete overhaul of the opening holes, including making #1 a punch in the mouth to get things started. The first hole will play 495 yards as a dogleg par-4 which is only part one of the brutal opening 3-hole stretch. In the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship last year, each of the first three holes played over par in all four rounds which is quite astounding and different from some of the other PGA Tour stops that feature a soft opening.

Given Quail Hollow's sheer magnitude in terms of scorecard yardage, it absolutely is prone to emphasize a certain skill set...power. Thus, DataGolf has ranked it the 6th most predictive course on the schedule for recent course history sticklers. Much like a number of courses in the Southeast, Quail Hollow has shifted its greens to a POA Overseed which comforts the traditional grain on the Bermuda grass in the spring. There are numerous host venues on the PGA Tour the have been searching long and hard for a consistent identity, something Quail Hollow has excelled at over the years as it has become one of the favorite events for both fans and players annually.

Recent Winners:

2023: Wyndham Clark

2021: Rory McIlroy

2019: Max Homa

2018: Jason Day

2017: Justin Thomas (PGA Championship)

In just 4 days these can be your views 😎#SeeYouThere #WellsFargoChampionship pic.twitter.com/UGBk85ftxK

— Wells Fargo Golf (@WellsFargoGolf) May 2, 2024

Scorecard

Course Specs

Quail Hollow places the emphasis on your ability to separate from your competitors off the teebox. Stretching out to 7,558 yards at a par-71, possessing the pre-requisite power and ball speed will give you a significant advantage. The fairways are not wide, in fact the are actually narrow by PGA Tour standards. The rough is typically cut to around 2 inches in height and is a Perennial Ryegrass overseed which presents are relatively easy grass to predict and play from if you miss the fairways.

It will be interesting to see if they beef up the rough at all this year. The entire South has had a heavy rain season which could make it play thicker in some areas if you course superintendents want to make it more penal. The greens can be ultra-slick in spots, particularly if you are putting downhill at Quail Hollow. Although the undulation is not crazy, it boasts one of the lowest make percentages on the greens from outside of 15 feet on the PGA Tour Schedule.

There are seven total holes where the water comes into play, primarily down the stretch on the back nine. The 17th hole can stretch beyond 200 yards and forces you to carry it entirely over water in order to land on the green. The most famous feature is the whimsical stream than runs along the 18th hole and has come into play on numerous occasions down the stretch on Sundays at the Wells Fargo Championship. It's a great, challenging finishing hole that creates a dramatic finish. Here are the scoring averages per hole from last season. The difficulty of the start and finish is something that I love to see.

Statistical Considerations

The recipe this week is pretty straightforward. Hit it far! Over the last few renditions of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, they have not set up this course to penalize players with difficult, thick rough. Therefore, bombers have taken advantage and have not been overly concerned with hitting fairways. Last season, Wyndham Clark only hit 41% on fairways and he still managed to gain nearly three strokes OTT for the week.

Missing the fairway did not prohibit him from hitting greens in regulation, which he led the field in at over 80% for the week. Therefore, his strokes gained approach numbers were insane, but that is only because of his ability to play from the rough. It all circles back to the strategy of bomb and gouge, which we know can be strategically and successfully deployed at Quail Hollow. The players know it, and the average drive for the week went 296.6 yards, which is well above tour average.

The other important data consideration at Quail Hollow is that players MUST score on the three par-5s. If you can maintain anywhere between E and -4 on the rest of the course combined, but make your birdies on the par-5's, then you are set up to have a great week in Charlotte. In any tournament like this with difficult scoring conditions, I think that bogey avoidance and lag putting are also of heightened importance and should be factored into your stat models if you are running them.

The last unique feature about Quail Hollow is that if you are playing well, you hit very few, if any, wedges. The only time players hit a wedge is on punch out situations or when they are forced to lay up on the par-5s. Last season, nearly 60% of all approach shots came between 150-225 yards, which is the proximity bucket that I am looking into this week. If you want to know my personal top-10 power rankings of players for the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, the article is already posted for your enjoyment!

💪Top 10 Power Rankings from @TourPicks

#1

"I know 👀 is a near lock to play well at Quail Hollow, but both my heart and my mind have penciled in 👀 to win this tournament for months. The golf course profiles perfectly for his game. It consistently rewards players who can… https://t.co/t0lQKqi689

— RotoBaller PGA (@RotoBallerPGA) May 6, 2024

Stat Radar Plot for Quail Hollow Club, via RickRunGood.com:

Best Player Course Fit Rankings for the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship:

1. Ludvig Aberg
2. Xander Schauffele
3. Hideki Matsuyama
4. Tom Hoge
5. Justin Thomas
6. Rory McIlroy
7. Billy Horschel
8. Wyndham Clark
9. Akshay Bhatia
10. Si Woo Kim

*Based on last 36 rounds of player data.

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