The 2019 Wells Fargo Championship: Inside the Course (Quail Hollow Club Review)

Quail Hollow Golf Club hosts the Wells Fargo Championship this week and is a stern test of golf, but one that rewards good shots with scoring opportunities.  Thick Bermuda rough puts a priority on keeping the ball in play off the tee, and sharp doglegs require proper positioning to avoid to avoid penal consequences. 

 

Tom Fazio's redesign of the 7,554 yard, par-71 original George W. Cobb layout removed some trees to open up the course and lines of play, and rewards players who are great tee-to-green tacticians.  With a good variety of holes that challenge you to make strategic decisions off the tee and on approach, players without a mastery of each club in their bag are doomed to struggle. 

Narrow fairways, elevated landing zones, and undulating greens can test your mental toughness.  And the final three holes (known as The  Green Mile) is the toughest closing stretch on Tour.  Quail Hollow is also one of the longest courses on Tour (with only two other tracks playing longer last season). 

Signature Hole 
There's pressure and peril on the deceptively beautiful  223-yard, par-3, No, 17.  A lake surrounds the front and left side of this half-island green, and a bunker tucked between the water and green can save you from a huge number. 

 

You can miss right to avoid the lake, but that can make for a  difficult recovery to the green.  You'll be on a downslope making the chip shot very delicate, and potentially ruinous. 

Birdie Watch 
The 577-yard, par-5, No. 15 plays uphill after the tee shot, bending around a dangerous lake that dares players to go for it in two.  The key is hitting a right-to-left drive that makes use of the fairway contour and avoids bunkers on the right. 

 

On approach a ridge running down the middle of the green requires some caution. But if you can clear the front bunker and roll your shot up to the green a real eagle chance awaits. 

Bogey Alert 
In two of the previous five seasons, the brutal finishing 494-yard, par-4 was the toughest closing hole on Tour.  You're hitting a downhill drive into a narrow fairway that's protected by a creek on the left and a deep bunkers on the right.  Anything less than absolute precision and you'll be in the rough or worse. 

 

Your second shot is an uphill approach to a deep sloping green with hazards on both sides.  The creek that runs the length of the fairway is only a few feet off the side of the green.  There's simply no room for error here, and if you need a birdie coming into win?  Good luck.